David Farnor | On 01, Sep 2016

BBC Three will be cutting the fat with a new groundbreaking post mortem documentary exploring the impact obesity has upon our bodies.

Obesity: The Post Mortem will see leading pathologist Dr. Mike Osborn, a consultant for the Royal College of Pathologists, and Assistant Pathology Technician Carla Valentine, perform a televised autopsy on a female donor who weighed nearly 17 stone – the first time in the UK a post mortem has been carried out for this scientific purpose.

With the NHS warning obesity can reduce life expectancy, and almost three quarters of British adults likely to be overweight or obese in less than 20 years, the programme aims to show what’s happening to our insides, beneath the surface of selfies and social media to see what impact appearances can have upon vital organs and more.

Viewers will see how the body was transported 5,000 miles from Long Beach California, a city obsessed with body image, to the post-mortem table in London.

The 60-minute documentary, made by 7 Wonder and Third Street, will also feature a cast of young contributors, who reveal how biology, psychology and food have contributed to making them fat, and what it means to live with the day-to-day reality of obesity.

Dr. Mike Osborn says: “Obesity is very much there, it’s seen, but I think it is very poorly understood. It seemed that making this film would be a way of exploring that and allowing a broader public to learn about the problems associated with obesity.”

“One of our missions at the BBC is to educate through our factual programming and we’ve addressed this serious subject matter with great care,” says Jo Carr, BBC’s Head of Current Affairs. “This has been an ambitious documentary to produce and it will be a unique, scientific exploration for our BBC Three audience.”

Accompanying the film will be extra content delving into the world of pathology and going behind the scenes on the post mortem.

Damian Kavanagh, Controller, BBC Three, adds: “Obesity and body image are two issues we know resonate with young people, but the debate is often framed by what’s on the outside. Post Mortem dissects what’s happening to our bodies on the inside in unflinching detail.”

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