I've been listening with half an ear to a radio programme where the presenter has been fluttering around the dissection table of a London hospital mortuary.

I'm left with two images, both opposing: the flensing of whales that I once saw on a programme about the Faroe islands, carcasses hauled on to the beach, sliced open, and the skin pulled back exposing innards and steaming ruby red blood; the other image, and this is driven by the home counties earnestness of the senior pathologist guiding the presenter across the extraordinary landscape of an opened up corpse is the trainspotter like enthusiasm of it all. The attention to detail is outstanding.