I was on the south coast heading to a club above an art gallery
where two women, both called Kate, help people to get ready for death
by building their own coffins.
Right, so stand by your coffins.
Now you're going to slot...
..number two into number one.
That's it, give it a little bit of welly.
We really don't like to talk about death in this country.
Mind your fingers.
You know we're incredibly awkward around the whole...
We don't want to say the wrong things so we say nothing.
There it is.
So Coffin Club is about normalising talking about death.
And that's you in there, see. I hope it's big enough.
Well, we might have to squish you in a bit, your shoulders.
Maybe, yes. That'll be all right, you won't know much about it.
And admitting that it's horrible, it's hard,
it's sad, but, actually, there's also stuff about love and support.
And if we can have those conversations it's much healthier.
Look at that!
If you are going to be cremated, you need to think about
how combustible things are.
So the crematorium doesn't like lots of tissue paper pompoms stuck on
because they whoosh in flames.
So, here I've made you a beautiful Star of David, I think.
I'm not a believer, but I don't want anyone to think
that I would go to my grave without acknowledging that I was Jewish.
Do you think it's important to embrace death head on?
Whatever anybody says?
I absolutely do. My dad died when I was 13.
It was horrendous. Was it?
I had a week off school, and my friends, when I got back,
said, "Oh, don't worry, Kate. They've announced it in assembly,
"and told everybody to be nice to you."
And that was it. You know, act like everything's fine.
But, actually, it was terrible because I thought
did nobody love him? Why is nobody talking about him?
The first session we had a guy and he actually was too ill
to decorate his coffin, and his family did it.
He'd travelled all over the world,
so they stuck maps from where he travelled.
They stuck tickets from gigs he'd been to.
And that coffin was absolutely central to proceedings.
Everyone came up, looked at all the maps and the tickets.
They talked about him. Nobody was frightened of the coffin.
They talked to him. They were patting it,
going, "All right, mate?" Leaning on it.
It became this friendly thing that represented him.
You're getting to grips with death...
It's quite jolly, isn't it? Yes, it is.
I mean, the thing is we are not negating the fact that death impacts
on people hugely.
But we think this level of being honest, even if it takes
a tiny little sliver of that impact away,
that is a good thing. I agree with you.
I think it's a wise thing to try it for size. Good idea.
That's your lining if there's any seepage that you may have.
So if you were leaking a little bit. Right.
Well, people do leak a bit, don't they? They leak quite a lot, yeah.
So you're snug as a little bug in it. Oh, I see.
It's like getting into bed, almost. Yes.
Here we are. Right. The moment of truth.
Now, if I go down a bit like that.
Oh, that's perfect. Hold on, lift this up.
Yeah. Let's get rid of that.
Oh, she's in, she's in!
LOUD BANG, GIGGLING
Mind your head, love. It is a tight fit.
Do you want us to put the lid on?
Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out.
We're here, we're here.
Right now, that's on. Should we take it off? Yeah, take it off.
You didn't even freak out. That was it, on.
Yeah, but my belly gets in the way.
It is actually quite tight. What if we took the duvet off?
Well, you don't want to be rolling around in it.
You've not to put any weight on.
No, I'll have to diet. To diet for a coffin seems somehow...
It's a goal, isn't it? This could be a new diet, the coffin diet.
Well, we've tried every other one, we might as well try that.
I'm going to leave my organs to science.
Yes, so if they take them out...
So there'll be room. You'll woomf down a little bit. Yes.
There we go. Look at that. Right.
Knowing that that I've got a proper box to go out in...
Yeah. That's a comfort and, oy, is it cheap, you know!
Yes. That also gives me pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Bye. You've been absolutely smashing.
I wanted to try it for size.
I wanted to make sure I could fit in it, because you don't know
when death is coming.
It can suddenly bite you like that, you know?
Or else it will just sidle past, like that gentlemen did, you know?
You just can't be sure.