In this series a small team of 2 eminent forensic anthropologists, an expert on bone analysis, and an expert on facial reconstruction take skeletons from a variety of UK sources and reconstruct them. Not only physically BUT far more interestingly as real persons with history extracted from thorough research of (sometimes surprisingly) available records. The impressive thing here is that it features the lives of ordinary, but nevertheless interesting persons. Because of the forensically interesting nature of their remains this is often a very sad journey revealing the hardship of their (often short) lives with obvious pain and suffering. After slowly unravelling the likely cause of death, place of origin (sometimes surprising!), diets, likely or even actual lives, we finally reach the climax in the form of the real face of the person staring at you. If like me you are a bit obsessive about people and their fortunes this is a very earthy moment and although I am not religious it is a kind of spiritual experience. The purpose here is not to encourage 'freak show' voyeurism but to enable us to experience the real feel of lives in circumstances that we would otherwise never hope to understand, and without need of dramatisation or CGI. That isn't intended as a dig against feature film as I absolutely love good film from any source. This sort of programme just adds another dimension to our understanding and experience. Hey, maybe a film or two could be made on the back of one of these real lives?
