anatomist

Anatomy for Beginners is a television show created by Gunther von Hagens. In this 4-part series, Dr Gunther von Hagens and Professor John Lee demonstrated the anatomical structure and workings of the body. The 4 episodes were screened in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 in 2005. The show features public anatomy demonstrations with the use of real human cadavers and live nude models, carried out at Gunther von Hagens' "Institute for Plastination" in Heidelberg, Germany. Dr von Hagens’ public demonstrations are not formal anatomy dissections performed by medical students in some countries as part of their medical training. Formal dissection are performed slowly and take dozens of hours of dissection. Anatomy for Beginners performs quicker autopsy and also combines with demonstration of plastinated body parts and specimens to gives just a glimpse of the human anatomy. The individuals on whom the demonstration was performed had, before their death, enrolled on von Hagens’ body donor programme and consented to the use of their bodies for public education in anatomy, including public demonstration.

While on a joyride with the headlights turned off, two men hit and kill another man carrying a satchel full of money. The two men decide to take the money and throw the body into a pond and bury the money in a coal hill. The next morning the police discover the body of a kidnapped 12-year blind girl, Melody, in a warehouse near the site of the hit-and-run. They determine that the kidnapper saw the girl's father bringing the ransom to him and also witnessed the hit-and-run and the men stealing the ransom.

The true story of Saartje Baartman, a black South African worker who moves to London with her master in the early 19th century. Although she dreams of being an artist, once in Europe she is exploited as a sideshow attraction due to her large buttocks and genitalia.

In one of his final TV projects, the presenter takes a journey around the human body, putting his own to the test to help viewers understand their own.