CHANNEL 4 - CHANNEL 4 ANNOUNCE ANIMAL AUTOPSY PROGRAMME

CHANNEL 4 ANNOUNCE ANIMAL AUTOPSY PROGRAMME

Channel 4 viewers will be treated to the dissections of animals including an elephant, crocodile and a whale, it has been announced.

A new show, provisionally entitled Animal Autopsy, was revealed on Wednesday as part of the channel's planned spring and summer season.

The first human autopsy seen on television was screened by Channel 4 in 2002 and now, in co-operation with the Royal Veterinary College and biologist Richard Dawkins, viewers will be given an unprecedented look at the animal kingdom.

"Traditional wildlife films tell you how animals behave but stop short of revealing the changes that have taken place inside their bodies to allow that behaviour in the first place," said commissioning editor David Glover.

Other highlights of the Channel 4 spring and summer season include The Unloved - Golden Globe winner Samantha Morton's directorial debut and a drama about a girl raised in a children's home.

Mamma Mia! star Julie Walters is to play the late Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam in a one-off drama about the politician while Rupert Everett will play romantic poet Lord Byron.