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This is the podcast version of the programme.

It has some extra material in it that we didn't have room for in the radio broadcast.

I hope you enjoy it.

Hello, welcome to the programme.

Now, dying is difficult to handle.

Managing the rituals of a loved one's death can be a solemn and often spiritual experience.

No one wants to think about it as like the purchase of a holiday or a car.

But, although like any other, death is a business with a supply chain involving funerals,

burials, coffins and cremation, and we'll look today at how it all works and how

well it works. The Competition and Markets Authority, which is the regulator whose job is to

protect people from unfair trading practices and monopoly, carried out an in-depth investigation

into the funeral market a few years ago, because of the surprise people sometimes experience

at the final cost of that farewell. It's on average about £4,000, with potentially another

two or three thousand for the full extras that can make a funeral more personal to the deceased

and their loved ones, like transport catering, the wake and the flowers.

Well, it's a world that's been rapidly changing and to talk us through it, I have three

guests with me. Let's meet them now. First up is Jill Stewart, managing director of co-op

funeral care. Now that is one of the big three national companies of funeral directors.

And Jill, your background wasn't funerals, it was retail.

Just tell us where you went from and two and why you made that journey.

So I spent all of my career up until three years ago in the retail sector, very different.

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