The first of three documentary profiles of early anatomists, showing on consecutive nights.
Gaetano Giulio Zumbo was a 17th-century Sicilian priest who created a series of wax reliefs depicting the putrefaction of the flesh caused by the plague.
Increasingly interested in the workings of the human body he went on to produce anatomical models, the result of secret experiments in human dissection. This programme explores the disturbing and compelling masterpieces he left behind.
(The Vanities of Dr Ruysh is tomorrow 11.20pm)