Cause of Death Season 1: to Be Released in Late 2023 on Channel 5

Tragically, a young man has taken his own life, leaving his family with a myriad of unanswered questions. The coroner's team are charged with guiding them through the process, and it's the coroner's job to bring together all the information at the inquest. The question to answer is not why, but whether he intended to take his own life.

A Slovakian man in his forties collapses in the middle of a conversation while walking down the street. He was two weeks into a new job. The coroner's team must now not only coordinate enquiries to determine a cause of death, but also facilitate funeral arrangements and the repatriation of his remains.

At 9.15 in the morning, a young man enters the water below a 20ft high bridge, and when passers-by pull him from the water, he's unconscious. He's declared dead on arrival at Royal Preston Hospital. Working alongside the police, the coroner and his team must determine what has happened. Did he mean to jump off the bridge? Has there been foul play? How did he die? An unvaccinated man is brought into Royal Preston's critical care unit, Covid-positive and deteriorating fast. After his untimely death, the coroner and his team must investigate what has happened. He had bought medicines online to protect him from Covid — have these contributed to his cause of death?

A woman calls police worried there's water flowing out from her neighbour's front door and, when they enter the house, police find a fully clothed man dead in the bath. The coroner must coordinate with Lancashire Police as they investigate his death, trying to find out what happened, whether he was the victim of foul play and why he was fully clothed in the bath.

In the early hours of the morning, two elderly men are found semi-conscious with head injuries in the middle of a darkened stretch of road in Leyland, Lancashire. Police escalate their transfer to Preston Royal Hospital, but one of the men's conditions worsens and he dies. The surviving man has no memory of events, so it is up to the coroner to establish what happened that night, and determine the cause of death.