The Evening Chronicle - April 24 2004

Die happy. That's the thinking behind a funeral service in wallsend. Jennifer Bradbury reports on dying in the 21st Centuary Carl Marlow is soberly dressed in black suit, black shirt but no tie. He's sitting behind a desk and greets me with a huge smile. "Take a seat," he offers, as I take in my surroundings. It's an airy room with large windows, and everything is bathed in warm sunlight. There's a couple of brown, comfy leather couches in the middle of the room and two, modern bamboo chairs on the other side of Carl's desk. there's a large, black and white print on one wall and there's a pleasant whiff of geranium coming from a burning scented candle.

You could be in any modern office until your eyes fall upon the coffins that are stacked against the walls. the black and white coffin, a must for any 'die-hard" Toon fan catches my eye. It's got a price ticket too, £250. I take another look and there's a bamboo coffin and a wicker coffin balanced against other walls. On the shelves behind Carl's desk there are wicker and wooden urns.

This is about as far removed from an undertaker's as you can get. And that's exactly what Carl's trying to achieve. A laid-back, relaxed but respectful ambience. He wants to take the funeral business into the 21st Century, and if he offends along the way, then, what the heck? Those aren't the people he's aiming for anyway.

As we talk, Wallsend folk peep in the window to look at the coffins, and many of them are giggling. It's amazing. He's dealing in death, yet he's making people laugh. His story starts eight years ago when his mum, Denise, just 54, died a few months after being diagnosed with cancer.

The family were, quite understandably, devastated. While carl adored and loved his mum, her death-or more accurately, her funeral- was a turning point for him.