You toured with the show Unnatural Causes in 2022/23 and are embarking on your second theatre tour this autumn. What do you like about touring?
I’ve always enjoyed talking to people and explaining what I do and why. I’ve spent a lot of time giving lectures to medical students, policemen, paramedics and the public, and I’ve never found it difficult to speak to large groups. So going on tour is just another way of trying to give people a little bit of an understanding about what we really do, as so much of the work goes on in the background. Many people think that what I do is just destructive, and some people may think it’s an awful thing to do, but my focus is always on finding the truth and then trying to make sure that the relatives understand. The truth may be difficult to hear - but it is ultimately far less distressing than not knowing, or having unanswered questions, about the death of someone you’re close to.

What can we expect from your new show, Time Of Death - More Unnatural Causes?
When I retired as a Home Office pathologist, I took up a long-held interest in learning how to mend clocks. As someone then pointed out, I’d spent my whole career taking things apart and not being able to put them back together again - mending clocks meant I was taking complex things apart in the hope that I could put them back together and get them to work again. 
It made me think again about how time is so important in terms of forensic medicine. When did the crime happen? How old is that injury? How long did someone survive? All crucial questions. So, we are going to be talking about the importance of time in forensic medicine, using examples of some interesting and different cases that I’ve dealt with. 

Have  you ever had anybody in an audience become quite overcome or emotional during one of your shows?
Only one, and they had to leave - I couldn’t help but notice as they were in the middle of the front row! But they did come to see me afterwards, when I was signing books, and we were able to have a little chat... Also, a long time ago, when I was lecturing senior police officers at Hendon Police College, one of them collapsed, and it didn’t look as if they were coming around, so I thought I’d better see what was going on. As I got near, they seemed okay, so I went back to my lectern muttering that “nobody wants to wake up from a faint to see a forensic pathologist leaning over them.” Unfortunately, I’d forgotten that my microphone was still switched on, so the whole room heard what I had said to myself - and cheered! Years later, I met that man again, who described himself as “the one person who escaped Dick Shepherd's knife.”

You also appear on Channel Five’s Cause Of Death, looking at cases at Preston Coroner’s Court. The series illustrates just how compassionate all the staff involved in sudden deaths are…
As a group of professionals, we all do what might be considered an awful job, but we must always remember that the people who are most important in the entire process are the relatives (and friends) of the person who has died. Obviously, I talk to my colleagues, the coroner and police officers about cases, and they’re important too, but we’ve got to make sure the relatives understand, because if they don’t, they worry - and that can significantly add to their distress.

How do you explain the public’s huge interest in true crime on TV, and do you think women are more interested than men?
I think that people have always been both scared and fascinated by violent crimes - the victims, the perpetrators and those who must investigate them. Initially, it was the Penny Dreadful magazines from the 18th & 19th centuries, with dramatic hand-drawn pictures of the events and very descriptive stories. These were often sold at the time of the execution of a convicted perpetrator!   Nowadays, we have more sophisticated magazines, books and TV programmes to satisfy this interest, this continuing need to get into the nitty-gritty of how crime works! After the tours I’ve done and the books I’ve written, I’m fascinated that people are prepared to spend an evening listening to me! I’m not sure of the demographic of the various audiences - I’m just pleased to hopefully be able to show that there is empathy as well as investigation and punishment. 

What made you interested in pathology?
When I was about 13, a school friend of mine bought a forensic textbook by the celebrated pathologist Keith Simpson into school. It suddenly opened my eyes to this whole intriguing world of murders, and I decided that that was what I wanted to do. I wasn’t a stranger to death, as my mum had died of heart disease when I was nine, so it was my dad who encouraged my interest in medicine. I only ever wanted to be a pathologist. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed obstetrics and delivering babies, but settled into a life of crime! I do appreciate how lucky I’ve been to have found a career that I enjoy so much.

Your wife is in the same business. How did you meet?
Linda is a forensic doctor, too - although she looks after living victims - and we met at a forensic meeting in London where I was lecturing. We spent time afterwards chatting about bruises. Very romantic! She declined my offer of a drink, as she had to buy some shoes, which defined my true place in the world. The rest, as they say, is history -  nearly 20 years and counting!

Did you find it difficult to balance your job and family life?
When the kids were younger, this was very much an issue. If I had had a heavy day, I would stop the car around the corner from the house and spend a minute or two mentally moving myself from work mode to family mode. The kids always knew what I did and weren’t phased if the police came round to the house with bits and pieces to show me. In fact, one daughter has followed me into the profession. She and I chat quite frequently about cases, and it’s nice having her as a close colleague - especially as she’s a much better pathologist!

Are there any stand-out cases that have never left you? 
Obviously, cases that have a high public profile, like that of Princess Diana or David Kelly or Gareth Williams (‘the spy in the bag’). However, it’s often the smaller, more personal cases that leave a bigger, permanent mark. In Unnatural Causes, I wrote about a teenager who had epilepsy and died suddenly overnight. That case changed the way I interacted with bereaved families. There was also a case of a family who went to France on holiday; the mother and her eight-year-old daughter were crossing the road to go shopping, and the daughter didn’t look the correct way for French traffic, stepped out and was instantly killed. As a parent, I still shiver at that thought. Lives can be changed in a fraction of a second, and despite all my years as a forensic pathologist, I just cannot imagine how you ever move on from that. 

Why do you think we’re obsessed with true crime, yet reluctant to discuss death?
Some people are very reluctant to believe that their relatives will/could ever die, no matter how old or ill they are. And when the inevitable happens they believe that something must have gone wrong. We no longer openly talk about ‘death’; we talk euphemistically about ‘passing on’, so people are no longer used to the experience of death and don’t know how to behave in the face of sudden strong emotions. Not that long ago, the body would lie in the house before the funeral, with family, neighbours and friends coming in to pay respect. I am struck by the public response to a member of the royal family ‘lying in state’, which shows that there’s still a need for that chance to say goodbye. The experience of death is now diminished, so that when it does happen, there haven’t been any rehearsals for what it’s going to be like, and they struggle to understand their emotions, which makes death much harder to cope with.

Dr Richard Shepherd’s tour Time Of Death stops off at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on Mon 29 September; Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, Mon 6 October; Lichfield Garrick, Tues 28 October; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Fri 31 October; Crewe Lyceum Theatre, Sat 1 November