Most people will see one or two dead bodies during their lifetime but Darren Hancock spends almost all his time with them.

The 39-year-old owner of family business D L Hancock has funeral parlours in Headington and Bicester and is chairman of the Oxfordshire branch of the National Association of Funeral Directors.

He has no qualms about living in a flat above the funeral home in Bicester.

“My mother always said it’s not the dead that will hurt you – it’s the living,” he explained.

He joined Bicester-based A L Sole and Sons from school at 16.

He said: “Seeing a dead body for the first time was strange. Even someone who is asleep or unconscious has some movement but the deceased look so still.”

He moved on to work for R L Bromley & Son and later joined Co-operative Funerals.

At 20 Mr Hancock set up on his own, running his firm from his parents’ home and hiring another funeral director’s premises and cars.

Two years on, in 1996, he moved into offices in Sheep Street, Bicester, and is now in a bigger building, Chapel House in North Street.

Between the Oxford and Bicester branches he conducts about 17 funerals each month.

He and his staff co-ordinate the minister, church, crematorium, bearers, cars and flowers and order of service.

“You only get one chance to do it, there is no room for error.” he pointed out.

Funerals are still a taboo subject for many.

He said: “We had a headstone with inscriptions in our window and a woman came in and asked me to remove one as it had the word ‘Mason’ on it, which was her son’s name.

“She said it sent shivers down her spine each time she walked past.”

And no two funerals are ever the same.

“We’ve taken people to church on a tractor and trailer,” he recalled.

“One chap left instructions that as his coffin disappeared behind the crematorium curtains, we should play the Loony Tunes music and flash up, ‘That’s all folks’.

“At another funeral a man gave me a tape and asked me to play a song but to be sure to stop it straight after.

“It turned out the next track was Staying Alive, by the Bee Gees.”

After 23 years in the trade he still enjoys his work.

“If you are a caring person you think, I have to care for this person because they can’t do it for themselves. Some situations are heart-wrenching and you have to be able to distance yourself to some degree.

“But the day you stop caring, is the day you should quit. Dealing with the deceased is the smallest part of the job – the biggest is looking after the families they leave behind.”