Rigor Mortis is a BBC Radio 4 black comedy produced in three seasons between 2003 and 2006, and set in the pathology department at an NHS hospital.

Much of the humour of the show springs from the characters' varying views on death and their contrasting beliefs about the relative importance of their work.

Nevertheless, one of the running gags of the programme was that the character originally played by Tracy-Ann Oberman (and in later series by Matilda Ziegler), the anatomical pathologist Ruth Anderson, was secondarily credentialled as a forensic pathologist, but had so rarely used these skills that her deductive reasoning skills were faulty.

This structure is confirmed by the announced credits, which mention only the actors playing the pathologists during the opening title sequence.

Rigor Mortis was recorded live in front of a studio audience at London's Drill Hall, typically at the rate of one episode each Friday night for six weeks.

The first series of Rigor Mortis was well-received, cited as "brilliantly funny" and selected as the radio "Pick of the Day" by The Independent.

the wit flashes as brightly as the scalpels", while Sue Arnold of The Observer wrote that it was "the sharpest, blackest and most original sitcom I've heard in years."