British Television Station to Mummify Corpse on Air

An Egyptian mummy shown in three stages (AP)

A corpse will be mummified on a television show in a bid to discover the secrets of the ancient Egyptians, a British TV channel announced Thursday.

A team of scientists will attempt to mummify a real corpse -- donated specifically for the purpose -- to find out how the ancient Egyptians managed to preserve the bodies of their pharaohs.

The program -- named "Mummify Me" -- aims to solve the 3,000-old mystery of how ancient priests managed to stop decomposition almost entirely, the program makers said.

"Filmed inside one of the UK's leading forensic pathology labs, the scientists want to unlock the preservation techniques used during the 'Golden Age' of Tutankhamen," the TV channel said in a statement.

It is not the first time the UK's Channel 4 TV station has put a dead body on screen in the name of science. Back in 2002 it caused controversy when it broadcast a public autopsy carried out by anatomist Gunther von Hagens.