A black comedy dealing with death is the subject of Zee English's latest offering Six Feet Under. The show will air every Friday at 10 pm from 16 May.

Alan Ball who won an Oscar for writing American Beauty is the brain behind the endeavour which has won several awards including Golden Globe and SAG. It looks at the dysfunctional Fisher family that owns and operates an independent funeral home in California.

Patriarch Nathaniel Fisher is no longer living (except in the hearts and visions of his family). So his wife Ruth, sons Nate and David, and daughter Claire are left to cope with the routine and not-so-routine aspects of life in the grief-management business. What emerges over the course of the series is the quirky, sometimes disturbing - but ultimately life-affirming - story of a resilient family.

The show stars Rachel Griffiths, Peter Krauss, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose.