'Loved ones, not numbers': Inside a British funeral business as Covid deaths surge

Pallbearers from W. Uden & Sons bow their heads to a coffin during a funeral service in Bromley, amid the coronavirus pandemic, in south east London, Britain. Photos: Reuters

It was a normal busy winter for British funeral director Matthew Uden until the second week of January. "Then it was like someone flicked a switch," he said.

As Britain's Covid-19 death toll surged into six figures, the phones at W. Uden & Sons, his family's business in south London, started ringing almost non-stop.