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Westlife and Monty Python on funeral song list

Monty Python laughing all the way to the afterlife
Monty Python laughing all the way to the afterlife

Boyband Westlife, the Match of the Day theme tune, and Monty Python's Always Look on The Bright Side of Life are among the songs featured on a new list of favourite tunes to be played at UK funerals. 

Robbie Williams, Celine Dion, and the theme to Only Fools and Horses also appear on the list which was compiled after a study of 30,000 funerals in the UK. 

Python's cheerful ditty, which ends their 1979 movie The Life of Brian, is number one, knocking Frank Sinatra's My Way off the top spot for mourners. 

More traditional fare The Lord is My Shepherd is at number two, Abide With Me at number three, and Westlife are at number 18 on the list with You Raise Me Up. 

However certain songs were refused on the grounds of taste or inappropriate language include Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols and John Lennon's Imagine.

Top 20 songs played at a UK funeral

1. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle

2. The Lord is My Shepherd - Traditional

3. Abide with Me - Traditional

4. Match of the Day theme

5. My Way - Frank Sinatra

6. All Things Bright and Beautiful - Traditional

7. Robbie Williams - Angels

8. Enigma Variations (Nimrod) - Elgar

9. You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers

10. Cricket Theme/Soul Limbo - Booker T & the MG's (test match TV theme)

11. Canon in D - Pachelbel

12. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion

13= Last of the Summer Wine theme

13= Only Fools and Horses theme

14. Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli

15. Four Seasons - Vivaldi

16. Ava Maria - Schubert

17. Coronation Street theme

18 = You Raise Me Up - Westlife

18 = Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy

19. World in Union (Rugby Theme) - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and other versions

20= Nessun Dorma - Puccini

20= Adagio - Bizet/Albinoni

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