The man behind the death mask

The son of great train robber Bruce Reynolds, Nick Reynolds plays the harmonica in Alabama 3 - the band behind the theme tune for The Sopranos.

But it is for his work as a sculptor that he has become best known in recent years - because his speciality is death masks.

Stalin, Ned Kelly and Mary Queen of Scots are among those who had masks of their faces made after their deaths, in a tradition that has existed since 8,000BC. But the idea fell out of popularity after the 19th Century and is now generally considered rather macabre.

Nick Reynolds started making death masks about 10 years ago, with clients including punk impresario Malcolm McLaren - whose Highgate Cemetery gravestone includes that final image.

More controversially, he also made a death mask of convicted murderer John Joe Amador, executed in Texas in 2007 - a work he produced in order to protest against the death penalty.

Video journalist: Suraj Patel.

Real Time is a series for the BBC News website in which ordinary people tell their own extraordinary stories.