Stupid Deaths: Countess of Coventry

In the afterlife's waiting room, Death is fielding a question about his flowing hair when his skeleton judges spot a new arrival: contestant 1760, Maria, Countess of Coventry. Death mistakes her chalk-white face for an old woman's, but she insists she is only 27 and explains that she was a celebrated society beauty prone to the odd spot. To hide them she caked on ceruse, the fashionable Georgian face paint, not realising it was made with white lead, which caused more blemishes that needed yet more paint. Death and the Countess chant the vicious cycle back and forth until she admits it ended in lead poisoning. Death mocks her as being as thick as her make-up, sends her through to the afterlife as a numpty, and calls in the next contestant, Kitty Fisher.

Maria's contestant number, 1760, is the year she died. The real Maria Gunning, Countess of Coventry, was a celebrated Irish-born beauty and London society hostess who died at 27 from lead poisoning attributed to her white-lead cosmetics.