Some say it’s vulgar and wannabe “wacky” but I’d call it generous-spirited. How kind that your final act is giving your mourners an existential titter. Even better, make it Going Underground.

Yet I must agree with Father Ed Tomlinson, from Kent, who bemoans the growing appetite for Tina Turner at funeral services. I can’t imagine any occasion where I’d welcome hearing Tina Turner, but lordy – in a church? And singing Simply the Best?

I’m all for self-belief but suggesting you’re “simply the best” in the house of God seems a fraction grandiose. Shouldn’t Jesus sort of have the edge here? It seems David Brentian even to an agnostic like me. Fair enough if others selected it, but choosing it? We’re talking hubris.

The No 1 funeral pop song is Frank Sinatra’s My Way, somewhat at odds with the notion of humility before God. Who needs church if what you worshipped was your own lifestyle? No wonder Father Ed feels like “a lemon”. Maybe the Stone Roses should join the list. Not for I am the Resurrection, but I Wanna Be Adored.

Because this is the age of narcissism, the Facebook, Me generation. You’ll notice that many songs which feature in the Funeral Top Ten – Wind Beneath My Wings, Angels, You Raise Me Up – are also X Factor choices.

This is totally apt. Life is now an extension of The X Factor, the pursuit of self-affirmation, so why not death, too?

Why bother with churches at all? Future funerals could comprise just a hammy song played over a video compilation of one’s “best bits”. Yes, throw away your hymn books and say hello to “The Exit Factor”.

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