What was claimed
A photograph shows a hearse being impounded during a funeral.
Our verdict
The photo shows a scene staged for an episode of the comedy TV show Rev, rather than a genuine funeral.
Hearse being impounded during funeral is actually scene from TV comedy
21 February 2023
A Facebook post shared over 20,000 times shows a photo of a hearse being impounded during a funeral, with the caption “Car impounding gone mad”. However, the scene was staged for a fictional TV comedy.
The picture, which first appeared on Facebook in 2016 and recirculated in 2020 before being shared again earlier this month, shows a hearse being impounded while pallbearers carry a coffin out of a church in the background.
As Reuters previously reported, the photo was taken during the filming for Big Talk Productions’ show Rev., which aired on the BBC between 2010 and 2014. It shows actors, rather than genuine mourners, carry a coffin out of a church at the same moment a hearse is being loaded onto a lorry to be towed away.
This scene appears in the third episode of the first season of Rev. and an unofficial clip of the scene was posted on YouTube to settle the debate over whether the photo is a real scene.
Although many people in the comments of the Facebook post appear to believe the photograph is real, one commenter points out that a boom microphone can be glimpsed in the top left of the photo, giving away that it’s being filmed for TV.
We often check videos and images that are being shared in misleading ways on Facebook. You can read more about how to spot misleading images online using our guide.
Image courtesy of Neil Potter
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the scene appears in an episode of the TV programme Rev.