Loch Ness Monster attack

Virgin Money is offering its customers the opportunity to insure themselves against death by Dalek

But wacky as they are, there is a serious point, says the financial giant, as they hope it highlights just how little people take life insurance seriously in the first place.

Virgin say they WILL pay out if you are killed by a shark whipped from the sea by a tornado and then deposited in the middle of the city, like B-movie horror film Sharknado.

But they hope it will encourage people to realise that while this is unlikely to happen, real chances of accidental death are far more likely than many realise.

The ten wacky ways to die are familiar to film and TV fans as they take their inspiration from scifi like Dr Who and Godzilla to Harry Potter and even Jack and the Beanstalk.

However, Virgin would like to point out that falling from the beanstalk itself is not covered because of the risks involved in taking on the task invalidates the policy!

Virgin will pay out if a shark is taken from the sea by a tornado and kills you in the middle of the street

Virgin Money director Darrell Evans said: 'This is a light-hearted attempt to highlight the importance of life insurance.

'What's odd, though, is that our sense of risk is a bit skewed.

'In life we spend too much time imagining the things that will never happen.

'Maybe we should spend a little bit more time thinking about and planning for what eventually will happen.

'For example, around 30 million lottery tickets are sold in the UK every Saturday to hopeful people thinking that they might just win.

'The odds are in fact higher that they could meet an unfortunate end on the way to buying a ticket than they are to win the jackpot.'

A poll of 16, 000 British adults recently found only 23 per cent have a life insurance policy, falling to just 15 per cent in London though rising to 31 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Darrell Evans added: 'Essentially what this tells us is that if Londoners got caught up in a row between Thor and Dark Elf Malekith over his plans to destroy the universe and restore the Dark Elves to dominance by unleashing the Aether at the centre of the Convergence in Greenwich, fewer than two in ten adults would have appropriate cover.

'But more seriously, while it can be a difficult thing to think about, having life insurance in place is an important part of financial planning.'