In the first of a new series, Tom Dyckhoff looks at the doll and how we represent ourselves both individually and socially. He goes from the doll's ethnographic roots in stylised fertility to a future of personalised dolls - demonstrated as he has a life-like model created of himself through 3-D printing in a supermarket booth.

He questions gender and stereotypes, looking at the design features of successful dolls and meeting the voice of talking Barbie from the 1960s.

Not all dolls are for children, and Tom visits the workshop of a doll-maker who designs for adults with her re-born babies, also discovering how dolls can be used in education as well as therapeutically, with dementia patients in care homes.

Produced by Sara Parker
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4. Show less