Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 279,788 playable programmes from the BBC

Did the Victorians Ruin the World?

Series 1

Squirrels

Duration: 14 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra

Available for over a year

It's the most celebrated period of British ingenuity, but are our Victorian forebears due a rethink?

Sci-curious sisters Kat and Helen Arney are on hand with some revisionist revelations that could turn what we think we know completely upside down.

The Victorians were huge nature lovers but, in their quest to find all manner of exotic flora and fauna across the world and bring them back to Blighty, did they know they were doing more harm than good?

It was the Victorians who unleashed grey squirrels and a whole lot more besides on the unsuspecting British countryside. In so doing, were they really a bunch of environmental vandals?

Helen Arney is a presenter and comedian, and Dr Kat Arney is a writer and broadcaster who has published a book on genetics.

A Hat Trick production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2017. Show less

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More