Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Drama on 4

Drama

Drama from BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Afternoon Drama

Anna Madeley

Will Young

Rupert Graves

Nickolas Grace

Patrick Ryecart

Ian Masters

Colin Bytheway

Celia de Wolff

Drama on 4: Mary Toft's Rabbit Tale

Mary Toft's Rabbit Tale

22/04/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Mary Toft's Rabbit Tale

Dreaming of fame and fortune, Mary convinces doctors that she is giving birth to rabbits.

By Colin Bytheway. Mary believes there is more to life than raising children and working. Dreaming of fame and fortune, she convinces doctors that she is giving birth to rabbits.

Written by Colin Bytheway. 

In 1726, 26 year old mother-of-three Mary Toft gave birth to a rabbit. And then another. And then another. All were stillborn, some were just rabbit body parts, but all were the fruit of her loins.

Local surgeon John Howard confirmed the phenomenon, delivering several rabbits himself. He wrote of his findings to the Secretary of George I. The King, intrigued, sent his personal anatomist Nathaniel St Andre to investigate - and he soon concluded that Toft was telling the truth and was preternaturally giving birth to rabbits.

Mary quickly became a national sensation and was brought to London to be studied at length. But, inevitably, Mary broke and she confessed. The whole thing was a hoax.

Mary was imprisoned. She, the medical profession, and even the country, were publicly ridiculed. Mary herself was immortalised in a sketch by Hogarth. After five months of incarceration, she was released, returning to Godalming, her children, her husband and her old life. She later claimed she made up the rabbit tale "to get so good a living that I should never want as long as I lived."

Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Drama on 4

Mary Toft's Rabbit Tale

Contributors

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4