12c & 21c Extraordinary People [30min]

Some of the high ratings programmes on television in recent months have been the burst of films about extraordinary people with extraordinary bodies: 'The Boy Who Gave Birth to His Twin', 'The Woman with Half a Body', 'The Curse of the Mermaid' are amongst the titles -- and the mass-circulation magazines are full of similar stories as well. But it's hardly a new phenomenon. Physical extremes fascinated us back in the twelfth century too, when they were recorded as 'wonder stories' in medieval Chronicles. In today's edition of 'The Long View', Jonathan Freedland and his guests look back at the Chronicles of Ralph of Coggeshall, a Cistercian monk who recorded the appearance of giants, green children and other extraordinary people in rural England. The story begins on the quayside in Orford, a Suffolk village thrown into turmoil when fishermen caught in their nets a being who appeared to be half man, half fish.