Is this a dagger radio listeners will hear about?

A dagger, an eye relic and a fork are among the subjects of a new BBC series which will examine the turbulent lives of the Bard’s original audience.

By The Newsroom

Published 21st Mar 2012, 06:00 BST

Radio 4’s Shakespeare’s Restless World follows on from the success of A History Of The World In 100 Objects, broadcast in 2010.

In the new programme, British Museum director Neil MacGregor will look at Shakespeare’s audience through 20 objects from the period, the 1590s and early 1600s.

Highlights will include a dagger and rapier, which the programme will use to show how the literary legend’s audience faced a huge problem with knife crime.

The objects are the type that a man “would have taken out for a night out in Southwark”, said Mr MacGregor.