Why Do We Sing?

Gareth Malone explores how man developed the vocal capability to sing.

He investigates how singing as we know it today began hundreds of millions of years ago.

Discover how prehistoric man used a type of vocal communication which could be called the precursor of singing.

Gareth finds out how this changed and developed as man evolved.

He explores what this tells us about human communication and how our relationship with song has grown out of moments in early history.

Producer: Emma Kingsley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2008.