The Last Days of WG

Charlie Connelly unravels the celebrity and the mythology that surrounds WG Grace, to look for the man beneath the austere Victorian veneer.

WG Grace died in 1915, but he still looms over the sport of cricket like no other player. He was arguably the most famous man of the late Victorian era, a true celebrity with an appeal that spanned the class system and reached across the British Empire.

Charlie Connelly comes across WG Grace in the last years of the great batsman's life, as his sporting career ends and his form begins to fade.

Faced with great personal tragedies, and distressed by the slaughter of the First World War, Grace emerges as a complex and troubled man, a long way from the stoical buttoned up Victorian that is so often portrayed.

Featuring archive recordings with John Arlott and CLR James, and interviews with England cricketers Vic Marks, Rachael Heyhoe Flint and Nick Compton.

Producer: Harrry Graham

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in October 2015.