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Episode details

Radio 4,22 Aug 2017,28 mins

Available for over a year

We have been catching and eating them for centuries; jellied, smoked or stewed and yet there is still much we don't know about the life of an eel as Brett Westwood discovers when he joins a traditional eel fisherman on the banks of a river in Dorset and learns about bobs and worms. Eel skins were once worn as wedding rings and their heads used as finger puppets in Ely, otherwise known as the Isle of Eels which today holds an annual festival to celebrate all things 'eel' from a giant eel paraded through the streets to the World Eel throwing competition! First broadcast in a longer form on the 22nd August 2017 Original Producer (2017) Sarah Blunt Archive Producer (2024) Andrew Dawes

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