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We use our hands to explore the world around us; to manipulate and change it; to communicate; to signify aggression, submission or gratitude; to comfort or arouse; to make music, craft and create. We point, punch, tweak and text. We ball our fists, spread our palms, give someone the thumbs up and close our hands in prayer.

More than anything else, is it our hands which make us human?

This series considers the human hand from five different angles: manipulation, creativity, gesture, communication and touch. In each programme we hear from people who have a very particular perspective on hands and the way we use them, including a harpist, a blacksmith, a former infantry soldier and the recipient of a hand transplant. Each of them takes a long look at their own hands, describes what they see and considers the relationship with the world which their hands give them.

As we encounter healing hands, steady hands, talking hands, holding hands and the laying-on of hands we come to understand just how much our hands identify and define us.

In the final programme we explore the power of touch with massage therapist Cathy Hagan and her client Gill Tate. Cathy reflects on the way she uses her thumbs, palms and the heel of her hand to sense and locate areas of tension in her clients’ bodies - and then how her hands work to relax those knotted muscles.

A very different insight into touch comes from ‘The Man of Steal’ - magician and pickpocket James Freedman. He talks about the deftness, dexterity and sleight of hand that are the tools of his trade - and how he uses touch to deceive and misdirect when he’s picking someone’s pocket during his stage show.

We also hear from hand surgeon Professor Simon Kay and photographer Tim Booth who has spent over twenty years creating portraits of people’s hands. They consider the extraordinary power of hand-holding and touch to comfort and communicate.

Producer: Jeremy Grange

Featuring excerpt from 'James Freedman: Secrets from a Professional Pickpocket' - courtesy of TED Talks

Photograph courtesy of Tim Booth: ‘A Show of Hands’ Project

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