Brian Cox

But today we're looking beyond the tyre.

Or indeed...

We're going through the tyre, which was one of Lloyd Grossman's less successful animal-based shows.

Because we're going to look at what we can learn from, and I will use more Radio 4 language than my colleague here, the romantic behaviour of monkeys.

We will be asking about the monogamy of the mandrill, the gregariousness of the gibbon and the temptation of the tamarin.

Do monkeys appear to fall in love?

How does sibling bonding vary?

What gets a monkey hot under the furry collar?

And how often do we see them exhibit same-sex behaviour?

Ultimately, what do we learn about ourselves by learning about the love life of monkeys?

To aid and abet us, we are joined by a psychologist, an anthropologist and a cruciverbalist.

And they are.

My name's Dave Gorman.

I am what I am, and what I am needs no excuses.

I've just learnt that a mandrill is a type of monkey and not a euphemism.

And the thing I found most edifying from watching monkeys is the knowledge that they are literally too busy singing to put anybody down.

And this is our panel.

Let's first of all just start off, Jo, in terms of what is the kind of variety of, I suppose, well, romantic relationships that we see in monkeys or sexual?

I think you're imposing some sort of cultural paradigm where you say they twine their tails and that's romantic, because you might also say that's jealous and possessive.

Yeah, total control.