Get ready for the story of how the telegraph went from a long line of monks holding hands to a technology that straddled the earth. One which foreshadowed the internet in many strange ways, from online dating to fraud.

Dallas’s guest is Tom Standage, author of The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers and deputy editor of The Economist magazine.

With special thanks to Frances Grey for her wonderful acting.

Edited by Stuart Beckwith, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long