Full Moon

In this edition of Wireless Nights, Jarvis Cocker discovers what happens here on earth on the night of the full moon. He'll be meeting the planet's inhabitants, both man and beast, as they divulge what light of the full moon does to them.

Jarvis heads to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London to search for the full moon. His guide and telescope operator is astronomer Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder. Jarvis also discovers what others are getting up to on this full moon night.

On a beach in Merseyside he encounters Moon Goddess Gatherings, a mass ritual where hundreds of women watch the full moon rise and embrace the energy of the lunar cycle.

The writer Lewis Coleman reflects on his own relationship with the full moon as is teases him with lunacy and lycanthropy.

And ecologist Rachel Grant reveals how a moonlit Italian jeep ride led her to discover that it’s not just wolves driven wild by the full moon, but amphibians too.

Lewis Coleman is the author of Drinking The Moon and other works. Rachel Grant specialises in behavioural and evolutionary ecology at London South Bank University. Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder is an astrophysicist and Senior Manager of Public Astronomy at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Karlee Matthews is Lead Pathfinder for Moon Goddess Gatherings.

Produced by Sam Peach