How much exercise do we need? Is eight hours the right amount of sleep? What is the 'average' libido? When does 'normal weight' become 'overweight' or 'obese'? And how do doctors decide if what's going on inside someone's head is normal?

When it comes to our health, what constitutes 'normal'? Who decides, and where do they draw the line? Is 'normal' the same for everyone? And if you don't tick the box marked 'normal', do you need treatment or are you simply different? In these 34 episodes, science writer and broadcaster Vivienne Parry attempts to answer these questions and work out what 'normal' means with regard to our bodies and minds.

Talking to doctors, patients and a wealth of medical and scientific experts, she considers issues ranging from mental health and physical well-being to fitness, child development, parenting and sex.

Over the course of eight series, Vivienne explores topics including cancer, blood pressure, giving birth, dyslexia, drinking, depression, ageing and autism. As she tries to build up a picture of what normality looks like, she discovers that in defining 'normal', we create 'abnormal' - and that in reality, 'normal' is anything but.

Production credits

Presented by Vivienne Parry

Produced by Anna Buckley, Fiona Roberts, Katy Hickman, Erika Wright, Deborah Cohen, Fiona Hill, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Alison Hughes, Julian Siddle and Pamela Rutherford

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 22nd August-12th September 2006 (Series 1), 14th November-12th December 2006 (Series 2), 31st July-21st August 2007 (Series 3), 18th September 2007 (The Sex Lives of Us: Sex), 4th-25th March 2008 (Series 4), 30th September-21st October 2008 (Series 5), 24th February-17th March 2009 (Series 6), 2nd-23rd March 2010 (Series 7), 19th July-10th August 2011 (Series 8)