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Private Notes
How Woodmansterne produces 35 million greeting cards a year in Watford - from sketching a card design, to creating an aluminium plate for printing, to guillotining the sheets into cards and the final shipping process. Creating a vegan Christmas feast. The history of the year Christmas was cancelled.
How JCB make as many as a hundred iconic yellow diggers every single day in Rocester, Staffordshire, requiring just 45 hours to make a digger from scratch, and consuming 650 tonnes of steel, 170,000 bolts, 5,000 litres of paint and 236 miles of wiring each week.
How the largest malt loaf factory in the world makes the sweet and squidgy cake-cum-bread, a popular teatime treat consumed at the rate of 130 million a year. How a British baking company cooked up the first business computer. How wheat flour was ground the traditional way, until the Victorians' demand for white bread brought about the demise of Britain's iconic windmills.
Gregg Wallace visits the Ercol factory in Buckinghamshire to follow the production of a Windsor chair. Cherry Healey investigates how sitting too much could be very bad for our health. Historian Ruth Goodman discovers how utility furniture made during the Blitz is still influencing the designs we buy today.
Gregg Wallace visits a bootmaking factory in Wollaston, Northamptonshire to follow the production of a pair of Dr. Martens, while Cherry Healey gets to grips with the machines that make shoelaces.
How the biggest tortilla factory in Europe makes 60,000 tonnes of snacks every year in Coventry, including their UK bestseller: chilli heatwave flavour tortilla chips. Tasting the hottest chilli in the world at the UK's largest chilli farm. The science behind the UK's first compostable crisp packet. How the Elizabethans kept their huge ruff collars standing to attention, and how American popcorn became a box office smash.
How Denby - potterymaker since 1809 - produces one of their best sellers, the Halo Heritage mug, in Derbyshire. The journey starts at the factory's 100-metre-long, 100,000-tonne mound of clay.
How a family-run factory in rural Aberdeenshire churns out fifty thousand litres of dairy ice cream every day. How best to stop 'brain freeze.' How sprinkles are made. How ice cream vans made soft whip a favourite on Britain's streets.
How a 32-acre site in Somerset makes 1.2 million Henry vacuum cleaners every year.
How Alstom builds a 187-tonne, five-carriage electric train on their 84-acre site in Derby. How the train's aluminium is made at the UK's last remaining smelter in Scotland. How tunnel boring machines are digging ten miles through the hills for the new HS2 line. The history of the UK’s first electric train - Brighton's seafront tourist train, still used today - and how that technology went on to be used in underground transportation all over the world.
How London's famous red double-decker bus - including a fully electric model - is built in Scarborough, Yorkshire, highlighting the tough laminated heated windscreens and bright red coat of paint. How the turbines at an offshore wind farm convert wind into watts. The history of London's earliest double-deckers and their vital role in the First World War.
How a factory in Manchester churns out 6 million Jaffa Cakes every single day - 1.4 billion per year. The legal significance of whether Jaffa Cakes are cakes or biscuits.
How Vale of Mowbray make pork pies - including 425,000 a week of their 75g snack-sized traditional pie - in Northallerton, Yorkshire. Hacks for the perfect vegan shortcrust pastry. How piccalilli, a pork pie accompaniment, is made. The history of Britain's unusual stargazy pie, and powdered egg during the Second World War.
How a factory makes 432 million classic British crumpets every year from a precise combination of ingredients, using some clever chemistry to create their famous 'holey' texture. The science of making the perfect pancake batter. How another British favourite, Eccles cakes, are made in Manchester for shipment all over the world. The history of how crumpets got their rise and eventually their bubbles, and Britain's obsession with toasting baked goods.
The futuristic process by which Heck churn out up to 90,000 vegan sausages a day in Yorkshire. How Canadian soy beans are transformed into protein-packed tofu. How a vegan superfood of the sea is harvested on the Scottish coast. The history of the vegetarian movement in Britain, and the high price that British sailors paid when deprived of their five a day.
Gregg Wallace explores the Ambrosia factory in Lifton, Devon, to reveal how it makes up to 360,000 rice puddings every single day. How fresh water from the Alps is used to grow more than a million tonnes of rice every year in Italy's Po Valley. The history of school dinners.
How Polos produce 32 million mints every day in York - part of the 19,000 tonnes of mints consumed every year in the UK. The largest sugar beet factory in Europe. How one of the last surviving peppermint farms in the UK harvest their crop. How clever marketing persuaded people to buy minty mouthwash.
