Series 8 (2023)
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Episodes 10
Yorkshire Puddings
How Aunt Bessie's produce a staggering 500 million Yorkshire puddings every year in Hull. How wheat is tested before it can be milled into flour. How to cook the perfect gravy for a Sunday roast. The history of the roast dinner, and the art of washing up Tudor-style.
Read MoreJelly Beans
How Jelly Bean Factory make ten million of their colourful little sweets every day in Dublin. The important role glucose plays in our bodies. How one of the ingredients in jelly beans plays a key role in the production of lipstick. The history of jelly and post-war pick'n'mix.
Read MoreJeans
How denim cloth is made, and how Welsh jeans brand Hiut transform it into one of the world's most popular items of clothing - jeans. How zippers are made. How denim is distressed to make a new pair of jeans look old, in environmentally friendly ways. The little-known person who helped shape the design of jeans forever. The history of indigo dye.
Read MoreStuffed Pasta
How Dell Ugo make 500 million stuffed pasta parcels every year in Hertfordshire. How Cromer on the Norfolk coast still use traditional fishing techniques to catch the crab for stuffed pasta. How Italian immigrants in Bedford helped to build Britain. The origins of gluten-free food.
Read MoreStout
How Guinness make two million litres of Irish stout every single day. How reservoir water is treated to provide clean drinking water to the people of Dublin, as well as to the stout brewery. How hops are harvested at a farm in Worcestershire. The history of Irish pubs, and how pub games helped the Allies in the Second World War.
Read MoreBath Bombs
How Lush produce an astonishing 14 million bath bombs every year in Dorset. How taking a hot bath can provide some of the benefits of exercise. How a lab grows human skin for cosmetic testing. The notion that complex perfumes ward off the plague. How the living conditions of coal miners and their families were transformed by the introduction of communal showers.
Read MoreCarpets
How Axminster produces 46,000 square metres of carpet every year in Devon. The science behind the best ways to remove stubborn stains from carpets such as butter, milk and red wine. How the groundbreaking methods of a Devon-based carpet maker in the 18th century revolutionised intricate carpet making. The rise and fall of the hard-wearing flooring linoleum.
Read MoreChocolate Bars
How Nestle make more than eight million bars of chocolate every day in York - the UK's city of chocolate. How a cocoa plant quarantine facility in the Berkshire countryside is preventing a worldwide chocolate shortage. The bitter history of drinking chocolate.
Read MorePaint and Wallpaper
How Farrow & Ball produce up to 200,000 litres of paint and 10,000 metres of wallpaper a week in Dorset. How a key ingredient in paint-making is mined in Devon. The art of hanging wallpaper, and its history. How ships in the First World War were painted with dazzling patterns to evade German submarines.
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