Gregg Wallace explores the Manchester factory that produces 700,000 toilet rolls a day. He begins 940 miles away in Sweden, where the raw material - wood - is harvested from a sustainable forest of one billion spruce trees. Most of the wood is used for timber, but the offcuts are turned into sheets of wood pulp. Gregg follows this pulp to Manchester where he learns that two types of wood fibre - long and short - are required for loo roll, to give it strength but also softness. He watches as 3,750 kilos of fibre are combined with 34,000 litres of water and sprayed into a 40-metre long, 11-metre high paper making machine. It takes just four seconds for the watery pulp mix to be transformed into soft, dry paper. It is then rolled onto a 1.2 tonne supersized toilet roll known as a 'mother reel'. Each one of these gives birth to 25,000 individual toilet rolls.\n\nMeanwhile, Cherry Healey is at Britain's oldest toilet factory, where they churn out 1,000 loos a day. And she gets the bum deal of following the flush through the sewers and water treatment works of Brighton, finding out how sewage is cleared of debris, grease and bacteria and transformed into clean water in a little over an hour after flushing. She has a cheeky encounter with a high-tech Japanese toilet, and heads to Cranfield University to see a prototype toilet that does away with the needs for water altogether. Could this be the toilet of the future that gives one third of the world's population access to efficient sanitation?\n\nHistorian Ruth Goodman finds out what was used to wipe with before the invention of toilet paper. She discovers that the weapon of choice in the American Midwest was a dried out corn cob. And that it wasn't until the 1930s that toilet paper was guaranteed 'splinter free'. She is also in myth-busting mode, finally laying to rest the idea that Thomas Crapper invented the modern toilet. She heads into the House of Lords to check out an 18th-century flushing toilet, still in use today, and discovers that the Great Stink of 1858 expedited a period of sanitary invention that led to the toilet we know today.
Source: BBC 2
Series 9: 6. Sausage Rolls
Paddy McGuinness explores the secrets of the McColgan’s bakery in Strabane, Northern Ireland, to reveal how it makes more than half a million sausage rolls a day. \n\nAft ...
09-02-2025
BBC 2
Series 9: 5. Hardback Books
Paddy McGuinness visits the Clays book factory in Suffolk to learn how they produce 20,000 copies of Pride and Prejudice for publisher Penguin. The factory makes an astonishing ...
02-02-2025
BBC 2
Series 9: 4. Flapjacks
In this episode, Paddy McGuinness explores the secrets of the Graze factory in west London, revealing how they make 40 million flapjacks a year. \n\nArmed with a trusty tasting ...
26-01-2025
BBC 2
Series 9: 3. Cheese Curls
In this episode, Paddy McGuinness explores the secrets of the Walkers factory in Lincoln, to reveal how it makes 500 million packs of Quavers every year. \n\nPaddy begins by mee ...
19-01-2025
BBC 2
Series 9: 2. Sliced Bread
In a nostalgic episode of Inside the Factory, new presenter Paddy McGuinness visits the Warburtons bread factory in his hometown of Bolton, where he once worked as a youngster m ...
12-01-2025
BBC 2
Series 9: 1. Chocolate Seashells
Paddy McGuinness is fully immersing himself in the festive spirit as he explores a huge chocolate factory in Belgium. With lots of taste tests to enjoy along the way, he embrace ...
28-12-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 7. Carpets
Gregg Wallace explores the Axminster factory in Devon to reveal how it produces 46,000 square metres of carpet every year. He follows the production of one of their best sellers ...
15-11-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 6. Bath Bombs
Gregg Wallace visits the colourful and fragrant Lush factory in Dorset to learn how an astonishing 14 million bath bombs are produced every year.\n\nCherry Healey visits Loughbo ...
09-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 5. Stout
Gregg Wallace explores the secrets of the Guinness brewery in Dublin to reveal how it makes two million litres of Irish stout every single day.\n\nCherry Healey visits a water t ...
02-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 4. Stuffed Pasta
Gregg Wallace explores the Dell Ugo factory in Hertfordshire to reveal how it makes 500 million stuffed pasta parcels every year. \n\nHe’s following production of one of ...
25-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: Ice Cream
Gregg Wallace visits a family-run factory in the heart of rural Aberdeenshire, which churns out more than 49 tonnes of dairy ice cream every day. Gregg is delighted to learn he& ...
21-05-2023
BBC 2
Series 6: Tortilla Chips
Gregg Wallace visits the biggest tortilla factory in Europe. The Coventry site covers more than 21,000 square meters, the size of three football pitches, and makes 60,000 tonnes ...
21-06-2023
BBC 2
Series 8: 5. Stout
Gregg Wallace explores the secrets of the Guinness brewery in Dublin to reveal how it makes two million litres of Irish stout every single day.\n\nCherry Healey visits a water t ...
02-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: 5. Chairs
Gregg Wallace visits the Ercol factory in Buckinghamshire, an area associated with furniture making since the 19th century.\n\nWe Brits spend a staggering £300 million pou ...
15-02-2023
BBC 2
Christmas 2017
In this Christmas special, Gregg Wallace, Cherry Healey and Ruth Goodman explore the fascinating factory processes and surprising history behind favourite festive treats.\n\nGre ...
23-12-2022
BBC 2
Series 7: Jaffa Cakes
Gregg Wallace visits a Manchester factory that churns out 6 million Jaffa Cakes every single day - 1.4 billion per year. Cherry Healey is in Jaffa, the city responsible for grow ...
26-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 6. Bath Bombs
Gregg Wallace visits the colourful and fragrant Lush factory in Dorset to learn how an astonishing 14 million bath bombs are produced every year.\n\nCherry Healey visits Loughbo ...
09-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 3: 5. Sauces
Gregg Wallace is in the Netherlands at one of the world's biggest sauce factories. Its annual output is a quarter of a million tonnes of condiments, and more than 50 per cent of ...
26-06-2019
BBC 2
Series 5: 1. Cherry Bakewells
Gregg Wallace is in Stoke-on-Trent at an enormous cherry bakewell factory where they produce 250,000 little tarts every day. He follows the production of cherry bakewells, from ...
03-08-2023
BBC 2