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 8: 10. Paint And Wallpaper
Gregg Wallace explores the Farrow & Ball factory in Dorset to learn how they produce up to 200,000 litres of paint and 10,000 metres of wallpaper a week. They make 270 different ...
15-03-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 9. Sofas
Gregg Wallace explores the HSL factory in West Yorkshire to find out how they make more than 5,000 sofas every year. The huge site has 250 staff dedicated to furniture making. G ...
08-03-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 8. Chocolate Bars
Gregg Wallace is in the UK’s city of chocolate, York, exploring how the Nestle factory makes more than eight million bars of chocolate every day. The bar he’s follow ...
01-03-2024
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 ...
23-02-2024
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 ...
16-02-2024
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 ...
09-02-2024
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 ...
02-02-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 3. Jeans
Gregg Wallace visits two factories in Italy and Wales to explore the fascinating secrets behind how Welsh jeans brand Hiut make their trousers, learning how denim cloth is made ...
26-01-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 2. Jelly Beans
Gregg Wallace explores the Jelly Bean Factory in Dublin to reveal the incredible processes it employs to make ten million colourful little sweets every day.\n\nCherry Healey vis ...
19-01-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 1. Yorkshire Puddings
Gregg Wallace steps inside a huge Yorkshire puddings factory in Hull to learn how Aunt Bessie’s produces a staggering 500 million Yorkshire puddings every year.\n\nMeanwhi ...
12-01-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: 2. Socks
To keep their feet nice and warm, the British spend almost 723 million pounds a year on socks! In the second episode of this new series, Gregg Wallace visits a sock factory in L ...
08-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 5: 10. Cereal Bars
Gregg Wallace is in Essex at an enormous cereal bar factory, which produces 400,000 fruit- and nut-packed treats a day. Gregg follows production from the arrival of two tonnes o ...
01-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 4: 10. Cheese
Gregg Wallace is in Gateshead at a cheese factory where they produce 3,000 tonnes of spreadable cheese every year. He follows the production of jalapeno chilli flavour cheese fr ...
08-12-2019
BBC 2
Series 6: 6. Leather Boots
Gregg Wallace visits a factory tucked away amongst thatched cottages in the village of Wollaston, Northamptonshire. It may be a tranquil setting, but this factory has been makin ...
16-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 6: Mugs
Gregg Wallace visits the Denby factory in Derbyshire, which has been making pottery since 1809. We Brits drink a staggering 195 million mugs of tea and coffee every day, so Greg ...
16-05-2023
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 ...
02-02-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: 3. Yogurt
We eat them for breakfast, pack them in our lunch boxes and enjoy them for dessert; here in the UK we spend £1.4 billion a year on yogurt pots. Gregg Wallace visits a fact ...
09-02-2023
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