Sweets
Documentary series. Gregg Wallace helps to unload a tanker full of sugar from Norfolk and follows it through one of the oldest sweet factories in Britain.
Gregg Wallace helps to unload a tanker full of sugar from Norfolk and follows it through one of the oldest sweet factories in Britain to see how over 500 workers, as well as some mind-boggling machines, transform it into over a hundred million individual sweets within just 24 hours.
He discovers how the factory that produces Love Hearts could be the most romantic in the world because one in four of the people who work there are in a relationship with each other, how they make 5,000 Fizzers a minute using a tablet-pressing machine that uses three tonnes of pressure to create each sweet, and meets the man in charge of making three-quarters of a million Fruity Pop lollies every day.
Meanwhile, Cherry Healey is let inside the research and development department and experiences for herself how hard it is to come up with a new product, as she attempts to invent her own version of sherbet using citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. She also finds out how they put the letters in seaside rock by making a giant version and then stretching it to the right size, and is given special access to the Fisherman's Friend factory in Lancashire to discover how a local family turned a niche product into a worldwide success.
And historian Ruth Goodman investigates how sweets were first invented and discovers that, in the Middle Ages, they were used as a medicine and thought to reduce flatulence. She also finds out about the human cost of Britain's sweet tooth in the 18th century and how an abolition movement instigated a sugar boycott which helped to end the slave trade.
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Sticky business
Duration: 01:34
Music Played
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Florence + The Machine
How Big, How Blue
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The Rifles
Evaline
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George Formby
Little Stick of Blackpool Rock
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First Aid Kit
Kings Of The World (feat. Conor Oberst)
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Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin
Je T'aime Moi Non Plus
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Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg
Je t'aime...moi non plus
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Seth Lakeman
The Watchmaker's Rhyme
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Eliza and the Bear
Light It Up
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Little Mix
Secret Love Song (feat. Jason Derulo)
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Olly Murs
Us Against the World
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Foals
Birch Tree
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Ella Henderson
The First Time
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Little Mix
Black Magic
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Taylor Swift
Wildest Dreams
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The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Nic Raine
Hedwig's Theme
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Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra
Baby Elephant Walk
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Everything Everything
Regret
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Avicii
The Days
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Eliza Doolittle
Back Packing
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KT Tunstall
Come On, Get In
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Grimes
Easily
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Lorde
The Love Club
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The Rifles
Long Walk Back
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Disclosure
Nocturnal (feat. The Weeknd)
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Gregg Wallace |
Presenter | Cherry Healey |
Presenter | Ruth Goodman |
Executive Producer | Alice Harper |
Executive Producer | Sanjay Singhal |
Series Producer | Chris Parkin |
Director | Chris Parkin |
Series Producer | Amanda Lyon |
Producer | Emma Pound |
Production Company | Voltage TV Productions Ltd |
Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.
The fascinating stories behind the production of some of our favourite products.