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Inside the Christmas Factory

In this Christmas special, Gregg Wallace visits a factory which produces a staggering two million tins of festive chocolate assortments a year.

Chocolates are an essential part of many people鈥檚 festive celebrations. In this Christmas special, Gregg Wallace visits a factory which produces a staggering two million tins of festive chocolate assortments a year.

At materials intake he receives 20 tonnes of liquid chocolate at 50 degrees Celsius. This is used in 10 of the 12 sweets in the tin. Everyone has their favourite (for Gregg it鈥檚 the purple-wrapped caramel-coated hazelnut) and he follows the supersized batches of the toffee, orange and strawberry varieties on their journey from tanker to tin. In just one hour 800 kilos of toffee is cut into precise 10mm x 55 mm sticks before they disappear under a chocolate waterfall. Meanwhile the orange centres make an epic 45-minute journey along 400 metres of conveyors. And 115,000 strawberry fondants head into wrapping, where 5,500 individual chocolates are packaged and dropped into tins every minute, ready to put colour into Christmas across the UK.

Meanwhile Cherry Healey is producing other festive treats. She travels to Germany - the home of so many of our Christmas traditions - where she joins a crew of 35 ornament decorators, applying glitter and paint to an army of glass Santas. In the UK, she goes behind the scenes at the Royal Mail as the Christmas stamps are printed. They鈥檒l grace the envelopes of around one billion cards this year. She also learns some tricks for perfecting gingerbread, but rather than a house, she produces a gingerbread factory complete with biscuit versions of her co-presenters. She鈥檚 even got your Boxing Day leftovers sorted, bottling up 250 jars of spiced Christmas chutney.

Historian Ruth Goodman is on the trail of the Christmas turkey. It鈥檚 a tradition that begins way back in the 16th century when these birds were first introduced from Mexico. But at the equivalent of 拢450 per bird, only the richest could afford them. It wasn鈥檛 until the 1950s that selective breeding made them truly affordable for the masses. And this year we鈥檒l tuck into ten million of them. She also comes face to face with the precursor to the pantomime dame 鈥� an 18th century clown 鈥� and discovers that slapstick comedy is so-called because of a stick that was slapped together to indicate that the funny bit was coming up.

59 minutes

Last on

Christmas Eve 2023 15:40
成人论坛 Two

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Clip

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:02

    London Symphony Orchestra

    Troika (from Lieutenant Kij茅)

  • 00:03

    Pretenders

    2000 Miles

  • 00:05

    The Ting Tings

    Be The One

  • 00:06

    Anne Murray

    It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas

  • 00:11

    Snow Patrol

    Chocolate

  • 00:12

    Kylie Minogue

    Let It Snow

  • 00:13

    The Spencer Davis Group

    I'm A Man

  • 00:13

    The Spencer Davis Group

    I'm A Man

  • 00:17

    Kylie Minogue

    Every Day's Like Christmas

  • 00:17

    Sia

    Everyday is Christmas

  • 00:18

    Clean Bandit

    Solo (feat. Demi Lovato)

  • 00:19

    Sigrid

    Schedules

  • 00:21

    Hot Chip

    Colours

  • 00:31

    Plan B

    Prayin'

  • 00:31

    Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters

    Here Comes Santa Claus

  • 00:33

    Shakin鈥� Stevens

    Merry Christmas Everyone

  • 00:35

    Shanks & Bigfoot

    Sweet Like Chocolate

  • 00:35

    The Lightning Seeds

    Sugar Coated Iceberg

  • 00:35

    Sia

    My Old Santa Clause

  • 00:37

    Florence + The Machine

    Shake It Out

  • 00:47

    The Ventures

    Frosty The Snowman

  • 00:52

    Dean Martin

    Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

  • 00:53

    Ellie Goulding

    Atlantis

  • 00:54

    Sia

    Santa's Coming For Us

  • 00:57

    Chris Rea

    Driving Home For Christmas

  • 00:59

    Paul McCartney

    Wonderful Christmastime

Credits

Presenter Ruth Goodman
Presenter Cherry Healey
Presenter Gregg Wallace
Executive Producer Sanjay Singhal
Series Producer Amanda Lyon
Director Michael Rees
Producer Phillip Smith
Producer Sam Bailey
Director Sam Bailey
Production Company Voltage TV Productions Ltd

Broadcasts

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Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.

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