Inside the Factory 10x2 - Jammy Biscuits

Paddy McGuinness explores the secrets of the Jammie Dodgersfactory in south Wales, revealing how they produce a whopping4.4 billion biscuits a year.In this episode, Paddy is in greatspirits as he gets to know the factory staff, many of whomhave worked there for decades. At this site, which has beenmaking biscuits since 1939, Paddy's following the productionof an icon in the biscuit world, the Jammie Dodger!First up,Paddy meets head of R&D Gemma James and shift operationsmanager Jamie Caswell, who are weighing out some of the keyingredients for the biscuits, including a raising agent and apowder which acts as a butter replacement. But starting as hemeans to go on, Paddy wants to know an important fact: what dothey dunk their biscuits into? To his mock horror, Gemmareveals it's a cup of herbal tea!Paddy and Gemma head to themixing area, just in time to see a huge lump of biscuit doughexit an industrial mixer. The dough is transported to thebiscuit-moulding area of the factory, where Paddy meetsgeneral manager Rebecca Phillips. But before he discovers howthe biscuits are made, it's the same dunking question forRebecca! This time, Paddy is delighted with her answer: ‘astrong cup of tea'. To make the biscuit sandwich, she tellshim that a huge brass roller creates 2,880 Jammie Dodger topsand bottoms every minute.With the freshly moulded biscuitsmaking their way through the factory, Paddy's taking the timeto chat to members of staff, including a lady who has workedat the factory for an astonishing 30 years. Meanwhile, thebiscuits travel through an epic conveyor oven, the length ofeight double-decker buses, and after just eight minutes, theyemerge a beautiful golden brown. Paddy can't resist having ataste – delicious, even without the jam, he says.To sortthe ingredient that the Jammie Dodger is famous for, Paddy andfactory manager Rebecca stop off at the ‘depositor', whereprecisely 4.8 grams of smooth, raspberry-flavoured jam isdolloped onto the bottom half of every biscuit. Then, almostimmediately, small vacuum cups lift and place the top halvesto make the perfect jam sandwich. Paddy is given a very specialtaste, something his six-year-old self would have loved:biting into a warm Dodger straight off the line. He's inbiscuit heaven!Paddy follows the finished biscuits through thevast factory and watches as they're wrapped in packs of eightand travel on towards the packing department. There, Rebeccahas a challenge for him – helping Jenny put the packets intoboxes ready to leave the factory. Jenny has worked at thefactory for over 34 years and even met her husband there. Shemakes the process of precisely placing the packs of biscuitsinto boxes look easy, but as Paddy finds out with hilariousconsequences, it's anything but. Jumping ship, he leavesJenny and her colleagues to clean up his mess and follows hisbiscuits to the dispatch area, where half a million jammybiscuits get loaded onto the back of a lorry and leave thesite. Every day, four or five lorries leave the factory,which is capable of producing 2.2 million Dodgers aday.Elsewhere in the episode, Cherry is astonished as she anda former Great British Bake Off contestant test which biscuit,scientifically speaking, is best for dunking. And she heads toa bakery near Leeds to learn how luscious marshmallows aremade. Meanwhile, historian Ruth Goodman reveals how a millionwomen risked their lives during the Second World War to providea brew and biscuit where it was needed most. And she visits thesite of an old biscuit factory, revealing a remarkable oldfilm from 1906, showing how the factory in ‘Biscuit Town' inLondon produced hundreds of millions of biscuits a year.