0:00:05 > 0:00:07We're Welsh, we like a pint -
0:00:07 > 0:00:10it's part of who we are.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14As a focal centre of society, pubs are absolutely vital.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17But we've also got a problem with drink.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22It's one that has divided our nation for 200 years.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26There was more of a feeling that the pub was a den of iniquity
0:00:26 > 0:00:29and there was a devil at the bottom of every glass.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34To understand this love-hate relationship with alcohol
0:00:34 > 0:00:38we have to look at our past and the way that history has changed
0:00:38 > 0:00:41how, when and what we drink in Wales.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56'Drink has always been part of the traditions of Wales.'
0:00:56 > 0:01:00It's believed that brewing was discovered in the Stone Age,
0:01:00 > 0:01:02which takes us back 6,000 years.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04It's been part of our tradition
0:01:04 > 0:01:06for as long as anybody can remember.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09FOLK SONG PLAYS
0:01:16 > 0:01:18'Beer was brewed everywhere
0:01:18 > 0:01:21'and, because it was a domestic normal part of life,
0:01:21 > 0:01:22'it was mainly done by women'
0:01:22 > 0:01:25and they were normally known as ale wives.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29They would brew for the family just like they'd cook for the family.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34'At a time when the diet wasn't too good - water was suspect,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37'milk was suspect as well - and the safe drink,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41'which had alcohol in it, which had hops, which are antiseptic, was beer.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46'Weaker beers were drunk by the whole family including children.'
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Beer was brewed throughout Wales
0:01:58 > 0:02:01because hops and barley grew everywhere.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03But in the south-east of the country,
0:02:03 > 0:02:05there were sweeter ingredients to hand.
0:02:05 > 0:02:11'What's being made here is honest, upright, full-bodied cider.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13'Gallon upon delightful gallon of it.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16'Enough to keep a mini army of farm workers
0:02:16 > 0:02:19'marching stoutly through the harvesting seasons.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22'You might not think so, but there's an art in pulping apples,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26'an odd trick or two when making home-brewed cider
0:02:26 > 0:02:28'with an appeal to the palate.'
0:02:28 > 0:02:35After it's put into the barrel, we generally put...
0:02:35 > 0:02:41an old rabbit or a... rat or a lump of beef...
0:02:41 > 0:02:45'I wouldn't have thought that a rat would have added very much to the flavour.'
0:02:45 > 0:02:48- Oh, yes. - What does it do for the cider?
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Well, the cider eats the rat...
0:02:52 > 0:02:56You wouldn't see nothing - even a bone - in the bottom of the barrel
0:02:56 > 0:03:00'when the cider starts to work.'
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Drink was a natural part of rural life
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and as such it was embraced by the church.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10'If you look back at the origins of the Congregationalists,
0:03:10 > 0:03:16'Independents, Baptists and so on, they were not instinctively anti-drink.'
0:03:16 > 0:03:20And I'm told, there's a chapel in Bow Street, near Aberystwyth,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22where there's a little niche
0:03:22 > 0:03:25where the minister kept his half pint during his service.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29But when the Industrial Revolution shifted the focus of Welsh life
0:03:29 > 0:03:32from the countryside to the town, attitudes changed.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44Suddenly you had a lot of people gathered together around mines,
0:03:44 > 0:03:46factories, steelworks and so forth.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50'That created a lot more social problems
0:03:50 > 0:03:54'and suddenly drunkenness seemed much more of a problem.'
0:03:55 > 0:03:58I was born in the Duke Of Edinburgh
0:03:58 > 0:04:03and my mother and father kept the Duke Of Edinburgh at Cambridge
0:04:03 > 0:04:06and the East Dock. When they were building the Dowlas Works
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and as kids we'd hear them, "Dad, they're coming."
0:04:10 > 0:04:14He'd go down and open then cos you could hear on the wooden bridge
0:04:14 > 0:04:18the navvies coming, the Irish navvies, who built the docks,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21and they used to be in there a whole day and night.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25He'd just close at night, which some of them, they couldn't stand
0:04:25 > 0:04:28and he'd be there and he'd just close the bar and leave them.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Then they'd get up in the morning and go to work.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Building the new industrial Wales was thirsty work.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Nowhere was this more evident
0:04:36 > 0:04:40than in the pubs that served the Welsh steelworks.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43There was huge long bar and they'd line them up - one pint here,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47another there and another there. They'd be lined up three deep
0:04:47 > 0:04:50'and suddenly the hooter would go, the doors'd open
0:04:50 > 0:04:53'and huge numbers of men would arrive from the steelworks.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57'Sweating like mad, they'd just knock back the first pint,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01'virtually knock back the second and settle on the third.'
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Heavy industries demanded heavy drinking.
0:05:04 > 0:05:10As the pub was becoming the central feature of the new industrial areas,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12that's the very time when a movement arose
0:05:12 > 0:05:16to clamp down on drinking, to try and prevent it all together.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25In the 1830s, the new temperance movement
0:05:25 > 0:05:28found plenty of support for its ethos of moderation
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and self-denial in non-conformist Wales.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37Originally the movement came from America - the idea of temperance.
0:05:37 > 0:05:43You shouldn't overdo it. Indeed they established the Two Pint Club,
0:05:43 > 0:05:45where you could have two pints a night.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Which if you were working in an ironworks - hot all day -
0:05:50 > 0:05:54you need two pints just to get your liquid back to a normal level.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58So they settled on two pints. Some of the members thought, "Two pints a night,
0:05:58 > 0:06:02"that's 14 pints, let's save them up and have them on Saturday night."
0:06:02 > 0:06:07So the movement began to say, if people can't be temperate, they should stop - cold turkey.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15This was the start of a holy war on drink,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18which would pit the chapels against the brewers
0:06:18 > 0:06:20in a struggle for the soul of the nation.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24The temperance and religious revivals
0:06:24 > 0:06:27that swept the valleys really worried the brewers.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30'Lots of people signed pledges to give up drinking altogether
0:06:30 > 0:06:36'and hung them on their walls. There was this very fervent atmosphere.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41'The dominant form of religion was a rather puritanical Non-conformity.'
0:06:41 > 0:06:43The ides of drinking for pleasure,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46in fact the idea of doing anything for pleasure,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48tended to be frowned upon.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51'But then, of course, a lot of people back-slid
0:06:51 > 0:06:55'and went back to drinking and then another revival would come along
0:06:55 > 0:06:58'and so it would go in sort of waves. Further one way,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03'then there'd be temperance, then there'd be temptation.'
0:07:03 > 0:07:06The high point of the temperance campaign
0:07:06 > 0:07:08was The Sunday Closing Act of 1881.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14The Wales Sunday Closing Act satisfied the calls
0:07:14 > 0:07:17of Methodist preachers for pubs throughout the country
0:07:17 > 0:07:19to close their doors on the Lord's day.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22The Sabbath was now the battlefield
0:07:22 > 0:07:26on which the chapels and the brewers would fight for the next century.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30What a terrible thing it'd be for our children,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33to see people coming from public houses
0:07:33 > 0:07:36when they come out from Sunday school.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39That is what would happen if the public houses were open.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43What kind of a Sunday would it be, sitting in a public house?
0:07:43 > 0:07:45The chapels have far more to offer.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
0:07:50 > 0:07:56Six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do,
0:07:56 > 0:08:02but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05'The Sabbath to me is a day to keep holy
0:08:05 > 0:08:09'and do as little work as we can...
0:08:11 > 0:08:18'and a day to go to worship, to chapel, and to worship our God.'
0:08:26 > 0:08:30THEY SING A HYMN
0:08:33 > 0:08:37THE HYMN CONTINUES
0:08:50 > 0:08:52The pubs may have been closed,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55but that didn't mean you couldn't get a drink on a Sunday.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59'If you wanted to drink you'd join the Conservative Club
0:08:59 > 0:09:03'or the Constitutional Club, the working man's club, the rugby club...
0:09:03 > 0:09:07'Any of the dozens of clubs that most small towns in Wales had.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10'There was an exclusivity about Sunday drinking,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14'which was an unhealthy dividing factor in society.'
0:09:14 > 0:09:17I think it did create too, in Wales,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20the notion that we were rather a gang of hypocrites.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23'There were one or two places on the border
0:09:23 > 0:09:28'where half the bar might be in England, half in Wales.
0:09:28 > 0:09:29'There was one on the borders'
0:09:29 > 0:09:32where I think the public bar was in England
0:09:32 > 0:09:38and the lounge bar was in Wales, so officially they weren't supposed to use the lounge bar on a Sunday.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41And some poor fellow went into the lounge bar
0:09:41 > 0:09:46and dropped dead from a heart attack, so they had to drag the corpse down the corridor
0:09:46 > 0:09:49into the public bar in order to prove that they hadn't broken
0:09:49 > 0:09:52the Sunday Closing Laws and that the fellow who'd died
0:09:52 > 0:09:55was quite legitimately drinking in England
0:09:55 > 0:09:57rather than illegitimately in Wales.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01The Sunday Closing Act had been a major victory
0:10:01 > 0:10:04for the Welsh temperance movement.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06And in the first half of the 20th century,
0:10:06 > 0:10:10they found a champion who would carry their cause even further.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13DRUMS BEAT
0:10:13 > 0:10:16'At the First World War, Lloyd George declared,'
0:10:16 > 0:10:20"We have got three enemies in this war - one is Germany,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22"the other is Austria and the third is drink."
0:10:22 > 0:10:26And he had a crusade against drink and he did cut down on the hours.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32'He weakened the level of beer and also he allowed local justices'
0:10:32 > 0:10:36to close virtually when they liked. So that in Cardiganshire,
0:10:36 > 0:10:42Tregaron closed at half past nine. The Aberaeron magistrates closed at ten.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45So that the route between Tregaron and Aberaeron
0:10:45 > 0:10:48was deadly about 9:40 because half the population of Tregaron
0:10:48 > 0:10:51were driving to Aberaeron to get extra drinking.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54These licensing restrictions remained in place
0:10:54 > 0:11:00after the end of the war. But this apparent success for the temperance lobby would prove its undoing.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03With shorter pub opening hours and weaker beer,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07drunkenness and alcohol-related deaths dropped.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Drink was no longer the great evil that it had been.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19'In the Second World War,'
0:11:19 > 0:11:23the temperance movement again pressed for very heavy restrictions on the industry.
0:11:23 > 0:11:30The Government turned them down. They said, "No, we see beer as vital for maintaining morale.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31"We see the pub as..."
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Someone called it the block house on the home front.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38It was where the community could gather after dark
0:11:38 > 0:11:40and where the heart of the nation would beat strong.
0:11:47 > 0:11:53'Women came out a bit, you know, and it would be a social thing for them when their husbands were away.'
0:11:53 > 0:11:55I suppose they'd put their children to bed
0:11:55 > 0:11:57and they'd go out for an hour on their own.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00'Shandy they'd have or a port and lemon.'
0:12:00 > 0:12:04It was now socially acceptable for women to go to the pub.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07However, they still had to know their place.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11'The men would come in the bar and the wives would go in the cwtsh
0:12:11 > 0:12:16and the men would stay in the bar. When they'd finished they'd call them, "We're ready!"
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Then they'd go off together.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22But while the pub had grown more respectable,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24it was still a no-go area on Sundays.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29The women would queue on Saturday night halfway up the street
0:12:29 > 0:12:33with their flowered jugs and they'd be all in competition -
0:12:33 > 0:12:36who had the nicest jug - for the couple of pints of beer
0:12:36 > 0:12:38for the men for the Sunday.
0:12:38 > 0:12:45'After the war, generally beer and going to the pub was regarded as more acceptable.'
0:12:45 > 0:12:50So things like the Sunday closing were regarded as an anomaly now.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56As popular support for Sunday closing slipped,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Welsh voters were given the freedom to make up their own minds.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05In 1961, every county in Wales held its own referendum on the issue.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08From now on, these polls would be held every seven years.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13For the Welsh temperance movement, this was the beginning of the end.
0:13:13 > 0:13:19'The vote on Sunday opening is a very clear indicator
0:13:19 > 0:13:22'of the way in which there was a marked decline
0:13:22 > 0:13:25'in respect for the Sabbath. In the first vote in the early '60s,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29'the large urban districts all tried, but the rest of Wales
0:13:29 > 0:13:32'remains very heavily committed in the early '60s'
0:13:32 > 0:13:35to the notion of the sanctity of the Sunday
0:13:35 > 0:13:39and that the peace of the Sunday shouldn't be destroyed
0:13:39 > 0:13:41by drinking people coming out of pubs.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45'But then every seven years, you can see them dropping one by one.'
0:13:47 > 0:13:51'Today, three new chinks have appeared in Wales' alcohol curtain.'
0:13:51 > 0:13:54As a result of the 1968 local option polls Montgomeryshire,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Denbighshire and, in the far west, Pembrokeshire
0:13:57 > 0:14:03have changed their minds since 1961 and voted to have their public houses open on Sundays.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07'The chairman of the Sunday Opening Council is David Baird Murray.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11- 'How does he feel after today's results?'- I'm obviously delighted.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15This is what we forecast. We thought we'd win these three counties and we've done it.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20'The difference on the map is that while East Wales is completely wet
0:14:20 > 0:14:25'on Sunday now, the patchwork quilt does remain because of Pembrokeshire's wet decision.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27'It'll still be confusing to tourists and travellers
0:14:27 > 0:14:31'that if they cross the border into Cardigan or Carmarthen,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34'they'll find the pub doors closed on Sundays.'
0:14:34 > 0:14:38# There's a little pub in Wales Where they sell the best of ales
0:14:38 > 0:14:42# But if you want a drink on Sunday You will have to wait till Monday
0:14:42 > 0:14:46# Did you ever see? Did you ever see?
0:14:46 > 0:14:49# Did you ever see such a funny thing before? #
0:14:49 > 0:14:56'This is the boundary of Breconshire and here is Glamorgan.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00'The road winds in and out all along the boundary.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04'Here you could have had any number of quick ones at the Mountain here
0:15:04 > 0:15:09'between 12 and 2 PM. But that pub is in Glamorgan, which, of course, is wet.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12'About two miles further along the same road,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15'you would have found the Rose And Crown closed.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19'And a little further on still, you would have come across two pubs,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23'almost opposite each other - the Gwyn Arms and the Tregye Arms -
0:15:23 > 0:15:29'also shut. And at the Berrington Arms you might have heard the licensee say,'
0:15:29 > 0:15:35The corner of my premises is eight foot six from the Glamorgan border.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38'What do you do with yourself on a Sunday?
0:15:38 > 0:15:40'I go down over the border on a Sunday.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42'I'm going down now with a friend of mine...
0:15:42 > 0:15:46'to have a little drink where they're allowed to drink on Sundays,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49'which is 200 yards away.'
0:15:49 > 0:15:51'Montgomeryshire went in the late 1960s,'
0:15:51 > 0:15:56so everybody would go to Machynlleth. There were only seats on the stairs
0:15:56 > 0:16:00in the Black Lion Inn on a Sunday. It was absolutely packed.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04With each referendum, the Sunday closing lobby lost more ground.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07But just as the brewers were conquering their old enemy,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10they found themselves under attack from a new quarter.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16It's ironic, in a way, that when the temperance movement lost its momentum,
0:16:16 > 0:16:22that other things actually hit the brewing industry and the pubs.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29'One was called television, which arrived on a large scale
0:16:29 > 0:16:32'and obviously people started to stay at home at night
0:16:32 > 0:16:37'and watch TV. Ely Brewery even introduced a beer called TV Ale.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43'They introduced it in large flagons hoping that people would buy that... while watching TV at home.'
0:16:47 > 0:16:50The coming of the supermarket made it easier
0:16:50 > 0:16:52and cheaper for us to drink at home.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56And with the growing popularity of nightclubs and restaurants,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59it seemed the very existence of the good old local pub
0:16:59 > 0:17:01was under threat.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04For the Mason's Arms it's D-day.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07D for defence day against a council work squad and its bulldozer
0:17:07 > 0:17:10now crawling inexorably towards this village local.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13'The villagers say they're prepared to stand their ground
0:17:13 > 0:17:17'to prevent the village's social centre being pulled down.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20'And that from today on, they're ready for an instant sit-in
0:17:20 > 0:17:22'to halt the bulldozer in its tracks.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26'The villagers say that if the council's officials
0:17:26 > 0:17:30'try to take over the pub, the lock-in will start and go on.'
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Can I ask you this? If there is a confrontation with the law
0:17:34 > 0:17:37or with council officials, how are you likely to react?
0:17:37 > 0:17:44Well, we are likely to react and if it is the law...
0:17:44 > 0:17:47well, we'll have to get out.
0:17:47 > 0:17:55But otherwise from the law, we shall stay in till the last minute.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58'Meanwhile, the council is playing it cool.'
0:17:58 > 0:18:01They say they're prepared to wait until the regulars -
0:18:01 > 0:18:04who'll be sitting in here soon - run out of patience,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06out of time and out of beer.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09The classic ingredients of every successful siege.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Perhaps the most fascinating side of this battle now
0:18:13 > 0:18:16will be to see which of those supplies runs out first,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18before there's final capitulation.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22This is David Allen reporting from the Mason's Arms in Pembrokeshire.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26'A lot of the family local brewers looked at the industry
0:18:26 > 0:18:29'and decided to get out of the business and sell up.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35'You had in the early 1960s the development of national brewers,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38'who bought up a lot of the local regional brewers.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42'Bass who took over Hancock's and Whitbread who took over Rhymney'
0:18:42 > 0:18:47and Ely and Evan Evans Bevan at Neath.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50They really built up huge dominance in the market.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56This modernisation of the industry would change what we drank in Wales.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Traditional cask ales had demanded care on the part of the landlord.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03'Often you had an awful smell coming from pumps
0:19:03 > 0:19:05'because they didn't wash their pipes.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10'And then, of course, you've got the keg bitter - coming in and turn on a tap.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12'That was considered very grand.'
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Keg beer was, essentially, like bottled beer
0:19:16 > 0:19:20but in a larger container, which you could serve on draft.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24It's beer which has been matured in the brewery
0:19:24 > 0:19:25rather than maturing in the cellar.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30'Whereas before each area had its local beer and its local style,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34'you now had national keg beers - Watney's Red Barrel,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37'Whitbread Tankard and Double Diamond.'
0:19:37 > 0:19:41We've got Wandworth Six X, Foster's Best Bitter, Archer's Best Bitter...
0:19:41 > 0:19:45'Then you had CAMRA, the real ale people, coming in and saying this was appalling,
0:19:45 > 0:19:50'you need to have it on the pump and carefully looked after in cellars and so on.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53'That was a very constructive revolution, I think.'
0:19:53 > 0:19:59- ..On Sunday. If you are...- While brewing underwent a revolution,
0:19:59 > 0:20:04the Welsh chapels were still fighting a losing battle to keep Sunday special.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08In 1975 - seven years after the last referendum -
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Non-conformist ministers took to the streets of Narbeth.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15If they want to open, leave them open.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18- That's you, that's your... - That is my point of view.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23We have a lot of young people who are being influenced
0:20:23 > 0:20:25to take intoxicants and it's the bad example...
0:20:25 > 0:20:30We know very well that smoking is, especially cigarette smoking as you are now,
0:20:30 > 0:20:35is harmful. We're definitely told that and yet you have a choice.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39- And you don't drink heavily? - Well, I have a few, like.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42- But a few only...- That's your pleasure?- That's our pleasure.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47- You wouldn't sign this for the sake of the future generation?- No, no.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50- You wouldn't?- No. - In the name of Jesus?- No.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56By the time the votes in this latest poll have been cast and counted,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58Wales was even wetter.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02We were now happy to turn our backs on our Non-conformist heritage
0:21:02 > 0:21:05and embrace more exotic influences.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08CARIBBEAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:21:16 > 0:21:20'Not the South Sea Island Bar of the London Hilton,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24'but a sedate Gala hotel, for cocktails are now a serious business.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27'So serious that this event is a contest to see
0:21:27 > 0:21:31'which local bartender can shake out the best gin-based concoction.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36'Altogether there are six cocktails competing for the taste buds of three judges.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39'The two professionals and one amateur are trying to judge between
0:21:39 > 0:21:42'Smooth Operator, Foxy Lady or even Mumbles Fizz.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50'The winner is Cheryl Edwards with Smooth Operator
0:21:50 > 0:21:55'by a short cocktail stick. It certainly seems a strong mixture.'
0:21:55 > 0:22:02Four measures of gin and Cointreau a dash of cold Carib, and unsweetened orange juice
0:22:02 > 0:22:06- and a dash of egg white. - 'What made you dream that up?'
0:22:06 > 0:22:09I don't really know, I just wanted to use Cointreau actually -
0:22:09 > 0:22:11an orangey-flavour drink.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15By the 1980s, Cointreau was not the only foreign import
0:22:15 > 0:22:20- hitting these shores. - Then you got the lager invasion.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Now, lager, in my opinion, is what the human body does to real beer.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28You might as well drink your own productions...as drink lager.
0:22:28 > 0:22:34The problem with lager was that...its image.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36It was initially sold as a temperance drink.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39'It was weaker than the stronger British ales.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43'It was viewed almost like Babycham or something.'
0:22:43 > 0:22:48Any sort of macho man would not be seen dead drinking lager.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50This was about to change,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53as the brewers poured money into the marketing of lager as THE drink
0:22:53 > 0:22:55for the young-man-about-town.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58# I said it was a pity that we had to hurry home
0:22:58 > 0:23:01# Cos her 80-year-old mother was all on her own
0:23:01 > 0:23:05# So she kissed him very nicely And said she'd phone
0:23:05 > 0:23:08# Harp stays sharp to the bottom of the glass
0:23:08 > 0:23:11# Harp stays sharp! #
0:23:11 > 0:23:13It took over straight away with the youngsters.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18Yeah, I remember when they bought Labatts, the Canadian one -
0:23:18 > 0:23:23'that caused a stir and it was absolutely taken by storm
0:23:23 > 0:23:25'when it came over here first.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29'We sold more of that than anything at the time.'
0:23:29 > 0:23:36With lager flooding the country, the Welsh temperance movement finally went under for good.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40Publicans in Dwyfor are gearing up to open their doors on Sundays
0:23:40 > 0:23:42for the first time in 115 years.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47'There was no mistaking the relief felt by publicans in Caernarfon last night.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51'The cheer went up as the last bastion against Sunday drinking fell.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54'It's the end of an era in Dwyfor.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57'From Sunday the pubs will be open in every part of Wales.'
0:23:59 > 0:24:02'People said, "Well, that's that. We'll bury it."'
0:24:02 > 0:24:09So we've jumped from being the most religious or dutiful society to one of the most secular.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14The death of this last relic of the temperance tradition
0:24:14 > 0:24:19coincided with the birth of a new term - binge drinking.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22# ..Don't ask me Why ask me... #
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Fell out with the girlfriend
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and I've come out with the boys to have a good night out.
0:24:31 > 0:24:37- Few drinks, few beers, a dance and a home curry...- Take me home.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39When you're with your friends you drink
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and maybe you drink too much because your friends are drinking as well.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47I don't drink during the week, only if I'm out with my college friends.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51I drink about eight pints a night or something like that.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54That's how much I drink, depending how I feel.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Ironically, in the view of some, it was the late temperance movement
0:25:00 > 0:25:03that had helped create our heavy-drinking culture.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06The temperance movement did result in the divorce
0:25:06 > 0:25:10of the practice of eating from the practice of drinking.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14If you go to France in the evening, they probably drank just as much
0:25:14 > 0:25:20'as the wilder elements of Bala or Llanrhos, but they eat with it and they pace themselves.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23'The general practice in much of Wales is to drink
0:25:23 > 0:25:26'as many pints as you can get by 11 o'clock.'
0:25:26 > 0:25:29So you fill yourself up with beer, then you top yourself up with curry
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and the end result is...
0:25:32 > 0:25:34'a rather unsightly activity.'
0:25:43 > 0:25:46'In small towns - Llanrhos, for example, Bala -
0:25:46 > 0:25:48'they can be very rowdy. I've stayed in Bala on a Saturday.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52'Don't think of going to sleep if you're on the Main Street
0:25:52 > 0:25:53'until about quarter to four.'
0:25:59 > 0:26:02This pattern of heavy drinking creates serious problems
0:26:02 > 0:26:04on the streets of Wales.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10'Wrexham after dark - North Wales Police say it's a hotspot
0:26:10 > 0:26:13'for drink-related crime. They believe
0:26:13 > 0:26:16'that they could cut violent crime by half here
0:26:16 > 0:26:19'if they could reduce the amount of alcohol drunk.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25'Combating the increase in binge drinking
0:26:25 > 0:26:27'has called for increasing ingenuity.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31'In Wrexham, last year, police began ordering people who urinate in the street
0:26:31 > 0:26:34'to clean up after them with a water jet.'
0:26:34 > 0:26:36It's simply never been worse.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38There are more people out there, drink is cheaper,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41so people can drink more and our officers
0:26:41 > 0:26:45'are being stretched to their limit, in terms of dealing with the aftermath.'
0:26:45 > 0:26:48The problems created by binge drinking
0:26:48 > 0:26:51reflect a fundamental change in our society.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55On Friday and Saturday nights, Welsh towns and city centres
0:26:55 > 0:26:58are becoming the playground of the young.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03'In city centres, you tend to get pubs taken over
0:27:03 > 0:27:07'by a certain age group and you don't have that cross section
0:27:07 > 0:27:10'of the public, which sort of kept its own social control.'
0:27:10 > 0:27:14When I first started drinking, you'd go in a pub
0:27:14 > 0:27:19and there'd be the older regulars - normally all sat round the bar -
0:27:19 > 0:27:22and you couldn't misbehave because if you did
0:27:22 > 0:27:25it wasn't the landlord who'd tell you off, it was the regulars.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30The young kids were good. They'd come in and know all the old fellas, buy them a pint
0:27:30 > 0:27:32and sit with them for a while and have a chat.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43You now have to have bouncers on the door of pubs -
0:27:43 > 0:27:46you never used to have bouncers on the doors of pubs.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50That's...because it was a self-governing community, the pub.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54I can't understand about these places.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00How they... You see them out sick in town, falling around in the streets
0:28:00 > 0:28:05and young girls... Surely somebody must be there to control them and say, "You've had enough."
0:28:09 > 0:28:12With alcohol now a major health and social issue,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16can it be that we've forgotten the lessons of history?
0:28:16 > 0:28:19By abandoning the legacy of temperance,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22have we released the demon from the bottle?
0:28:22 > 0:28:26There's a terrible lack of discipline in our life, I think.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29We've let things go too far. If we're going to let it go here now,
0:28:29 > 0:28:34our country's going to become more pagan all the time.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38You do feel that things go in circles
0:28:38 > 0:28:44and you're coming back to where drinking is a problem again.
0:28:44 > 0:28:50'Drink is something that has been the ruination of the nation.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53'It's been around an awfully long time.'
0:28:53 > 0:28:56It might be our way for making up for lack of sunshine.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 2005
0:29:05 > 0:29:08E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk