0:00:05 > 0:00:07'My name is Ifor ap Glyn,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10'and I have a peculiar fascination with toilets.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15'Now, you may find that funny
0:00:15 > 0:00:18'but, as we'll discover later, that's part of the story too.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23'As a child, I lived an unremarkable life in the London suburbs
0:00:23 > 0:00:25'with all the mod-cons.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31'My daily trip to the toilet was something I just took for granted.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36'That was until I went to stay with an elderly uncle and aunt
0:00:36 > 0:00:40'on their remote farm in Cardiganshire, in Mid Wales.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43'When the call of nature came,
0:00:43 > 0:00:45'I was directed down the garden path
0:00:45 > 0:00:47'towards a small outhouse.'
0:00:47 > 0:00:51And I was faced with a toilet very similar to this one.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53It was a bucket privy
0:00:53 > 0:00:55that just had a cover on it.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Spares of newspaper hanging on a nail.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00So, it seemed simple enough and I used it.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03I went back in the house afterwards and the first question I had was,
0:01:03 > 0:01:06"Did you put something on the bucket afterwards?"
0:01:06 > 0:01:08"Well, yes," I said, "I put the cover back on."
0:01:08 > 0:01:12"No, no, no, no. Did you put something on the bucket afterwards?"
0:01:12 > 0:01:15"I just told you, I put the cover back on." "No, no, no, no, no."
0:01:15 > 0:01:18And it was at that point I was made to understand
0:01:18 > 0:01:22that there was this second bucket in the toilet,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24full of ash from the fire,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28and the idea was that you'd spread ash from the bucket
0:01:28 > 0:01:34into the toilet bucket, covering your business, minimising smell.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37And then put the cover on to keep the flies out.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40There was more to this toilet business than I had imagined,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42even with a simple toilet like this.
0:01:42 > 0:01:48And that's where my unhealthy fascination with the world of toilets began.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51'What intrigues me is how we've all got used
0:01:51 > 0:01:53'to taking our excrement for granted.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57'And I began to wonder, how we got to this state of affairs?
0:01:58 > 0:02:00'So I'm setting off on a journey
0:02:00 > 0:02:03'to discover what our toilets can tell us about ourselves.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08'We'll discover a rich and surprising history
0:02:08 > 0:02:12'of how the toilet has evolved over 3,000 years.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16'How it's been transformed through ingenious leaps of engineering,
0:02:16 > 0:02:17'as part of a huge industry
0:02:17 > 0:02:21'dedicated to satisfying our every whim.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24'With a future stranger than you might imagine.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30'All of us have a very personal and private relationship
0:02:30 > 0:02:31'with the toilet.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35'This is my journey to discover the unspoken history
0:02:35 > 0:02:38'of the small unmentionable room
0:02:38 > 0:02:41'in the corner of all our lives.'
0:02:41 > 0:02:47FLUSHING NOISE
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Dealing with our bodily waste
0:02:54 > 0:02:57is one of those challenging issues we all have to face.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Ideally, we'd like it to be whisked away
0:03:00 > 0:03:02without anyone having to touch it,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05leaving no embarrassing stink in its wake
0:03:05 > 0:03:07and no germs to threaten us.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11But that's easier said than done,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15and it's a problem we've been wrestling with throughout history,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18as the earliest religious texts reveal.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20According to The Bible,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23"Thou shalt have a place also without the camp
0:03:23 > 0:03:26"whither thou shalt go forth abroad:
0:03:26 > 0:03:28"And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon;
0:03:28 > 0:03:31"and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33"thou shalt dig therewith,
0:03:33 > 0:03:37"and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee."
0:03:37 > 0:03:40But how far should you go out of the camp?
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Well, according to one Hindu text,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46they advice that you should fire an arrow into the air
0:03:46 > 0:03:49and only defecate where the arrow landed.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52According to the Vishnu Purana, from 2,000 years ago,
0:03:52 > 0:03:57you shouldn't defecate within 150 feet of a water source
0:03:57 > 0:03:59or 15 feet of a house.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06So let's go back to the dawn of civilisation.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12'Over 2,000 years ago, Indians, Chinese and Cretans
0:04:12 > 0:04:15'can all lay claim to having built the first flushing toilets.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19'But it was the Romans who really got to grips with the problem.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25'I'm in Spain, at the site of some wonderfully preserved Roman ruins.'
0:04:31 > 0:04:34The Romans had grasped the essentials of sanitation -
0:04:34 > 0:04:35the need to contain your waste
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and move it away without anybody touching it,
0:04:38 > 0:04:39the need to minimise smell
0:04:39 > 0:04:42and the need to clean yourself up afterwards.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45Now, these ruined latrines here at Merida
0:04:45 > 0:04:48show how they addressed all of those problems,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50and very successfully indeed.
0:04:50 > 0:04:51This was a communal privy.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54You would have sat here, the seat has disappeared,
0:04:54 > 0:04:55and your waste would have dropped
0:04:55 > 0:04:57into this drainage channel here.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Thus solving the first of the two problems -
0:05:00 > 0:05:02the water flushed the waste away, nobody had to touch it.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06And, of course, as it dropped into the water, that minimised smell.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Now, then, this second water channel running in front of us here
0:05:10 > 0:05:11was what you would have used
0:05:11 > 0:05:13to wash yourself afterwards.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15You would have had a stick with a piece of sponge on the end,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17dip that in the water,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19wash behind yourself,
0:05:19 > 0:05:20thus giving rise to the phrase,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24"The importance of not getting hold of the wrong end of the stick."
0:05:34 > 0:05:36This example gives us a better idea
0:05:36 > 0:05:40of what Roman toilets would have looked like nearly 2,000 years ago.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42There's a surviving piece of seat
0:05:42 > 0:05:43that has been mounted on
0:05:43 > 0:05:45that metal frame there nearest to us
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and then the six seats next to it are replicas
0:05:47 > 0:05:49that have been made out of concrete.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54And we can see a surviving washing channel in front of the seats,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57that's where the Romans would have dipped their sponge sticks in
0:05:57 > 0:05:59in order to wash themselves.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01And this was a public toilet
0:06:01 > 0:06:04situated just behind the theatre here.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07We can see the main drainage channel stretches away quite a way.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11There was in fact room for 25 seats here,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13it was a considerable feat of engineering.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Romans had no issues using the toilet together
0:06:18 > 0:06:20or sharing a poo stick or two.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22Perhaps there was no embarrassment yet
0:06:22 > 0:06:26because most people had never experienced toilet privacy.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Clean water was too precious just to use for clearing away human waste,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38so grey water from drinking fountains and baths across the city
0:06:38 > 0:06:41was channelled here to flush away waste,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45only as its last stop on the way out of the city.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48But this supply of water was only made possible
0:06:48 > 0:06:51by the aqueducts found throughout the Roman Empire.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Even today, we still marvel at aqueducts like this one,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58part of a three-mile network,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00engineered with a precise dropping gradient
0:07:00 > 0:07:02in order to bring a constant supply of water
0:07:02 > 0:07:05to the baths and toilets of Merida.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Later generations came to know this as the Acueducto De Los Milagros,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13the aqueduct of miracles, because they simple couldn't conceive
0:07:13 > 0:07:15that something as magnificent as this had been built
0:07:15 > 0:07:17without divine agency.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20But, of course, as the Roman Empire tottered and fell,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23we forgot a lot of things that the Romans had taught us,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27not least their innovations in the field of sanitation.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32'Exploring ruins like these in Merida,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34'you are constantly struck
0:07:34 > 0:07:38'by the scale and sophistication of the building works.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40'But Roman author Pliny the Elder
0:07:40 > 0:07:42'described the Roman sewerage systems as,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45'"The most noteworthy thing of all."
0:07:45 > 0:07:46'And with good reason.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50'The city of Rome itself boasted a water and sewerage system
0:07:50 > 0:07:53'supporting a population of over one million.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57'But, as the Empire declined, this infrastructure crumbled
0:07:57 > 0:08:00'and such a population was no longer sustainable.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05'By the Middle Ages, Rome was home to only 30,000 people.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10'Toilets like those in Merida
0:08:10 > 0:08:12'can be found all across the Roman Empire,'
0:08:12 > 0:08:16including these ones on Hadrian's Wall.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19But, within a few decades of the Romans' departure,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Britons abandoned the lessons they'd taught us about sanitation.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26It's possible people just didn't have the building skills
0:08:26 > 0:08:28to keep the system working.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33But there is also a theory that pagan Britons
0:08:33 > 0:08:36never truly accepted the Roman ways.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Pagan beliefs celebrated the cleanliness of water;
0:08:39 > 0:08:43to contaminate it perhaps went against this belief system.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47Whatever the reason,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Britain was heading back to the lavatorial dark ages.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55For the next 1,000 years, sanitation meant shitting in the fields.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06'As medieval settlements grew,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09'we start to see the emergence of organised toilets,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13'but they were nothing like as advanced as the old Roman designs.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17'Back in the 13th century,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19'excrement would fall out of these gaping toilet holes
0:09:19 > 0:09:23'in the town walls of Conway from the crude toilets above.'
0:09:24 > 0:09:27There would have been a wooden seat here instead of this metal grating.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31But they'd hardly have been comfortable things to use.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Imagine the stench, even though your business was dropping away down that chute.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Some of it would probably have smeared down the walls.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41In the summer, there would have been flies and an incredible smell,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44In the winter, although it wouldn't have been quite as exposed as this,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48there would still be a draft coming up from below.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Sir John Harrington, writing in the 16th century, described it as,
0:09:51 > 0:09:52"Sitting on the draft."
0:09:52 > 0:09:55I think I know what he meant.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57The waste then dropped down here
0:09:57 > 0:09:59into the dry moat beneath,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03where it was the job of the gongfermor to carry it away by hand.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08'The gongfermor, or gong farmers, worked at night to transport
0:10:08 > 0:10:11'human waste away from the town boundaries.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13'So, for centuries after the Romans had left,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17'the most advanced toilet in Britain still depended on some poor soul
0:10:17 > 0:10:20'welding a bucket and spade.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24'By Tudor times,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27'toilets were starting to appear in the richest households,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29'but they were still crude and smelly,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32'as we can see from this merchant's house in Tenby.'
0:10:35 > 0:10:38The original cesspit still survives.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Amazingly, opens off the kitchen.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42There was a long-drop toilet
0:10:42 > 0:10:44dropping down into the pit beneath.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Now, some time in the 17th or 18th century,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49it fell into disuse and it was filled in.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52But the waste that remained beneath offers us a fascinating snapshot
0:10:52 > 0:10:55of what life what's like in Tudor times.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57Now, when they excavated it,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59they found bits of pottery
0:10:59 > 0:11:02that indicated they were trading with Mediterranean countries,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05they found fish bones, they found all kinds of different seeds
0:11:05 > 0:11:08that showed the rich variety of diet they had.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10They also found a lot of worm eggs
0:11:10 > 0:11:13that indicated they were infested with parasites.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15But, most interestingly for us,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19they also found bits of woven flags
0:11:19 > 0:11:21and wool.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29It seems that wool was the wipe of choice for wealthy Tudors.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Now, the excavations also reveal that they dyed the wool
0:11:32 > 0:11:34with madder and with woad.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Now, both these plants had medicinal properties
0:11:37 > 0:11:40that soothed sore Tudor bottoms.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Pretty much like the aloe vera that we put in posh toilet paper today.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50'For the wealthy, there was also the option of building an outhouse,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53'like this one in Somerset.'
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Well, if you had a splendid privy like this one
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and an army of servants to clear up after you,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03I'm sure the sanitary arrangements
0:12:03 > 0:12:05must have been fairly tolerable.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07In the mid 15th century,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09a man named John Russell wrote the Book Of Nurture,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12a rhyming guide of what was expected of a butler
0:12:12 > 0:12:14in an aristocratic household.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18And this is what he had to say about the sanitary arrangements.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22"See the privy-house for easement be fair, soot and clean;
0:12:22 > 0:12:26"and that the boards thereupon be covered with cloth, fair and green;
0:12:26 > 0:12:30"and the hole himself, look there no board be seen;
0:12:30 > 0:12:33"thereon a fair cushion,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35"the ordure no man to teen."
0:12:37 > 0:12:41No bare boards underneath the bottom of John Russell's master then.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51'However, for the height of luxury,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53'you didn't need a servant
0:12:53 > 0:12:55'to spread a piece of cloth under your posterior,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57'you needed a river
0:12:57 > 0:12:58'running under your outhouse.'
0:13:02 > 0:13:04The scouring action of the river in privies like these
0:13:04 > 0:13:06must have set people thinking,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08"What if we could bring a river
0:13:08 > 0:13:11"into the house via a system of pipes?"
0:13:11 > 0:13:14In other words, what if we did exactly the same thing
0:13:14 > 0:13:16as the Romans did 1,500 years earlier?
0:13:19 > 0:13:23The penny, which had dropped for the Romans 1,500 years before,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27was starting to drop again for everyone else.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32Once again, the notion of the flushing toilet began to emerge
0:13:32 > 0:13:35and the first person to benefit was Queen Elizabeth I.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42'Here at Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46'we can glimpse what must have brought great pleasure to Her Majesty.'
0:13:49 > 0:13:53The first water closet was built in 1594 by sir John Harrington.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55Now, the originals have long since disappeared,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57but the museum has built this replica.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59It's got a tank of water here.
0:13:59 > 0:14:00This rod lifts a plug
0:14:00 > 0:14:02that empties the tanks
0:14:02 > 0:14:04into the bowl here
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and then, when you've finished your business, you lift this second rod
0:14:07 > 0:14:11which lifts another plug, which empties the contents of the bowl
0:14:11 > 0:14:13into a cesspit beneath.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Now, Harrington only built two of them - one for his own home
0:14:16 > 0:14:18and one for his godmother,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20who was no lesser person than Queen Elizabeth I.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24But his design didn't catch on - it was expensive, it was smelly
0:14:24 > 0:14:27and it depended on a constant supply of water,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30which most homes at that time just simply didn't have.
0:14:30 > 0:14:37Over 170 years later, in 1775, watchmaker Alexander Cummings
0:14:37 > 0:14:40filed the first ever patent for a toilet.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43His design included an s-bend
0:14:43 > 0:14:45to keep the smell at bay,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49but it wasn't integrated into the main unit.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52It also had a sliding valve to empty the bowl.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53This didn't work so well
0:14:53 > 0:14:55as the sliding action could
0:14:55 > 0:14:56pull faeces back into the works,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58resulting in smell and clogging.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02The basic elements are all here,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06just not quite in the right order or working that well.
0:15:06 > 0:15:12His design was improved in 1778 by Joseph Bramah.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14This is a Bramah closet
0:15:14 > 0:15:16and, as you can see,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19the mechanism for opening the valve is quite complicated.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23He replaced the sliding mechanism with a self-cleaning hinged valve.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26This drop action meant gravity
0:15:26 > 0:15:28helped solids to fall away,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31and the provision of a constant trickle of water into the bowl
0:15:31 > 0:15:35created an additional smell-resistant seal.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38With a few modifications, Bramah's design remained in production
0:15:38 > 0:15:41right up to the eve of the Second World War.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44During the 150 years of their production,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46his toilets found their way
0:15:46 > 0:15:48into many of Britain's great stately homes.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51They even made it into the Palace of Westminster
0:15:51 > 0:15:55where they still have a working example in the House of Lords.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57Well, the Lords aren't sitting today,
0:15:57 > 0:15:59so we've been allowed to come in
0:15:59 > 0:16:01and have a look at their Bramah.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Wow, look at that!
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Oh, isn't that magnificent?
0:16:05 > 0:16:07And you can hear the water running down
0:16:07 > 0:16:10into the bottom of the bowl to seal the valve here.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12And if we lift this up here,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15we can have a better look at it.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18If I take the front off...
0:16:18 > 0:16:20I'll get a bit of light on it.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Now, you can see the toilet stands
0:16:22 > 0:16:24in this lead tray here
0:16:24 > 0:16:28to catch any drips or leaks
0:16:28 > 0:16:30and we can see that this arrangement
0:16:30 > 0:16:33for opening the valve at the bottom
0:16:33 > 0:16:36and also for opening the flush at the back here
0:16:36 > 0:16:38is rather unsightly.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43That's way it's boxed away within this wooden affair.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47But, remarkably, this toilet dates from the 18th century
0:16:47 > 0:16:52and it's still working, it's a tribute to British engineering.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Bramah toilets were the Rolls-Royce of toilets.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57They were the toilet choice for the upper classes.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00And, in fact, for a while in the English language,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Bramah was slang for something really good.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Bramah!
0:17:08 > 0:17:11But Toilets couldn't remain the preserve of the upper classes.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13There was a revolution afoot,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16thanks in part to something that happened right here -
0:17:16 > 0:17:20the Great Stink of 1858.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Now, for centuries, Londoners had simply been dumping
0:17:23 > 0:17:25their raw sewage into the Thames.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28But, in 1858, London became the first modern city
0:17:28 > 0:17:33to reach breaking point from a sanitation point of view.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36The stench from the Thames that year was so bad
0:17:36 > 0:17:40that the curtains of the Palace of Westminster had to be doused with chlorine.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45MPs had to speak with perfume handkerchiefs clutched to their noses.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48What had been considered up to that point to be a minor irritation
0:17:48 > 0:17:51had now become a national priority.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55To deal with the raw sewage pouring into the river,
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Joseph Bazalgette famously started work on the engineering masterpiece
0:18:00 > 0:18:04that is the London's sewage system.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09But dealing with the raw sewage also set people
0:18:09 > 0:18:12thinking seriously about the toilet itself.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15The next 30 years saw countless small innovations in toilet design
0:18:15 > 0:18:20as manufacturers like Thomas Twyford and George Jennings
0:18:20 > 0:18:23crept towards the Holy Grail -
0:18:23 > 0:18:28'a toilet cheap and efficient enough to sell to everyone.'
0:18:28 > 0:18:30By the 1880s, a number of manufacturers
0:18:30 > 0:18:32had made the final breakthrough
0:18:32 > 0:18:36in the race to provide a toilet for the mass market.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40They incorporated the s-bend within a single ceramic pedestal.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44No smells, no leaks and it was cheap to produce.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47THIS is the forerunner of the modern toilet.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50And, in fact, this model, the Unitas, sold in its millions,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53not just across Britain, but across the world.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57In fact, to this day, the word Unitas in the Russian language
0:18:57 > 0:19:00is still the word for toilet bowl.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05But there was also one other notable brand name
0:19:05 > 0:19:08very familiar in Victorian Britain.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13Now, there's one name we haven't mentioned yet,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15one name you've probably been expecting to hear all along.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18That's the name of Thomas Crapper.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Now, Thomas Crapper didn't invent the toilet,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24the word crap doesn't come from his name,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Thomas Crapper didn't even in fact manufacture toilets at all.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31What he did do was get other people to build them for him
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and then he made sure that his name featured prominently
0:19:34 > 0:19:36on all the cisterns and bowls,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38so that when he sold them on to other people,
0:19:38 > 0:19:43the name they associated with the toilet was Thomas Crapper.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Toilets like this.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Crapper was a very good marketing man.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54By the 1880s, sanitation had well and truly arrived.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57Thomas Crapper sold countless toilets as they were installed
0:19:57 > 0:20:00in middle class homes across the land.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03But the toilet was also going public.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06'The first modern flushing public convenience
0:20:06 > 0:20:08'opened in London in 1851.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12'They then spread around the country with ever more ornate examples
0:20:12 > 0:20:16'springing up like these in Cardiff city centre.'
0:20:16 > 0:20:19This place is simply magnificent,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22there's an almost imperial confidence to the design,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25reflecting, of course, Britain's place in the world at the time.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30And I just love the solidity of these sumptuous marble urinals here,
0:20:30 > 0:20:32the way that they almost wrap themselves around you,
0:20:32 > 0:20:33like a comfortable overcoat.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35And look at this bull's-eye here -
0:20:35 > 0:20:38thoughtfully provided for you to aim at
0:20:38 > 0:20:40in order to reduce the risk of splashback
0:20:40 > 0:20:42when you're relieving yourself,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46giving you the optimum angle for doing that.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50The cost of using toilets like this was one penny
0:20:50 > 0:20:54giving rise to the phrase, "Spend a penny".
0:20:55 > 0:20:58'It was one of the most stable pricing structures
0:20:58 > 0:21:00'Britain had ever seen.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03'The going rate for using a public convenience
0:21:03 > 0:21:09'remained one penny for over 100 years until decimalisation in 1971.'
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Everywhere you look, there's an almost lavish level of detail,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15the kind of thing you'd expect to find in a public space
0:21:15 > 0:21:17like a church or a museum.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20But, of course, by this time, toilets had gone public
0:21:20 > 0:21:23and we see the civic dignitaries of Cardiff,
0:21:23 > 0:21:24the great and the good of the city,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26all wanting to lend their name to this project,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30because this was a veritable temple of convenience.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Lovely as these toilets are,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40for the majority of people in the country
0:21:40 > 0:21:44the reality was far less glamorous.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48Throughout Britain's industrial cities,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51hundreds of thousands of people lived in houses like these -
0:21:51 > 0:21:56'small one-up, one-down homes built around communal courtyards.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59'They were known as "back to backs."'
0:22:03 > 0:22:05By the end of the 19th century,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07flush toilets were beginning to reach the masses.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Between them, Twyford, Crapper and Jennings
0:22:10 > 0:22:13had more or less perfected the design.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Unfortunately, access to that design
0:22:15 > 0:22:18was severely limited for the working classes.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22There were 20,000 courtyards like this one here in Birmingham alone.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Now, in this particular one,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28that meant 70 people sharing three toilets.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31In the winter, they'd be cold, they'd be dark,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33you might even have to queue for them.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35As the level of hygiene,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38that would depend entirely on the families that you were sharing with.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41And, unfortunately, because the courtyard was also the place
0:22:41 > 0:22:43where all these household stored their refuse,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45as well as sharing with other families,
0:22:45 > 0:22:50you'd be sharing these toilets with rats, cockroaches and spiders.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Perhaps the most remarkable thing about these toilets is
0:22:54 > 0:22:58for many people living in urban areas in Britain,
0:22:58 > 0:23:05this was the reality of the toilet right up to the '60s and '70s.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11'For a glimpse of what living with these shared toilets was like,
0:23:11 > 0:23:16'I'm meeting Ann and Ted, who grew up in back to backs in the 1950s.'
0:23:16 > 0:23:19How many families shared your toilet?
0:23:19 > 0:23:22If you were lucky, you shared with one other family.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24We shared with one other family.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26We shared the toilet with three families.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30But there was five of them sharing the courtyard.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32As you had to share the facilities,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35how did you share the cleaning of them?
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Each lady had a day washing the brew house, or the wash house.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42But when the water was finished with, it had two uses.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47Sometimes it was just thrown out in the yard and the water was swept.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Another time, it was thrown at the toilet, so the toilet was clean.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55So you could go up there, and there'd be a queue for that toilet.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57And if it was raining, you went into the brew house,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59waiting for the rain to finish.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01But I always say to people,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03"That's where the River Dance started," you know.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06THEY CHUCKLE
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Can you paint me a picture as it were, describe for me what it was really like?
0:24:11 > 0:24:13At nights it would be dark.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16There was no lights, no electric lights or no gas lights...
0:24:16 > 0:24:18- Not even in the yard.- No.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21You'd take your friend or your brother or your sister to go out to the yard with you.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24If it was really dark, you wouldn't go on your own
0:24:24 > 0:24:26- with the rats running about.- Right.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30And we didn't realise that we were deprived. Well, you don't till afterwards.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33- Do you?- It was also a play area. - Mmm.
0:24:33 > 0:24:39For the children. And it was just another space within the complex.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41We had this lady and, if you did anything wrong,
0:24:41 > 0:24:43she'd always tell you off,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46so we used to, when we knew she was going to the toilet,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49nip on the roof at the top, it was a corrugated roof.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52And you'd be dead quiet and she'd arrive at the toilet.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54We knew... She'd shut the door,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56we could hear her shuffling around
0:24:56 > 0:24:59and then, we waited until we thought she was sitting down,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01and then, we... (HE CLAPS) ..hit the roof
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and that cures the constipation.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06THEY LAUGH
0:25:11 > 0:25:13Toilets had finally reached the masses
0:25:13 > 0:25:16but, as we all got used to the privacy
0:25:16 > 0:25:20of entering the boxed-off world of the toilet, something changed.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23The paradox of the toilet is this -
0:25:23 > 0:25:26as they became universally available,
0:25:26 > 0:25:31an aura of secrecy grew up around what we actually did in them.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34So we are in a state of collective denial
0:25:34 > 0:25:37about what are completely natural functions.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40We, we are embarrassed about it.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44We employ a long list of washroom euphemisms.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48We deflect our embarrassment with toilet humour.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52The final proof of this absurdity is the Golden Poo Awards.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55It's a night for toilet humour in Balham, in South London.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Which means you have ahead of you an unrelenting diet of shit jokes.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03LAUGHTER
0:26:03 > 0:26:07It's designed to get us all to think harder about toilets
0:26:07 > 0:26:09and the unfortunate third of the world's population
0:26:09 > 0:26:12who don't have access to proper sanitation.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Is there anyone... Have you had a shit today, sir?
0:26:15 > 0:26:18- Not today, no.- Ooh!
0:26:18 > 0:26:20When did you last have one? Have you ever had one?
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Eh... Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26What would your definition of toilet humour be then?
0:26:26 > 0:26:30Well, I suppose is laughing at the fact that we shit
0:26:30 > 0:26:33and, sometimes, at inappropriate times or...
0:26:33 > 0:26:37Er... I'll tell you a joke my father used to tell.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40A man goes to the doctor and he says, "Doctor, I'm shitting cubes."
0:26:40 > 0:26:43And the doctor says, "Um, stand up, turn round."
0:26:43 > 0:26:44And he sort of snips, snips, snips.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47And he says, "You'll be all right now." The man says, "What have you done?"
0:26:47 > 0:26:50He says, "I've cut three inches of the bottom of your string vest."
0:26:50 > 0:26:52HE LAUGHS
0:26:52 > 0:26:54Well, I don't know why that's funny, but it is.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57It's probably just the sort of artifice of it.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Just shitting is funny, I'm afraid.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03A man goes to the doctor with a bit of lettuce sticking out of his bottom.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06The doctor says, "It's just the tip of the iceberg."
0:27:06 > 0:27:08LAUGHTER
0:27:08 > 0:27:12I mean... It's a taboo. It's up there with sex and death
0:27:12 > 0:27:15to the extent that the toilet is something we do every day,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18death is, well, hopefully, is not something you encounter too often.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Sex, although I have fond memories of it.
0:27:20 > 0:27:21THEY CHUCKLE
0:27:21 > 0:27:23You know.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25It is a fundamental thing that we do,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28and everyone does it and every animal does it.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31And no-one, you know, everyone knows that everyone else does it.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34And yet, we do not speak of it.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37- It's the embarrassment.- Yeah. - It's like farting in the lift.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39You know, farting.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42I wonder, is farting funny in every culture?
0:27:42 > 0:27:46I certainly doubt that it's so funny if you don't have a toilet,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50if you have to, you know, if you have no facilities,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53there's no sewage or... I'm guessing probably shit is not so funny.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Are there Indian toilet comedians, I wonder?
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Well, you're doing the programme, not me. Find out.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01THEY LAUGH
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Different cultures have different ways of, you know,
0:28:04 > 0:28:05dealing with their shit.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Er... you know, we sometimes encounter different things,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10you know, squat toilets or...
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Why are we so convinced that the foreigners are doing it wrong?
0:28:13 > 0:28:16The French writer Rabelais,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20he had a whole thing he wrote about the best way to wipe your arse.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23And he concluded that it was a swan's neck.
0:28:23 > 0:28:24THEY CHUCKLE
0:28:24 > 0:28:29- Well, I have to say, if you're caught short in the country, sphagnum moss. - Yeah?
0:28:29 > 0:28:31It's better than toilet paper, so...
0:28:31 > 0:28:33It's wet, it's absorbent, you know,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35and you just sort of pull a bit off
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and do the business and, you know, use it, put it back on,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42you've kind of hardly even damaged the environment.
0:28:42 > 0:28:43THEY LAUGH
0:28:43 > 0:28:46'Arthur has set me thinking,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49'if you don't have a ready supply of sphagnum moss,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51'let alone a swan's neck,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54'what is the best way to deal with cleaning yourself up?
0:28:54 > 0:28:57'And has our society really settled
0:28:57 > 0:29:01'on the most healthy and efficient way of going to the toilet?
0:29:01 > 0:29:05'I'm meeting Dr Ron Cutler at Queen Mary University London,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09'who, I hope, will shed some light on the perennial question -
0:29:09 > 0:29:12'to wash or to wipe?'
0:29:12 > 0:29:16If you wash your bottom with water,
0:29:16 > 0:29:18you are using your hands
0:29:18 > 0:29:21and, therefore, it becomes even more important
0:29:21 > 0:29:24that you actually wash your hands afterwards.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27That may act as a stimulus for people to wash their hands
0:29:27 > 0:29:30but, then again, people being what they are, it may not.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35So, basically, although your nether regions may be clean after that,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37your hands may be not so clean.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41As far as paper goes, there is a huge problem with paper.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Yes, it's an effective wiping agent,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47but dry paper isn't a 100% useful
0:29:47 > 0:29:51for removing faeces from a surface such a skin.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Now, the moist wipes work very effectively,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57but, environmentally, they are not very good,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00because they are not as easy to get rid of,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03because the moist wipe has a stronger tensile strength
0:30:03 > 0:30:05than ordinary toilet paper.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07The bottom liner is, whatever,
0:30:07 > 0:30:09however you manage to wipe your bottom,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12you absolutely have to wash your hands afterwards,
0:30:12 > 0:30:15even if you're using toilet paper, even if you're using wipes.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18And I think it's a matter of preference, to be honest.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22'So what exactly are we washing off our hands?
0:30:22 > 0:30:26'Ron and his team are conducting a study of samples
0:30:26 > 0:30:30'collected from various toilet sites to find out what we're up against.'
0:30:30 > 0:30:33Well, here we are in the toilet, welcome to my world.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36And this is a typical cubicle.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38And we've been looking at places
0:30:38 > 0:30:42- where you're actually going to find faecal flora, shall we say.- Mm.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46- And, not surprisingly, er...toilet handle.- Right.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48Door handle.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Even sometimes these dispensers.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53What we do is we take a sterile swab
0:30:53 > 0:30:59and we have a specific area that we sample on each one of the sites.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05'Once collected, they grow the bacteria in their lab
0:31:05 > 0:31:08'to discover what pathogens our hands
0:31:08 > 0:31:10'might unintentionally be harbouring.'
0:31:10 > 0:31:13So what can we expect to find growing in these dishes then?
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Well, this is actually an MRSA.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19- And it was isolated from a toilet. - Really?
0:31:19 > 0:31:22Not this toilet, but a toilet somewhere in our community.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24It wasn't associated with a hospital,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28it wasn't associated, as far as we know, with any patient
0:31:28 > 0:31:30or the use of antibiotics in it.
0:31:30 > 0:31:31It just happens to live there.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35MRSA is something we tend to associate with super bugs
0:31:35 > 0:31:36and hospitals and, you know,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39not something we perhaps expect to find in a toilet.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42There are two types of MRSA - one is a hospital MRSA
0:31:42 > 0:31:45and the other one is a community MRSA.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48The community MRSA is a huge problem in America at the moment
0:31:48 > 0:31:50because it's going through schools.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53We were fortunate because the community strain
0:31:53 > 0:31:54seemed to leapfrog over us.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57It's now in India and in some parts of Europe.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00But it does exist in this country.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03And they are methicillin-resistant, drug-resistant organisms
0:32:03 > 0:32:06and they will cause disease.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09So it's not really surprising we find them in public toilets.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14- So it's more important than ever to...- Wash your hands.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Different cultures have different habits,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19I'm thinking perhaps of sitting versus squatting.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22From a hygiene point of view, is one better than the other?
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Well, basically, I think that, in the past,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28why would people develop a sitting toilet?
0:32:28 > 0:32:32It's probably because it's more comfortable than squatting.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36And it's easier to cut down on the smell.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40The other way is, potentially, more hygienic,
0:32:40 > 0:32:44because it doesn't have anything in between you and the sewage,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48but it also has problems with potentially having to smell.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51'So it seems that most of our cultural habits are healthy enough
0:32:51 > 0:32:56'as long as we follow the basic rules of hygiene.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00'But these habits are not as deeply rooted as you might imagine.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03'Take Japan as an example.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10'70 years ago, the Japanese only used squat toilets,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14'but, during the American occupation after World War Two,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17'they fell in love with sit-down loos, which are now the norm.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24'When it comes to hygiene, the Japanese can lay claim
0:33:24 > 0:33:27'to some of the cleanest toilets known to man.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32'And though they adopted western toilets relatively recently,
0:33:32 > 0:33:36'they've developed the design with an almost fetish-like obsession.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43'They seem determined to have the best sit-down loos in the world
0:33:43 > 0:33:46'with technology catering for your every need
0:33:46 > 0:33:48'at the press of a button.'
0:33:48 > 0:33:50The controls on this toilet
0:33:50 > 0:33:52may seem at first sight a little bit complicated
0:33:52 > 0:33:54but, by Japanese standards,
0:33:54 > 0:33:55this one is quite simple.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58And toilets like this are the norm,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00not just here in hotels and in houses
0:34:00 > 0:34:03but in stores, stations, all kinds of places.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05So it's got a heated seat,
0:34:05 > 0:34:07to get your bottom warm,
0:34:07 > 0:34:09And it's also got this, it's got a...
0:34:09 > 0:34:13You can control the temperature here, make it warmer or colder.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15This one controls the level of the spray.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19For you to wash yourself afterwards instead of wipe yourself down.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22If I cover this sensor here,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24which should be masked by my bottom,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26something seems to be happening,
0:34:26 > 0:34:27and I press this here.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30It comes out here and... Oops, sorry!
0:34:30 > 0:34:32And it washes...
0:34:32 > 0:34:35It goes right up your back passage, clean it out.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37It took me a...
0:34:37 > 0:34:40a few days to...to pluck up the courage to even use it
0:34:40 > 0:34:42when I came here, but now,
0:34:42 > 0:34:44I could get used to it.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51However, this isn't just a story about technology.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53Even in quite simple toilets,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56like these I came across in the back of a cafe,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59the Japanese like to have fun and do something different.
0:35:03 > 0:35:04This toilet is incredible.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06Everything in here is a found object,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09but the best bit is when you sit down...
0:35:09 > 0:35:11BIRDS SINGING
0:35:11 > 0:35:13..and the birds begin to sing.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18This desire for the perfect toilet
0:35:18 > 0:35:22seems to reflect something which runs quite deep in Japanese society.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25This is an extract from an essay on architecture
0:35:25 > 0:35:29written in the 1930s by Junichiro Tanizaki.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32"Anyone with a taste for traditional architecture
0:35:32 > 0:35:36"must agree that the Japanese toilet is perfection.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40"I love to listen from such a toilet to the sound of softly falling rain.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43"There one can listen with such a sense of intimacy
0:35:43 > 0:35:47"to the raindrops falling from the eves and the trees,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50"seeping into the earth as they wash over the base of a stone lantern
0:35:50 > 0:35:53"and freshen the moss about the stepping stones.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56"The toilet is the perfect place to listen to the chirping of insects
0:35:56 > 0:35:58"or the song of birds,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01"to view the moon, or to enjoy any of those poignant moments
0:36:01 > 0:36:04"that mark the change of the seasons.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06"Indeed, one could claim that,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09"of all the elements of Japanese architecture,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12"the toilet is the most aesthetic."
0:36:12 > 0:36:17'Japanese culture, it seems, prices order and beauty above all else,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21'even in the tiniest of details, be that a perfect cherry blossom,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24'a tranquil Japanese garden
0:36:24 > 0:36:27'or a spotless public toilet.
0:36:37 > 0:36:38'I want to try and understand
0:36:38 > 0:36:41'how this obsessive search for order and beauty
0:36:41 > 0:36:44'even extends into toilet design,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48'so I'm meeting Japanese architect Junko Kobayashi.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53'Her Tokyo practice specialises in designing public toilets,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55'and, fittingly, her office is next to a shrine
0:36:55 > 0:36:58'complete with its own purification area.'
0:37:00 > 0:37:03Japanese architecture seems to value serenity.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06We can see it here in this shrine.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11Is that something that you try and bring into your own approach to design?
0:37:11 > 0:37:12SHE SPEAKS JAPANESE
0:37:12 > 0:37:16TRANSLATED: Personally, I like simplicity and calmness,
0:37:16 > 0:37:17but, at the same time,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I like to have fun and be surrounded by cheerful things.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24I like serenity but, professionally, when I design toilets,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28I design them for a specific location and context.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31So I am not typically conscious of trying to make a calm space.
0:37:35 > 0:37:40Usually you partially remove your clothes to sit on the loo,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42so you do not have much freedom to move around.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46Therefore, everything has to be within reach of the toilet seat,
0:37:46 > 0:37:50which is why I have compared the toilet to an aeroplane cockpit.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53You are in a small room and I want to create a high-tech
0:37:53 > 0:37:56and easy to use toilet in a compact space.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Many Japanese people are so fastidious
0:38:05 > 0:38:08they are embarrassed by the sound of their bodily functions.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11But even that is catered for on this toilet here
0:38:11 > 0:38:13with the Sound Princes.
0:38:13 > 0:38:19FLUSHING SOUND
0:38:19 > 0:38:21With the aid of this sound effect,
0:38:21 > 0:38:23they can mask the sound of themselves peeing.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27But, actually, it's not such a newfangled idea as it might sound,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30because in the Edo Period, Japanese princesses,
0:38:30 > 0:38:31when they went to the toilet,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34would have their servants stand outside with jugs of water
0:38:34 > 0:38:38which they would pour in order to mask the sound of the princess.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48TRANSLATED: Japanese people are very sensitive and easily embarrassed.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50We feel ashamed when people can hear the sounds we make
0:38:50 > 0:38:52as we do our business.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56If the person in the next cubicle can hear you, it is very embarrassing,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59and we flush the toilet repeatedly to mask the sounds we make.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02It was because of this that toilet manufacturers
0:39:02 > 0:39:05came up with the products to do this.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08They have been around for 25 years now,
0:39:08 > 0:39:10but do we really need such innovations?
0:39:10 > 0:39:12After the recent earthquake and tsunami,
0:39:12 > 0:39:14I heard that in the affected area
0:39:14 > 0:39:17there was no water to flush the toilets,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and so, people felt that they had to hold it in and so, got sick.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25Maybe we should be rethinking our reliance on high-tech flush loos.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Spending time here makes you understand
0:39:36 > 0:39:38how a country's toilet habits
0:39:38 > 0:39:41reveal something far deeper about their cultural outlook.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45'But Jenko's comments about water use and resources
0:39:45 > 0:39:47'have also set me wondering.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51'Will people in the emerging economies like China and India
0:39:51 > 0:39:55'soon be expecting the delights of an electric flushing loo
0:39:55 > 0:39:57'complete with Sound Princess,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01'or will they be forced to find an alternative solution?
0:40:07 > 0:40:10'To find out, I joined the throng of excited delegates
0:40:10 > 0:40:12'at the 11th World Toilet Summit.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19'It's perhaps one of the most unlikely topics for a world conference,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22'but this year it's proudly hosted
0:40:22 > 0:40:25'by China's south tropical island of Hainan.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32'It turns out that the Japanese are not the only ones
0:40:32 > 0:40:35'craving a bit of bling in their bathrooms.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44'But, although this unlikely gathering
0:40:44 > 0:40:47'appears to celebrate the western flush,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50'there is actually a serious purpose to this conference.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55'That is the search for a toilet solution
0:40:55 > 0:40:57'that's far less of a drain on the world's resources.'
0:40:59 > 0:41:03Let's start talking about toilets in Africa.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05This conference is the brainchild
0:41:05 > 0:41:08of Singapore businessman and philanthropist Jack Sim,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10who set up the World Toilet Organisation
0:41:10 > 0:41:13once he realised the scale of human tragedy
0:41:13 > 0:41:16caused by not having toilets.
0:41:16 > 0:41:1940% of the world population,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22about 2.6 billion people,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25still do not have access to a proper toilet.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30And open defecation pollutes the river, they are drinking water,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34there are leaks and also spread diseases
0:41:34 > 0:41:42to the scale of 1.5 million children dying of diarrhoea every year.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46That is more death of children
0:41:46 > 0:41:52than measles, HIV and malaria added up together.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57And all because we have neglected the subject,
0:41:57 > 0:42:01so turning toilet to humour,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04I think start to change the game
0:42:04 > 0:42:07and people are now engaged in this subject.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10We see a lot of UN agencies and companies
0:42:10 > 0:42:13paying attention to this too.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15I think we are on the up trend.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23'With poor sanitation contributing to so many deaths,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26'this conference has a massive task on its hands.'
0:42:26 > 0:42:30INTERPRETER: Public and private partnerships must work together
0:42:30 > 0:42:34to make good hygiene practice a shared responsibility.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:42:36 > 0:42:40INTERPRETER: In the users comfort and safety...
0:42:40 > 0:42:42We also suggest that we create
0:42:42 > 0:42:45an international toilet monitoring centre.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47'But as I listen to the speeches,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50'I wonder whether I am hearing any ideas
0:42:50 > 0:42:53'that come close to addressing this massive problem.'
0:42:53 > 0:42:58Smell is the key thing that people complain about.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00This conference has certainly brought it home to me
0:43:00 > 0:43:02that there's another dimension to the story of the toilet
0:43:02 > 0:43:04that we just hadn't seen yet,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08i.e. the huge problems faced by the developing world.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12'How do you bring sanitation to 2.6 billion people?
0:43:12 > 0:43:16'Not many of the ideas on offer at this conference seem big enough
0:43:16 > 0:43:20'to make much of a dent in a problem of that magnitude.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25'So I'm heading for the Indian subcontinent,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28'and a country in the throws of a toilet revolution.
0:43:36 > 0:43:37'This is Bangladesh,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40'a country struggling to bring modern sanitation
0:43:40 > 0:43:43'to its population.'
0:43:43 > 0:43:47Millions of people in Bangladesh today still have no access
0:43:47 > 0:43:50to toilets of any kind, so they're compelled to practise
0:43:50 > 0:43:53what it's delicately referred to as "open defecation"
0:43:53 > 0:43:56or, to put it more bluntly, shitting at the side of the road.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05The kids in this village play amongst raw sewage.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10It ends up on their hands and bare feet;
0:44:10 > 0:44:13it gets walked into their homes;
0:44:13 > 0:44:16it pollutes the pond where they swim and wash.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Flies transport it from house to house,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22from plate to plate.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26It's not hard to see why conditions like these
0:44:26 > 0:44:29cause so much disease and death.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35However, there are moves afoot
0:44:35 > 0:44:37to revolutionise the provision of toilets.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42A scheme called The Wash Programme has been set up in 150 districts,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45home to some 40 million people.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49The first goal of this scheme is to supply the necessary hardware.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57This is a Bangladesh toilet factory
0:44:57 > 0:45:00and this is a flushing toilet
0:45:00 > 0:45:02at its most simple.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05You dig a hole in the ground, you set the concrete rings in the hole,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07that stops the sides of the hole from falling in.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12Then you place this concrete slab on top of the hole to cap it off.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15You've got your foot rest here and this funnel arrangement.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17Here's one that hasn't been set in concrete
0:45:17 > 0:45:20that channels your waste down into the hole.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24Now, that in itself is just a sophisticated hole in the ground,
0:45:24 > 0:45:26because there would be absolutely nothing
0:45:26 > 0:45:28to stop the flies from going into the pit
0:45:28 > 0:45:30and the smells from coming out.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34But what transforms it into a flushing toilet is this.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Now then, the addition of this water trap here
0:45:38 > 0:45:43means that, when you flush the waste down here,
0:45:43 > 0:45:45sufficient water has to be used
0:45:45 > 0:45:48to drive the waste out and over the trap here,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51but, once that's happened, you have clean water in here,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54which prevents the smell from getting out
0:45:54 > 0:45:58and the flies from getting in.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03So, for the princely sum of 15 taka, or about 12p,
0:46:03 > 0:46:08you can transform a hole in the ground into a flushing toilet.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15The toilet is flushed with a small bucket of water,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18so they are easy to install with no need for extra plumbing.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23To build a toilet, you need six concrete rings.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25It's a twin-pit design.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27You put three of the rings to form a hole here.
0:46:27 > 0:46:32When that's full, you move the toilet slab to here,
0:46:32 > 0:46:34you move the toilet superstructure to here
0:46:34 > 0:46:37and you cap that off and leave it to compost.
0:46:37 > 0:46:42And this one, as you can see, is now operational.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44The whole thing costs 2,000 taka.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48That's for six rings, a cap, a toilet slab, the superstructure...
0:46:48 > 0:46:52That is the princely sum of 17 quid.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Now, they've sold five million of these all across Bangladesh,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58and, assuming five uses per toilet,
0:46:58 > 0:47:00that means 25 million Bangladeshis
0:47:00 > 0:47:04now have access to adequate sanitary provision for the first time.
0:47:04 > 0:47:10And the remarkable thing is that has happened during the last four years.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14But there is no point making cheap toilets available
0:47:14 > 0:47:16if no-one wants to buy them.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20You also need to start changing people's habits.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25'So, in villages throughout the country,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29'sanitation committees have been established.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32'The first thing these committees do is find out
0:47:32 > 0:47:34'where everyone in the village currently goes to the toilet.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38'And then, put the information onto a big map.'
0:47:38 > 0:47:43- This...- This one has the trap, yeah?
0:47:43 > 0:47:45- No trap here.- OK.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49'This simple act of mapping sanitary provision
0:47:49 > 0:47:51'gets people to start thinking about how much raw sewage
0:47:51 > 0:47:54'there might be lying around their village.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00'It makes people realise that, without proper toilets,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02'they're all basically ingesting
0:48:02 > 0:48:05'their neighbour's excrement on a daily basis
0:48:05 > 0:48:08'and toilets quickly start springing up around the village.'
0:48:08 > 0:48:12HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:48:12 > 0:48:14'It has proved a potent strategy
0:48:14 > 0:48:16'and explains why things are changing so quickly.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24'So the problem of rural sanitation does seem to be improving.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28'But that is only half the story.'
0:48:28 > 0:48:32This is Dhaka. This is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37The population is set to hit over 20 million by 2015.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40As people pour into this city,
0:48:40 > 0:48:42a lot of them live in informal settlements,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46like the one we can see behind us, that's called Korail.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49They're so pushed to space over there
0:48:49 > 0:48:53that they are dumping rubbish into the lake
0:48:53 > 0:48:55to expand the room that they can build on.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04This slum sits next to the richest area of Dhaka.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10'It's home to low-paid workers drawn by the possibility of work
0:49:10 > 0:49:14'in the surrounding homes and offices.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22'I've also been told that this place
0:49:22 > 0:49:26'is home to some of the worst types of toilet.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30'Simple platforms built on stilts known as "hanging toilets."'
0:49:30 > 0:49:31HE BREATHES IN AND SIGHS
0:49:31 > 0:49:35This is sanitation at its most basic.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39It drops down through that hole there into the lake
0:49:39 > 0:49:42and, of course, because it's a lake, it's not a moving body of water,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44there's nothing to flush it away.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46And, in fact, the level of lake is so low at the moment,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49it doesn't even seem to be dropping into the water even.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51HE SIGHS
0:49:51 > 0:49:54And this is, this is sanitary reality
0:49:54 > 0:49:55for a lot of people living here.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58It's one of the biggest slums in Bangladesh.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01But, unfortunately, because it's an unofficial slum,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04i.e., effectively, they're squatting,
0:50:04 > 0:50:06of course, there's no security of tenure,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09so people are unwilling to invest in something
0:50:09 > 0:50:12that might be swept away at a moments notice
0:50:12 > 0:50:14at the whim of the landlord.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18The locals tell me that some of these hanging toilets
0:50:18 > 0:50:21have been here for over 20 years.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29And with newcomers constantly pouring in from the countryside,
0:50:29 > 0:50:32it's hard to see them disappearing any time soon.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41Providing toilets for the urban poor is not as simple as it might seem.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45For a start, the scale of the problem is just so much bigger.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49Secondly, the urban population is so much more transient.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52You could map the slums of Dhaka today,
0:50:52 > 0:50:56but that map would be out of date within months, if not within weeks.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58You could elect a Village Wash Committee
0:50:58 > 0:51:00or, at least, an Area Wash Committee,
0:51:00 > 0:51:02but will the people serving on it
0:51:02 > 0:51:06still be living in the area a few weeks or a few months later?
0:51:06 > 0:51:08They might have gone back to the countryside
0:51:08 > 0:51:10or got a better place in Dhaka.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14So to adapt The Wash Programme to the urban areas
0:51:14 > 0:51:16is going to be a big challenge.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20When London faced these problems in the 1850s,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23the mains sewers were installed,
0:51:23 > 0:51:25but Bangladesh simply doesn't have the money
0:51:25 > 0:51:27for engineering works on that scale,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31and, even if they did, the amount of water required to run it
0:51:31 > 0:51:33would be completely unsustainable.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36It's a challenge that is drawing in the big guns.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44One major donor to the cause is the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48They are supporting sanitation programmes throughout the region.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51But, perhaps because of their background in the computer industry,
0:51:51 > 0:51:54they are also thinking about a far more radical solution
0:51:54 > 0:51:57to the sanitation problem the planet faces.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59They have set themselves the task
0:51:59 > 0:52:04of changing the way that everyone in the world goes to the toilet.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07I mean, the toilet is the greatest innovation
0:52:07 > 0:52:10that has saved more lives than any other.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12Come on, it was developed in 1775,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15I mean, we should have come up with something smarter than that.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18In fact, isn't it crazy that we use drinking water
0:52:18 > 0:52:22and then use it as a transport medium through very expensive pipes
0:52:22 > 0:52:25to a place where we spend a lot more energy to get the waste out.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28So we are saying - can't we have modern engineering,
0:52:28 > 0:52:31chemical engineering, biology, we don't really care,
0:52:31 > 0:52:34that comes up with a completely different solution that says,
0:52:34 > 0:52:36"Look, this is waste, but there's a lot of energy in it."
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Fertilisers, nutrients, can we recover them,
0:52:39 > 0:52:42use that to pay for the process
0:52:42 > 0:52:45and make it safe and pleasant to use?
0:52:45 > 0:52:49So that's why we say we want to develop the cellphone of sanitation.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54So we sat down with a few scientific advisers, visionary people,
0:52:54 > 0:52:59and we dreamt up the reinvented toilet.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03This little black box that would be independent of water, sewer and electricity,
0:53:03 > 0:53:08that would be pleasant to use, would turn your shit into energy,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11use the energy in that to power the system
0:53:11 > 0:53:13and we wrote that down as the specs and said,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16"Look, that's the toilet we want."
0:53:16 > 0:53:19And we sent that to 22 universities and said, "Can you make it?"
0:53:22 > 0:53:26So is such a revolutionary toilet possible?
0:53:26 > 0:53:28I'm at Delft University in Holland.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31'They've taken up the challenge of reinventing the toilet
0:53:31 > 0:53:35'and are working on a machine that will atomise excrement
0:53:35 > 0:53:39'and use the gases produced to create electricity.'
0:53:39 > 0:53:41So what do we have here?
0:53:41 > 0:53:43This doesn't look much like a toilet.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47- No, that's correct, it's an industrial microwave.- Right.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Something we might have at home,
0:53:49 > 0:53:51with a door where you put your food in.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53OK. So what do you do with the microwaves?
0:53:53 > 0:53:55What we are going to do with the microwaves
0:53:55 > 0:53:57is basically generate plasma.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Plasma is a really hot gas, ionized gas,
0:54:00 > 0:54:02that can destroy anything it reaches.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06With the plasma, we will gasify the faecal matter.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08If we obtain a really high-quality gas,
0:54:08 > 0:54:11we can obtain enough energy to make this work.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15So the microwaves pass through the faecal matter,
0:54:15 > 0:54:20that generates plasma, this ionised, extremely hot gas,
0:54:20 > 0:54:23and then you use that then to generate electricity
0:54:23 > 0:54:26and you use the electricity to power the microwave.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30Yeah, if the research works as we hope it does, yeah, we will.
0:54:30 > 0:54:31So just add shit.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33THEY LAUGH
0:54:33 > 0:54:36'The team have got some footage of their machine in action.
0:54:36 > 0:54:41'They hope that, in the future, rather than flush your faeces away,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44'it will generate a reaction like this within your toilet.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50'So there is a chance that, in the not too far distant future,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52'we'll all be pooing into a machine
0:54:52 > 0:54:55'that creates its own energy from organic waste,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59'just like the time travelling car in Back To The Future.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02'Who said toilets can't be fun?'
0:55:02 > 0:55:07We are only satisfied when millions of people use these solutions.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12We want to have a solution that can spread virally, go like wildfire.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14So within three to five years, I think,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17we should have toilets that people can use.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20And five to ten years, we want to see millions of people use.
0:55:20 > 0:55:21That's our goal, frankly.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28'After 150 years, it seems that the flushing toilet
0:55:28 > 0:55:32'is at last facing a serious threat to its dominance.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36'Perhaps the future is a waterless box that creates energy
0:55:36 > 0:55:38'every time you add poo.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42'But until that future arrives,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45'I've got one final toilet to go and see.'
0:55:50 > 0:55:51When I started on my journey,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54a friend said that I should visit an alternative community
0:55:54 > 0:55:58out on the LLeyn Peninsula, near my home in North Wales.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00Apparently, they have a solution
0:56:00 > 0:56:03'to the age-old problem of dealing with waste
0:56:03 > 0:56:07'that is safe, odour free and doesn't use any water.'
0:56:07 > 0:56:10- Hello, sut wyt ti? - Ifor, welcome to Felin Uchaf Centre.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13- Thank you very much indeed. - And welcome to our compost toilet.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16- Well, how does it work?- Well, come on in and have a look.- OK.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22All right. It looks quite ordinary!
0:56:22 > 0:56:23All the elements you'd expect to find
0:56:23 > 0:56:26in a conventional public toilet are here.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29We've got the seat, we've got the urinal and, basically,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32what...how it works is that when you lift it,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36- you notice that it doesn't have the flush.- Right.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40It just has a hole down to the concrete chamber beneath us.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42- It doesn't smell, no.- No.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46- No, because the microbial activities are already taking place there. - Right.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49So it's dry compost that's down there
0:56:49 > 0:56:52and compost because it's sewage mixed
0:56:52 > 0:56:55with a dry material like this sawdust here.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58- So that's you flushing away. - So that's the flush.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01- So you'd add a handful of that every time you used it.- OK.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05That sort of soaks up any of the moisture and helps the composting,
0:57:05 > 0:57:10And it's ripe for taking up and taking onto the garden.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13Well-rotted, it should be by now, we'll find out, shall we?
0:57:13 > 0:57:16- Come on then.- Right. - Let's get the spade.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19'My journey has taken me all round the world
0:57:19 > 0:57:21'in search of the perfect toilet
0:57:21 > 0:57:23'and helped me understand
0:57:23 > 0:57:28'that the way we deal with our excrement shapes who we are.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30'But, after travelling all that way,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32'I'm back where I started -
0:57:32 > 0:57:36'in rural Wales sprinkling a handful of dust on my business.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40'It seems my uncle and aunt were on to something all along.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42'This really doesn't smell
0:57:42 > 0:57:44'and there are no flies!
0:57:46 > 0:57:49'I'm very glad I don't have to use a hanging toilet
0:57:49 > 0:57:52'in the slums of Dhaka.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55'I'd love to have a Japanese toilet with heated seat
0:57:55 > 0:57:58'and built-in cleaning system.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03'And I look forward to the day
0:58:03 > 0:58:06'my loo creates instant energy for my home.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11'But, until then, I quite like the honesty
0:58:11 > 0:58:14'of taking a barrow load of well-rotted shit
0:58:14 > 0:58:16'to spread around the base of a tree,
0:58:16 > 0:58:21'completing that age-old cycle of dung to life.'
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd