0:00:02 > 0:00:04All my life, I've been drawn to sweets.
0:00:04 > 0:00:09When I wrote my memoir, Toast, the moment I popped a particular toffee in my mouth
0:00:09 > 0:00:13was the very moment my childhood came flooding back to me.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15The unfurling of the wrapper,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18the smooth exterior on my fingertips,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21and of course the popping in the mouth.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26As I chewed, the slow release of flavour unlocked deeply hidden emotions.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33Ever since writing that book, I've always wondered why it is that something as simple as a sweet
0:00:33 > 0:00:36can help us time travel so evocatively.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Why is it that something so incidental
0:00:41 > 0:00:45in our day-to-day lives can prove to be so utterly fundamental
0:00:45 > 0:00:47in revealing who we really are?
0:00:50 > 0:00:53This journey isn't simply to the heart of my own sweet childhood,
0:00:53 > 0:00:58it's also a bigger journey through the history of confectionary in Britain.
0:00:58 > 0:01:04From unadulterated honey, to the boiled sweets of old-fashioned sweet shops.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07It's literally like my childhood flashing past me in sugar form.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10From their medicinal and religious origins,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13through to the advertising jingles that defined eras.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20And from the psychology of sweets through to the dangers of overindulgence.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36There's no better way to start this story
0:01:36 > 0:01:39than in the back of my dad's old car.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44I was brought up in the early '60s in this part of the world,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46in Wolverhampton, in the Midlands.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49It was a big happy family - there was Mum and Dad.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54And I was one of three brothers. I'm the youngest.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58Dad had a factory. It made metal parts for cars,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01it was a big, scary place to little boy like me.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05And Mum stayed at home.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11This car was a very special place for me.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14It is quite a big, smart car to have. Whenever we went out in it,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18we always used to have little tins of sweeties.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21They would be travel sweets, which you used to get from the chemist.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24They came in a metal tin with pictures of fruit on the top.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27And they were in little paper bags.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30There would be liquorice torpedoes, maybe barley sugars.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33And, best of all, Dad's American hard gums.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39And they would be hidden. Used to keep them in the glove box, but he thought I didn't know.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45And we'd go out for picnics and outings with bottles of dandelion and burdock
0:02:45 > 0:02:48or ginger beer, and a big tartan rug.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52And there'd be a big tin of toffees. That was the bit I waited for.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Yes, I ate the sandwiches and the fruitcake,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01but what I REALLY wanted was that tin of sweets.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05All the sweets are like a little road map through my life.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16I'm starting my journey at what is reputedly the oldest sweet shop in Britain,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19where I'm meeting Tim Richardson, a man who really knows his sweets,
0:03:19 > 0:03:24having written perhaps THE definitive history of confectionery.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28The simple act of walking through the door is like stepping back in time.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31- Good morning. - Good morning.- Good morning.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34- BELL DINGS - Welcome to a proper sweet shop.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Pontefract cakes.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45'Being surrounded by all the colours and flavours from long ago...'
0:03:45 > 0:03:46- Aw.- Oh!
0:03:46 > 0:03:51'..we're both immediately transported back to the days of short trousers and satchels.'
0:03:51 > 0:03:53TIM LAUGHS
0:03:53 > 0:03:58- Chocolate limes!- They're anarchists of gastronomy, sweets, I think.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01It's like a pure liquorice sort of line going into your taste buds.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Parma Violets smell of my Auntie Fanny's handbag.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06This is Auntie Fanny.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10'Most sweets are sweet, but some are decidedly not.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14'Like these super-sour balls coated in citric acid.'
0:04:14 > 0:04:16They are beautiful.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18One, two, three, in.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26SHOPKEEPER LAUGHS Wow!
0:04:26 > 0:04:29- Oh, my God!- Yeah.- Goodness me!
0:04:30 > 0:04:36- God, what do you get through that? Sugar? Wow!- Oh!
0:04:37 > 0:04:39It's kind of making my shoulders go weird.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45We love this!
0:04:46 > 0:04:50- I may never recover. - No, you may not! - SHE LAUGHS
0:04:50 > 0:04:56Coming into the sweet shop was a really important part of my childhood.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Coming here today was like reliving that. Was it the same for you?
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Yeah, I think it is for most kids in Britain.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07The sweet shop is like our cathedral. That's what Roald Dahl said.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11'Susan knows CWS means the sweets that she likes best.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14'She gets them at the Co-op store, where pocket money buys you more.'
0:05:14 > 0:05:21Sweets are the first things we buy, the first things we give, the first things we trade.
0:05:21 > 0:05:22We learn about money,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26we learn something about relationships through sweets.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29They are very important in the lives of children, sweets,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32which is why I always say I think it's a tragedy
0:05:32 > 0:05:35that children aren't given more sweets.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40They're a big part of a child's world, and we never forget that. We're all grown-up children, really.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Nuttall's Mintoes!
0:05:44 > 0:05:51- Sherbet dib-dabs - Sherbet dib-dabs, yeah. Yeah!
0:05:51 > 0:05:56'It's slowly dawning on me that many of the sweets on show here
0:05:56 > 0:05:59'are more like museum exhibits than tasty treats.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02'Indeed, many sweet shops like this used to be pharmacies.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06'A spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down.'
0:06:08 > 0:06:12These are the original white aniseed balls,
0:06:12 > 0:06:18just sugar around a kernel which is of course the aniseed.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20- The aniseed. - And this is a medieval comfit.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24But the point about this in the Medieval period was that they were medicines.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29These things were imported, often from the Middle East, and sugar is a preservative.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34So the sugar was ostensibly being used to preserve the valuable little root inside.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Aniseed is a good diuretic, it's good for stomach disorders and so on.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42But these are very interesting. UFOs, or flying saucers.
0:06:42 > 0:06:48What these are, historically, are a Victorian way of administering drugs.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52They used to use some of the same machinery for making sweets
0:06:52 > 0:06:55as they use for making pills, so, press tablets,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58things like Refreshers, Parma Violets, that sort of thing,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02Love Hearts, these were made using the tablet makers.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06And this was a very classic way of administering drugs,
0:07:06 > 0:07:11just to put them inside rice paper. This of course isn't a drug to make you better, this is sherbet.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16Tell me, what are the medieval origins of my favourite sweet, which is liquorice?
0:07:16 > 0:07:20It was one of those crossover sweets between pharmacy and confectionery.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25Roman legionaries used to be given liquorice sticks to suck on as they marched,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27as a way of staving off dehydration.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30To be honest, I was never really fond of liquorice allsorts.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33Yeah, well, it is a funny name, isn't it, "liquorice allsorts"?
0:07:33 > 0:07:38Well, the story goes that a particular salesman was
0:07:38 > 0:07:41carrying his wares, and he got them all muddled up.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46And he just offered them anyway, and this was the birth of allsorts.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49- Really?- Yeah, that's the story.
0:07:49 > 0:07:55The result, I think, is of one of the great triumphs of sweets design.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59- Do you like them all?- I do like them all. Yeah, I do, I'm afraid!
0:07:59 > 0:08:04- That's my problem with sweets. I like them all.- Now, I love jelly babies.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Tell me about them, where did they come from?
0:08:07 > 0:08:10Jellies come from a medieval sweets background, and again, the pharmacy.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13I mean, the awful truth about the jelly baby,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16is that they weren't called jelly babies originally.
0:08:16 > 0:08:22In this wonderful shop here, they've got them with their original name.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29- Jelly babies, originally called... - Oh, don't!
0:08:29 > 0:08:33..unclaimed babies.
0:08:33 > 0:08:34- That's so sad.- It is sad.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39It's a very Victorian thing. Unbelievably, almost, they were marketed as that,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and these were obviously the babies which were given up to orphanages.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44The idea of little orphan jellies,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47there's something actually quite sad about that.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52I was intrigued when you said you ate them in a particular way. How do you...? Do you start...?
0:08:52 > 0:08:56- I go for the head. - You go for the head?
0:08:56 > 0:08:59- Straightaway, off. - Yeah, I know what you mean.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03There aren't many areas in life where you can legitimately bite the head off a baby.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09'The jars and shelves of multicoloured confectionery
0:09:09 > 0:09:12'generate a myriad of memories, some good and some less so.'
0:09:13 > 0:09:16You see, I never knew them as jazzies.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18It's a regional variation of the name.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21These are the first sweets I bought with my own money,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24in a little pink and white striped big.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Floral gums! Goodness, Mum used to buy me those.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33Sweet tobacco right in front of us. Sweet tobacco was Saturday mornings.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37My father would come back from the shops with sweet tobacco.
0:09:38 > 0:09:44It's like all my pocket money's... I'm just watching them all.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48It's literally like my childhood flashing past me in sugar form.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52And things I truly had forgotten.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55It's very interesting.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59A lot of these sweets, particularly things like the buttered Brazils
0:09:59 > 0:10:02and Clarnico's Mint Creams, these were all my dad's things.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08I'm kind of happy and a little bit sad all at once.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11I mean, the sweets are like memorials of our innocence.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15The remind us of what it was like when we were children. They will bring you back.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19The taste of the sweet will transport you back to a very particular moment in your life
0:10:19 > 0:10:22in a way that nothing else does.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26I'm avoiding the marshmallows. I know you've got marshmallows over there, which I'm avoiding,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30cos they're Mum, definitely. They're not me and they're not my dad.
0:10:33 > 0:10:40- HE SIGHS - It is an extraordinary experience being here. It really is.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54I've been really looking forward to today.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59Finding a proper sweet shop with all the jars and little coloured jewels,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01sweets I had forgotten about.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Memories of a life...from long ago.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07And this is the strange thing about sweets.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11It's not just that little sugar bomb that's in your mouth,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15it's everything associated with it and attached to it.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18It's all that baggage that goes with it.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22It's been a wonderful experience, but extraordinary and strangely more emotional
0:11:22 > 0:11:27than I had ever expected it to be. And they're only sweets.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32It's pretty clear that sweets have a compelling power to resurrect
0:11:32 > 0:11:37old emotions and memories in me, but is this the case for everyone?
0:11:37 > 0:11:41I have decided to meet up with my alter ego in the indulgence stakes, Nigella Lawson,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45to see if sweets have a similar effect on her.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48Almost more than any other thing that I eat,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52it's a sweet that will bring back absolutely picture-perfect memories.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54I think if you're English,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58boiled sweets are what the madeleine was for Proust, really.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00I know it sounds really pretentious, but actually,
0:12:00 > 0:12:05your whole childhood comes flooding back with every sweet swallowed.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08But actually, my mother had quite a childish delight in sweets too,
0:12:08 > 0:12:13and she was not very grown-up as a person, so she'd often go and say,
0:12:13 > 0:12:18"Let's eat them in the street," which, for her, she was brought up... That was the height of ill breeding.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23The thing about sweets is it's that particular thing of choosing
0:12:23 > 0:12:27how you would make your pennies stretch, and should you get two of
0:12:27 > 0:12:31the rhubarb and custard or two of the monkey nuts and so on.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34And I think children take that very seriously, which is right, so,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37on the one hand it's indulgent and larky,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40but the reality is it feels very serious to you as a child.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44I can still remember my older brother's favourite sweets, because
0:12:44 > 0:12:47it was very, very important because he was three years older, therefore,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52his choices had something grander and more considered about them.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Chocolate limes, he was. But I like the paper bag and everything.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00When I get sweets now still, I do love them being in a paper bag.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04- It feels right. - But also, I like a sweetie jar too.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06And, in fact, I have one always at home.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10And it's quite interesting, because I can always tell the children
0:13:10 > 0:13:13who are not allowed to eat sweets, because they steal.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16When they think I'm not looking, they just cram their hands in.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19'They're already learning to eat sweets like little gentlemen.'
0:13:19 > 0:13:20I mean, did you ever steal sweets?
0:13:20 > 0:13:22Of course!
0:13:22 > 0:13:26I hate to say this, but everyone has done a bit of pick and mix work.
0:13:26 > 0:13:27A bit of nick and mix.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30But mostly, it wasn't me, cos I was a cowardy custard.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43These are sweets that will trigger a bit of memory with you and a few with me. Which are your favourites?
0:13:43 > 0:13:46Rhubarb and custard, I don't know how you can ask!
0:13:46 > 0:13:48But I do like a soor ploom.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Caramac, so delicious, my sister's favourite.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54- Such an exciting colour. - It's the smell.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Mm, it's the crack cocaine of the sweet world, I think.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01- It certainly was.- I'm going to have another bit. Mm! Mm, monkey nuts.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04- Mm.- These are very good ones. - Mm!- They crunch.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09I have shattered it already. I put it straight in my mouth, I've got...
0:14:09 > 0:14:12That is serious sweetie impatience!
0:14:14 > 0:14:19It's increasingly apparent that sweets can remind us of happy AND sad times.
0:14:19 > 0:14:25The humble marshmallow will always bring to mind my mother, who died when I was nine.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34For me, the marshmallow was the sweet that has, I suppose, so much baggage with it.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36And I've steered clear of them for quite a long time.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38Do you have a particularly soothing sweet?
0:14:38 > 0:14:42No, but funnily enough, since we're doing sweets and death, why not?
0:14:42 > 0:14:46My mother, her idea of the greatest treat in the world was a Mars bar,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50and she would always keep one in the glove compartment.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52And she died young.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56And I remember a friend of mine thinking she was doing me a favour
0:14:56 > 0:14:58by throwing away my mother's Mars bar.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01- Oh-h!- And it was very traumatic. - Of course it was.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06- Just as well, actually, otherwise I would still have it in its wrapper. - Well, yes, you would.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10But... But I still... If I eat one now, I do think of her,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15and also her childish sense that it was just the naughtiest thing you could be eating.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Sweet things have the power to dig really deep emotionally.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36But I want to go right back to the very beginning.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39To the earliest examples of nature's own confectionary,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41and most importantly,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45our earliest appetite for all things sweet and sugary.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47- NEWSREEL:- 'Oldest sweetener of them all is honey.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49'Bees discovered how to make sugar long before man did,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53'and up to 500 years ago, honey was the only known sweetener.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55'Today, it comes a long way down the list,
0:15:55 > 0:15:57'though the bees work as hard as ever.'
0:16:00 > 0:16:03It seems our desire to harness sweet things
0:16:03 > 0:16:06has been a key part of our evolution.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Dip your finger in there. Just dip your finger in.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11It's warm.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13- Lovely, isn't it?- Oh!
0:16:15 > 0:16:19- Oh, goodness me! - Lovely, isn't it?
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Absolutely wonderful stuff.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24Warm and sticky.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29But where does this primal craving for sweetness come from?
0:16:29 > 0:16:33I've met up with nutritionist Dr Christie Ferguson,
0:16:33 > 0:16:38to find out if the need for sweet things is a vital part of our DNA.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43So where would you say our taste for all things sweet comes from?
0:16:43 > 0:16:46I mean, is it something that comes from birth?
0:16:46 > 0:16:47As babies,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50it's bred into us to actually seek out sweet foods.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53So first of all it would be the mother's milk.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56That's almost to create a close connection with our mum
0:16:56 > 0:16:58as we go through our early years.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03As we grow up, we associate sweet foods with birthday cakes.
0:17:03 > 0:17:09Any kind of celebrations is usually tied around sweet foods,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13and so as we grow up, we form very, very strong associations,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15and when we're feeling upset, or feeling depressed,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18it kind of takes us back, in a sense, to those good times.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22'So the fact that things dissolve is very important to you.'
0:17:22 > 0:17:27So what actually happens when we eat something sweet?
0:17:27 > 0:17:28We get a spike in our blood sugar levels,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32so we get this kind of instant high, in a sense,
0:17:32 > 0:17:34but in our brain chemistry
0:17:34 > 0:17:37what's interesting is that we produce what's called serotonin.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39That's a feel-good chemical.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42That's why sugar and sweets can become quite addictive,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45because you get this instant feeling that drops away,
0:17:45 > 0:17:49and then you need the next one to give you that boost again.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51Yes, been there.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54I've had more than my fair share of honey on toast.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00But it wasn't until refined sugar became more readily available
0:18:00 > 0:18:04in the 18th century that artisan sweet confectioners
0:18:04 > 0:18:07started to produce the boiled sweets we know and love today.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13I've come to York, to meet sweet historian Laura Mason,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16to understand better the origins of the boiled sweet,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21from medieval times, through to the Victorian era.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24- Are sweets well documented? - Yes and no.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27There are lots and lots of things I'd love to know about sweets
0:18:27 > 0:18:30that aren't documented. Maybe they were trade secrets,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33maybe nobody thought to write them down.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Because they would be secrets,
0:18:35 > 0:18:37- because you're protecting your livelihood.- Absolutely.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41But also there are books, books like some of these that we have here.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44The early cookery books have sweet recipes in,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46and there are specific confectionary books,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49which really start in the late 16th century in England.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53At that time, sweet-making and confectionary-making
0:18:53 > 0:18:55was like a kind of hobby.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Like embroidery, a kitchen equivalent of embroidery, a skilled thing.
0:18:58 > 0:19:04It was very delicate. You have all these lovely colours, shapes.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08The whole art of confectionary, sugar boiling.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Thank goodness that somebody did write these things down.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Things like caraway confits, Nelson's Buttons.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20Like peppermint drops, but they're coloured on the top
0:19:20 > 0:19:22with rose or Dutch pink.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27It's incredible to think that the simple, but magical act
0:19:27 > 0:19:31of boiling sugar in water was perhaps the one most important
0:19:31 > 0:19:34single development in the birth of the boiled sweet.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39So who would have been making the first sweets?
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Apothecaries, who were the people who made medicines.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Some people who were better known as alchemists.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49What they really wanted to find was a substance you could use
0:19:49 > 0:19:51to transmute base metal into gold.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55In the course of their experiments, they used all sorts of techniques -
0:19:55 > 0:19:59food stuffs, non-food stuffs, metals.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03Nostradamus, better known for his prophecies about the world ending,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06left us some sugar recipes. He recorded them.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Bless him!
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Socially, who would have been eating sweets?
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Sweets were still seen as expensive and luxurious
0:20:14 > 0:20:17in the 17th and early 18th centuries,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21but then the price of sugar gradually started to come down.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24West Indian sugar became easily available.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26By the 19th century, sugar was very cheap,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and it began to lose its kind of luxurious image a little bit.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35So though rich people might still have lovely confectionary and desserts,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39the urchins on the street would be buying a pennyworth
0:20:39 > 0:20:43of some very luridly coloured sugar sweet,
0:20:43 > 0:20:47which probably actually might not be very good for you.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50It must have been very special. You can see the attraction for sweets.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54It must have been totally magical. The idea of the sweet shop.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59Putting your nose up against the glass and looking at these colours and stripes and swirls.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03Confectioners' shops would always have a wonderful display.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05Clear glass jars, with sweets or syrups in,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07and they'd put them in the window
0:21:07 > 0:21:10so you could see all these beautiful colours.
0:21:10 > 0:21:11Life is rather brown,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14and possibly not very clean, and there's this palace
0:21:14 > 0:21:17- of sparkling jewellery. - Treasure trove.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19On the corner of the street, yes.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28For Laura, the good old-fashioned humbug,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30with its hint of mint and ubiquitous stripes,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33is the quintessential boiled sweet.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37Which is funny. I simply remember nicking them from my dad's pockets!
0:21:39 > 0:21:41That's the sweets I remember.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Would you like to try one?
0:21:43 > 0:21:45I would love to try one.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51It's like being seven again.
0:21:51 > 0:21:5450 years on, but it is like being seven again.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01And seven was very much the age I was
0:22:01 > 0:22:04when my earliest memories of growing up in Wolverhampton
0:22:04 > 0:22:05started to take shape.
0:22:10 > 0:22:16I've only walked down this road, probably once since the early '60s.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22And actually, it hasn't changed that much.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24I think some of these houses might be slightly new builds,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27but they're exactly the same style.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33'Life was very quiet and uneventful for me amongst these streets,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37'which is perhaps why my most vivid memories surround
0:22:37 > 0:22:41'some of the sharper flavours to be found in my local sweet shop.'
0:22:41 > 0:22:45I was never without a Sherbet Fountain, usually one a day.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49I was very specific about the way I ate them.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52I'd peel back the paper...
0:22:52 > 0:22:53take out the liquorice stick
0:22:53 > 0:22:57and rather than suck the sherbet through the liquorice,
0:22:57 > 0:22:58which I think you're supposed to do...
0:23:00 > 0:23:01..I used to lick the liquorice...
0:23:02 > 0:23:03..wet it
0:23:03 > 0:23:09and then I would dip into the sherbet and eat it like that.
0:23:12 > 0:23:13Except, when I got to the very end,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17and then I'd just tip the whole thing up, backwards into my mouth
0:23:17 > 0:23:20and always cough, Every time it would make me cough.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24I'd get white powder all over my school blazer and my shirt.
0:23:24 > 0:23:25It was a kind of ritual.
0:23:27 > 0:23:28It was a good one.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34But childhood memories aren't just about the sweets
0:23:34 > 0:23:36we choose to eat ourselves.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38Between the ages of five and ten,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40there was one sweet that very much defined
0:23:40 > 0:23:42the relationship with my father.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48I suppose one of the greatest ever sweets for me
0:23:48 > 0:23:51was actually not mine at all, it was my father's toffee,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54and it was special because it came in a tray.
0:23:54 > 0:24:00A little tin tray, full of toffee and it came with a hammer.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And he would sit there and crack the toffee
0:24:04 > 0:24:06with this little metal hammer...
0:24:08 > 0:24:10..into very sharp pieces.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13And then sometimes he would let me have a bit, but it was really his.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17What I preferred was a chocolate toffee,
0:24:17 > 0:24:23a little nugget of chewy toffee, covered in milk chocolate.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25As you open it, you get the smell,
0:24:25 > 0:24:30you get this wonderful hit of sugar and butter and cream.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46I almost measure every other confectionery
0:24:46 > 0:24:48by that chocolate toffee.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52It was desperately comforting.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55It was also, I suppose, part of another world,
0:24:55 > 0:24:56part of a grown-up world.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00You see, I wasn't always a good kid.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04I could be quite naughty.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08And I would get told off. My father was very strict.
0:25:10 > 0:25:11He'd take my sweets away.
0:25:13 > 0:25:14He'd threaten to smack me.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18But then, there'd be that moment
0:25:18 > 0:25:22when he'd give me a sweet afterwards.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27It was...his way of doing something he couldn't do,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29which was to say...sorry.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35"I didn't mean to get angry. I didn't mean to make you cry."
0:25:35 > 0:25:36It was kind of whip and kiss.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40The sweets he took away and the sweets he would give me.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48My toffee and Dad's toffee differed in one important way -
0:25:48 > 0:25:53mine included that most indulgent of ingredients, chocolate.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58A confectionery which has always had strong connections
0:25:58 > 0:26:00with the Quaker religion.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03'In the 1870s the Cadbury brothers set up shop in Bournville.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07'There were many other makers of chocolate,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10'but the Cadburys had to do it differently.'
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Not bad. Not bad at all, Margaret.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29I've met up with a direct descendant of one of these Quaker dynasties.
0:26:31 > 0:26:32Deborah Cadbury -
0:26:32 > 0:26:35at a Quaker meeting house in the village of Bournville,
0:26:35 > 0:26:37a place built upon the humanitarian values
0:26:37 > 0:26:40of these early chocolate pioneers.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Wonderful building.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47- Smells like my old Sunday school. - SHE LAUGHS
0:26:47 > 0:26:50- Typical Quaker meeting house. - This is very simple.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54The senses weren't to be indulged. This was a puritanical religion.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56The path to God was simplicity.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00- The senses weren't to be indulged? - No.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05- But this is chocolate!- Yes, yes.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08- I know, a wonderful irony, isn't it? - It's a wonderful irony.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10A delicious irony.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12But the first chocolate product
0:27:12 > 0:27:14wasn't the Bournville dark chocolate bar.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18It was in fact a chocolate or cocoa drink
0:27:18 > 0:27:21with curiously puritanical origins.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23At the time,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25drink really was ruining many poor families
0:27:25 > 0:27:28and there was just no safety net at all.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31Quakers took temperance terribly seriously
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and it led them to be fascinated in the idea of,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36"Could we get cocoa going as a business?
0:27:36 > 0:27:40"Could we try and develop a nutritious alternative to alcohol
0:27:40 > 0:27:42"that people actually want to drink?"
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Why were the Quakers so successful in business?
0:27:45 > 0:27:48I think they were immensely trusted in the community.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52Here they were, these Bible-reading men in their sober clothes,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54totally trustworthy.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57And cocoa, for instance, in the 19th century,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59there were a lot of manufacturers
0:27:59 > 0:28:04who were, you know, bulking out their product
0:28:04 > 0:28:07with all sorts of things like lentils or pearl barley
0:28:07 > 0:28:10or molasses if you were lucky,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13or if you were unlucky, with brick dust or vermilion, or red lead,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15you know, poisonous substances.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20- It's like the spice trade, the same thing.- Yes, there was no regulation
0:28:20 > 0:28:23so the Quakers were really appreciated
0:28:23 > 0:28:26when they were coming along, trying to make a purer form of cocoa.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32These chocolate drinks that were part of the temperance movement
0:28:32 > 0:28:34grew slowly into dark chocolate bars.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37But in the late 1800s,
0:28:37 > 0:28:41the Swiss invented a groundbreaking product - milk chocolate.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45This led to a frantic race amongst the Quaker firms
0:28:45 > 0:28:48to meet this foreign chocolate threat head-on
0:28:48 > 0:28:54and the result in 1905 was the birth of the first-ever dairy milk bar.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58But the Quaker firms were once again forced into confectionery battle
0:28:58 > 0:29:03in 1932, when an American, Forrest Mars,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07set up shop in Slough, producing the first-ever Mars bar.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11The Quakers, or more specifically Rowntree's,
0:29:11 > 0:29:14in turn fought back with a flurry of new brands
0:29:14 > 0:29:18in an attempt to knock this American interloper off his perch.
0:29:18 > 0:29:23Rowntree's had an extraordinarily innovative run.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27They came up, in very quick succession,
0:29:27 > 0:29:29with Dairy Box - this is all in the 1930s -
0:29:29 > 0:29:34- KitKat, which became a huge brand. - Ah, yes!
0:29:34 > 0:29:38And then they had Black Magic, Mars came up with Maltesers.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41- Are these like Chocolate Wars? - It was like Chocolate War...
0:29:41 > 0:29:42Well, it was always like Chocolate Wars
0:29:42 > 0:29:45because there was always some new technology just round the corner.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49- BELL RINGS - Good morning, sir. Why, it's Mr Monkhouse.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Oh, you can call me Bob, or even better,
0:29:52 > 0:29:53you can call me after six o'clock.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56- You know what I'm here after, don't you?- I know, Mr Monkhouse.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00Yeah, you're right. I'm after your marvellous Mars bars. Two, please.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03- Mars are marvellous, aren't they, Mr Monkhouse?- Marvellous?
0:30:03 > 0:30:06They're marvellous with a capital Mmm!
0:30:10 > 0:30:12Between the ages of eight and 11,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16my primary school in Wolverhampton was MY confectionary battleground.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Whether it was in the playground or the classroom,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24friendships were formed, alliances forged,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27enemies made and all over sweets.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38This is a place of good memories.
0:30:40 > 0:30:41This is a place of...
0:30:43 > 0:30:45..fun, where I'd arrive with my satchel,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49but also my little bag of sweets that I'd just bought at the sweet shop.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54And we'd swap them and we'd share them, or we wouldn't, depending.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57THIS is where the bike sheds used to be.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01It's where my brother used to come for a crafty fag.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06And although I've never smoked...
0:31:08 > 0:31:10..I've always wanted to come here
0:31:10 > 0:31:13and have a very crafty sweet cigarette.
0:31:15 > 0:31:16Of course, this sweet cigarette
0:31:16 > 0:31:18isn't quite like the ones that we had
0:31:18 > 0:31:21with their little glowing pink tip.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24But strangely, it still feels really naughty!
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Having a ciggie in school, albeit a sweet one.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59I can remember sitting in here and...
0:32:00 > 0:32:02..eating sweets from under the table.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05Having a little bag on my lap...
0:32:05 > 0:32:07and secretly eating sweeties
0:32:07 > 0:32:10when I was supposed to be learning my times table.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Probably why I can't add up to this day.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16Midget gems, floral gums, jelly babies...
0:32:16 > 0:32:19because they were the quiet sweets.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22They weren't in wrappers that crinkled.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24They weren't in foil that crunched.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28They were quiet sweets, so nobody knew what I was up to.
0:32:31 > 0:32:32Never shared them.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35They were MY sweets.
0:32:36 > 0:32:42You shared in the playground, it was the way...we made friends, really,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46was sharing sweets, but not the ones in the classroom, they were mine.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54In order to understand more about why I've used sweets
0:32:54 > 0:32:56to win friends and influence people,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59I've met up with child psychologist Laverne Antrobus.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01She's conducted
0:33:01 > 0:33:03some informal experiments with children
0:33:03 > 0:33:05to see what our behaviour around sweets can reveal
0:33:05 > 0:33:07about our personalities.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09So, fill your little box,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12your plastic container, as quickly as possible.
0:33:12 > 0:33:17The boys are doing it absolutely indiscriminately, anything.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19I would have been a little bit more like the girl on the far left,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23getting only what I want and doing it very quietly.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27- And she's being very selective. - She knows what she wants.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30This isn't about quantity for her,
0:33:30 > 0:33:32she knows exactly which sweets she wants
0:33:32 > 0:33:36and isn't interested in having more than any of the others.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40Share out the tray of sweets and chocolates equally.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42And he's straight in for the big one.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49The lad on the right, he didn't know what a lot of the sweets were,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52it's just that they were bigger than the others.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54These are slightly older children.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58The girl with the blonde hair
0:33:58 > 0:34:01is not scared of pushing everyone else out of the way.
0:34:01 > 0:34:02Oh, they've got gummy bears!
0:34:02 > 0:34:04And he's in. Look.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08He's like a hawk... watching exactly what he wants.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14OK, so do whatever you want to do with two sweets.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18- And they're both in.- "In my mouth!
0:34:18 > 0:34:21"Just in case somebody else claims them!"
0:34:21 > 0:34:25- And the girls are much more controlled.- Yes.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28She's so happy that she's eaten one,
0:34:28 > 0:34:29but she's got one left.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Now this is a conundrum, isn't it?
0:34:32 > 0:34:34To share the chocolate bar.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36Look, he's actually giving it out.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39That's quite interesting actually, that suddenly he's got an idea...
0:34:39 > 0:34:43Suddenly he's in charge and is very happy to be the leader.
0:34:43 > 0:34:45"You have some, I'll have some."
0:34:45 > 0:34:47The girl in the middle is suddenly, I think,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50very aware that she's not done too well out of this.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53Oh, look! She's given one back!
0:34:53 > 0:34:57She's giving up her sweets... to make someone else happy.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01- Is that like you?- Yeah. Absolutely.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03I think one of the things that struck me about these tests
0:35:03 > 0:35:06was that basic human characteristics that we all have
0:35:06 > 0:35:10are there very early on in young children.
0:35:10 > 0:35:11You know, can we share?
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Can we be independent without somebody else feeling
0:35:14 > 0:35:15that we are encroaching on their space?
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Is there strength in numbers and how long do we keep that going
0:35:18 > 0:35:20when actually, we really want to be on our own?
0:35:20 > 0:35:22As you were watching,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25I felt that you were picking out bits of yourself there.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29I'm definitely more like the girl on the far left.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34Not being pushy... taking my time.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Were you a sharer?
0:35:36 > 0:35:39- I know that I would have offered certain people sweets...- OK.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41..and not others.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43It was quite political.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45I wanted to let people know what I thought of them.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48- You know, "Take two. I like you!" - "And you can't have any."
0:35:48 > 0:35:51"You can't have any. I'm sorry, you just can't have any!"
0:35:52 > 0:35:55The extraordinary thing is I don't actually feel
0:35:55 > 0:35:5740 years older than those kids.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02I totally associate with what they're doing, their behaviour.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07I'm going to give you a sweet, see what it conjures up for you.
0:36:12 > 0:36:18Let's see... I was the only kid who liked very sharp sweets.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23I loved sweets that were very citrus, so very lime, very lemon.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Tart sherbet that used to bring all the veins out on the roof of your mouth
0:36:26 > 0:36:28and used to make your tongue hurt.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31And I would eat as many of these as I could.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34I think I quite liked the pain, actually!
0:36:36 > 0:36:38Ah! Love Hearts!
0:36:38 > 0:36:41The most political sweet - you could really use these.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44If you unwrap them very, very carefully,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46you can actually rearrange them in the pack.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51What was the message on the one that you put in the order that you wanted it to come out?
0:36:51 > 0:36:53- "Be mine."- (Be mine.)- Be mine.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56I'm not going to tell you who I gave it to, though.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58OK.
0:36:59 > 0:37:00Wow.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Now, marshmallows...
0:37:06 > 0:37:09My dad used to bring these into my bedroom
0:37:09 > 0:37:13at night, and he'd put one or two sometimes on my bedside table.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19I'd said, several years ago,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21I'd said that a marshmallow,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24particularly the pink ones,
0:37:24 > 0:37:30they were the nearest thing you could have to being given a kiss.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33And when Mum died,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36my father, night after night, would put them on my bedside table,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39and he'd remembered the fact
0:37:39 > 0:37:42I'd said that they were like getting a goodnight kiss.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45I mean, they are incredibly soft.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48What do you think it said about the relationship
0:37:48 > 0:37:51that there was a marshmallow?
0:37:51 > 0:37:53Or that he'd remembered that that's what you'd said.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57I was surprised that he'd remembered it. I...
0:37:57 > 0:38:00You know, he wasn't the sort of father that I would sit on his knee.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03You know, he wasn't the most tactile of parents.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08But I think this was as near as he could get.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11He was the sort of man who it would be very unlikely for him
0:38:11 > 0:38:13to even mention it,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15but he still put it on the bedside table.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19- And that was enough.- No.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33'It seems right that some 40-odd years later
0:38:33 > 0:38:36'I should return on a pilgrimage of sorts
0:38:36 > 0:38:38'to the very place where my life changed for ever.'
0:38:40 > 0:38:44'A place in which my most defining memories
0:38:44 > 0:38:46'were intrinsically connected to sweets.'
0:39:11 > 0:39:14The wood panelling is still here.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23There was a huge AGA here.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26A great big cream thing.
0:39:26 > 0:39:27Oh, THIS!
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Yeah. This is the scullery.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38My dad made these cupboards. I remember him making them.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44These stairs still creak, just like they used to.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Ah, the old sun window!
0:39:47 > 0:39:50This beautiful light used to come through that.
0:39:53 > 0:39:54I remember that well.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59- HE LAUGHS - There's my bedroom.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05- HE GASPS - Oh, yes. My little bed.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10Obviously, there's some sad memories in this room.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14I remember my dad coming in and telling me my mum had died.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20I think he said, "Mummy's gone to heaven," and...
0:40:22 > 0:40:25And...there were lots of happy times.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Christmas with my pillowcase on the bed
0:40:27 > 0:40:31and the selection box with all those wonderful chocolates
0:40:31 > 0:40:34that we all used to think tasted a bit stale,
0:40:34 > 0:40:35and all the better for it.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Oh, they smell exactly the same! That hasn't changed at all.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51I've not eaten one of these for years.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58And it is, there's something...
0:41:02 > 0:41:05It's like being 11 years old.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07It was a weird time, cos I went from being...
0:41:07 > 0:41:09I suppose a desperately happy little boy,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11a kid in a big family,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14because there was Mum and Dad, there were my two brothers,
0:41:14 > 0:41:15and there was Auntie Fanny.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21She was the incontinent one who used to sit in a special chair.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25And then suddenly, my brothers left home, Auntie Fanny died...
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Then Mum died.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Dad was out at work or at one of his Masonic meetings in the evening
0:41:33 > 0:41:36or whatever he really did instead of going to Masonic meetings...
0:41:36 > 0:41:38and I'd be alone.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44And this house was quite big and scary for a little boy.
0:41:46 > 0:41:47Every creak -
0:41:47 > 0:41:50and they're lovely wooden floors in these houses under the carpets
0:41:50 > 0:41:52and they do creak quite a lot -
0:41:52 > 0:41:54and every bit of wind in the chimneys...
0:41:54 > 0:41:56I used to get really scared.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02And this room was where I used to come and feel safe.
0:42:04 > 0:42:05And I'd shut the door.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10And I'd tuck myself up in bed and I'd pull the covers right up.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14I'd wait to hear my dad's key in the door.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Sometimes I'd fall asleep, and sometimes I wouldn't.
0:42:18 > 0:42:24It's very odd going from a busy, happy, bustling family life
0:42:24 > 0:42:26to being a little boy with his marshmallow.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54'It's quite a strange feeling being here again.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59'It's not unpleasant at all, a lot of happy memories in this house,
0:42:59 > 0:43:00'particularly at Christmas
0:43:00 > 0:43:03'with Mum packing up all the Christmas presents.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05'I used to help her wrap them.'
0:43:10 > 0:43:13RAGTIME MUSIC PLAYS
0:43:19 > 0:43:21'Don't forget the Fruit Gums, Mum.'
0:43:25 > 0:43:301968 and now living with Dad and my new stepmum,
0:43:30 > 0:43:31I officially became a teenager.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36My life was all about KitKats, Aeros, Fruit Pastilles and Smarties
0:43:36 > 0:43:40and strangely, all of them felt very grown-up and very modern.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44But little did I know that every single one of them had been invented
0:43:44 > 0:43:49in pre-war Britain by that other major Quaker firm, Rowntree's.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53ADVERT: Here are millions of Smarties.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57First born in a grocer's shop in the shadows of York Cathedral
0:43:57 > 0:44:00back in the mid-1800s, Rowntree's, like Cadbury's,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02conducted business with Quaker values at their core.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04But in pre-war Britain,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08they became the self-declared pioneers of confectionery marketing.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11This is the archive, welcome.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15'Which is why I'm in York to meet company archivist Alex Hutchinson.'
0:44:17 > 0:44:20Now, I've seen a film where somebody gets squished in one of these, so...
0:44:20 > 0:44:22I'm going to try not to crush you!
0:44:24 > 0:44:26These... Oh, wow!
0:44:26 > 0:44:29- So these are the original artworks? - Yes. That's post-war.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33- I can't have Smarties in the house. They'd be gone in seconds.- Mmm.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36I couldn't sleep knowing there was a tube of Smarties in my house.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39Well, they weren't always known as Smarties.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42When we first made them in the 1880s, we called them Chocolate Dragees.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45Yorkshiremen didn't like that so called them Chocolate Beans.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48The first people to eat chocolate were really fine, elegant ladies
0:44:48 > 0:44:52in Europe who didn't like to pick up bits of chocolate
0:44:52 > 0:44:55because they would melt and stain their white gloves, so Frenchmen,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57French confectioners, coated them in this sugar shell
0:44:57 > 0:44:58so as they picked them up,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01the chocolate wouldn't melt on their fingers.
0:45:01 > 0:45:02They're the first type of chocolate sweet.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06This is really nice, it really makes your mouth water.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08It's quite heavy
0:45:08 > 0:45:13and this is the original artwork for Rowntree's Fruit Gums.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17- Oh, that little lad! - Mm-hmm. He was the Fruit Gumster.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20I've got to say, these were the ones for me,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23the ones that you could actually... They felt like fruits in the mouth.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27The raspberry with the little drupelets of berry.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30This next row is packaging.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33- The original packets. - HE GASPS
0:45:33 > 0:45:36This is one of the very, very early Quality Street cartons.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40Imagine opening that and finding the gold coins.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44NEWSREEL:' You've probably wondered at some time or another
0:45:44 > 0:45:47'how these delightful little wiggly things get on top of a chocolate.
0:45:47 > 0:45:49'And now you can see that it's all done by hand.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53'There's no girl like a Yorkshire girl for dexterity and quickness
0:45:53 > 0:45:56'in squeezing out the swirls of rich chocolate.
0:45:56 > 0:45:58'At least, that's what they say.'
0:45:58 > 0:46:02A particular favourite of both my mum and my stepmum's,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05the selection box of chocolates,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08always had female connotations for me. They were about giving,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12receiving and saying far more than what was ever in the box.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14So it seems apt that back in the 1930s,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18these fancy boxes were so...well, fancy.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21Buying a box of chocolates - it was tantamount to a marriage proposal
0:46:21 > 0:46:23because they were just so expensive.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26In 1933, Rowntree's came up with a cunning plan.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29They created a new line called Black Magic
0:46:29 > 0:46:31which was a very good quality chocolate
0:46:31 > 0:46:33but it was in a plain carton
0:46:33 > 0:46:35and the chocolates didn't cost you the earth.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37They hit upon this new advertising campaign.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40They were trying to persuade people that you could buy a box
0:46:40 > 0:46:42of chocolates for someone you'd only been out with once or twice.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45- It isn't a proposal, it's a box of chocolates. - Just a box of chocolates.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48LADY IN ADVERT: But as I took the record,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51it dropped and smashed into a million pieces.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54I thought he'd never forgive me.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58But tonight, he came with a box of my favourite Black Magic chocolates.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Those centres are absolutely dreamy.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05These are original chalk and charcoal sketches
0:47:05 > 0:47:10- for the 1933 Black Magic advertising campaign.- Wow.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Heavens! Smoking AND fur!
0:47:15 > 0:47:18- HE LAUGHS- Yes, I'm not sure it would go down quite so well
0:47:18 > 0:47:20with today's consumers.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23- So elegant, though.- It was very, very popular in its time.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27- Yes, I remember Dairy Box. It was a treat.- Mmm.- It was a treat.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31It wasn't as special as being given a box of Black Magic.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33No. We were aiming them at different consumers
0:47:33 > 0:47:36so Black Magic was meant to be romantic whereas Dairy Box
0:47:36 > 0:47:38was what you could buy for the girl next door
0:47:38 > 0:47:40just because she was fun and you liked her
0:47:40 > 0:47:42but you didn't have to be going out with her.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45My father would give Mum Black Magic
0:47:45 > 0:47:49and then later, my stepmum, she got Dairy Box.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52- Oh, well, speaks volumes! - It so does!
0:47:53 > 0:47:56- Ready for a break, dear?- How did you guess?- And a KitKat.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00KitKat? Yes, please. It's just what I need.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02- SNAP! - Crisp, isn't it?
0:48:02 > 0:48:05- I like the chocolate too. - Just right for a break.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Have a break, have a KitKat.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10This is one of the really early KitKat moulds
0:48:10 > 0:48:14from when we used to make single fingers of KitKat.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18- Single fingers?- Yeah, we made single fingers of KitKat in the 1930s.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21For me, the whole point of a KitKat, it's that moment
0:48:21 > 0:48:26when I USED to be able to run my thumbnail
0:48:26 > 0:48:30down the foil and then break the KitKat.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34And some clot changed the packaging.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37Well, I suppose you could say it's to do with our Quaker roots.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40We had to... Really, truly!
0:48:40 > 0:48:42We changed the packaging because we realised that
0:48:42 > 0:48:47if we had our KitKats in a flow wrap, they would be even crisper
0:48:47 > 0:48:50and better preserved when they got to the consumer.
0:48:50 > 0:48:51It's not the same.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55I've never quite forgiven you for that, to be honest with you.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06'So you have it then.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08'Marry the creamy milk from Shropshire
0:49:08 > 0:49:10'with the cocoa from Ashanti.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14'Cream and brown, Britain and Africa.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21'And that is Dairy Milk chocolate.'
0:49:27 > 0:49:30# Yummy, yummy, yummy I got love in my tummy
0:49:30 > 0:49:33# And I feel like loving you... #
0:49:33 > 0:49:361971, and I was 15.
0:49:38 > 0:49:44A time of creative expression, wild colour and, well, gay abandon.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47# Who loves to kiss you Ooh, love, I love it so... #
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Chocolate confectionery was about to get very sexy,
0:49:50 > 0:49:52in more ways than one.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55So I'm dusting off my tie-dyed T-shirt
0:49:55 > 0:49:59and heading to Cadbury's HQ to reminisce in some of those
0:49:59 > 0:50:02quintessentially '60s and '70s advertising campaigns
0:50:02 > 0:50:04with Tony Bilsborough.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10My real chocolate years were the mid to late '60s,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13- when it almost seemed you could measure my life in chocolate bars. - Yeah.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15The ones that I knew very well
0:50:15 > 0:50:18but also the new bars that would come along.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21For me, the perfect bar was the Cadbury's Flake.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Yeah, the Cadbury Flake actually dates back to 1920
0:50:25 > 0:50:27and it was invented by a guy on the line here
0:50:27 > 0:50:30who just happened to see the chocolate pouring into the moulds
0:50:30 > 0:50:33and out again and the way it folded backwards and forwards.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36They would, in the old days, just chip that off,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39either remelt it or throw it away and he loved the texture
0:50:39 > 0:50:41and put in a suggestion to the company
0:50:41 > 0:50:44and it was taken up and that's where Cadbury Flake came from.
0:50:44 > 0:50:45But yeah, by the '60s,
0:50:45 > 0:50:48what you're seeing there is the product pretty much
0:50:48 > 0:50:52as it had been for many years, but a lot of support from advertising.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54So you've got the famous Flake girl.
0:50:54 > 0:50:55Yeah, I was a teenager
0:50:55 > 0:50:58when the Flake girl first appeared on my television.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02She played a very important part in my growing up.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04Yeah, as in most young men's lives, yes!
0:51:14 > 0:51:18'Enjoy Flake. Cadbury's Flake.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21'Fold upon fold of creamy milk chocolate.'
0:51:23 > 0:51:26The '60s, like the '60s in general info confectionery terms
0:51:26 > 0:51:30was a time of experimentation. Limitless possibilities.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32'It's full of biteable bubbles.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35'New Coffee Aero tastes as good as it looks.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37'Bite it and see!'
0:51:37 > 0:51:38Oh, look!
0:51:38 > 0:51:41# Nuts, whole hazelnuts!
0:51:41 > 0:51:44# Cadbury's take them and they cover them in chocolate. #
0:51:44 > 0:51:49'They came in search of Paradise... and found it.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52'Tender coconut moist with pure syrup.'
0:51:57 > 0:52:01- Oh, raisin bar!- Yep.- Amazin' Raisin. - The Amazin' Raisin.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04The Curly Wurly. I can remember getting my very first Curly Wurly
0:52:04 > 0:52:05and it seemed huge.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10In fact it seemed impossibly huge. It was like holding a firework.
0:52:10 > 0:52:11- Yeah!- It was a great big thing.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15- Look at this font. - Indeed, very '70s.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17It launched in 1970, so you've got the sixpence
0:52:17 > 0:52:20- and the 2½p, both old and new money. - Oh, everything was double price.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22That's right.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27- And of course the iconic... - Aztec!- ..Aztec Bar.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30The Aztec Bar was - let's not mince words here -
0:52:30 > 0:52:32it was a copy of the Mars Bar.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37The advertising tied in with the golden age of TV advertising
0:52:37 > 0:52:39which was the '70s.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41- 'Aztec.- Hey!
0:52:41 > 0:52:44CHANTING
0:52:47 > 0:52:50'Az-tec.'
0:52:50 > 0:52:53I can remember that campaign because it was the first time for me
0:52:53 > 0:52:55that advertising any sort of confectionery
0:52:55 > 0:52:56had got really exciting.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59- It was like watching a feature film. - Yeah.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03These are the days when the budget was limitless.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08'Cadbury's Aztec - a feast of a bar.'
0:53:08 > 0:53:10This is '70s, this is almost hippy box.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14- This is your long, flowing dresses. - I had a shirt like that.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17We all had a shirt like that!
0:53:17 > 0:53:20Now, look at him. The Milk Tray Man.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22The Milk Tray Man, yeah.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Although we'd been making the product for 50-odd years,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29it really became famous in the late '60s with the Milk Tray Man.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32HARPSICHORD MUSIC PLAYS
0:53:36 > 0:53:40In 1968, you see him first appear. The actor who played him,
0:53:40 > 0:53:43Gary Myers, played him for 20 years.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47Did everything from skiing down slopes to diving off high cliffs
0:53:47 > 0:53:48into shark-infested waters.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56Similar I suppose in style to James Bond
0:53:56 > 0:53:58and other characters of the time.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06He was a gentleman. I mean, he left his calling card and then went.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08- And that was as far as it went. - Y....es!
0:54:08 > 0:54:10Well, that was the impression.
0:54:10 > 0:54:11He was a stalker.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15There's no way that he would get today any airtime at all.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19'And all because... the lady loves Milk Tray.'
0:54:24 > 0:54:28And as the Milk Tray Man dived into uncharted waters,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30I too dived fully into my adolescence
0:54:30 > 0:54:32with all that this entails,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36growing up emotionally, psychologically and sexually.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39We moved from busy Wolverhampton to the countryside
0:54:39 > 0:54:43where I had no friends and where my relationship with my father
0:54:43 > 0:54:46and my stepmother became strained, to say the least.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49It was a very bad teenage time.
0:54:49 > 0:54:55I was deeply unhappy and looking for somewhere that I felt was mine,
0:54:55 > 0:54:58something comforting, something...
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Just a special place, a safe harbour.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05And it was the woods, and I'd come here with sweets
0:55:05 > 0:55:07and I'd sit and eat them.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10There were some sweets that I associated
0:55:10 > 0:55:12with adulthood and growing up.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16They were the things that my father didn't like me to eat
0:55:16 > 0:55:20like bubblegum and chewing gum which he disapproved of
0:55:20 > 0:55:23but also odd things like Walnut Whip.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28He wouldn't allow it. I think it was probably the way I ate it,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32which was to bite the top off and then I did this curling tongue
0:55:32 > 0:55:36down into the cream thing which probably didn't look very nice.
0:55:36 > 0:55:37That was banned.
0:55:37 > 0:55:43The thing my father disapproved of most was the chocolate Flake.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47The advert used to make my father's eyes lower to the floor.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49He would never buy me a Flake.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52He used to buy them for my stepmother.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56And watch her eat them. But I wasn't allowed one.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59So I used to snaffle them and take them off to the woods.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05I just loved everything about them - the way they crumbled,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07the way I wasn't supposed to eat them
0:56:07 > 0:56:11and the way they used to leave little bits of chocolate on your clothes.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14They were just plain naughty, really. And I loved them.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19I was sort of preparing myself for adulthood, I think.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24For that little escape of getting away from the family
0:56:24 > 0:56:28and away from home and out into the big, wide world.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38And so, as the busyness of adult life took over,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42the big, bad world of sweets would now take something of a back seat.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45Work began to feature more heavily, and sweets,
0:56:45 > 0:56:48bar the occasional one, slowly faded from my life.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53Just as I've matured, so too has the confectionery industry.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57All of the original Quaker firms have now been swallowed up
0:56:57 > 0:57:01by larger, global food manufacturers.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04The battle for ownership of the British chocolate maker Cadbury
0:57:04 > 0:57:07could be over. A British name for almost 200 years,
0:57:07 > 0:57:11the firm looks set to be taken over by the American food giant, Kraft.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16Indeed, the childhood experience of sweets has changed hands too.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Long gone is the innocent, excited dash to the local sweet shop
0:57:19 > 0:57:22with pocket money in hand. These days,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24parents ration their kids' intake
0:57:24 > 0:57:28and the age of the multipack is firmly upon us.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32But despite these changes, whatever wrappers they may come in,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35wherever we buy them, and whoever does the buying,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39one thing is clear - sweets hold a very magical power over us.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41'Problem solved.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44'Mm, but what happens when we get to the last one again?'
0:57:44 > 0:57:49So, next time you pop a sweet into your mouth,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52spare a moment to remember the child within.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57It's why sweets are so beguiling and so important.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01We are, after all, just grown-up kids.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05Something as simple as this can keep us young at heart.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09# Everyone's a Fruit And Nutcase
0:58:09 > 0:58:11# It keeps you going when you toss the caber... #
0:58:11 > 0:58:16'Cadbury's Flake - fold upon fold of creamy milk chocolate...'
0:58:16 > 0:58:19'Don't forget the Fruit Gums, Mum.'
0:58:19 > 0:58:23'And all because... the lady loves Milk Tray.'
0:58:26 > 0:58:27MUSIC: "Days" by The Kinks
0:58:29 > 0:58:34# Thank you for the days
0:58:34 > 0:58:38# Those endless days Those sacred days you gave me
0:58:38 > 0:58:43# I'm thinking of the days
0:58:43 > 0:58:48# I won't forget a single day Believe me... #
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd