0:00:19 > 0:00:24Since humans first discovered fire and wondered what to have for dinner,
0:00:24 > 0:00:29we have found ground grains into flour and made some kind of bread.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Historically, brown bread was as easy on the teeth as a brick.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Wholemeal bread was always quite dense and heavy...
0:00:41 > 0:00:45..and sometimes quite unpalatable.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51We're talking something really pretty palpable.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56You get hit over the head with a loaf of bread and you will probably fall to the ground.
0:00:56 > 0:01:02So we wanted something softer to eat and lighter on the stomach...
0:01:02 > 0:01:04white bread.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08But white bread was so expensive to make,
0:01:08 > 0:01:10it was the preserve of the super-rich.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15It was the lord of the manor who would be the one who had the beautiful white bread,
0:01:15 > 0:01:20and the whiter it was, the more prestigious and powerful he was.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This appetite for white bread would shape the whole evolution of our daily bread,
0:01:26 > 0:01:33a story with as many twists and turns as a plaited loaf, a chronicle of aspiration...
0:01:33 > 0:01:35industrialisation...
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Only once is this bread touched by hand.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41..and plain, old-fashioned snobbery.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45To know the colour of one's bread was to know one's place in life.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04CHURCH BELLS CHIME
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Britain's love affair with white bread stems from our geography and climate...
0:02:10 > 0:02:14a case of grain meets rain. Hah!
0:02:14 > 0:02:16Bearing in mind, of course,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19we're an island so we're not an ideal place to grow wheat.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24We can grow rye, barley, oats, but wheat doesn't really grow
0:02:24 > 0:02:31in an island which is damp and covered in mist for much of the year.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36We were dealing with an indigenous wheat
0:02:36 > 0:02:40which was not necessarily a great bread corn.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Particularly it wasn't a very good bread corn
0:02:43 > 0:02:46when the summer had been wet,
0:02:46 > 0:02:52it was harvested in stormy weather, it had started sprouting, often,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56and the protein was shot, really shot.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02From indifferent wheat, millers produced a rough wholemeal flour
0:03:02 > 0:03:07which wasn't good for bread-making because it didn't rise well.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10So you shove some yeast up some dough, you knead away,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12and you say, "Whoopee, here's a loaf,"
0:03:12 > 0:03:14and it wasn't. It was a brick.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16It was indeed a paving slab.
0:03:16 > 0:03:17BREAD BANGS
0:03:17 > 0:03:21That was because brown bread was also weighed down with bits of
0:03:21 > 0:03:26corn stalk, grit and bran, the rough outer casing of the grain.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31So what was just extraordinary, was then when somebody discovered that you could sieve out
0:03:31 > 0:03:40some of these really coarse pieces and take away part of the bran, and I think, when you tried that product,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45it was really delicious, you know, by comparison
0:03:45 > 0:03:48to what you'd been filing your teeth down on before that.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58White bread is refined, it's nice, it's light, the crust may be less thick.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01You've got very, very bad teeth.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06OK, you're 45, you've only got four teeth left, what do you want, right?
0:04:06 > 0:04:10So there is a very practical reason why white bread is preferable.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19However, for hundreds of years, the time-consuming sieving process
0:04:19 > 0:04:22pushed the cost of white bread beyond the reach of most people.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29But fast-forward to the Industrial Revolution
0:04:29 > 0:04:34where this story really begins, and a solution of sorts had been found.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Urban bakers needed to earn a crust, make some dough, and the way to do this
0:04:44 > 0:04:48was by selling bread people actually wanted to eat.
0:04:52 > 0:04:58But those catering to the growing working classes could only afford the cheapest brown flour,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02so a bit of creativity was brought to the process,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04a bit of, um, jiggery-pokery.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10A baker had to eke a living
0:05:10 > 0:05:14and satisfy a public that was increasingly interested
0:05:14 > 0:05:18in convenience and light colour in bread.
0:05:18 > 0:05:24By the mid-19th century, they'd cracked the way of, shall we say, adulterating the flour
0:05:24 > 0:05:29so that it came up white enough and also light enough,
0:05:29 > 0:05:35so that they could make a reasonable sort of dirty white loaf.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39The only way that they could make a bit of money was by adulterating it,
0:05:39 > 0:05:44and it was taken for granted that it would be adulterated with chalk
0:05:44 > 0:05:48and alum and bone meal, and all sorts of things would go in it.
0:05:49 > 0:05:56But the main adulterant that was used in this period was alum, aluminium sulphate,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00which had the effect of both strengthening the gluten in the flour slightly
0:06:00 > 0:06:04so you could get a better volume of bread, but also it had a whitening effect.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10Alum was, to a 19th-century baker, really a helping hand,
0:06:10 > 0:06:17and actually reconstituted the protein which was shot to hell by our weather
0:06:17 > 0:06:21and our other low-protein wheat varieties,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25and gave it a chance for a lift from the yeast.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32Aluminium sulphate is still used today, although not in bread.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38God! Aluminium sulphate.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41"Keep locked up and out of reach of children.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47"If swallowed, seek medical advice immediately and show this container or label.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51"For removing debris from pool water."
0:06:53 > 0:06:54God!
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Terrifying.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And we now know that it may have been responsible for exacerbating
0:07:00 > 0:07:05rickets, which was a disease of vitamin deficiency,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08which itself was exacerbated by lack of sunlight
0:07:08 > 0:07:11in heavily-polluted urban conditions
0:07:11 > 0:07:16and people living in windowless tenements, so all these things
0:07:16 > 0:07:21are linked together in a cycle of nutritional and social degradation.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24It may have been a health risk,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28but alum gave us the first popular white loaf.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34Luckily, in the 1870s,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39two things rendered the bakers' use of alum redundant.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The first came from the prairies of America and Canada,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48whose dry, constant climates were so different from ours.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54During the late 19th century, the colonies were great producers of cereals and so we were
0:07:54 > 0:08:00importing huge volumes of very high quality wheats from these countries,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03and in Canada of course, they grew really strong wheat.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08By strong, they referred to it as a flour
0:08:08 > 0:08:14that was made from wheat which used a high-protein grain,
0:08:14 > 0:08:20and that meant that you could make really high-volume breads.
0:08:20 > 0:08:26This strong wheat enabled a better rise so bread wasn't so slab-like,
0:08:26 > 0:08:32but whiteness was also crucial, and that came with the replacement of our milling methods.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41Traditionally, we had ground all our wheat in watermills and windmills.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48These were picturesque but slow.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50If there was a dry summer or it wasn't windy...
0:08:52 > 0:08:57..there'd be a power cut, and the huge millstones could be tricky.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05If the stones touch, you get these sparks, and of course, with sparks you get fire,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07and flour is explosive and the mills would burn down,
0:09:07 > 0:09:12so it was a regular feature for mills to disappear overnight.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Something more efficient was needed, and in the 1870s,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33along came a revolutionary Swiss system called roller milling.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37The big technical breakthrough in the second half of the 19th century is
0:09:37 > 0:09:42the introduction of roller milling which came to us from
0:09:42 > 0:09:44European developments,
0:09:44 > 0:09:49and they discovered that, if you put your wheat,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52your grain, through a roller
0:09:52 > 0:09:59rather than between stones, you could extract all the bits and pieces from the wheat
0:09:59 > 0:10:06much, much faster and also actually rather more usefully
0:10:06 > 0:10:09from the point of view of the baker.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15They were able to crack open the grains more scientifically
0:10:15 > 0:10:21and that allowed the separation of the bran and the flour to be much more carefully achieved.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28Roller milling came in in a big way because you could do in an hour
0:10:28 > 0:10:33what you could do in several days in a water or wind mill,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35so you could produce cheaper flour.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41Roller milling gave the whole population the chance to eat
0:10:41 > 0:10:43light, white, safe bread
0:10:43 > 0:10:50and, from the 1880s onwards, the overwhelming majority of Britons would choose white over brown.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54I have to say, I love white bread.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01The big difference between brown bread and white bread
0:11:01 > 0:11:04actually, in my view, is that white bread is nicer.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11It was a win-win situation.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13The public and the bakers were happy
0:11:13 > 0:11:17and the mill-owners took the bran and wheatgerm that had been sieved out
0:11:17 > 0:11:20and began a lucrative sideline in animal feed.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23But then a miller named Richard Smith
0:11:23 > 0:11:30decided the wheatgerm could be more profitably used to create a premium product for the affluent classes.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35Cookery For The Middle Classes...
0:11:35 > 0:11:37how to make Hovis bread.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Three and a half pounds Hovis flour...
0:11:43 > 0:11:46..one ounce fresh yeast,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49nearly one quart water.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Temperature 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03No salt needed. Mix it lightly until it is just cool enough to bear the yeast solution,
0:12:03 > 0:12:09which add, and beat the mixture to a smooth batter.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22This Richard Smith had a gut feeling there was something healthy about wheatgerm, and there was.
0:12:22 > 0:12:29With a grain of wheat, it encapsulates everything the plant needs to grow,
0:12:29 > 0:12:31and at the bottom of that,
0:12:31 > 0:12:39when the plant actually germinates, is this fantastic food source, the wheatgerm.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45So all the food and nutrition that that seed needs to germinate
0:12:45 > 0:12:47is housed in the berry.
0:12:47 > 0:12:54In wholemeal flour, there's about 2.5% wheatgerm,
0:12:54 > 0:12:59but in Hovis, there's six or seven times that amount.
0:13:00 > 0:13:07In modern marketing terms, Smith's patent pre-mix was an exciting new concept on the British bread scene.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11He launched his new wheatgerm bread on a health ticket.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Well, he must have been quite a clever man
0:13:14 > 0:13:20to have seen the virtues of using wheatgerm in this way, and I think,
0:13:20 > 0:13:26by 1900, there were a million Hovis loaves a week being sold.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30The middle classes embraced Hovis.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35It appealed to their love of novelty and their concerns about health,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and it was ever so slightly exclusive.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43They were always a little bit more expensive,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and of course, when you're a little bit more expensive,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49the image that comes over is that it's got to be better, doesn't it?
0:13:49 > 0:13:52But it was such a nice flavour because of the wheatgerm,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that it was a very clever idea.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06He was promoting a loaf that was a bit more refined,
0:14:06 > 0:14:11that was dainty enough and had a softer crust that you could serve with any meal,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15saying, "If you value your health and you value your family,
0:14:15 > 0:14:16"you must value your bread."
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Well, he packaged it, didn't he?
0:14:19 > 0:14:24He made it look healthy. He called it Hovis which is
0:14:24 > 0:14:26hominis vis, you know, force of man.
0:14:29 > 0:14:35And of course he was also quite clever in the way in which he was able to
0:14:35 > 0:14:40franchise out the process so that it wasn't
0:14:40 > 0:14:43just Hovis mills making Hovis bread.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46This was, very cleverly by him,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50made into a multi-billion dollar business.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Roller milling made a wider variety of choice possible
0:14:56 > 0:15:02but, for the general population, choice came once more at a price.
0:15:02 > 0:15:09With a complete absence of bran in bread, constipation became a national curse.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Ohh!
0:15:11 > 0:15:16There's the other aspect of bread which is the mechanical one -
0:15:16 > 0:15:20the effect of bread on our bowels.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25It was recognised early on that brown bread made you have a crap.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30No doubt about it, it promoted regularity.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35But the real brown bread of the bad old days was universally despised,
0:15:35 > 0:15:41so new loaves were launched that looked and sounded healthy...
0:15:41 > 0:15:44but were still soft and easy to eat.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47There was Bermaline and there was VitBe
0:15:47 > 0:15:52which were two similar ones, which was good marketing, I think.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Bermaline got a terrific reputation.
0:15:55 > 0:16:01I think people wanted a bread that looked wholemeal but they didn't necessarily want to eat
0:16:01 > 0:16:06the whole of the grain, so they would have a bread that was kind of coloured brown
0:16:06 > 0:16:12and they could sort of make it look as though they were healthier than they actually were.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17It's like people who eat muesli but it's actually muesli that's 90% sugar, you know.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Yet a health-food movement was growing,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25and at its forefront was Dr Thomas Allinson
0:16:25 > 0:16:29who criticised the excessive processing of our staple food.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36The famous Dr Allinson I think is quoted as having said that,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40as you remove all this lovely germ and all the nutrients
0:16:40 > 0:16:44that come in the wheatgerm and the bran, which is the roughage,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49you end up with a product which isn't nutritionally so beneficial.
0:16:51 > 0:16:57And he stood up and, on many occasions, preached the benefits of eating wholemeal bread.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Well, Dr Allinson of course,
0:16:59 > 0:17:05who was one of the original people who pushed very much the roughage
0:17:05 > 0:17:10hypothesis, makes a very strong link between exercise and the consumption
0:17:10 > 0:17:15of roughage related to the way in which our bodily functions work.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20Allinson believed in exercise, fresh air and the idea that food
0:17:20 > 0:17:25was medicine, and that what you ate should always do you good.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29That's probably his biggest claim to fame -
0:17:29 > 0:17:32a doctor who actually bothers about what we eat.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36There's still far too few of them around.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41But he actually had the courage of his convictions, put his money where his mouth was, and he said,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45"Look, we need to increase the supply of wholegrain flour, so I will
0:17:45 > 0:17:48"put my money into some mills which will actually provide it."
0:17:50 > 0:17:53In 1892, Allinson set up as a miller.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56He bought old-fashioned mills and ground wheat by stone,
0:17:56 > 0:18:01the traditional way, keeping all the bran and germ in the flour.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08This way of milling had become so uncommon that wholemeal
0:18:08 > 0:18:11was now more expensive to make than white.
0:18:11 > 0:18:12Which means that
0:18:12 > 0:18:16wholemeal becomes, historically, a very minority taste.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21In 1900, only 5% of the population eat wholemeal bread.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24It's that insignificant.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Interestingly enough, it's mostly the wealthier people who are buying
0:18:27 > 0:18:31these products because they are the ones with the disposable income.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34They're the ones who can now afford
0:18:34 > 0:18:39to make the switch from white bread to wholemeal.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42With so much going on in the world of bread,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44the bakers were kept hard at it.
0:18:44 > 0:18:50But if the public had seen the conditions in which bread was often made,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54they would sooner have baked their own, or gone without it.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02People really had no idea how to keep pests at bay.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Mice, you know, will thrive on wheat. They love wheat.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10And with flour, there's something called the Mediterranean flour moth
0:19:10 > 0:19:15which absolutely loves it, and that is its natural home.
0:19:24 > 0:19:32Yes, there's weevils in the flour, there's beetles behind the oven,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35there's mice in the loft,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39there's rats coming in from outside.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Yes, pretty grim!
0:19:45 > 0:19:47And I've seen all of these things!
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Oh, dear, oh, dear. Yeah.
0:19:55 > 0:20:02And what of the poor bakers? They were working all hours, slaves to a food that took all night to make.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08"The journeyman baker's existence is that of a dog.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13"He scarcely knows what it is to enjoy a night's repose.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17"His sleep is a pitch in the heated bake-house,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21"his bed is a board upon which the bread is made.
0:20:21 > 0:20:27"When he rises from his hard couch, his sweat and tears are literally
0:20:27 > 0:20:33"mingling with the ingredients of which the staff of life is manufactured
0:20:33 > 0:20:37"and which the public are compelled to eat."
0:20:38 > 0:20:45Bakers in France used to be called groaners because of
0:20:45 > 0:20:49the ghastly noises they made while they were kneading the dough.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52It was so arduous a task.
0:20:52 > 0:20:59You were making a sack of flour at a time, which is more than a hundredweight, in a trough.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02It was a long process and it was very, very hard work,
0:21:02 > 0:21:07and the amount of sweat that was put into dough
0:21:07 > 0:21:11when it was being hand-kneaded like this
0:21:11 > 0:21:14was really quite measurable,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19because of course they lived and worked in the most appalling conditions.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Well, that gives you a bit of an idea. Nine times out of ten,
0:21:22 > 0:21:27the poor bloke, one bloke, he was the baker and he did everything.
0:21:27 > 0:21:28He delivered it as well.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31You could imagine his day was...
0:21:31 > 0:21:33sleeping like a cat, wasn't it?
0:21:33 > 0:21:38It was, do this bit and then have a kip, do this bit and then have a little break, do this...
0:21:42 > 0:21:43CLATTERING
0:21:43 > 0:21:50Roll on the 20th century, when science and technology began to offer a helping hand.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06Mixers were a big improvement because, up till then, bakers
0:22:06 > 0:22:10used to have to make the dough by hand in a trough.
0:22:10 > 0:22:17It was back-breaking work, so one of the earliest mixers had a sort of human-arm type of
0:22:17 > 0:22:24mechanism where the bowl would turn but the blade would go up and down,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27just as if it was a baker's arm.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29Ovens were being developed, large-scale ovens were being
0:22:29 > 0:22:33developed, so you could produce different kinds of breads.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38The way that the Viennese liked their sort of hard-crust, shiny breads...
0:22:38 > 0:22:43you could have that kind of an oven. And so it did revolutionise
0:22:43 > 0:22:49the whole operation, from being a kind of family-run affair -
0:22:49 > 0:22:56two or three people mixing and kneading and heating up a bread oven
0:22:56 > 0:22:59and producing a few dozen loaves every day...
0:22:59 > 0:23:02to hundreds and hundreds of loaves being produced in one bakery
0:23:02 > 0:23:06by far fewer people than you would normally need.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10You also have the widespread availability of baker's compressed yeast,
0:23:10 > 0:23:17and that is engineered or selected for greater vigour
0:23:17 > 0:23:22so your bread rises more quickly, and that means that the quality of bread
0:23:22 > 0:23:27generally is improving, and this is reflected in the sort of skill levels
0:23:27 > 0:23:31and the competitions that were run to try and encourage people to produce
0:23:31 > 0:23:34better bread and to measure themselves against each other.
0:23:34 > 0:23:40These improvements gave bakers more time to enjoy their craft.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44The 1930s saw the rise of competition baking...
0:23:44 > 0:23:48a "flour" show, you might say!
0:23:58 > 0:24:01We'll just cut this and see what it's like inside, and I'll
0:24:01 > 0:24:06talk you through what you would look for in an exhibition-type loaf.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09You'd go like that and feel the crumb.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14You'd...smell the flavouring.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18You'd look at the thickness of the crust.
0:24:19 > 0:24:26It can be mastered. It is an art, but you're always trying to get that perfect loaf.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31I think it's just this demonstration of skill
0:24:31 > 0:24:37and, at the same time, because it's about bread, because it's about baking, it's not just skill.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39It's about passion as well.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44These Miss Lovely Loaf competitions concentrated on cosmetics
0:24:44 > 0:24:48but there was still concern with what was inside.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Of course, public health in the 1930s was a disaster.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57There was enormous disease, nutritional disease and dietary disease, dietary-related disease,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01just general failure to thrive among whole sections of the population.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07In an effort to divert kids from the paths of whiteousness,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10some heavy-handed propaganda was aimed at them.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15# But brown bread is the thing for you
0:25:15 > 0:25:18# It's better far than white
0:25:18 > 0:25:22# For you'll grow big
0:25:22 > 0:25:25# And you'll grow strong
0:25:25 > 0:25:27# If you eat what we all do. #
0:25:30 > 0:25:34But no-one took much notice of the elephant in the room,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38and it took the Germans to break our white-bread habit.
0:25:42 > 0:25:48When war broke out, Britain was blockaded, causing havoc to essential imports of foreign grain.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52The Government acted immediately to ensure we didn't go without bread.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58In the Second World War, there were shortages of grain because
0:25:58 > 0:26:01the U-boats were sinking large tonnages of grain coming in from abroad.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05We were heavily dependent on imported food in 1939.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10We were only 30% self-sufficient, so there was a crash programme to grow more grain.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Parks and fields were planted up, permanent pasture and all the rest,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17to grow wheat to make the national bread supply.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20But just as we've mechanised the cavalry, so we've had to mechanise
0:26:20 > 0:26:24farming, and most of this war-time ploughing is done by tractor.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32Tractors of all sorts, driven by all sorts of people.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Tractors in parks and in pastures.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37Tractors scattered all over the countryside.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45How they barked and stuttered through September, October and November,
0:26:45 > 0:26:50doing in three months what it took three years to do during the last war.
0:26:52 > 0:27:00The long years of importing wheat had put a lot of British farmers out of business, and farms lay derelict.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03These were now drafted into production.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14After 20 years, the earth gets another chance to produce food instead of brambles.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Suddenly, bread had become once more the staff of life
0:27:20 > 0:27:26and every grain of wheat, home-grown or imported, was precious.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33To minimise bread consumption,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37the authorities launched a campaign against waste.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Moral -
0:27:40 > 0:27:45when food is short, you oughtn't to treat your bread as unimportant.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49And to maximise nutrition, they invented a utility bread
0:27:49 > 0:27:52aimed at using as much of the grain as possible.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59It just didn't make sense, if a convoy of ships
0:27:59 > 0:28:03had fought their way past U-boats and all the rest of it
0:28:03 > 0:28:06to get wheat to Britain and then you refined it
0:28:06 > 0:28:09and threw away 30% of the weight. It was just madness.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13You know, Britain needed all the food it could get.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17With most of the bran and wheatgerm included,
0:28:17 > 0:28:22this was almost wholemeal, sold under a patriotic name.
0:28:22 > 0:28:29The Ministry of Food introduced the national loaf, and what that was was a compromise.
0:28:29 > 0:28:36It was the much-loved white loaf but with enough of the bran and germ left in
0:28:36 > 0:28:43to bring it up to 85% of the full 100% wholemeal,
0:28:43 > 0:28:45so that became the only loaf of bread that
0:28:45 > 0:28:48bakers were allowed to make during the war.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51There was no white bread in the country at all.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Another Ministry of Food measure was to ban bakers from selling
0:28:56 > 0:29:02bread on the day it was baked, so all war-time bread was a bit stale.
0:29:02 > 0:29:03Yes.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07This is an attempt... This loaf here is an attempt to reproduce
0:29:07 > 0:29:11something similar to what the national loaf would have looked like,
0:29:11 > 0:29:12and of course this bread is,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15as all bread had to be in the Second World War, one day old
0:29:15 > 0:29:19before we can use it, because the Government wanted to stop people
0:29:19 > 0:29:21from over-consuming fresh bread
0:29:21 > 0:29:26and they know that, if you have bread that's a day old, it's slightly less melt-in-the-mouth,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30slightly less "Yummy-yummy, let's have another slice."
0:29:30 > 0:29:32It's interesting that people
0:29:32 > 0:29:35who remember the Second World War,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39they talk about the national loaf with a degree of resignation
0:29:39 > 0:29:42and with disgust, as though it was something imposed on them.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45You couldn't get the white bread that perhaps you wanted.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48It was a dirty-looking loaf of bread.
0:29:48 > 0:29:55Yeah, we didn't have the utility mark on it like you did on clothes, but I mean, that was it.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58It was reckoned to be satisfactory and everybody complained.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06Mmm.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09It's got a wheaty quality, as you would expect,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13from the little particles of bran and germ in there. It's all mixed in together.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15Mmm, lovely smell.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19But of course, the interesting thing about this national loaf was that
0:30:19 > 0:30:24it was one of the things that contributed towards the astonishing success of war-time nutrition.
0:30:24 > 0:30:30This was a whole nation that had to eat semi-wholemeal bread every day, and lots of it,
0:30:30 > 0:30:34and the level of health and well-being at the end of World War II
0:30:34 > 0:30:36was higher than it's ever been before or since.
0:30:36 > 0:30:42And that says something about how powerful good diet can be.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47But having to be healthy was very boring.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51When white bread came back on the shelves again in the 1950s,
0:30:51 > 0:30:56we fell on it like a long-lost chum, especially the pre-sliced stuff.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58Ohh!
0:30:58 > 0:31:02It was sliced and it was wrapped and it was convenient.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07I'm sure that's the main reason for it, and I can remember my mother,
0:31:07 > 0:31:15we'd go to the shop and probably buy two fresh baked loaves
0:31:15 > 0:31:19because we were going to eat them today and maybe tomorrow, but we
0:31:19 > 0:31:23knew that the wrapped and sliced would keep for two or three days.
0:31:23 > 0:31:29And a whole generation of kids had never seen or tasted anything like it.
0:31:31 > 0:31:37I remember the treat of going down the road to my friend David,
0:31:37 > 0:31:43whose mother was very modern and only fed him with white sliced with Golden Syrup,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47both of which were frowned upon in my household most of the time.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51We actually ate wholemeal bread.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54I didn't get that much white bread as a kid.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58In fact, it was quite a luxury to have it occasionally.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02We'd visit relatives and I'd wolf the stuff down with excitement.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08The 1950s saw a seismic shift in the world of baking.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13The technology that helped independent craft bakers before the war
0:32:13 > 0:32:15now began to replace them.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20Massive new plant bakeries were being built, capable
0:32:20 > 0:32:25of producing loaves on a scale unimaginable to the small operator.
0:32:31 > 0:32:38Where I kind of had a small machine that was making, mixing 14 pounds of flour,
0:32:38 > 0:32:43we've all of a sudden got a machine that's mixing 280 pounds of flour,
0:32:43 > 0:32:45and mixing it a lot quicker
0:32:45 > 0:32:50because of the different process that goes on in plant bakeries.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Only once is this bread touched by hand, in the twisting
0:32:55 > 0:32:59which gives the bread an even texture and avoids crumbling.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04The mass production of bread saw many craft bakers go to the wall.
0:33:04 > 0:33:12Their shops now became outlets for the new national brands, all owned by wealthy milling firms.
0:33:12 > 0:33:18By flooding the market with more efficiently produced stuff,
0:33:18 > 0:33:26they could actually take the market out from underneath the smaller bakeries, and so they were
0:33:26 > 0:33:30either bought up and closed down or simply wiped out by the competition,
0:33:30 > 0:33:33and it was pretty ruthless, pretty systematic.
0:33:33 > 0:33:42All the high street bakeries that succumbed ended up as outlets for two or three
0:33:42 > 0:33:47large bakeries, factory bakeries with milling firms behind them.
0:33:47 > 0:33:53From the heart, speaking to you now, it probably ruined our industry
0:33:53 > 0:33:58in a way, but then the population couldn't sustain...
0:33:58 > 0:34:03or the local bakers couldn't sustain supplying the local population.
0:34:03 > 0:34:09There weren't enough bakers so you had to get into factory production, I guess.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Factories had introduced the mass production of our daily loaf,
0:34:16 > 0:34:20and now science was going to alter the bread itself.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23The British Baking Industries Research Association had
0:34:23 > 0:34:27laboratories at Chorleywood in Hertfordshire.
0:34:29 > 0:34:30In the late '50s,
0:34:30 > 0:34:36they began research into the science behind the process of bread-making.
0:34:36 > 0:34:41The organisation that was based at Chorleywood was set up to help the whole of the baking industry...
0:34:41 > 0:34:44bread bakers, cake bakers,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47biscuit makers of all sizes and all shapes,
0:34:47 > 0:34:49and the intention was to carry out
0:34:49 > 0:34:53fundamental research work which would equip the industry
0:34:53 > 0:34:57to meet the demands and challenges of the future.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01And from that, they come to a fundamental understanding
0:35:01 > 0:35:06of the value of putting energy into the mixing process,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10a fixed amount of energy in a defined time.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13In a nutshell,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16they discovered that, if you increased the levels of yeast,
0:35:16 > 0:35:20whipped the dough really fast and added various baking aids,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23you could reduce the bread-making process
0:35:23 > 0:35:25from three hours to one hour.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30You'd get rid of hours of fermentation and ripening,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34and this is really by industrial action...
0:35:34 > 0:35:38you know, tiddly-pom, round and round and round, hit it,
0:35:38 > 0:35:41work it, deal with it...
0:35:41 > 0:35:45and it's speed, and we destroyed time.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51The big miller bakers saw the potential of this innovative process
0:35:51 > 0:35:55and installed the required machinery in all their factories.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00Production and profits rose accordingly.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07And a big argument began about the relative importance of time to the
0:36:07 > 0:36:12bread-making process, a big argument that continues to this very day.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17I don't think you can make bread in an hour.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20I don't think that process
0:36:20 > 0:36:26is going to achieve the ripening effect that also has nutritional
0:36:26 > 0:36:29benefits, and then you plonk it in a tin
0:36:29 > 0:36:33and stick it in an oven where it rises as it's going in the oven.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36The yeast's still fermenting like crazy
0:36:36 > 0:36:38and that process completely
0:36:38 > 0:36:41bypasses everything in the interests of saving time.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44# Like a bird in the sky
0:36:46 > 0:36:49# She flies like a bird
0:36:49 > 0:36:52# And I wish that she was mine... #
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Chorleywood bread had a lighter texture than people were used to,
0:36:56 > 0:37:02and this was promoted as a positive, and the public loved it.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The mass of humanity has no taste.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08This is very important to remember.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13They like food that has as little taste as possible.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Inevitably, there are different views about what
0:37:16 > 0:37:21is the right bread quality, and whether it's a prejudice
0:37:21 > 0:37:24or whether it's really simply this personal relationship
0:37:24 > 0:37:27that people have with bread is difficult to say.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32Inevitably, if you've grown up with a certain style of bread,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36you tend to look at other styles as not being the right quality.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40# I'm a happy knocker-upper and I'm popular besides
0:37:40 > 0:37:41# Cos I wake 'em with a cuppa
0:37:43 > 0:37:46# And tasty Mothers Pride... #
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Pop culture was used to sell the new-style bread to the crusties.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Each brand was keen to demonstrate how reliably
0:37:52 > 0:37:54soft and fresh their product was.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59So they sold us the idea of the squeeze test.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03Fantastic Mothers Pride!
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Well, we've all been conditioned.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10We've all been conditioned by our parents and successive generations
0:38:10 > 0:38:16of people on the basis that fresh bread always has a soft crumb,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20and so what people do is to give it the squeeze test.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33And it's amazing how many people you see squeezing bread,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36and I think us as bakers do it as well,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40but it is kind of a freshness measurer.
0:38:40 > 0:38:41I think people
0:38:41 > 0:38:47like soft bread, but I think they feel that soft bread is fresh bread.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52But like an ageing starlet, the freshness was artificially induced.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56The Chorleywood breads were bolstered with fats and additives
0:38:56 > 0:38:58that prevented the loaf from going stale.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03Now, that is two fingers to biology in a big way.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08You know, nature decomposes things unless we stop it from doing so.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10It's all complete fantasy land...
0:39:10 > 0:39:14the idea that a loaf of bread could last for a week without changing,
0:39:14 > 0:39:15or a month or three months.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19The ever-fresh factory loaf had become the grey squirrel
0:39:19 > 0:39:22of the bread world, driving out the old favourites.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Morning. Morning, Mrs Hatton.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27Hello, Mr James. Hello, Charlie.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30- Hello.- They don't make bread like they used to, do they?
0:39:30 > 0:39:32- No, they don't.- Look at it! No crust!
0:39:32 > 0:39:34You don't want a crust. You're crusty enough!
0:39:34 > 0:39:38Ha! D'you hear what he said? Oh, he's a lad, isn't he?
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Crusty loaf! Who the hell cares about a crusty loaf? I don't know.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Mind you, it's a funny thing. I wonder why you never see a crusty loaf nowadays.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49- Must be the atom bomb... - They steam it.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51- Pardon?- They steam it.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53- What?- The bread.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57- It's the steam ovens that do it. - Do what?
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Stop the bread from having a crust.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03They're not allowed to sell a loaf of bread unless it weighs a pound.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Now, the only way they can do that is to bake it in a steam oven,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09cos if they put it in a dry one,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12it loses moisture and it comes out at less than a pound.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14Oh, really?
0:40:14 > 0:40:16And why is the cream always on top of the milk?
0:40:16 > 0:40:20I don't know nothing about milk.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29Even as the scientists took more control of our food,
0:40:29 > 0:40:33a band of rebels were plotting to steal it back again.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35The whole food movement was on the rise
0:40:35 > 0:40:38and the health HQ was Cranks in London.
0:40:38 > 0:40:44Here, the party faithful ate wholemeal breads and sourdoughs,
0:40:44 > 0:40:45a bread so pure
0:40:45 > 0:40:51it's risen by natural yeasts which take a day to ferment.
0:40:51 > 0:40:52But we were...
0:40:52 > 0:40:56hardcore because that's what you had to be in order
0:40:56 > 0:41:01to differentiate yourself from the amorphous mass of industrial food.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05This was a time when people said, "By the turn of the century,
0:41:05 > 0:41:09"we'll all just take a pill for breakfast and a pill for lunch."
0:41:09 > 0:41:13The food technologists were taking over at the time.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19I think the whole Cranks thing was that people wanted to go back to
0:41:19 > 0:41:21what was considered to be
0:41:21 > 0:41:25old-fashioned, traditional bread,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27the complete opposite
0:41:27 > 0:41:30of the Wonder loaf.
0:41:30 > 0:41:37We went back a little bit and people were almost demanding
0:41:37 > 0:41:41that more dense... squat type of wholemeal loaf.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Beginning in London with a radical elite,
0:41:45 > 0:41:50the Cranks' message spread across the UK via strategic outposts.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54Well, we know people who came to the restaurant maybe two years ago that
0:41:54 > 0:41:57have left London because of the fumes or one thing or another
0:41:57 > 0:41:59have opened restaurants in Bristol,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02there's one at the University of Sussex,
0:42:02 > 0:42:04there's one opening in Folkestone,
0:42:04 > 0:42:06there's one in Canterbury,
0:42:06 > 0:42:07there's one in Cambridge.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10There are people opening shops in other areas.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13The young Craig Sams was an entrepreneur
0:42:13 > 0:42:15in the style of Dr Allinson.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20He opened Ceres, Britain's first organic artisan bakery.
0:42:25 > 0:42:32We opened Ceres bakery in Portobello Road in 1972 and started by making
0:42:32 > 0:42:37wholemeal, wholemeal rye and wholemeal sourdough,
0:42:37 > 0:42:42and that was our core offering of bread.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44You needed to spend a bit more money.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48When a loaf of bread was 12p, ours was 14p.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51It was that sort of differential, but people didn't care.
0:42:51 > 0:42:57It was the best bread in Britain and I would venture to say in Europe.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00We really were making very good bread.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08But in the '70s, a claim like this
0:43:08 > 0:43:11meant investigation by the authorities.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17We thought, for everyone's sake, we'd do a little
0:43:17 > 0:43:21probing into bread, or rather, we got Mr George Ort to do it for us.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23He's a master baker
0:43:23 > 0:43:27and he says he has a very wide taste in bread, starting with...
0:43:27 > 0:43:31- Mother's Pride, 14p.- "It was quite nice when it came out of the oven,"
0:43:31 > 0:43:36said Mr Ort, "but put the wrapper on and the moisture begins to seep out from the crumb to the crust.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40"It could also have been baked longer, but then they have got a weight problem."
0:43:40 > 0:43:42He meant the bread. Bread loses weight in the oven.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44By law, it has to be 28 ounces.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48- Small Nimble, 12p. - This one Mr Ort did not probe.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52"It's one of those slimming things," he said. "I don't believe in them.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54"All the gluten in this makes it tasteless."
0:43:54 > 0:43:57"Women go for slimming bread," I said.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00"Women," he said, "are not allowed to be bakers."
0:44:00 > 0:44:03- Hovis, 10.5p.- "Did you know?" said Mr Ort,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07"The original name for Hovis was Smith's Patent Bread.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Then they had a competition and a Latin professor won it with Hovis.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14- The second prize was yum-yum. - Don't just say brown, say yum-yum.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18Whatever the name, Mr Ort approved of it.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20Ceres health-food bread, 22p.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23And it looked lovely, all covered with grain.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25Mr Ort cut it in half and spoke.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28"Oh, my gawd..."
0:44:29 > 0:44:32"There's a lump of solid dough in the middle. It's not been baked.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36"But, you know, when people eat this health-food bread, they think it's done them good."
0:44:38 > 0:44:42But the warts-and-all nature of counter-culture bread was its selling point.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45Customers put up with the odd imperfection
0:44:45 > 0:44:50for reasons ranging from radical politics to health benefits.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54We got people coming down from St Charles's hospital up at the top
0:44:54 > 0:44:57of Ladbroke Grove with diet sheets
0:44:57 > 0:45:02which said, "Eat wholemeal bread and only buy it from Ceres bakery,"
0:45:02 > 0:45:06because the nutritionists at the hospital knew that most bakers
0:45:06 > 0:45:09put some white flour into the wholemeal bread.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11We were the only people they trusted
0:45:11 > 0:45:15because we didn't have a bag of white flour on the premises.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20This just might possibly give you the runs
0:45:20 > 0:45:24because it's much coarser than ordinary bread. It's better for you.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28I've always thought that it never happened in the north,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31but I always think the Cranks in the south...
0:45:31 > 0:45:37I don't mean the Cranks but the veggies and the people who visit health-food shops.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42Not too sure you've got many people in Bolton round
0:45:42 > 0:45:45where I live worried too much about...
0:45:45 > 0:45:47healthy bread, to be honest.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Yet believers were determined to convert the country.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Andrew Whitley set up an organic bakery in Cumbria.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59When I decided to start a bakery in a small village in the north
0:45:59 > 0:46:02of England, the bakers I consulted said,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05"Andrew, it seems to us that you're going to a place where there's
0:46:05 > 0:46:08"no customers to make a product for which there's no demand out of a raw
0:46:08 > 0:46:11"material, English wheat, which is impossible to make into bread,"
0:46:11 > 0:46:14because without the chemicals, the Chorleywood bread process,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18people thought English wheat, you couldn't make bread out of it.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20There was a certain antagonism towards us, like,
0:46:20 > 0:46:25"Oh, well, wholemeal bread is a middle-class affectation,
0:46:25 > 0:46:30"good bread is a middle-class affectation, and let the masses eat
0:46:30 > 0:46:33"pappy, white, factory-made bread."
0:46:33 > 0:46:36The whole food movement gained momentum.
0:46:36 > 0:46:41Even home baking became fashionable...with certain classes.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45The new old-fashioned bread was demonstrated
0:46:45 > 0:46:47by a charming young TV chef.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49Yes! Delia!
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Now, the marvellous thing about this bread...
0:46:52 > 0:46:56the most marvellous thing about it... is you don't have to knead it.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58Just plonk the dough in,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01flatten it out with your hands, cover it with a cloth
0:47:01 > 0:47:05and leave it for about 25 to 30 minutes,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09and it should rise up to about an inch, half an inch,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11to the top of the tin.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15I think it was an issue of class again because to buy the flour was expensive.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17You had to go to a health-food shop
0:47:17 > 0:47:22or whole-food shop and buy a bag of very expensive...
0:47:23 > 0:47:26..stoneground wholemeal flour, plus the yeast.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28You had to have the time to make it.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33Given that the sliced white was readily available and very cheap,
0:47:33 > 0:47:37this was a choice, that it was again saying something...
0:47:37 > 0:47:41"I've got the time and the skill and the money to make this kind of bread."
0:47:41 > 0:47:45And we just happen to have one that we made earlier this morning,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47so now you can see the finished loaf.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51There we are...the Grant loaf, the easiest loaf in the world.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54Very crusty, very delicious, full of flavour.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Picking up on the wholefood mood,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01Hovis mounted one of its most popular ad campaigns,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04aimed at the millions who'd never heard of Cranks
0:48:04 > 0:48:06and didn't have the time to bake.
0:48:09 > 0:48:14Last up on t'round would be old Ma Peggarty's place.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17'Twas like taking bread to the top of the world.
0:48:21 > 0:48:27This nostalgic fantasy set bread in a rural idyll but, in real life,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30Hovis was now the middle of the giant business sandwich
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Rank Hovis McDougall.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41And life was far from idyllic as their workers joined other plant bakers in a strike for more dough.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58One ugly scene when a bread van from another bakery tried
0:48:58 > 0:49:01to force its way in, with the driver trying to bulldoze his way
0:49:01 > 0:49:04through the crowd, and some were pushed to the ground.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11There was a bread strike which was about wages and conditions in the big plant bakeries, and since they
0:49:11 > 0:49:14were by that time supplying the vast majority of bread,
0:49:14 > 0:49:1870%, 80% or something, when they went out, suddenly everyone was desperately looking for bread.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20And bread is one of those products...
0:49:20 > 0:49:22like bread, flour, baked beans, etc,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25that whenever there's a sniff of a shortage,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29people go completely crazy and they want to buy much more than they actually need.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33So little bakeries like ours and medium-sized ones who weren't
0:49:33 > 0:49:36affected by the bakers' unions' strike action worked non-stop.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40A quarter of Britain's bread production is still going ahead despite the dispute.
0:49:40 > 0:49:444,000 of the small firms whose employees are not members of the bakers' union
0:49:44 > 0:49:48are still producing and selling as much bread as they can bake.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52When the bakers went on strike, we were working 24 hours a day.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56We had bakers coming, bakers who were on strike,
0:49:56 > 0:50:02coming to work for us because we were baking bread non-stop.
0:50:02 > 0:50:08Flour millers of course had plenty of flour because the bakeries weren't taking it from them,
0:50:08 > 0:50:10and we had shops all over London screaming,
0:50:10 > 0:50:14"Please can we have some bread! Please can we have some bread!"
0:50:14 > 0:50:18- Can you tell me how long you've been waiting for?- Since seven o'clock.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20- Seven o'clock.- Seven o'clock.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24- What do you expect to be able to get?- A loaf of bread.- Just one?- Yes.
0:50:24 > 0:50:30The strikes...I were working for Rank Hovis when they were going on
0:50:30 > 0:50:35and really spent my time, at that time, helping out bakers
0:50:35 > 0:50:39that I knew to cope with the demand from customers.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43Seven o'clock in the morning, there'd be queues right down the street,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47but it was quite a challenging time, there's no doubt about it.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Despite appeals, today's queues were as long as ever,
0:50:51 > 0:50:53some of them forming as early as half past six,
0:50:53 > 0:50:55long before the shops even opened.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57Everyone was going mad for bread,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00but they could all have survived without it.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04Now, bread wasn't the staff of life but the stuff you put round
0:51:04 > 0:51:08something else and, by the '80s, we were eating less of it.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Every country in the world, developed country,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15the rate of consumption of bread is declining.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19France, Italy, Germany, you name it...they're all eating less bread.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21Why? Well, it's self-evident.
0:51:21 > 0:51:26They're eating more pork or more lamb or more fruit occasionally,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28but anything other than bread.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38The baking industry was desperate to rekindle our interest,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41and looking at our fire was ciabatta, a white bread
0:51:41 > 0:51:46enriched with olive oil, invented by Italian bakers in the 1980s.
0:51:46 > 0:51:52Ciabatta was launched here by Marks and Spencer's and taken up by the middle classes.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57I think it was liked by people because it was easy eating.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01You could argue it was the sort of Radio Two of
0:52:01 > 0:52:07bread in the sense that it didn't pose any challenge to delicate gums or teeth or anything like that.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10So that was a good thing. It was fairly light, white-ish...
0:52:10 > 0:52:12which is always good in English baking...
0:52:12 > 0:52:19and it had a certain Continental je ne sais quoi which meant that
0:52:19 > 0:52:23people could kind of recognise it from a foreign holiday or,
0:52:23 > 0:52:28once they'd learned how to pronounce it of course, could ask for it in appropriate establishments.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Yes, please. Ciabatta, please.
0:52:31 > 0:52:37British bakers didn't always get it right, but everyone cheerfully cashed in on the ciabatta boom.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41As a profit machine,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45there's nothing quite like it because it holds huge amounts of water,
0:52:45 > 0:52:49and all food processing
0:52:49 > 0:52:53thrives on the addition of water and air.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58If you can put more water in your product or puff it up with more air,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01then you have a perceived value
0:53:01 > 0:53:05that exceeds the actual cost of the ingredients.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12But we like making ciabatta in our bakery.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14It's a nice sloppy dough.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17It makes a change from firm dough
0:53:17 > 0:53:21so handling it requires a certain amount of deftness
0:53:21 > 0:53:23to get it spread out on the tray properly.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27It's more like a sort of...
0:53:27 > 0:53:33almost like a cross between custard and flour. It's very puddingy.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38This is the most wonderful feeling.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41It's the real reward, certainly for the male anyway,
0:53:41 > 0:53:44of the making of the ciabatta,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47because running your fingers down
0:53:47 > 0:53:52this soft, puffy ciabatta is like feeling
0:53:52 > 0:53:55the inner thigh of your best beloved...
0:53:55 > 0:54:02slightly resistant but also beautifully sensual.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06# I've been really trying, baby
0:54:08 > 0:54:13# Trying to hold back this feeling for so long
0:54:14 > 0:54:18# And if you feel like I feel, baby
0:54:18 > 0:54:24# Then come on, oh, come on, whoo!
0:54:24 > 0:54:25# Let's get it on
0:54:27 > 0:54:29# Oh, baby
0:54:29 > 0:54:32# Let's get it on... #
0:54:32 > 0:54:35From the exotic thighs of ciabatta
0:54:35 > 0:54:37to the everyday baps of mainstream bread,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40bakers seem to have an affection for their craft
0:54:40 > 0:54:42beyond the call of duty.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Something happens, a sort of feedback loop,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54and it's physically stimulating,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58because you've got energy going up and down your arms.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02It's a lovely thing to work with.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04It's a pleasure.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17And so our story reaches the present. Today, we British can
0:55:17 > 0:55:20get so many different breads, it's hard to tell which country we're in.
0:55:20 > 0:55:27Bread has gone the same way as wine or chocolate or cheese,
0:55:27 > 0:55:32away from a few very standardised, bog-standard type flavours
0:55:32 > 0:55:37to real sort of variety and interest and complexity,
0:55:37 > 0:55:40and I think that's a good thing.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44I'll go along with olives, I'll go along with dried tomatoes,
0:55:44 > 0:55:45but apart from that,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49what a blooming stupid carry-on doing that.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52Putting cheese in bread when you can put cheese ON it?
0:55:53 > 0:55:57Health seekers still look to traditional breads for an answer,
0:55:57 > 0:56:00and what class you are still plays a part in what you eat,
0:56:00 > 0:56:02in a back to front kind of way.
0:56:04 > 0:56:11What is considered in one culture to be a high-status bread,
0:56:11 > 0:56:14in another culture is considered peasant food,
0:56:14 > 0:56:17and we have a lot of ethnic breads in Britain now.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21People strive to make sourdough ryes
0:56:21 > 0:56:24or Russian peasant breads,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27and in other countries, they're desperate to get rid of them.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33And in an echo of Britain's history,
0:56:33 > 0:56:38our popular factory loaf is now sought by the developing world.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45The best example is South Africa.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50In 1990, they were a regulated state.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55The bread that was made for the mass population was very similar in many ways
0:56:55 > 0:57:01to the national loaf that was made in this country in the 1940s, 1950s,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05and so one of the demonstrations of some of the African people
0:57:05 > 0:57:07that they were going up in the world
0:57:07 > 0:57:10was to be able to go out and buy white bread.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13And that was very expensive then,
0:57:13 > 0:57:16and it still is an aspirational thing.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Even today, you can go there and you can see that, at the weekend
0:57:19 > 0:57:21when they're entertaining their friends and family,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25it is white bread that they put on the table because that
0:57:25 > 0:57:29is the demonstration that "I'm moving up in the world".
0:57:33 > 0:57:36I do believe that all bread is good bread.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40I think it all serves a different purpose,
0:57:40 > 0:57:42and some may taste better than others,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45but I think it's the eating experience
0:57:45 > 0:57:47and what we want it for.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06# There's wheat in the field
0:58:08 > 0:58:11# And water in the stream
0:58:15 > 0:58:19# And salt in the mine
0:58:19 > 0:58:21# And an aching in me
0:58:26 > 0:58:29# And the baker will come
0:58:30 > 0:58:33# And the baker I'll be
0:58:37 > 0:58:41# I'm depending on my labour
0:58:43 > 0:58:46# The texture and the flavour. #
0:58:46 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:52E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk