All language subtitles for 1 1 Inside.The.Factory.S10E04.Throat.Lozenges.720p.HEVC

Hello. Today, I'm at a factory.

Sorry, I've still got a throat.

Oh, that's better. That can produce

up to 36 million throat lozenges every
single day.

Oh, look at this.

I'm Paddy McGuinness.

Oh, that's good.

A reluctant superhero.

Is this not the worst Avenger you've
ever seen in your life?

In the fight against the symptoms of
colds and flu.

I absolutely love that. Like a machine
gunner for all passengers.

Hard at work.

For God's sake, Brian, slow it down. I'm
not a machine.

To provide the relief that a snotty
-nosed nation needs.

And while I learn how to soothe a sore
throat.

And a banging headache.

Cherry Ely is rounding up the
ingredients.

I'm in search of honey.

Uncovering the stomach -churning habits
of nature's hard -working heroes.

When a honeybee gets back to the hive,
it regurgitates its collective nectar.

Obviously it regurgitates it.

And our resident historian, Ruth
Goodman, is prescribing the shocking

the local pharmacy.

You could buy...

Arthnic, strychnine, cyanide. Over -the
-counter with no oversight.

And no prescription.

Wow.

This factory pops out an incredible 230
million tablets and

lozenges every single week. Welcome to
Inside the Factory.

Play the title.

Are you okay? You alright?

Yeah.

Love these doors.

They don't, uh... Love this door.

I'm at the Wreck -It factory in
Nottingham where they make enough pills

tablets here to fill the biggest of
medicine cabinets.

Whether you've got a nasty cold coming
on or just a bit of indigestion,

there's a good chance that if there's an
over -the -counter medicine to soothe

it, they make it here.

And today I'm following the production
of not one, but two medicines.

Strepsils, honey and lemon lozenges, and
Neuropen, ibuprofen.

Now, clearly, I've no idea about making
pharmaceuticals, but I do know that this

factory takes it very seriously indeed.

Because even me designer stubbles,
they've got to be covered up.

But the main thing is, I've still got me
dignity.

Let's make some pills.

And you can't have a honey and lemon
lozenger, yeah, that's how we say it,

without some honey.

They get through 175 ,000 litres every
year, making lozenges to ease our

scratchy brawl.

And I'm on my way to meet it.

Right.

More?

What are they doing here, splitting the
pattern?

I tell you what, is this not the worst
Avenger you've ever seen in your life?

Meanwhile, the hero ingredient for my
lozenges, the honey, has been taken to

factory's high -tech Dust 3 testing
station.

Keep going, mate. In this chamber of
highly filtered air... Only authorized

personnel are allowed in to meet
Lozinger supplier lead Richard Tagg.

Hey -o, Rich.

Hi, Paddy. How do we do this? Is it
all... I mean, it's all... How are you,

He's on the elbows.

Safety first.

This is the next level. This is the most
I've ever had to do when it comes to

PPE and everything else. Why is it so
stringent?

So because we're a pharmaceutical
factory, from a safety and quality

perspective, we have to make sure that
we cannot... contaminate any of our

products all our raw materials that come
into the factory have to be sampled and

tested so tim's going to take that away
for testing okay how many cough drops in

there then rich these aren't cough drops
these are medicated lozenges that we're

making today a medicated lozenge coats
the throat to relieve the symptoms and

discomforts of a sore throat it's cleft
as a medicine and you're only allowed up

to 12 lozenges per 24 hours we use honey
for a flavor And we add our medicines

and active ingredients later within the
process.

These are the things you do not even
think about when you pick up a lozenger.

Tim's put the honey through its paces to
meet the factory's strict quality

controls.

Yep, that's good to go.

Get her out, pal.

So it's safely sealed up again for
transit out of the airlock.

And we can start the clock on
production.

While the honey heads off to be
transformed into lozenges, it's got me

How do bees actually make the stuff?

Cherry's on the case.

I am Paddy, and I am buzzing to visit a
specialist research facility run by the

University of Oxford.

Scientist Dr. Jonathan Patrick is a
serious bee boffin.

Lovely to meet you. Good to meet you.
Welcome to the Bee Lab. The Bee Lab.

What do you actually study? So we're
interested in bee nutrition, bee

bee physiology.

Making sure the bees are healthy and
healthy bees will tend to produce more

honey. Why do bees make honey?

Well, they're not making it for us.
What?

they don't make it for us no they're
actually making it as a store to see

through the winter bees make honey to
feed the colony and to make enough

for the cold weather they must collect
plenty of the main ingredient nectar

flowers during spring and summer what
exactly is nectar the nectar is

produced by plants

to encourage bees and other pollinators
to visit their flowers.

It's a sugary liquid which is
essentially carbohydrates, so it powers

flight and it's also something that the
bees will be taking back to their colony

to feed the colony members as well.

So it's not just that bees collect
nectar to take back to make honey at the

hive, they actually eat it as a snack?

Exactly.

Bees collect nectar using a proboscis,
which is like a long tongue, especially

evolved to lap up the sweet liquid from
the centre of the flower.

Well, how does it then transport it to
the hive if it's already eaten it? So a

honeybee has a special storage organ
inside its abdomen called the honey

stomach.

The honey stomach is an expandable pouch
which can hold around 30 milligrams of

nectar.

But how does it get turned into honey?

So when a honeybee gets back to the
hive, the first thing it does is offload

collected nectar to a receiver bee. How
does it hand it over?

Yeah, so I'm not sure you're going to
like this. So it regurgitates its

collected nectar. Obviously it
regurgitates it.

To demonstrate how this happens inside
the hive, Jonathan has mixed sugar with

water to create his own artificial
nectar.

Doesn't take long before the bees suck
it up.

They absolutely love that.

And share it out.

There we go, there we go.

So you can see one of the bees has got
its proboscis out and is drinking the

nectar from the other one.

As the liquid nectar is passed from one
bee to another, some of the water

evaporates, increasing the concentration
of sugar, but not yet raising the

levels enough to transform it into
honey.

Next is typically around 20 % sugar,
whereas honey, we need to get up to

something that's around 80 % sugar.

How on earth do the bees get rid of so
much water? The best place to see that

actually in the hive.

There are 12 hives in this outside lab.

An apiary manager... Is that Mark?

It is Mark, right?

Mark Lynch... Could be anyone.

..is using a little wood smoke to calm
the bees down.

We are going inside the hive. We're
going inside the factory.

OK, look at this. Wow.

Each hive has between 50 ,000 and 80
,000 working bees.

That's incredible.

At this point, the nectar hasn't become
honey yet. They still need to evaporate

more water from the liquid.

So there's still lots of work to be done
by the bees to get it thicker and

sweeter. Yeah.

Each bee regurgitates nectar from their
honey stomach into their mouth parts,

where even more water evaporates.

They repeat this process to fully
concentrate the nectar, and they have

trick to finish the job.

The bees will continue to reduce the
water content in the liquid by fanning

their wings to create an airflow through
the hive that will evaporate the water.

The temperature of a hive is about 35
degrees, so the heat of the hive and the

fanning will reduce the water content
even further.

So the fanning is almost like putting on
a hairdryer? Yeah. That's brilliant.

After this final blow -dry, the water
content is reduced to less than 18%,

leaving at least 82 % sugar, which means
that it's now officially honey.

Oh, look at that. Look at that. We've
got 82 .4%. Perfect. One, go!

But the bees' work isn't done yet.

In the wild, bees create these familiar
hexagonal honeycomb shapes by secreting

wax from glands on their abdomen.

In a hive, the man -made wooden frames
have a thin foundation layer of wax,

providing a neat template onto which the
bees build their cells to store the

honey.

When the bees have finished processing
the honey and it's become what we call

ripe, the bees will cover the cell over
with wax to waterproof it. Right.

Because honey will suck moisture out of
the air and without the wax coating, it

would become more watery again and
eventually ferment.

As well as making enough honey to feed
themselves through the winter, the bees

in a hive like this can produce an
additional 22 jars worth of honey a

Enough for 87 ,307 individual throat
lozenges.

So that's been regurgitated many, many
times. It's been dried, it's been heated

by the hive, and then it's been sealed
to be waterproof.

Yeah.

Takes a lot of work to make, honey,
doesn't it? It certainly does.

Back at the most hygienically high -tech
factory I've ever seen,

I'm settling into my surgical space
loafers and

following the health and safety yellow
brick road.

That's fancy. I like that. I like it.

I was going to say, when it comes to
PPE, what's your favourite part?

Not the hairnets.

I quite like these glasses.

My fully tested honey has made its way
to the mixing area.

But not as we know it, Jim.

Ah! Waiting for the airlock.

So everything's... Is it hermetic?

What's the word?

We call them airlocks, so you've got
pressure differentials, basically.

Oh, right, OK.

Rich didn't want to say hermetically
sealed either.

Here they are.

So the honey's piped up.

That's pumped into the mixer.

So is it just honey in there then, Rich?

No, we mix the honey with liquid sucrose
and liquid glucose.

Sucrose is a complex sugar that comes
from fruit.

Glucose is a simple sugar made up from
cornstarch. If we just use liquid

alone, it would crystallise and produce
a gritty lozenge. Whereas if we just use

glucose alone, it would melt the final
lozenge. So we use both to build the

perfect structure to carry the medicine
to our throat.

These sugars are combined with the honey
to create the base mixture for my

lozenges.

The sweet mix then travels through a
series of cookers, heating it to 140

degrees Celsius, removing 20 % of its
moisture.

If we continued to cook at those
temperatures, the materials would burn.

So to get around that, we drop the
materials into a vacuum chamber.

water is boiled at 100 degrees Celsius.

So this vacuum allows us to boil a lot
lower, around 30 degrees.

The vacuum chamber lowers air pressure,
so a lot less heat is needed to expand

the water molecules into gas, which
brings the moisture level down to 2%.

Next, tartaric acid from fruits

like grapes and avocados is added to
enhance the flavour of the lozenges.

But we've still got to add the medicine.

Where's that done?

So the medicine is made in dispensary.

That sounds very chemistry, very
pharmaceutical.

I like it.

Richard, it's been a pleasure, pal.
We'll look at the next bit.

While Rich oversees my scorching hot
mixture, I'm off to meet technical

director, Dr Jenna Buckley.

Who has a door with no airlock?

So maybe things are getting a bit more
relaxed around here.

Hello, Jenna.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
Right, just one minute. You can't come

across the line if you've got a phone on
you. This is an ATEX rated zone, which

is where we have to be extra specially
careful when we've got fine dry powders

and flammable liquids.

Anything that carries an electrical
charge might cause an explosion.

Understood.

Let's pop it on there.

Is it just anything electrical?

I'm sorry, you cannot bring over. No
worries.

Yep,

keep going.

We might be here for a while, Jenna.

Great. Is that everything?

Yeah. Okay.

Right. One last thing, no cameras.

Jenna, we need them so we can see it on
the telly. You can come over, but they

need to see it. They can't come with us,
right? Get over there, pal.

Luckily, the lads have some paparazzi
lenses.

Right.

What a place this is.

So these are the ingredients that go
into our medicated lozenge. This is what

changes it from being just a sweet.

into something that can help take away
your sore throat. So what causes a sore

throat? So most sore throats are caused
by viruses. They attack the lining of

your throat.

They make it red, tender and sore.

So in our medicated lozenges, we have
two ingredients.

These are the antiseptics that help kill
viruses in your throat.

The first one is the amometal creosol.

And then the other is dichlorobenzyl
alcohol.

This helps attack different bugs in your
mouth and your throat.

And when they're combined together, they
act to be stronger and take the pain

away.

First into the mixer go the antiseptic.

Next, we need some flavouring. We have
lemon oil and the peppermint oil that

helps it expatriate this flavour.

Oh, so you add peppermint to get more
lemon. We do, yes. The way it works in

your mouth, the peppermint makes the
lemon taste better.

The flavourings are added and the
mixture is heated to 35 degrees Celsius.

20 minutes later, my medicine is done
and decanted into containers ready to be

sent to the production line.

As I'm quickly learning, and as you can
see, there's a lot of rules and

regulations when it comes to medicine,
but 200 years ago, not so much.

As Ruth has been discovering.

If you were sick in Victorian Britain,
there was no NHS to turn to,

and doctors were expensive.

But Victorian pharmacies like this one,
faithfully recreated at the London

Science Museum, stocked a range of
products and potions that Catherine

the Royal Pharmaceutical Society knows
all about.

I was wondering, this feels quite a
grand sort of space.

What sort of things are people coming...

Two are chemists' four.

Well, the chemists and druggists would
sell a whole range of things, ranging

from food, wine.

You could go for the opticians, get a
tooth pulled.

So it wasn't just medicines that they
sold.

It's not like the NHS now, where
pharmacists are paid to supply you with

prescription medicine.

Even the poorest customers could afford
cheap remedies for common ailments like

coughs and colds.

There were absolutely no restrictions on
what these druggists sold or who they

sold it to.

This illustration dates to the 1860s.
Oh, this is amazing, isn't it? We've got

this very emaciated little girl down
here.

Please, mister, will you be so good as
to fill this bottle again with laudanum?

Laudanum is basically opium and alcohol
mixed together.

And you can see from her sunken in
cheeks that this is a depiction of

who's already addicted.

So this is saying a child is an opium
addict?

Yes. Children are quite often given
laudanum as a soothing aid to help them

sleep.

And side by side with narcotics, with
some even more sinister products.

And there's arsenic.

All sorts of poisons are constantly
available.

Yes, Victorians have a slightly
different understanding of poisons than

You could buy arsenic, strychnine,
cyanide, all from your chemist and

Over -the -counter with no oversight.

And no prescription.

Wow.

Across town at the archives of the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society... A few rare

relics from this unregulated Victorian
era can be handled with great care.

Oh, gosh.

Arsenic complexion soap?

You'd be surprised at the products that
arsenic found its way into.

I mean, in cosmetics.

It's a far cry from the heavily
controlled ingredients.

used on Paddy's production line today.

Oh, we've got some throat pastels. Now,
you'd think that would be all right,

wouldn't you? Allenbury's throat
pastels.

Diamorphine and cocaine.

The diamorphine actually is a cost
-suppressant, and then the cocaine is an

anaesthetic, so it would soothe your
sore throat.

But these drugs could also be
dangerously addictive.

Thankfully, from the middle of the 19th
century, acts of Parliament were passed

to try to bring the chemists under
control.

But it was a tragic case in Bradford
that would change the pharmaceutical

industry forever.

There was a confectioner who was making
peppermint humbugs like this.

And he was padding out the sugar,
because it was so expensive, with a

Paris mixture.

And so he went to his chemist and
druggist.

to get some, but he was accidentally
given arsenic. Good grief.

And he mixed those into the sweets.

The finished sweets didn't look quite
right, so were sold at a discount to

market trader Humbug Billy.

The sweets sold out fast, but proved to
be deadly.

So we've got here dreadful fatality from
poisoning.

Gosh. And I sent two bellmen into all
parts of the borough to give warning to

all persons not to eat these lozenges.

So you can imagine the panic. People
were literally running through the

warning people. Ringing bells, shouting,
they're poisonous.

And there was a massive amount. There
was 12 pounds of arsenic mixed into 40

pounds of sweets.

Tragically, more than 200 people were
poisoned and at least 20 died.

This fateful event led to the Pharmacy
Act of 1868, which limited sales of

poisons to qualified pharmacists and
druggists.

So now, instead of anybody being able to
set up a chemist shop and sell whatever

they like, it has to be highly
regulated.

So in order to practice pharmacy, you
have to be a member of the

society.

The Pharmacy Act also required chemists
and druggists.

to clearly label all poison and drug.

So this, in a sense, is the beginning of
the sort of organised pharmacy.

Exactly, and it's regulations like this
that help build the public trust in

pharmacy that we have today.

Thankfully, the medicines in our
factory... are fully approved for human

consumption.

And they're tested and checked at every
stage to ensure they're safe.

I tell you what, it's all happening
here. Look in here.

I don't know what tablets they are, but
I say it must be a nightmare working

here. You can never fall in sick.

Although, given the staff here can't
just help themselves.

If they do have an headache, they still
have to nip out to the chemist.

We're 35 minutes in, and at the start of
the production line, my batch of zesty

medicine is added to the honey and sugar
lozenger mix, which is still a sizzling

130 degrees Celsius, before it emerges
fully combined in all

its sticky splendour.

All right, well, I could stand here
looking at that pouring out of there all

day, and I can just see through there,
Rich, it's getting formed into a sheet.

Two glossy rivers of lemon and honey
mixture are created by rollers that

the mix to 10 millimetres thick.

Yes, that looks gorgeous.

Love it.

This flexible strip is then repeatedly
folded over to create a gradually

ribbon of gold.

Starting to bring the temperature down
so it's malleable, ready for forming.

The metal conveyor is sprayed with warm
water from underneath, maintaining a

steady temperature of 45 to 55 degrees,
which slowly cools the lozenge mix to

80 degrees Celsius.

So I'll snap you a piece off and then
you can get a feel.

Oh, get that.

But of course, health and safety won't
allow it.

Spoilsports.

My stretchy strand of lozenge now heads
uphill towards a pretty noisy part of

the factory.

Oh, look at that.

That's the snake that you've seen on the
boat?

Yeah. So the lozenge mix is transporting
into what we call the batch former.

That's amazing to look at that.

There's four cylindrical rollers
building it all up, starting to stretch

size it down for the next stage.

The batch former is stretching the
mixture like a sticky sugary dough,

it round and round the roller to make
sure it's flexible enough to be moulded

into a lozenge.

Yeah, it's getting thinner as it goes
down, isn't it?

The rope of honey and lemon is 9mm
thick.

As it snakes off, the roller's towards
an intriguing -looking piece of kit.

This is the moulding machine.

So the rope comes in at the bottom.

Inside the moulding machine, the rope
passes into a circular metal die with 68

sets of sharp top and bottom teeth.

They close on the rope.

simultaneously cutting the individual
lozenges and moulding them into the

correct shape.

Then, out of the machine, hurtle 8 ,300
lozenges every minute.

Wahey!

Look at that!

I absolutely love that machine!

Like a machine gunner brought lozenges.

How was the form?

Can I get some off? Yeah, have a go.

Get on there.

Hey, look at that.

All them lozenges.

So as you can see, Paddy, that's a fully
formed lozenge, but it is still really

soft.

And this machine, what we're firing them
into, is called the cooling conveyor.

As they travel through the enclosed
cooling tunnel, the temperature of my

squidgy lozenges is reduced from 80
degrees... Oh, the way I can see them

going down there.

Ah, yeah, they are.

..to around 33 degrees Celsius.

So this is the end of our cooling
tunnel.

We can get a sample off at this point.

So this is our finished lozenge. Do you
want to feel that one, Paddy?

Rock hard, ready to go.

No squashing them whatsoever.

So every hour, we can produce one
million lozenges in the hour.

Really? I didn't know there were that
many people in the UK with sore throats.

That is a fantastic pub fact. Thank you
very much, Richard.

I will bid you farewell, and I'm going
to take that back with me.

Every day is a school day.

Well, unless you're poorly, of course.

Speaking of which, remember when you
were a kid, you weren't feeling well and

your mum and dad would stick that big
glass thermometer under your tongue?

Or Terry's just finding out how they
work.

I'm in Cumbria, on the western edge of
the Lake District.

Home to thermometer manufacturer,
Brannan.

They've been making these traditional
instruments since 1913.

Manufacturing director, Juliet Taylor.

Juliet, lovely to meet you. Hi, Sherry.
It's overseeing their production.

Do people still use glass thermometers?

Yes, they're used in schools for
experiments in their laboratories,

the NHS and other industries.

For safety reasons, we don't put glass
thermometers in our mouth anymore.

But one of the company's most popular
products is still the 305mm glass

laboratory thermometer.

Where does the thermometer begin its
life?

It begins as a lens of glass.

Produced overseas, the tubes are made
from toughened glass, which won't crack

high temperatures.

And they already have a tiny channel
inside, ready for the thermometer's

That is a very, very tiny hole. How big
is it? It's about the size of a human

hair.

I'm amazed it can even get up it.

Well, you'll see that it does.

It better do. Yes.

But first, the glass rods must be cut
down to size.

The tubes are rolled over flames at 1
,600 degrees Celsius, melting the glass.

And as it's heating it up, it's pulling
it apart.

The rods are divided in two and sealed
at the bottom, which is then expanded to

create what is known as a bowl.

So from here you can see that it's
blowing the air.

I'm making the bulb. So this is like a
teeny tiny little glass blower. Yes, it

is. Yes.

With their newly formed bulbs, the
thermometers are now ready to be filled

one milliliter of the all -important
liquid that will read any change in

temperature.

Pop that one in there.

All right.

In it goes. We fill this with our low
-tox liquid.

What is low -tox liquid?

It's a kerosene -based liquid that has
been used to replace the mercury that

we're used to use.

Mercury is very stable and consistent
when heated and was used in the first

thermometer invented by Dutch physicist
Gabriel Fahrenheit in 1714.

Why don't we use mercury anymore?

The vapours off it would affect your
brain function.

So it was deemed to be a poisonous
substance and it was banned in 2014.

The kerosene used today is a safer
petroleum -based product with a low

point and a high boiling point.

It's poured into a bath beneath the tiny
holes in our thermometers before they

are placed into a vacuum chamber.

Inside, the air is sucked out of the
tubes, forcing the kerosene mix up into

bulbs. where it's held in place because
the atmospheric pressure is greater on

the outside than on the inside.

It's like a magic trick.

Look at that.

That's absolutely incredible.

The bulbs are heated to 70 degrees
Celsius, vaporizing any excess liquid

the tubes.

The tops are then heated again to 1 ,200
degrees Celsius, melting the glass, and

forever sealing the liquid inside.

But how do thermometers actually work?

Quality control manager Jonathan
Henderson... Nice to meet you, Jonathan.

Hi. ..is in charge of calibration, or
making sure the thermometers are reading

temperature correctly.

At the moment, we've just got a glass
tube with some liquid in it. How do you

turn this into a thermometer?

We need to create a reference point on
the glass tube.

To do this... the kerosene liquid must
move up the inside of the thermometers.

And this is done by placing them in a
temperature -controlled bath.

Why does the liquid expand up the tube?

So as the liquid is heated up, there are
little tiny atoms inside there, and as

they are heated, they become more
energetic.

So it's all about the atoms getting
hotter, more excited, expanding, and

coming down when it's cooler.

Yep. The bath water is set at 20 degrees
Celsius.

and the kerosene rises up the glass
tube.

But due to variations in each piece of
glass, it will rise to a different level

in each thermometer.

And once the liquid stabilises, we're
able to mark each thermometer.

This engraved mark accurately records
each individual 20 -degree reading.

Counting me very, very carefully.

Like that?

Yeah.

Perfect. That's enough.

Great. Oh, contributed to science. Look
at me.

When these marks are complete, they
provide the exact position for the

temperature scale, which is added to
each thermometer using a silk screen

printer.

Oh, there we go. How do you feel about
that one?

Perfect.

After a quick blast in an oven to fire
the ink into the glass, our thermometers

are finished.

Ooh, look at that.

Oh, look.

I've just been warming it up with my
fingers and it's moving.

I mean, it's like it works.

You would hope so, right?

Where is this going to end up? So this
could go anywhere in the world. We sell

them to 130 different countries around
the world. A well -travelled

Hopefully, yeah.

Back at the medicine factory, I'm on the
move too.

Lovely stacking.

I'm turning from lozenges to tablets at
the ibuprofen production line.

My word!

This is proper industrial in here. I
didn't expect it to be this noisy if I'm

being honest.

In the mixing room, process development
manager, Catherine Stanifor, is getting

ready for the next batch of painkillers.

This is massive, this room. Very high
-tech in here. It is quite high -tech.

what I need you to do, though, first, is
put some gloves on, please. Oh, if you

don't, right.

So, ibuprofen.

What's the difference between a
paracetamol and an ibuprofen? Because I

know which one to buy.

Right. Both of them are painkillers,
right? But they both work in different

ways. So paracetamol actually works by
blocking pain receptors in your brain.

Yeah. What ibuprofen does, say you twist
your ankle or sprain your wrist. Yeah.

What your body does is it produces
chemicals that cause inflammation where

that's happened.

And the ibuprofen in your bloodstream,
they'll reduce those chemicals. You

reduce the inflammation, you reduce the
pain.

And so it works in a different way to
paracetamol.

Ibuprofen powder is sieved along with
the disintegrants that help break down

tablets in your stomach.

And bulking agents that make the tablets
easier to handle for both factory and

consumer.

The powders are combined with Brian
Mason at the controls.

before he drops the mix into my mega
ball.

And you're going to need a bit of muscle
now, because we're going to need you to

rake this forward.

OK. The reason we rake this is because
we want it to be flat when it goes into

the dryer. I'm looking forward to this.
Right.

OK, Brian, off we go.

Go on, Brian, release the Kraken.

Oh, here it comes.

Oh, here we go.

Look at that.

Blimey.

That does come out quick, doesn't it?

You're having a field day up there,
Brian, aren't you?

He's working me.

Yeah, a little bit more.

Are you all right? Get the sweat on. For
God's sake, Brian, slow it down.

I'm not a machine.

You need to get going there, Paddy. He's
gone mad.

Okay, just a little bit more.

Oh, it's no good talking to Brian. He
just keeps going. He's a machine.

I think I need a couple of spoonfuls of
this myself.

At this stage, it looks quite coarse as
to what it looks like when you break

open a tablet normally. Yeah, it is a
bit different to that at the moment.

got some more stages to go through.

So we'll do a snowball test on here
because this will show us we've got the

right kind of consistency here. You say
snowball test?

Yes. I thought that's what you said.

You form a snowball, right?

If it was too wet, you wouldn't be able
to form this. If it was too dry, you

wouldn't be able to do it. Can you snap
it in two like that?

Ah. And that shows us that we've got a
good granule here.

So that's a good one, that. If it had
all crumbled out your hands, it wouldn't

have been right. Yeah, exactly.

Do you want to get that in and I'll get
over here? We'll have a little bit of a

snowball fight. No, we won't do that in
here.

No, no, no. I can't lose anything out of
here.

And the mix here, because we've done all
this mixing now, this basically ensures

that we will have 200 milligrams of
ibuprofen in every tablet when we make

Got you.

We've got to dry this off now, next.
Right, let's get it dried off. Yes.

Any chance we can put Brian in that
dryer? No, we can't.

The mix still has 36 % moisture, so it's
attached to a huge dryer that takes it

down to 1 .5%. Then the dried granule is
ready to

be transformed into tablets.

Can I get that door?

This is our compressing machine.

18 of these machines in the factory.

That's going round pretty sharp, isn't
it? It is going round pretty fast.

In fact, it's too fast to see what on
earth's going on.

Our granule is now sitting above us.
It's in one of the big bins, and it's

gravity -fed right down into the back of
the machine to fill up the punches,

they're called.

We've got 45 of these upper and lower
punches. They rotate round.

and pick up some of the granule then
what happens is a great big load of

slams it all together basically about
one ton of force and that slams it

together and that tablet is formed it's
got its shape then and is that then

finished then not quite i was just going
to say because they've got a shine on

they look smooth but when you feel them
you can still feel a little bit chalky

yeah you can so we've got one more stage
after this lead on captain

the tablets are transported to what
looks like a faith -age laundrette.

Look at this.

Can I introduce you to Barry, our
operator in here?

Oh, you're very nice to meet you. So
what we've done, we've taken the tablets

and we've put them into these five
coating cans.

And they're crumbling round at the
moment.

And we're going to add some sugar syrup
to them. Is this the sugar solution that

goes on it?

Yes, so that's a mixture of food growth
and water.

Right. And we're going to apply that to
the tablet.

And there's two reasons why we do this.
Because ibuprofen is actually very

bitter. Right. So that helps it to be
swallowed.

And also the smooth shell that's on
there will help it to be swallowed as

Weirdly, now that you've said it, when
I've put one in my mouth, you do get

little bit of sweetness. It just makes
it a little bit more pleasant.

Absolutely. And we're going to add some
more sugar syrup to it to help build up

the taste of the tablet.

It's not dry. No, no, no.

The sugar coating is gradually built up
across six to eight

hours, with a total of 20 jugs slowly
added to each pan to make the tablets

sweeter, smoother and rounder.

I'll look at these for six to eight
hours, and I'll see you in a bit.

I'll make sure every single one's got an
even coating on.

I might need one of those buckets back
here. I'm feeling a bit clumsy.

After a serious amount of tumbling, my
sugar -coated tablets are getting ready

for a bit of a bounce around.

Here we are, Paddy. Ah!

Here's our finished tablet.

Looking very nice and shiny.

The

tablets

are vibrated into snuggly fitting trays.

Where they're held in place as a rubber
roller covered in food safe ink prints

the product name.

and tablets per hour at the moment?

The numbers are just mind -blowing. They
are.

Then they're checked by a close -up
camera before being plucked out of the

by suction cups.

You can see here now, we've got these
nice, shiny tablets.

Yes, oh, they look great, them,
Catherine.

Would you like to know a fact about
either person?

I would love a fact about ibuprofen.

Ibuprofen was actually invented here in
Nottingham.

Do you know who else knows that? Who? A
very lovely lady called Ruth.

Over to you.

To you. To me.

To you.

The year is 1953.

Queen Elizabeth II has been crowned at
the age of 27.

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing have
become the first to conquer Mount

Everest.

And here in Nottingham, a small team of
British scientists are about to embark

on their own incredible journey.

This unassuming Victorian house was
their rather unlikely laboratory.

To find out more, I'm meeting Professor
David Adams.

Hello Ruth, nice to meet you. A
scientist himself and the son of one of

pioneers. I have to say this seems a
rather suburban location for a

pharmaceutical story.

It is, isn't it? Very different to a
modern pharmaceutical research

So why on earth was your father working
in a suburban house?

Well, he was a scientist working for
Boots, the Boots Pure Drug Company, as

were then called. This was just after
the war, so a lot of their departments

been evacuated out of the centre of
Nottingham because of the bombing.

And the research department was
relocated to this house down by the

I'm ashamed to say I've never been here
before, so this was quite an experience

for me.

Shall we go and have a look?

Yes, let's.

By the early 1950s, Boots was not only
an established high street brand, but

begun making pharmaceuticals.

The former owner of the company, Jesse
Boots, was a sufferer of rheumatoid

arthritis, an autoimmune disease that
causes painful inflammation of the

31 years after his death, Boots gathered
some of their brightest minds,

including David's father, Dr. Stuart
Adams.

in this unlikely laboratory.

Oh, goodness.

And tasked them with finding a cure for
the debilitating condition.

You can't believe it was ever a research
lab, can you?

No, you really can't.

I think this is where the original
laboratory was, and then they extended

the larder and the kitchen when they
needed more space.

Remarkable, isn't it? Extraordinary.

That's my father working away, and that
was taken here.

I mean, it looked even more domestic
then than it did now.

I don't even know what this equipment
is. It appears to be a hot plate, some

agar plates.

It's not exactly high -tech, is it? No,
no, it definitely wasn't high -tech.

The house wasn't perfect, even
succumbing to regular flooding.

But David's father and his team set
about testing thousands of chemical

compounds in the search for a cure for
arthritis.

Dad wanted to find something which
suppressed that inflammation, which he

thought that inflammation was closely
linked with pain. And one route to do

was to focus around aspirin.

Discovered in 1897, aspirin had been
used with some success to target the

of arthritis.

And Dr Adams was convinced a compound in
the same chemical family might hold the

key to the cure.

They tested a whole range of compounds,
and unfortunately, none of these.

had the kind of anti -inflammatory
activity they were looking for.

So they had to change tack, and they
looked at a different series of

Six years after starting their research,
Adams and his team had to begin their

search again, effectively from scratch.

I mean, it must have been so frustrating
to just keep going, this one, no, this

one, no, this one, no, over and over.

Yeah, research is a slow and can be very
frustrating process.

But in 1961, the team struck gold,
discovering the drug that we now know as

ibuprofen.

Although not the cure David's father was
looking for, thanks to its anti

-inflammatory properties, it provided
much -needed pain relief to arthritis

sufferers.

And in 1969, the year Concord first took
to the skies,

This new miracle pain reliever finished
eight years of clinical trials and was

finally made available under the brand
name Brufen.

Sophie Clapp is in charge of Boots' vast
archive.

Brufen was launched as a prescription
-only drug in 1969. It really put boots

the map in terms of a pharmaceutical
researcher. So we absolutely wanted to

people aware of this incredibly
effective drug.

But David's father didn't stop there.

He saw much wider potential for this new
wonder drug.

It was tested as a treatment for sports
injuries.

So he worked closely with Oxford United
Football Club. It was tested for dental

pain. It was tested as a treatment for
period pain.

In 1983, and 30 years after Dr Stuart
Adams

began his research in that suburban
house, the Department of Health approved

sale of ibuprofen over the counter under
the brand name Neurofen.

It meant that it became an absolute
stalwart of everybody's home medicine

cabinet. And how big a deal is ibuprofen
worldwide?

So within five or six years, we were
selling it in 90 different countries.

proof of the pudding being in the
eating.

Did your dad use ibuprofen?

Yes, he did.

You couldn't have a headache in the
Addams household without being given

ibuprofen.

He was very proud of what he'd achieved.
But he always felt that...

he'd been a slight failure because he
set out to find a cure for rheumatoid

arthritis and he discovered a drug that
has been really helpful in treating

rheumatoid arthritis plus a host of
other conditions but he didn't find a

but i don't think he did too badly
really did he you

can say that again eight billion

ibuprofen are made at this factory every
year

While the painkillers are being boxed
up, I'm heading to see my honey and

lozenges.

But before they get their packaging,
area team leader Mark Watkins is doing

final checks.

Hey, Mark.

How are you, Paddy? Hey, Paddy, all
right? Yeah, good.

What's this lad doing?

This lad is our fat operator.

If there's any fat lozenges in there,
then we'll move it out and put a good

in. What's a bad lodginger? A bad
lodginger is anything with a chip.

And if you fancy it Paddy, you can have
a go yourself.

What's the other one?

So if you take a handful of our good
lodgingers Paddy. There's a good one.

Anything you see with a chip, flick it
out and I'll put a good one in. Right,

here we go.

Get in here.

Oh!

Hey, get out, you little rat. Get out!
Hey!

Oh, there's another one.

Get out.

Where, where, where?

Where were you, Matt? You're supposed to
be winged, Matt.

There you go.

Oh!

I felt as though I were back at the
bingo walls when I was a kid, though,

my mum.

Two dollars, one of each hand. Gibbers
and dollars.

Love that.

I'll leave it to the expert.

A clever camera catches any defects
missed by the human eye, especially

Then they're dropped into plastic
blister packs before being sealed with

And the packs are cut into sections
containing 12 lozenges.

The perfectly formed blisters are coming
down the plating line now. Look at

that. Beautiful.

Why blister packs?

Because the medicine has to keep the
integrity of the product exactly as it

when it was first packed.

You can pop one of those out and all the
ones around it stay perfectly sealed.

Well, let's just do that.

Here we go. Big moment.

Oh.

Lovely pop on that, Mark.

The rest is sealed up like a little
medicine advent calendar, that.

And there it is.

Ready to go. Ready to soothe.

Beautiful, that.

Lovely. Thank you very much. Cheers,
buddy. Bye -bye.

Two field packs are stacked together. An

instruction leaflet is added.

with the correct dosage clearly listed.

And the flat box is date stamped before
everything is dropped inside.

Then it's off for one last round of
tests and safety checks before they join

ibuprofen at dispatch.

And at last, I can change out of my PPE
Santa suit.

You all right, Paddy?

Sorry? It's Rich.

I've just been showing you around the
factory.

My God, I didn't recognise you with your
clothes on!

How are you, Rich? I'm all right, thank
you. You? Yeah, all right. Loaded up. It

looks to me like we've got a mixture of
ibuprofen and fraught lozenges on there.

That's right.

On each pallet of lozenges, we've got 6
,450 individual lozenges.

And on each pallet of ibuprofen, we've
got 16 ,800 units.

So... Hey, excuse me.

So how many individual tablets and
lozenges are on there, then? So that

will take 58 different pallets. Yeah. So
all together, we can do 4 .5 million

lozenges and 7 .8 million tablets.

Even for this programme, that's a lot of
big numbers.

And get this, with seven lorries leaving
every day, that's 31 .5 million

lozenges and 54 .5 million tablets.

So I presume in winter that number goes
up, because that would be your busiest

time, wouldn't it, winter?

Yeah, winter's busier for cold and flu,
but as a business we're produced in both

the southern and northern hemispheres.
Right. So when it's summer here, it's

winter somewhere else. So it means we're
busy all year round.

Constantly going with it. Correct, yeah.

Well, Rich, thanks for showing me
around, pal. I thoroughly enjoyed

and get yourself a well -earned cuppa.

Cheers, Paddy. See you in a bit, bud.

Right!

Can I have no more?

8 hours and 35 minutes after the start
of production my cold and flu medicines

are heading out of the factory to soothe
sore throats and ease aches and pains

across the world.

As a lot of people with the lurgy will
soon be feeling better.

And after I've done one last lap around
my favourite factory doors, I

just need to round up the crew who like
to peel off their PPE at the

end of a long day.

For God's sake, put your clothes back
on.

Bring me sunshine in your smile.

Bring me laughter.

With new games, fabulous famous faces
and Michael McIntyre at his mischievous

best, the big show is back on iPlayer.

Starting now on BBC4, the profile of
John Logie Baird, the man who saw the

future and invented television.

Heading to the school with Manchester in
its DNA next tonight, Waterloo Road.