All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S10E06.Lawnmowers.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

LAWNMOWER BUZZES

Many years ago,
I used to work in a factory

and one of the jobs
was mowing the lawn outside.

Love it!

- Are you all right there?
- It's very noisy.

What do you reckon?

Well, you would expect
the lawn to be lovely,

considering they make lawnmowers
inside this factory.

If only we had a drone
to look at all my lovely handiwork.

Oh, yes, that's the ticket.

Anyhow...

..today we're at one of the UK's
biggest lawnmower factories.

Oh, beautiful!

And I'm Mower Man...

Well, sort of.

I look like a cross between
Buzz Aldrin and a Teletubby.

..on a mission to learn
how high-tech machinery...

- It's like a knife
through butter, that.
- It is.

..makes mighty mowers
that deliver stripes to be proud of.

Gorgeous.

It's a factory dedicated
to engineering precision.

Would you say this is like
the Bentley of the factory?

- Rolls-Royce, mate.
- Rolls-Royce?!

And while I find out
how to get the perfect lawn,

Cherry's been let loose
on the most hallowed turf of all.

That's right, I'm at Wembley...

Wow.

..getting it pitch perfect
for the biggest game of the season.

I feel like I've died
and I've gone to grass heaven.

And historian Ruth Goodman...

Oh!

..is uplifted
by hovercraft technology.

Ooh! I think we have lift-off!

They've been making lawnmowers
at this factory since the 1940s.

So they certainly can CUT it
when it comes to mower construction.

Apologies for that.
Welcome to Inside The Factory.

# You've done it all

# You've broken every code... #

Chaps.

# And pulled the rebel
to the floor... #

Anything good on?

INDISTINCT REPLY

Right, OK, I'll move on.

HE LAUGHS

You're supposed to say,
"Inside The Factory."

# Come up and see me
Make me smile... #

Never mind, I can clearly see
they're a happy bunch here.

# Running wild... #

Very important.

This is the Toro factory
in Hertfordshire,

where they make over 15,000
lawnmowers every year.

They make all sorts
of mowers here...

Oh, look at these.

..from big 'uns for the largest
of country manors...

That's proper, that.

..to high-tech machines
for Wimbledon tennis

and Premier League football clubs.

# Running wild... #

But today I'm following production
of this little beauty.

The Hayter Harrier 56
petrol-powered lawnmower.

What a gorgeous bit of kit this is.

Producing something like this
is no mean feat.

It's a complex,
three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle

made up of 87 individual parts.

At its heart is an engine

which powers a rotary cutting blade
underneath,

as well as a roller at the back

which propels the machine forwards

whilst giving your lawn
that classic striped finish.

Production begins with the main body
of the mower, called the deck.

And how's that for TV timing?

As design engineer Richard Carter

just happens to be receiving
a delivery of them.

- Ey-up, Richard. You all right, pal?
- How are you?
- Good to see you, buddy.

Now, I've gotta be honest with you.

I've had every lawnmower
under the sun over the years.

I've had petrol ones,
electric ones, ride-on ones.

I love a good lawnmower,
but these days

I've gone a little bit
to the dark side. Artificial grass.

- Oh, Paddy.
- I know.
- Well,
hopefully by the end of today,

we'll have you back
to where you should be.

Well, fingers crossed,
you know, cos, uh,

every time I see Chris Packham,
he looks at me in disgust.

So these are the decks?

These are the aluminium decks

- that we use...
- Oh, yeah.
- ..to create
the main part of the lawnmower.

- And instantly recognisable
for me, that.
- Yeah.

Now, why aluminium?

With aluminium, it doesn't rust.
It'll last you a lifetime.

Are these done on site?

These are done off site in Asia.

So, just looking at the gubbins,

I suppose the main things in there

- are obviously the blade
and the roller.
- That's right.

So you can see on the underside

there's a lot of engineering.
The rear roller goes here,

the engine gets mounted there,
and then the blade

sits right in the middle and sweeps
round the cutting chamber here.

Well, what we need to do now
is get this ready for paint,

so we're going to take this over
to the paint line over there

and get it hung up.

Even aluminium mowers need painting

to prevent corrosion
in the British climate.

- Here we go.
- Here we are.

- Let's hop on here, Paddy.
- Yeah.

- And clicking them in there?
- That's it. Just hooks into there.

And they make their way round to
the first station to get cleaned up,

- ready to get painted.
- Send them off, pal.
- Let's go.

Let's go!

You gotta have a bit of authority
in your voice, Richard.

Time to start the stopwatch...

..as the decks head off
at quite a leisurely speed,

I have to say.

Can we have a look
at where they paint it, then?

We'd like you to help out, Paddy,

but you might want to
cover yourself up a bit.

- Flippin' 'eck! Is it going to be
that messy?
- Just a little bit.

I've done a bit of painting
and cutting in at home.

- What's going on here?
- This kind of paint, Paddy,

is quite different
to what you're used to at home.

Do you know what?
I was enjoying today,

cos I can see
the whites of your eyes,

I've not got all the PPE on.

But just as I get out,
they drag me back in again.

And I'll tell you something now,
Ruth Goodman, our historian,

will not have to put up with this.

She'll be swanning about
at the minute

in some manor house,
living the dream.

There you go. Told you.

300 years ago,
grand lawns were not really a thing.

Posh country houses
had straight gravel paths,

box hedging in elaborate patterns.

And they don't come much posher

than the magnificent 18th-century
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

To find out how these formal grounds
were transformed

by a very special gardener,
I'm meeting historian Kate Felus.

- Hello.
- Hi, Ruth. Lovely to see you.

What a wonderful patterned
sort of a garden this is.

Isn't it amazing? Very, very formal.

But this is just a fraction
of what was here.

Here's a plan from 1717

which shows the scale
of the Great Parterre.

So what we're in
is just that little piece there?

- It's tiny in comparison.
This is vast!
- Yeah.

The Great Parterre

was 30 times larger
than today's patterned garden.

And this was built
to emulate French gardens.

So it was like
Versailles of England.

But I want to show you
what it looks like today.

- OK.
- Follow me.

Oh, it's all gone.

It's all gone. All ripped out.

And what you get instead
is this beautiful sweep of lawn.

The kind of embodiment
of the English landscape style,

they called it. It was a reaction
against the French gardens

of the earlier century.

Here you get simplicity.

The 4th Duke of Marlborough
had grown tired of the fussy,

formal French style
he'd inherited at Blenheim Palace.

And so in 1764 the Duke employed
the celebrity gardener of the day,

Capability Brown,
to transform his vast estate.

The lavish project cost
the equivalent of over £2 million

and took ten years to complete.

He did an awful
lot of tree planting.

He created the lake around
the other side of the palace,

and here, particularly,
he got rid of the Great Parterre.

So the scale of the job
of removing it was absolutely vast.

The original Great Parterre was
ten times the size of the palace.

But undaunted,

Capability Brown swept it away.

Hundreds of tonnes of stone,
gravel and hedging were hauled off

by as many as 1,000 labourers.

It's all done by hand with men
with shovels and wheelbarrows.

It's before steam, even,

let alone the sort of machinery
that we have today.

They did have horse power

which was used to plough the soil
before grass seed was sown.

When finished,
the results were spectacular...

..with both the front and back
of the palace framed by vast lawns.

So this is about celebrating

those elements of the English
countryside, the greenness of it?

- Absolutely.
- With the fields,
the grass, this openness.

The trees, the hills.

Real, quintessential Englishness.

And these long vistas.

I mean, they're busily saying,
"I own all this."

But the 60 acres
of newly created grass

did leave the Duke
with a bit of a problem.

How on earth are they cutting a lawn
on this sort of scale?

Before the invention
of the mechanical lawnmower,

you had this very clever invention
called sheep.

BLEATING

Right.

And they can graze it quite short,
down to about five centimetres.

But you wouldn't want the sheep
wandering into your house,

- would you?
- No, you wouldn't.

But equally, you wouldn't want
to see a fence.

So here he used
this wonderful invention -

- the ha-ha.
- The ha-ha.

- A ditch but with a wall on one side,
so it's a sheer face.
- Exactly.

But it's invisible in the landscape.

It looks as if this lawn
just carries on for ever.

That's the whole trick of it.
And you get to the edge

and you realise at the last minute
that it's there.

"Aha!" you say.

Hence the word ha-ha.

But with sheep banished
from the lawns near the house,

and the invention of the mechanical
lawnmower some 60 years away,

the Duke had to employ
a large team of gardeners,

whose sole job was to keep the lawns
short, using scythes.

How many people would you need

to be able to keep a lawn
scythed like that?

Well, the Duke had
80 outdoor servants,

and probably 35 of them

were employed
just on the South Lawn here.

- I mean, talk about a status symbol.
- Exactly.

And that is hard work.

But it's skilled as well.
They could judge it just right.

So the grass would be about
three centimetres.

Same as a modern
mechanical lawnmower.

After the grass was cut,

there would be weeder women
who would come out regularly

and they would
pull out those last weeds.

And then it would be rolled.

- And all of that for a lawn?
- Absolutely.

But it has its uses.
You can play cricket out here.

You can have big parties.

And really, the lawn
became the height of fashion.

King George III was so impressed
by the view of the lawn

when he visited Blenheim in 1786
that he demanded one of his own.

And soon Buckingham Palace
had a perfectly manicured lawn

for royal garden parties.

And then we all wanted one.

We can but dream, Ruth.
We can but dream.

Back at the factory,
things are moving on.

The bodies of my lawnmowers have
been cleaned with phosphoric acid

to remove dust,

and sprayed
with a protective primer.

And I've got
me own protective coating

to have a go at painting them.

# Spaceman

# I always wanted you to go
into space, man... #

Look at the state of that. I look
like I'm breaking out of an egg.

# Spaceman

# I always wanted you to go
into space, man... #

I look like a cross between
Buzz Aldrin and a Teletubby.

RICHARD CHUCKLES

Lead on.

- You can never be too careful.
- Say no more.

That's all right for Richard -
he doesn't have to wear it.

# Spaceman, spaceman
Spaceman, spaceman... #

The decks are sprayed
by both human hands and robot arms.

Not with traditional paint,
but a plastic polymer powder

which provides a strong,
weather-resistant coating.

- Would you like to have a go?
- Well, Richard,

I've not spent a half hour
getting all this on for nothing.

- Is me oxygen on?
- Yeah.
You're on and running.

Beautiful. Right.

It's Jordan Edwards's job
to make sure every deck is covered

with a precise 0.1mm layer
of polymer powder.

You all right, Jordan?
So, what am I doing, pal?

- Right, you can see the exposed areas
of the aluminium cast.
- Oh, yeah.

All you want to do is fill in
the nooks and the crannies

- and then you're all done.
- Beautiful,
beautiful. Right, here we go.

Hey, I tell you what,
there's some bits in there.

It's quite good, this, actually.

Just finding bits...

As the green powder
leaves the nozzle of the paint gun,

it's given a negative
electrostatic charge...

Get that, under there,
hidden away, right under t'rim.

Get stuck in.

..which causes it to cling tightly
to the aluminium surface,

perfectly coating the deck.

How's that looking?
Have I missed any bits, pal?

Absolutely perfect, Paddy.
You're all done.

I've got to say, I think
you've got the best job here.

That's beltin', that. I love that.

- It's quite therapeutic.
- Yeah. Relaxing.

I'm going to go again.
I'm going to go again.

Relax. Get yourself a cup of tea,
pal.

While I lose myself
in powder-coating heaven...

..our rather dull decks

travel through what looks like
a giant doner kebab grill.

Inside, they're blasted
with 300-degree Celsius heat,

melting the polymer powder coating

to give a smooth
and toughened finish.

And 1.5 hours into
lawnmower production...

We've got a glossy,
deep-green weatherproof deck.

Oh, look at these.

This is a beautiful colour.

- Looking good, aren't they, Paddy?
- Look at the finish on them.

They're looking absolute top drawer.

- Yeah.
- Beautiful.

- If you just give me a hand
with that, Paddy.
- Of course, yeah.

- And we'll just lower it
into the box.
- Lower it in.

- Shall I give you a push?
- Let's go.

From the painting area,

our decks travel
to the start of the assembly line.

It's the beating heart
of the factory...

..where a team
of highly skilled workers...

..busily attach
over 80 different components.

Along the line,
there are six main stations

to construct different sections
of the mower...

..each one crewed
by a specialist worker

who has six minutes
to do their bit...

..assembling their specific parts
onto each deck...

..before rolling it down the line
to the next stage.

It all seems to run like clockwork.

Here we are.

I hope I don't put a spanner
in the works.

This is the first stage where we put
the decks and the engines together.

Our mower features
a 159cc petrol engine.

It'll power the rotary cutting blade

and drive the roller at the back,

propelling the machine forward.

The man responsible for attaching
this vital component is Yip.

Nice to meet you, Yip.

I realise I'm extending a handshake
as you're mid-screw there.

Carry on screwing.

If we use car analogies here,
would you say this particular mower

is like the Bentley of the factory?

- Rolls-Royce, mate.
- Rolls-Royce?!
- Yeah.
- Beautiful.

It's not quite a Rolls-Royce,

but this engine has 4.5 horsepower,

roughly the same as a moped,

which is more than enough
to propel the mower

and spin the cutting blade
46 times every second.

This is a bit of me,
I love owt like this.

- Would you like to do the next one,
Patty?
- Do you know what?

- I'd love to.
- I'll get out your way.

Oh, that's nice, he's gone!
Right, show us how it's done, pal.

Well, first of all,
we got two stickers.

This is a Rolls-Royce. I've gotta
get it absolutely bang-on.

Not bad for your first attempt.
If you'd like to lift this engine

- and put it on the actual case
over there.
- Right, OK.

- What wight is that?
- About five, six kilos.

- Five?!
- Maybe more.

It's about 12.
You've worked here too long.

- Your arms are too strong.
That way?
- That's right, yes.

Got that in there, yeah. Smashing.

Feel a bit like the F1 team here
when it comes in for a pit stop,

but we're doing a little bit more
on it.

Should be absolutely perfect, them,
cos I've painted 'em.

Three 30mm toughened steel bolts...

Tell you what, I'm enjoying this.

..is all it takes
to attach the engine.

- That's it. Just finish off
these now.
- Oh, these.

It's not quite as quick
as a Formula 1 pit stop...

- There you go.
- Got it, yeah.

..but if I don't get this done
within six minutes,

I'll be holding up
the whole production line.

Great bit of kit, this.

You know what I love? That.

No putting it down. Up in the air.

- Little bit of grease
on the front axle.
- Yeah.

This axle is where the front wheels
will attach later.

I can see why it's only
six minutes, you work quick.

- Done. Clear.
- Off it goes.
- Thanks very much for that, pal.

- Thank you.
- I'll see you in a little bit.

This factory is so calm
and well organised.

Everything's in its place,
just ready to go.

Gorgeous!

All geared up to make mowers
fit for our back gardens.

But when it comes to grass
for top-level sport,

how do the pros do it?

Cherry, the lucky rascal,
is finding out.

I've got some pretty amazing access

to a little football ground
you may have heard of.

It is the home of English football.

It is the one and only
Wembley Stadium.

Over the decades, this famous ground

has witnessed the highs and lows
of our national sport...

..with some of the greatest players
in the history of the game...

..taking centre stage
on its hallowed turf.

I've been given
a very special invitation

to come and see how they prepare
the ground for the FA Cup final.

In just a few days,
90,000 fans will greet the players

as they emerge
from the famous Wembley tunnel.

Oh, my goodness me.

Wow.

This is epic.

And the man in charge of making sure
it's all pitch perfect

for the big match
is grounds manager Karl Standley.

Well, this is kind of amazing.

- Karl, so nice to meet you.
- Welcome. How are you?

I feel like I've died
and I've gone to grass heaven.

Thank you very much.

We're getting it ready
for the busiest time of the year.

There are millions
of blades of grass out there.

- Each one of them has to be perfect.
- It's so vibrant.

How do you grow this grass?

- It's the Wembley pitch,
actually grown in sand.
- Oh, wow.

- Why do you grow it in sand?
- It's a winter sports pitch.

So in the wintertime it rains.

You want to be pushing water
through it.

What would happen if this
was grown just on a soil base?

- It would be very much a mud bath.
- Yeah.

And is this the grass growing here?

No. So this is polyethylene
plastic fibres.

- Isn't that cheating?
- So the reason
we have plastic in here,

a very small amount, is that when
the grass actually germinates,

a root comes out of it. And the idea
is that root actually wraps itself

around this plastic,
which goes down 55mm.

And that's what gives you
the stability

which allows us
to do multiple games.

Oh, I see, it's almost
like scaffolding for the grass.

Very much so, yeah.

Unlike this small sample,

the Wembley pitch
is created on a massive scale...

..at a turf nursery
in a top-secret location.

Grown for three months,

it's 95% real grass
with soil and sand

and 5% plastic.

Every year,
after a summer of concerts,

the old pitch is ripped up, with
the plastic recycled into benches,

and the brand-new pitch is laid out

using 720 1.2-metre-wide rolls.

It takes just five days to install.

Once you've laid it down,
is it happy as Larry?

No, it's not. It's like
growing grass in a giant shoe box.

So for six months of the year,
the one thing we need is sunlight.

So we have
artificial lighting systems

that actually roll out
onto the playing surface.

We have an undersoil heating pipe
so we can constantly keep the pitch

at around about 16 degrees
throughout the winter.

- That is so bougie.
- In the summer,

we have to have an irrigation system
that we can water the pitch.

The surface is mown every day

and three times on the morning
of the FA Cup final.

Karl, how does everyone
know where to go?

You see some strings
down the playing surface,

and that's how we keep the lines
really straight.

Why don't you just have
a great big ride-on mower?

Well, first of all, it's more weight
on the playing surface,

which you're trying
to keep away from.

And also you don't really get
the feel of the playing surface.

They could be cutting, they could be
looking at what they're doing,

and then suddenly you see an area
of, "OK, there's an issue there,

"a problem there. We can sort that."

It takes a total
of 12 miles of walking

to cut the Wembley pitch
just once...

..pushing 34-inch-wide
specialist electric mowers

with razor-sharp teeth

that cut each blade of grass
to precisely 23mm.

These mowers are also equipped
with large rollers

to create those iconic
Wembley stripes.

Imagine it's the day
of the FA Cup final.

It's a huge day. High pressure.
What's your routine?

First thing is we walk the pitch.

Look at any issues, concerns,
and then we start to prep the pitch.

So we have to add a little bit
of water to the playing surface

to put a little bit of slickness
on the surface.

So when the ball
slicks across the surface,

it gives it speed,
and that's what the players want.

And then suddenly
we're in game mode.

The noise erupts. You then realise,
"My God, this job's pretty cool."

CROWD CHANTS

That must be
the most incredible feeling.

I sit there with my cup of tea
and I watch the game.

And then throughout the game, I'll
just move around to each corner,

watching how the pitch
is performing.

I mean, Karl, to me,
it looks completely pristine.

But what about you?
Do you think it's ten out of ten?

I think there's only one way
you've gotta find out

and that's by you
giving it a quick run.

# It's coming home
It's coming home

# It's coming

# Football's coming... #

- I think it's perfect.
- Thank you.
I'll tell the grounds team.
- Thanks.

# Three lions on a shirt... #

Oh, you jammy so-and-so.
Wembley Stadium!

CROWD CHEERS

You know what,
Cherry gets all the best gigs.

When I'm watching football at home,
right, I'm watching the football,

but I should imagine
you're sat looking at the pitch.

What would you say is your
best pitch to look at where you go,

"That's a lovely cut"?

I'm a bit of a fan of what they do
at the West Ham stadium.

Olympic Stadium, lovely ground,
lovely pitch.

On our lawnmower assembly line,

Yip is busy bolting engines
to the decks...

..and at the next station,
the lads are adding a plastic chute

that will carry the grass cuttings
from the blade

to the collection bag.

But next comes the key to getting
those stadium-quality lawn stripes

at home -

the roller,

which sits at the back

instead of rear wheels

and is held in place

by a roller frame

made from 11
separate steel components.

Production of the frame

begins away from the assembly line,
at the laser cutter.

So if we want to put
that big stripe on our lawn,

we need to hold a roller
on the back of the mower.

Do you know, I think when you say
about the stripes on the lawn,

there's certain things in life
that are just heaven,

and a good stripe on a lawn,
honestly, as boring as it sounds,

I could literally sit with a cup
of tea just looking at it.

The framework
for the roller starts life

as a 5mm-thick sheet of steel.

Inside the cutting machine,

a 5-kilowatt laser begins
to carve out multiple end brackets.

- Just like a knife through butter,
that.
- It is.

It works with a near-infrared
light wave

that comes from a laser generation
unit in the corner.

It beams down through the unit,
down to a lens, that then focuses

all of that laser energy...

VOICE FADES

Now, to translate Doctor Spock here,

the laser heats the molecules
in the steel to 1,500 Celsius,

enough to melt
and precisely cut the steel.

Here we go.
Set your phasers to stun.

It's just mind-blowing.
Quite hypnotic, actually.

- Looks very effortless, doesn't it?
- Yeah.

In just over one hour,

the laser makes parts
for 54 roller frames.

There they are.

When I look at the thickness
of that,

it amazes me how it cuts through it
so effortlessly.

Yeah. We've got a lovely,
lovely clean cut around here.

Oh, look at that! Fantastic.

We'll get them all together and
take them down to the welding shop.

Perfect. Let's do it.

Three steel bracket plates
from the laser cutter,

along with eight other components,

are clamped onto a jig,

which holds the pieces in place...

..ready to be welded together.

So, Paddy, here's our welder,
our robot welder.

Who named her Betty?

Ah, always been known as Betty.
Lost in the mists of time.

OK.

A pre-programmed robot goes around
and puts everything together

and does the full weld.

On Betty's robot arm

is a hot torch
which melts copper-coated steel wire

into the joints
of the roller frame...

..permanently welding
the 11 pieces together

in just three minutes.

You can see that all of these welds
have been put neatly into place

round all of the rods,
with the magic hot torch.

- Yeah.
- Here, here and here.

- All nice and bonny. And ready
for the next step.
- Correct.

Smashing. See you later, Betty.

Didn't reply to me.

Once Betty's done her thing,

the roller frames are sprayed black

with the same kind of polymer powder
we used for the decks.

And after being fired
in the kebab grill and then cooled,

they're ready
for the all-important roller.

These are made
from glass reinforced plastic.

- And why are the little ridges
in there?
- To give traction.

These rollers
are driven by the engine

and that drives the machine along.

- Love that. Who's this, by the way?
- This is Dave.

- How are you, Dave?
- We've got a bit
of a malfunction with this roller.

Oh, we've come at the wrong time.

Don't worry, Dave, it's not
as though it's on the telly.

You're the man to fix it.

Dave connects the rollers together
so they'll spin smoothly,

which sometimes
takes careful adjustment.

- Have you sorted that out, Dave?
- Sorted.
- Top man.

So now he's applying grease
into those mechanisms.

Here at Dave's station, the roller
is even fitted with a gearbox

which will be connected
to the engine via a chain.

Once fired up,
it'll send power to the roller,

propelling the mower forward
at various speeds.

It reminds me a little bit like when
you go to somewhere like McLaren.

- Mm-hm.
- So they're working on an
F1 car and everything's just calm.

- Yeah.
- People are getting on with it.
Clean work areas.
- Yeah.

It's great to see.

I'm telling you now,
the longer I spend here,

the more I want to get back
to having a real lawn.

- Is that you done, Dave?
- It is, mate.
- Fantastic.

Dave, F1's loss is lawnmowers' gain.
Beautiful.

Back on the main assembly line,

Keith has the job of installing
the roller and frame

onto the underside of the deck.

It's connected to the engine...

..and then it's on to Paul...

..who fixes two wheels
onto the axle.

And with those front wheels on,

we're ready for the cutting-edge
part of the assembly.

This is where Paul
is putting on the blades.

- The SHARP end of the factory!
- Indeed it is. Yes. Well done.

So this is your cutting blade,

and you can see that it's got
the cut edge put on the tip there.

- It's not very sharp, though.
- No, but it doesn't need to be.

Only that section of the blade

really does all of the work while
it's spinning through the grass

- as you're walking forwards.
- OK.

If you think this thing is turning
at 2,800 rpm,

around sort of 180mph,
that tip speed,

and it's the speed of that impact
that really does a lot of the work.

Yeah. I don't think any blades
of grass are standing up

if that's hitting it
at 180 like that.

You were pretty quick there, Paul.

How long does it take you
to do that?

- 30 seconds?
- Oh, my word.

He's throwing them out.

- There's a new one for you, pal.
- Thank you very much.

Get that on there.

I mean,
looking at the inside of that,

how do you develop it
to cut so well?

We use the same
kind of aeronautical software

they use to design
Formula 1 wings on cars.

So we will model the shape
of the deck,

the shape of the blade,
the shape of the wings

to cut that grass and get it up
that chute and into the grass bag.

The blade has wings on its edges,

which creates suction
and pushes air upwards,

lifting freshly mown grass
away from the cutting area

and into a collection bag
at the back of the mower.

Right, well,
I've been in here all morning.

Not being rude, Richard, but you've
not offered me a cup of tea yet.

- Sorry.
- So let's get the kettle on.
Milk, no sugar.

So while Richard brews up

and our mowers travel
to the next station on the line,

Ruth's getting to grips
with the history

of a very different kind
of lawn-cutting machine -

the hover mower.

- Oh!
- You all right there, Ruth?

Oh!

The very first mechanical lawnmower,
invented in 1830,

was such a beast that it
took two people to operate it.

Ready, Clive?
One, two, three, Go!

Ah!

It used a cutting blade
on a cylinder

powered by a heavy roller,
and a lot of push and pull.

London Zoo

even tried using camels to help,

and early steam and petrol mowers,

introduced in the 1890s,

also proved cumbersome.

But fast-forward through
the decades to the 1960s...

# It's all too beautiful... #

..when the suburbs were expanding
with new homeowners,

all desperate to create
perfectly cut lawns.

And suddenly a new lightweight
mower landed on the scene...

Hello, madam.
I've come to demonstrate

the revolutionary Flymo lawnmower.

..complete with a free demo.

So the Flymo
is totally revolutionary.

Lawnmower historian Clive Gravett

has certainly learnt
the salesman's patter.

You've got no rollers, no wheels,

and it just simply floats
on a cushion of air.

IT was invented by Karl Dahlman
in 1963.

He was inspired
by Cockerell's hovercraft.

The hovercraft
had made global headlines

with its first successful crossing
of the English Channel in 1959.

It could float across water
and hover over land

using a unique
jet propulsion system.

A Flymo, cos it's a flying mower!

We've got a petrol engine

and you have these vents
where air is sucked in.

- Yeah.
- And an impeller goes round
underneath.
- An impeller...

Oh, that's what this disk is.

And that pushes the air down,
creating a cushion of air.

And the blade obviously also going
around to actually cut the grass.

Apparently, Karl Dahlman
experimented with a dustbin lid.

And then you can hover
in any direction.

- So no more straight lines,
you can...
- You can go round.

You can even go round in a circle.

It just floats on air.

It is a completely different way
of thinking about lawn mowing.

Every man could have
his own hovercraft in the garden.

But despite an initial
flurry of excitement,

most blokes soldiered on with their
traditional heavy roller mowers.

So in the early 1970s,

attention was turned
to the women of the home

when Swedish consumer goods company
Electrolux

marketed an all-new,
fully electric hover mower

in flexible, colourful,
lightweight plastic.

Top advertising executive
Rosie Arnold...

Welcome to the 1970s.

THEY LAUGH

- ..believes the fashionable women
of the '70s...
- Cheers.

..gave this mower lift-off.

So what was it about the Flymo

that turned it into the brand
that we know today?

What they'd identified at that time
was a new market of housewives.

In the house,
there were so many new gadgets.

There were vacuum cleaners,

there were washing machines,
there were blenders.

It was all about speed, convenience.

That was the way
the world was going.

And they identified that women were
the major buyers of these things.

- Right.
- And they thought,
"Why not talk about the garden?"

So how are they doing this, then?

I think, you know, one of
the first ads here,

"Jenny, you're not a grass widow
again?" And it says,

"You're not going to tell us

"your husband still has
that old tank of a mower?"

So that's leading straight in
to that idea about this big,

archaic, masculine machine,

whereas this is this light thing
that even a woman can use.

My eyes are drawn to this one,
I have to say,

and that's mostly because
I want that dress.

THEY LAUGH

- Doesn't she look wonderful?
- "So little effort, in fact,

"that when it arrives, you and your
lawn are both looking good."

It's a very odd thing, isn't it?
This is being marketed at women,

and yet, to our modern ears,
is patronising as heck.

What you have to remember is that
it was men doing the advertising.

So in these mid-'70s adverts,

I noticed that the mower itself
is blue.

The story goes that they were doing
a research group amongst housewives,

and they all got together
and asked for it to be changed

to the much more fashionable orange,

cos at the time
orange was massively fashionable.

So we've got the Space Hopper
and the Dukes Of Hazzard car.

It was an IT colour.

# Everyone's a winner, baby
That's no lie... #

And, actually, it was
a stroke of marketing genius

because it set it aside from all the
other mowers that were out there.

So that, combined
with advertising to women,

you'd got an absolute
killer strategy.

And after 1977,

all Flymos were orange.

Marvellous. Oh!

I think we have lift-off.

By the end of the 1980s,
the orange hover was making up

a third of all lawnmower purchases
across the UK and Europe.

And it's all thanks to a Swede

with a fascination
for the hovercraft.

That's OK, Ruth, we can hear you.

Nearly there, pal.

I've been pepped up
with a nice brew.

And after nearly 3.5 hours,

our mowers are rolling
along the assembly line...

..where work starts
on the upper body...

..with the addition of a mechanism

to adjust the cutting height
of the grass.

But I'm off in search of a secret.

This is where they keep
Cherry Healey's dental records.

Various teeth she puts in and out.

What's behind these curtains?

Like a Kubrick movie, this.

Never look in there.

The secret I'm looking for
is how to mow those perfect stripes.

And for that, I need
to head out into the sunshine.

Oh, beautiful.

# I'm walking on sunshine

# Whoa-oh!

- # I'm walking on... #
- Oh, at last.

- This is what we're talking about.
- Yeah.

# And don't it feel good, hey! #

This is one of our test fields,
Paddy.

I've been on loads of test tracks.
This is me first test field.

What's the optimal height
for good stripe-age?

Well, for stripes, you actually need
a little bit of length

left in the grass, because
it's the bending of the grass

that gives you that striped effect.

All them years we've struggled,
and that's the answer -

a bit longer in length.

According to Richard,
for the best stripes,

set your blade height
to cut the grass at 4cm to 6cm.

Pull up the handle,
then pull the engine start.

Right, OK, then. Right.

A pull cord...

ENGINE STARTS

..sparks the engine to life.

Push on there and you'll be away.

Squeezing the handlebar engages
the gears in the roller,

propelling it forward.

Oh.

Beautiful! Look at that!

Feels as smooth as silk.

Tripod, that. Might want to
get rid of that off the lawn.

Occupational hazard.

- Shall I go back up the other way,
get the stripe going?
- Yeah.

# We're all going
on a summer holiday

# No more working
for a week or two... #

Oh, now we're motoring.

I am here for this.

Oh, what a treat.

The mower weighs 47kg,

which pushes down on the roller,
creating the stripes.

Oh, my God.

THEY LAUGH

- I've got two bad lines.
- At least it's consistent.

- And I'm getting
the two different colours.
- You are.

When the grass is bent
away from you,

you get a lot of light
reflecting back from the blades.

That looks like
a light-green stripe.

When the grass is bent towards you,

you're looking down the ends of
the tips of the blades of grass,

that gives you the dark stripe.

I honestly thought it was
how low you put your mower.

Not at all. No, the lower you go,
the worse the stripe you'll get.

# The mornin'
It's my lawnmower, lawnmower

# The afternoon
My lawnmower, lawnmower... #

I think that's a bit better, Paddy.

Well, I could happily
spend the day here on me own

testing lawnmowers.

If you're looking for someone,
I'm your man.

- You're more than welcome.
- Thank you.

# Look in awe at my lawnmower

# With jealousy and awe
at my lawnmower... #

Oh, it's so satisfying.

Hey, don't walk on the stripes,
Mike.

Straight across my handiwork.

Oh, sacrilege.

PADDY LAUGHS

- All right, shall we
head back inside?
- You can, Richard.

I'm just going to have another five
minutes here looking at me stripes.

- Go on, pal, I won't be long.
- Fair enough.

Mmm!

Gorgeous.

Surely you can't beat this, Cherry?

Well, actually, I think I can -
with a day trip to sunny Cambridge.

This is so beautiful.

The historic buildings, the punting.

But look at that perfect,
gorgeous lawn

stretching all the way
down to the river.

But I'm not here for a lesson
on how to look after your lawn.

I'm actually here for a lesson
in how to NOT mow your lawn.

They've had a finely
manicured lawn here

behind the King's College Chapel
for over 250 years,

but now a large section of it
has been transformed.

Wow.

All under the watchful eye
of botanist Dr Cicely Marshall.

- Hi, Cicely.
- Hi, Cherry.
Welcome to our wild flower meadow.

Why did you decide to dig up
half of the lawn

of this iconic setting
and grow a meadow?

It's been a fine lawn since 1772.

And in 2019, we wondered if we could
make more of the area for nature.

We've lost 97% of our species-rich
grasslands in this country,

mainly through
intensified agriculture.

We also wanted to reduce
our carbon dioxide emissions.

We also thought
it would be beautiful.

It is absolutely stunning.

What plants can I see here?

Well, we've got a species
that are typical of hay meadow,

- so things like the carrot...
- I recognise that.
- ..the oxeye daisy,

- the field scabious...
- Beautiful,
those purple ones.
- Yeah.
- Stunning.

The slightly pinker,
that's greater knapweed.

I mean, the difference is so stark.

Here, you've got this explosion
of flowers.

And then you've got almost nothing
else except grass on here.

The meadow was created by scattering

a mix of local East Anglian
wild flower seeds

and then letting nature
do its thing.

Incredibly, 51 of the 84
plant species here today

flew in on the wind or were dormant
under the grass all along.

Tending to this huge variety of
plants is gardener Charlotte Waters.

I mean, this is
so stunningly beautiful.

How is it that when I've tried
to grow wild flowers at home,

- nothing's happened?
- So I think
your key is the yellow rattle.

And you need yellow rattle
to help establish the flowers,

because the yellow rattle
helps break down the grass growth.

The yellow rattle competes
with the root of the grass

to stunt the growth of the grass,

which means the flowers
can then thrive.

So it's thanks to this little plant

- that we have all of this
and all this diversity?
- Yeah.

What are your favourite things
growing in the meadow?

So it has to be a bee orchid,
because they're so rare.

And when they arrive, it's just...
Everyone gets excited.

And it's like
the gossip around the college

that there's a bee orchid
in the meadow.

It may look gorgeous,
but have these wild flowers

really provided more food
and shelter for wildlife?

To find out, I'm joining a group
of volunteers

who monitor
how the biodiversity differs

between the meadow and the lawn.

I mean, on the mowed lawn, I can see
there's not much action happening.

But the minute you step
into the wild meadow,

just a couple of sweeps
with my net...

Oh, yeah.
Mother Nature is having a party.

Look at that.
It's absolutely teeming with life.

Hello, Jiminy Cricket.

As well as using nets to capture
and release sun lovers

like grasshoppers and butterflies,
UV light insect traps

are set up overnight
to monitor nocturnal critters.

Oh, fun. Look at this.

- Oh.
- This is a June bug,
which is a type of chafer beetle.

- Oh, look. What's that?
- That is a heart and club.

- Heart and club.
- We've got a caddisfly,

a moth, a beetle and a mayfly.

So that's four different
insect orders,

which really shows the sort of
diversity that we're getting.

We have a rather wonderful
feast here.

- Look at this.
- Look at that.

- Oh, my goodness me.
- It's an elephant hawk moth.

That's a moth?! I had no idea
they came multicoloured.

It looks like something
from a tropical country.

This is absolutely beautiful.

We've got 2,500 species of moths
in Britain.

The flat lawn gives them nowhere
to hide. But that lovely rough,

sort of three-dimensional
architecture of the meadow

- makes a big difference.
- They make
really good food for bats as well.

- What, he does?
- Yeah.
- No, don't say that!

She didn't mean it.

So is it working?
Is the wild flower meadow

- attracting more diverse plant and
animal species?
- Absolutely it is.

The results of the study
have so far revealed

over three times more bugs
and bats in the meadow,

which now creates a vital
wildlife corridor in the city.

And no mowing has also
reduced carbon emissions.

What can we do at home
to create something like this?

Well, a simple thing you can do
is just to stop mowing your lawn

and see what you've got.
And you might find

your lawn is more species rich
than you think it is.

So more diverse flowers,
more diverse animals,

- a happier ecosystem.
- Yeah.

If letting our lawns grow wild

means attracting more beauties
like this, I say let it grow.

Yeah, that does look nice,
Cherry.

But some lawnmowers
are absolute beauties, too.

A proper mower!

PADDY WHOOPS

- Having fun?
- Yes!
- Oh, well. Inside time.

Oh!

Party pooper.

Thoroughly enjoyed that.
Frankie Dettori.

Luckily, Richard does have
some classic power tools inside...

Ah.

Look at that. Proper.

..to lure me back in.

Wow.

This is like being in a toy shop.

Oh!

On the assembly line,

we're ready to finish the fittings
on the top of the lawnmower deck.

- Here we are.
- All right, Paddy,
this is Marek.

We're just going to put on some of
the last parts of the assembly now.

- Yeah.
- So we've got a top cover to go
on. We've got one here for you.

Yeah. Stand aside, Marek,
I'm going in.

You just lower that cover
over the top.

- That's it.
- That's it.

The black plastic cover
provides a nice finish

around that all-important
height-adjustment lever.

Ohh! We like that.

Little cap on the top of that lever.

- More, more, more.
- More?
- More.

- How's that?
- Yeah. And you check if...

- Don't move these.
- Ah!

Pretty solid, that.
I'll just give it one more.

Yeah. Feels good.

So next stage is handlebars.

If you'd like to pass these over
to Marek

- and he'll get them fitted up.
- Yeah. Marek, you're back on, pal.

- OK.
- Good luck.
- Thank you.
- Look after her.

Marek installs the steel handlebars,

which can fold away for storage.

And now we've nearly finished,
look who's turned up.

Whoo!

All the hard work is done

and Cherry's here
to steal the glory.

Ah, here we are.

- Ta-da!
- Look at this.
Ain't it beautiful?

So shiny and new!

And I can spin it round
like a lazy Susan.

Any chance of Richard
putting the handle up for Cherry?

That's all right, though.

- Brilliant, that.
- This is your final
mower, Paddy and Cherry.

- Ready to go.
- Oh, beautiful.

What a piece of kit that is.

And now we've got
a shiny finished mower,

I think I'll go and put my feet up

and let Cherry give Gavin a hand
boxing up.

- We'll put this under the handlebars.
- There we go.

- She looks great.
- OK.
- That is one big box.

That is one big box.
And it's ready to go in.

- OK, here we go.
- You got to line it up perfectly.

Gavin, she's heavy!

- Go on, use your muscles.
- There
we go.
- And she's in.
- All right.

- Lift her up.
- Oh, my God.
- That's it.
- Don't drop it. Don't drop it.

- Down she goes.
- Perfect.

Whoo!

Nice one, Cherry. Right, let's
get these boxes over to dispatch.

We've got a delivery to fulfil.

- You all right, Richard?
- Hey, Paddy. Hey, Cherry.

I'm going to go over there
and start boxing these.

Oh, eh-up! That's it. Down.

How many mowers
on a lorry like this?

So, with the one that Paddy's
been building, we get 96 on a lorry.

Beautiful stuff.
Let's wrap her up.

We get up to four lorries a day
going out of this site.

Hey...

And on they go, on to the lorry,
ready to dispatch.

Not sure the wrapping on that's
very good. Who did that one?

Couldn't possibly say.

- Oh...
- Good job. You did so good.
- Thank you.
- It looks great.

Beautiful. Hey, Richard.

Thank you so much
for showing us round today, pal.

- Been a pleasure, Paddy.
- It's fully loaded.

Get the doors down. Off it goes.

Just 4 hours and 20 minutes
after the start of production,

our mowers are leaving the factory.

From Hertfordshire, they head out
all over the UK and Ireland,

ready to make neighbours green
with envy over perfectly mown grass.

But as far as I'm concerned,

there's only one way to properly
christen a freshly mown lawn.

Yeah.

Wahey!

I tell you what,
I've not got real grass at home,

but after spending the day here,

I'm very tempted
to get it put back in.

Enjoy. Game on!

Go on.

CHEERING

Parklife by Blur

Oh!

Hey!

Go on, Cherry!

Hey!

Whoo!

THEY LAUGH