Inside the Christmas Factory – BBC2

Gregg and Cherry Inside the Christmas Factory

(Image credit: BBC/Voltage TV)

Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey investigate how some of our favourite festive foods are produced in Inside the Christmas Factory on BBC2

With the festive party season in full swing, Gregg Wallace heads to a factory in Nottingham that makes 200,000 canapés every 24 hours in Inside the Christmas Factory on BBC2.

He follows the production line of mini quiche bites and vol-au-vents as ingredients in massive quantities are transformed into nibbles for hungry partygoers.

It takes a staff of 600 working around the clock to keep up with the demand.

Cherry Healey, meanwhile, discovers the science behind cooking the perfect turkey (spoiler alert: it involves ice cubes), and historian Ruth Goodman puckers up to reveal why we kiss under the mistletoe and why Advent, which used to be a time of fasting, is now all about chocolate calendars.

This will be shown in Wales at 8.55pm.

For full listings, see our TV Guide.

TV Times rating: ***

Joanne Lowles has been writing about TV since 2002. After graduating from Cardiff University with a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism, she worked for All About Soap magazine covering the ups and downs of life on the cobbles, the square and the Dales.

Next came nearly 10 years at TV Times magazine as a writer and then deputy features editor. Here she spent many happy days interviewing the biggest names in entertainment and visiting the sets of some of our most popular shows including Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing.

With a love of nature and wildlife she’s also interviewed the leading experts in this area including David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Steve Backshall. She’s also travelled the world visiting Mongolia, Canada and South Africa to see how the best in the business make the most brilliant natural history documentaries.

Freelance since 2013, she is now is a digital writer and editor for What to Watch, previews the best on the box for TV Times mag each week and loves being constantly surprised, entertained and informed by the amazing TV that she is lucky enough to watch.