All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S08E09.Sofas.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-VTM_track3_[eng]

No matter what shape, size or style,
there is one bit of furniture

that many of us prize over all
others...

..the sofa.

Whether you're enjoying some quiet
time with a good book...

..or watching one of your favourite
shows...

..the sofa is at the heart
of almost every home.

I love this one.

We spend around ten years
of our lives sitting on the sofa.

To find out how this much-loved soft
seating is put together,

I've come to a factory that's
been making sofas

for over 50 years.

Owwww!

VOICEOVER: I'm Gregg Wallace.

Arrrrgh!

And I'll be pulling back the
fabric...

It's so big, isn't it?

..to reveal the complex
manufacturing...

It looks like a model aeroplane
kit when I was a kid.

..and craftsmanship...

The speed and the precision
is really impressive.

..hidden inside every sofa.

Come on!

I'm Cherry Healey,

and I'm being illuminated
by the science of lighting

and discovering the secrets...

Ready? Go!

..of foam production.

Oh! It almost
looks like a milkshake.

While historian Ruth Goodman...

Oh, how elegant!

..reveals the Scottish roots...

This looks really old.

..of the sewing machine.

Oh, it's extraordinary, isn't it?

5,500 sofas are made in this factory
every single year,

and we're going to reveal
just how they do it.

Welcome to Inside The Factory.

This is the HSL sofa factory
in Batley, West Yorkshire.

This 8,360-square-metre site

has 250 staff dedicated to
furniture making.

Specialist workers in 17 different
departments

create 47 unique sofa designs...

..from single-seat chairs
to two- and three-seater sofas...

..upholstered in a range of fabrics,

like soft linen and luxurious
leather...

..all made to order.

But today I'm making one
of their best sellers -

the Burrows Classic
two-and-a-half-seater in indigo.

Created to comfortably seat
two adults,

it may look traditional
on the outside...

..but hidden inside, it's a complex
feat of design.

A jigsaw puzzle of wood, foam and
fabric.

So there's no time to sit around.

A lorry load of wood for my sofa
is arriving at intake...

..where I'm meeting head of
manufacturing Charlotte Akroyd.

Charlotte, hello! How are you?
Welcome, Gregg.

What have we got on here, please?

So this is our Indonesian plywood.

So, what bit of a sofa would
that make?

This is used to make our sofa frame.

Right, that you build everything
else around? That's correct.

So how much of this stuff
have we got here?

We've got four packs on this wagon.

We generally take up to 15 packs
per week, two deliveries per week,

and each pack contains 60 sheets.

How many sofas would you get out of
60 sheets, roughly?

We'd get around 60 sofas.

Oh, it's a sheet per sofa. Yeah.

Right, OK. I'm really looking
forward to this.

How long you been working with sofas?

19 years, Gregg.

Have you really? I have.

I suppose you've always got
something comfy

to sit on at tea break.
That's it, yeah.

It's the perks of the job.

Let's get this timber inside.
Come on.

As the 2.4-metre plywood
sheets are unloaded...

..sofa production begins.

What exactly is plywood?

If you look at this plywood in
particular, it's made up

of five individual sheets.

The grains are alternated
and the adhesive is added to make

it very, very strong.

So it's thin strips of wood... That's
correct. ..laid against the grain,

compressed and glued. That's right.

But why not just use a single
piece of wood?

This method of manufacturing
the plywood means that it's even

stronger than a standard
piece of wood.

The grain could create a weak
point, removed by alternating

the sheets in layers.

They're made from Indonesian
tropical hardwood, engineered

to be precisely 15mm thick.

As well as plywood, my intricate
sofa frame

also requires birch timber and MDF.

So we've got nice solid wood to make
our sofa. Yeah? We have, indeed.

Nowadays, you'll find a sofa

in almost every living room
in the country.

But what's the history of
this popular piece of furniture?

Ruth has got a front-row seat.

It could be said that the history
of the sofa goes right back

to the simple wooden bench.

But I want to know how the modern
soft and comfy sofa became

commonplace in our homes.

Something like a sofa existed
over two-and-a-half thousand years

ago in ancient Egypt,

and the word derives from the Arabic
suffah, meaning bench.

It was the Greeks and Romans
who mastered padding for comfort.

But the sofa remained the preserve
of the ultra-wealthy

until the 19th century, where my sofa
odyssey begins,

inside the Museum of the Home
in east London.

Danielle Patten is my guide.

Hello! Hi! Welcome to the Museum of
the Home.

So I've got three rooms to show
you today... Yeah?

..to show you how the sofa
has evolved over 200 years.

Lead on! This way.

The museum houses a collection
of rooms through time,

each one giving a glimpse of how
people furnished their sitting rooms.

My first stop
is the Georgian period...

RUTH GASPS

Gosh, this is grand.

Oh, how elegant!

..when the sofa was an opulent
showpiece.

And this is our 1830 sofa.

So it's the earliest sofa that we
have on display at the museum.

So it's a beautiful mahogany frame.

So it's a kind of neoclassical Greek
revival and then the cushions

are horsehair and then covered
in silk.

So, who could afford something like
this then?

Wealthy people. So they would have
been considered middle class,

but that meant something quite
different in the 1830s.

So we're talking about people
like doctors and lawyers,

or very wealthy merchants.

So it's a real status piece.
Yeah, definitely.

It would have been used in that way,
to show off your status.

It's not just a piece of furniture.

It's saying lots about your identity
and where you stand in society.

It's very firm, isn't it?

We were supposed to be sitting very
neatly on the sofa,

kind of straight back.

How you sat was a real reflection
on your moral state.

So it emulated... An upright posture
actually meant an upright mind.

Exactly that, yes.

So what would people think
if you were lounging?

It would have been an absolute
disgrace.

They weren't expected to sit
around for hours on the sofa,

so it didn't have to be comfortable.

And the space where it is, I mean,
what would you call this room?

This is the drawing room. It comes
from the idea of withdrawing.

So it's definitely a space
that women would have dominated.

So reading, painting, taking
tea and... Yeah. ..spending time
together.

The sofa's at the side of the room.
It's... It's an extra. Yeah.

It's not the main business.

So it's like it's a piece
of withdrawing furniture

within the withdrawing room.

From the upright Georgians,

our journey continues to the late
Edwardian era.

Ooh, now this is so different!

Yep, so this is 100 years forward.
This is our 1915 sitting room.

And a sitting room. It's not
called a drawing room.

So it's less formal now,

and it's a space that the whole
family can use.

It's much cosier, and the focus
of the room is much more

the sofa now. Yeah, it is, isn't it?
Sat round the fire.

The Industrial Revolution made
the sofa much more affordable.

Expensive materials like silk
could be replaced by cheaper cotton,

spun in huge new mills and woven
into fabric on efficient

production lines in massive
factories.

The other room felt very,
very wealthy. Yes.

This is still clearly prosperous,
but it's sort of

down a notch, isn't it?

This now would have been made
in a factory,

which makes it much cheaper.

They were quite a common sight
across homes,

and working-class people
would have had them too.

So what's different about it?

Apart from the fact that it seems to
have gone super-sized...

DANIELLE GIGGLES

It's gone all fat.

- RUTH LAUGHS - Yeah,
so this is a chesterfield - design.

It's a really famous sofa shape

because it's... it's much more
padded.

So you've got double padding on the
back, the padding

around the rolled arms.
The textile... the fabric that's

covering it, although it's cotton,

so it's much more affordable than

the silk that we saw before,

it's still woven,

it's still kind of a high-quality
material.

You can lean back and it will
support your back much more.

Still very upright. There's no
slouching yet.

Our final stop is a 1990s apartment,

complete with
a two-and-a-half-seater sofa.

RUTH LAUGHS

Yeah, so this is much more

up-to-date.

This is our 1998 lounge.

You can get comfortable.
OK, here we go.

THEY LAUGH

And it's much softer, isn't it?

Oh, yeah. You can really... Yes, this
is definitely... Oh, yeah, squashy.

THEY LAUGH

So you can just kind of relax.

There's no more kind of upright,
that's all...

Yeah. No more respectability. No
more respectability. It's all about
just...

You've got to have your feet up.
Feet up.

You can put your feet up. I'll take
me shoes off. Yeah.

They're for sort of scrunching up
on and jamming

yourself in corners.

Definitely. We're lounging in the
lounge now.

We're lounging in the lounge. It's
completely changed. Yeah.

The right to lounge was
the culmination

of 20th-century change.

The five-day working week
established by the 1930s

gave workers more time to relax.

By the '60s and '70s, the TV
was the new focus from the sofa,

and the development of modern
materials like foam and technology

and ever larger factories brought
down the cost of a sofa for all.

So we've got foam cushions. Yep.
No springs.

Completely just a block of foam.
Still on a wooden frame?

Yeah, wooden frame, but also now
we've got plywood,

which is cheaper material,

and manufacturing techniques
that make it much more affordable.

So it's gone from being a sort
of formal status piece

stuck at the side, mostly for a bit
of elegant perching...

..through to being something that
is... It's like a bed.

It's like a bed, isn't it? Yeah.

GREGG: In West Yorkshire, the factory
puts their sofas through 17 stages

to ensure the perfect design
for lounging around,

blending traditional craft
with modern techniques and materials.

But before we get to comfort,
our primary focus is strength.

The skeleton of my sofa
relies on parts carved from

a super-strong sheet of plywood...

..in the frame cutting department...

..where John Williams has a
computer-controlled machine

ready to operate on
the bare bones of my sofa.

John! Hey!

How are we doing, Gregg? All right?

I am good, mate, yeah.
This is fascinating, actually.

If you just want to turn the key
and press the yellow button.

That'll load the board.

WHIRRING

Whoa!

According to the design
programmed into the computer,

the machine first drills 58 holes,

used for bolting the sofa
together later.

Then the drill bit is replaced
by a diamond-tipped cutting tool,

which rotates at 22,000rpm
to shear through the plywood.

Wahey! Knocks up quite a bit of dust,
doesn't it? With wood chippings.

So what's the big brushy thing
that's coming down?

It's like a Hoover.
It takes all the dust away.

How smart!

This machine will pick out
whichever tool it needs

to drill a hole or smooth or cut,

and then a little brushy Hoover
comes down and cleans it all up.

That's the one, yeah.

Finally, a circular saw makes
light work of the straight sections.

In total, the machine cuts out
26 pieces from the single sheet

of 15mm plywood.

I think that is a
very impressive machine.

This model of computer-controlled
efficiency cuts the plywood

for three whole frames every hour.

Ha! It looks like a model aeroplane
kit when I was a kid.

Hang on, what's going
to happen to it?

Is it going to fall off the edge?
So these will stop at the sensor.

Whoa!

They did stop.

So that's the arm of the chair,
is that, Gregg.

Or...

..it's a ghost with a lopsided head.

Look. Ooh!

The eyes.

Plywood provides two thirds
of our carved wooden parts.

The machine also cuts 24 pieces
from a board of MDF,

medium-density fibreboard,

made from compressed wood,
resins and waxes.

It's lighter weight than plywood

and used for the sofa sections that
don't require as much strength.

So these are all our
component parts.

You can go help build a frame.

Yeah, OK. Thank you, my friend.
Thank you.

43 minutes into production,

and the bones of my sofa...

..are sent to frame building...

..where more than 10,000 wooden
pieces are worked on every day.

Charlotte. Lovely to see you again.
Lovely to see you too.

This looks a bit complex.

This is where all our
sofa frames are assembled.

We have nine frame assemblers
in total.

Does it take nine different sections
to put a sofa frame together?

No, each frame builder will build
the sofa completely.

So they'll build the whole
skeleton of the frame.

This is Mick. Hello, Mick.
Hi, Gregg.

What bit is Mick building now, then?

So this is the arm.

So the arm is one of the most
complex pieces of the sofa.

How many bits are there in an arm?

22 pieces in total.

Want to have a go? Yeah!

What am I going to do?

This is going to be the arm panel

and it's going to fix onto
the base of the sofa.

So this one needs
T-nuts in the hole,

give them a good whack
to make sure they sit flush.

Harder than that, yeah.

Yep. That'll do it.

One in each hole.
That's hard work, that is.

The steel T-nuts provide
the thread for the bolts

that will connect the arm
to the sofa base.

I'm like Thor, with a hammer,
you know.

And we get these... What are they?
..cardboard washers.

What's a washer's job?

Basically, this is holding
that in place.

The washers are secured with a
high-powered pneumatic staple gun.

And the other side.

Oh, this is a great job, this is!

How long would it take you to
build a complete frame for a sofa?

Probably about half an hour.

Wow. I thought you were going
to say a couple of days.

So it's basically like a big jigsaw.

You use glue as well?
Absolutely, yep.

Plenty of glue.

The strong water-based glue
and jumbo 2cm staples...

..fix the complicated
arm structure together.

I've realised we're all
different sizes.

So how do you know
where to put the arm?

This is a standard arm
around the average person.

So the arm height in total
is 62.8cm.

And we also have to bear in mind

the weight load
that it's going to take.

So getting up from the sofa and
sitting back down, day in, day out.

We also sit on the arm, don't we?
Some people do, yeah.

And you rest your head on it.
That's it.

And there's your finished arm.

That is very impressive.

Very impressive.
Good job there, Mick. Thank you.

That was a lot of work,
and you've got a big sofa to build.

Shall I leave you to it?
Thank you very much.

Thank you, Charlotte.

That's the arms done.

The back and base are less intricate,

with frames built around horizontal
lengths of solid birch timber...

..a super-strong and durable
hardwood from Sweden.

Secured with 24 wooden pegs...

..a quarter of a litre of glue

and over 400 staples for each frame,

Mick completes 35 every day.

And they're left to dry for 24 hours.

A cosy sofa is not the only
essential element

to a relaxing living room.

The lighting you choose can make
a massive difference too.

Cherry's in search of some bright
ideas to achieve maximum cosiness.

Do you ever feel like you've done
everything for a snuggle-tastic time

on the sofa, but something
just isn't right?

Well, the solution might be
shining right in your eyes.

There's a dazzling array
of light bulbs available.

I find it quite hard to choose
the right one.

But which bulb is best for creating
that inviting, cosy light

that we want in our living rooms?

To find out, I'm heading
to my local lighting shop

to meet Dr Clara Barker, a material
scientist at Oxford University.

Hi, Clara. It's lovely to meet you.

Hi. Nice to meet you.

Clara is going to cast some
light on the hidden science

behind this myriad of bulbs.

Where do you even begin?
There's so many options.

Yeah, there's a lot more options
than there used to be.

But from a scientific point of view,

there's three things
that we can think about.

The hue, which is
the colour of the light.

We can talk about intensity,
which is how bright it is,

and we can also
talk about diffusion,

whether the light all goes in one
spot or whether it moves out.

I'll get that one and that one.

All right, let's go.

In this shop alone, there are
186 different types of light bulb

with varying effects.

First, we check the hue, or colour.

Traditional bulbs emit light
on the red end of the spectrum.

When I'm on my sofa and
I want that warm cosiness,

this is the one.

This is a tungsten light bulb.

And if you look closely inside,
you can see that there's a coil.

That's a long piece of wire
of a metal called tungsten,

and that's what we call
the filament.

It's really nice and warm.
It's lovely. Yeah.

But these tungsten bulbs
are being phased out,

making way for a much more
efficient alternative,

the light-emitting diode, or LED.

LED bulbs like this use
about 90% less energy

than tungsten light bulbs to produce
the same amount of light.

If we look inside... Oh, wow!

..and these things are
light-emitting diodes.

It's a very small electrical
device that releases light,

but without releasing all the heat
that goes alongside it.

Each diode is a semiconductor

that emits blue light
when current flows through it,

producing a hue closer to the
cold end of the colour spectrum.

However, they can be tweaked

to mimic the warm glow
of a tungsten bulb

by coating them with an
orange-coloured phosphor,

which converts some of the
blue light into yellow.

How do I know which LED to buy
when I want that warm light?

What we can see is that they
actually have this colour scale
on here.

What on earth do these mean?

So K stands for kelvin, and that's
the measure of temperature,

or in this case, colour.

And what we see is that the
5,000 kelvin is more blue,

it's more like daylight,
whereas the lower temperature,

the 2,700, is more in the
orange and red scale,

so that's a warmer light bulb.

So that's more what we want.

So we've got the hue right. Yep.

What are we looking for next?
So, next we want intensity,

how bright we want the light.

The brightness of the old tungsten
bulbs was measured in watts,

the amount of electricity used.

LEDs are measured in lumens,

which is a direct measure
of the light produced by the bulb.

So what intensity do you need

when snuggling up
on your favourite sofa?

Welcome.

It all depends on
how big the room is.

To be able to read
comfortably in a room,

you want about 100 lumens
per square metre.

So this room is about
20 square metres.

So in a room of this size,
we want about 2,000 lumens.

OK, so this one is 810 lumens.

If I had two of these
and then one of about 400,

do you think that would
light the room correctly?

Pretty much, as long as
you space them out.

But of course, it's very much
an average value.

As you get older, you'll need
more light in the background

to be able to do the
same activities.

Our third variable is diffusion,

how the softness of light
is measured.

And for that, there are two types
of bulb to choose from -

clear and frosted.

On the frosted light bulb,

we take something similar
to the clear light bulb,

but instead of having a nice,
smooth, shiny surface,

we blast it with sand or acid and
we make it really, really rough.

And that means that there's the same
amount of light being scattered

in many more directions
on the frosted light bulb,

instead of travelling
in a single direction,

which is what's happening
with the clear glass.

So instead of having a hot spot
of light,

it's dispersed and it's softer and
much, much more relaxing. Exactly.

Because this is where we sit
on the sofa and we relax,

I think the frosted bulb
is definitely the best one.

I think it's a bit nicer
in this room, yeah.

So if I find a warm hue, the perfect
intensity and a diffused bulb,

are you saying that I could be
the queen of cosy?

I think you'll be doing pretty good.

That's what I'm after.
OK, thank you so much.

It's my pleasure.

So if you want the cosiest
living room for your sofa,

you may just need
a new set of bulbs.

I'm sorry, I've got
some relaxing to do.

In West Yorkshire,

we're not quite ready
to snuggle up just yet.

We're one day, one hour and
43 minutes into production.

We've created the strong frame
inside our sofa.

Now for the soft outer shell.

And for that, there's another
high-tech machine.

From 13 metres of hard-wearing
polyester fabric

in a colour called Volante indigo,
it cuts out 48 pieces...

..ready for sewing...

..and that all-important human touch.

Hello, Charlotte.

Hello, Gregg. How you doing?

That's a busy little section,
this, isn't it?

It is.
This is our sewing department.

We have 23 sewing machinists
covering this area.

Sewing is a very highly skilled job.

It takes a lot of years to learn
and train to this level.

This is Joanne. Hello, Jo. Hello.

You are 100% head down, focused.

You've got to concentrate.

Be careful they don't
catch their fingers.

I've done that many a time.

What's the hardest fabric
to work with?

To be honest, this.

LAUGHS

Why's that?

Because of the stretchiness of it,
and it's slippy.

It moves under the machine
if you don't hold it properly.

Jo's going to start
with the arms first.

The wooden frame of the arm was the
most complex section to build,

and it's the most difficult bit
to sew too.

But there are some clever tricks

to ensure the right sides
of fabric fit together.

This is a reference notch
for sewing,

so that when the ladies are sewing
the borders together,

they know to put the triangle
notches to the triangle notches.

And this is a box notch.

And these are to determine
the pile direction of the fabric.

Well, you don't want to bodge
a box notch, do you?

This industrial machine
can run at a high speed

for long periods of sewing.

And stitch length and feed pressure
can all be adjusted

depending on what type of material
is being used.

For a shapely sofa cover,
there are some important

three-dimensional features
added at this stage.

What's going on there?

So Jo's constructing the piping.

I'm guessing you use piping
so that something keeps its shape.

So it's a nice trim,
it's a nice finish

to the edges of the sofa and
the arms and the cushions,

but it does hold its shape
and definition as well.

I'm fascinated by this. I really am.

So she's now attaching the
second piece of the arm.

So the piping is sandwiched
between there,

with that 12.5mm seam.

If we deviate from that seam
and it's larger or smaller,

it means that the sofa coverings
are not going to fit.

Extraordinary.

19 metres of piping is sewn
for this one sofa,

using a single row of running stitch
with strong industrial cotton

that won't fray or snap,
ensuring a defined finish.

Fabulous. Can I have a look at this?

Yes, you certainly can.

I can't believe you do this
so precisely and so quickly.

You can see how it's going to form
that shape on the top of the arm.

Isn't that fabulous?

Just the skill and the speed
and the precision...

Yeah, it's very quick, isn't it?
..is really impressive.

This machine can sew up to 5,000
stitches a minute at maximum speed.

With 41 years of experience,

it takes Jo just an hour to sew all
the pieces into 15 different sections

to cover the frame
and cushions of my sofa.

Jo, that was an absolute pleasure
to watch. Brilliant. Thank you.

And, Charlotte, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.

Sewing machines are used
in homes across the world.

But it was a factory here in the UK
that played a big part in making

these little machines indispensable.

Ruth is cottoning on to the history.

Glasgow and nearby Clydebank
was home to

a vast shipbuilding industry...

..but another industry
once dominated this region,

changing the lives of
thousands of people here.

The sewing machine.

To help stitch the story together,

I'm heading just a few hundred
metres from the banks of the Clyde

to a train station with a rather
distinctive name...

..where I'm meeting
historian Andrew Graham.

Hello, Andrew.

What has this place got to do
with sewing machines?

Over here, on the other side
of the railway line,

was the largest sewing machine
factory in the world.

Where that modern estate is now?
Yep, absolutely.

From the 1880s up until 1980,

the Singer sewing machine
factory was based over there.

The huge factory covered a site
of almost 100,000 square metres.

It boasted the largest
four-faced clock in the world,

sitting atop a 60-metre-high tower,
dominating the skyline.

Construction started in 1882
to satisfy the textile boom

of the Industrial Revolution.

Factory production grew rapidly

and at its peak employed
around 14,000 workers,

making more than a million
sewing machines a year.

And why was it here, then?

Clydebank has two railway lines
going through it,

so that was perfect to bring
people and goods in.

We're close to the Clyde,
so that was easy to get the machines

exported out across the globe.

And also, there wasn't really
a town here in the beginning.

So this was just a greenfield site,
so it was cheap ground.

Ah, so that makes it really easy
to develop and build.

You've got a clear site,
except that the transport links

are already sitting there,
waiting for you. Yep.

The founder of the Singer
sewing machine company

was American inventor
Isaac Merritt Singer.

He had become frustrated
with the complex and unwieldy

early machines, in use since
the beginning of the 1800s,

so he invented his own
more compact version in 1851.

And there's one on display,

just a short walk from the
Singer factory site

at the Clydebank Museum.

This looks really old.

Yeah, this is the Singer No 1,

the very first machine
produced by Isaac Singer.

Oh, my goodness!

So what is it that makes
this machine special,

different from what went before?

The shuttle underneath,
going back and forward,

in conjunction with the needle,
going up and down,

rather than side to side
in the past,

you're creating a lock stitch
with two threads. Right.

Those two threads mean that
you are locking the fabric,

the two bits of fabric, together.

Oh, it's extraordinary, isn't it?

Singer's invention grew ever
sleeker over the decades,

but it was the speed
of these machines

that was the real breakthrough.

It was claimed a shirt could be made
in just one hour and 16 minutes,

almost ten times quicker
than sewing by hand.

To see them in action, I'm heading
inside the Singer social club

to meet Irene Cole
and Gavin Collins,

whose own family histories are
closely tied to these machines.

Oh, now this is what I like to see.

Hello! Come and join us.

Is this machine for me? Yep.
Oh, fantastic!

What on earth is that one, Gavin?

This is a K210, which was 1952,

so this was relatively modern.

Using our vintage machines,

we're following the pattern
for a Victorian shirt.

Irene, when did you start?

So my father, he bought
a second-hand Singer,

and had the sewing machine
in the house,

and he used to adjust
his own clothes,

and I was so keen to sew,
and so I started doing that.

All my family have worked in Singer.

My grandparents lived all their days
and worked all their life in Singer.

Known as Bankies,
the Clydebank workforce,

which often included
entire families,

helped the company dominate
the global sewing market

for nearly a century.

Cheaper manufacturing in the
Far East resulted in the factory

closing its doors in 1980.

But happily, many of the original
Scottish-made machines

are still in use today.

So is it Singer machines
in particular

that you feel connected to?

Yeah. I don't know if I could bring
myself to buy another manufacturer.

I like to say they never miss
a stitch. Yeah.

And it's easy to fix,
or easier to fix.

You know, there's no computers.
Yeah.

I mean, it's actually
relatively simple,

although ingenious, of course.

This easy-to-use technology meant
that Singer was the brand of choice,

not just for the garment industry,

but for increasing numbers
of home sewers too.

And as we stitch together
our Victorian shirt pattern,

it's easy to see why.

There is the second sleeve.

Fantastic. We're almost there.

Is this the collar going on?

OK, we're three inches away.

Oh, nearly done!

Come on, then. Let's have a look.

It is a shirt!

THEY LAUGH

Well done. No bad.

It may have taken three of us,
but we've completed our shirt

in that historic breakthrough time
of one hour and 16 minutes.

The sewing machine was a triumph
of British manufacturing

and allowed domestic sewing
to flourish,

so generations could pass on
their passion and skill,

sewing everything from shirts
to sofa covers.

Back at the sofa factory, the busy
sewing department

uses 25 German-made machines,

which can sew up to 5,000 stitches
a minute,

creating 160 covers every day.

We're well into production,
and the sewn parts for my covers

are heading to the upholstery
department.

There are 34 upholsterers here,
each working on their own bench.

I'm joining Dave Leaming,
and it seems it's a bit

of a family affair.

Hey, Dave?

Hiya, Gregg. Good to meet you, mate.

How are you doing, you all right?
Good.

And there's four brothers all
working in a line here.

No, get out of here!

Seriously?

Four of us. Has your mum banned
any talk on sofas at home?

LAUGHS: No! No.

Four, but that's fantastic, innit?

All right. Nathan's just working
on your arm.

What is important here, I suppose,
is taking something that's wood

and hard and making it comfy,
isn't it?

Exactly, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

The arm is the trickiest
part to upholster.

First, card creates the round
shape.

But what really adds the comfort
is foam.

So it's all about layering
the foam on top of the card.

So you can see now that Nathan's
putting on reconstituted foam.

So this is like a hard-wearing piece
of foam, cos there's a lot

of traffic on that arm there.

Reconstituted foam is made of

compacted recycled polyurethane
foam.

Onto this robust base material,

Nathan adds a thicker, softer
topper foam.

This combination removes
any feeling of the hard wooden

frame hidden beneath.

And you can see, as Nathan's
been upholstering it round,

he's tucking it into that profiled
edge,

and it's sort of giving definition
to the arm.

It's giving us shape. Yeah.

It's now got curvy edges.

That's right, yeah.

Next, Nathan fits the precisely sewn
fabric cover over the arm.

"Sofa", so good.

And it's secured with an intricate
pleat design.

Nathan's doing the pleats now,
and you can see them all rolling in.

And this is one of the really
skilled parts of the job

because it's a feel.

So you feel the cover as it does it.

Wow. Wow.

And that's just an eye and a feel.

It's what you develop over time.

How much of this job is artistry?

For things like this,
you can't do that by sewing,

you can't do it by any other
means other than the skill.

So the aspects like that
have to be skill.

So we've got a stylish place
to rest our arm,

but every sofa needs a comfy
back to lean against.

Over to Nathan's brother
Danny McDaid.

So what's this going on here?

They look like seat belts. Yeah,
so this is elastic webbing.

Now, this is made up of 80%
polypropylene fibres and 20%

natural rubber strands.

Danny's going to pull
this to its maximum to create a nice

firm back, to create the support.

And it takes a bit of strength
to pull the webbing.

Why don't you have a go? Come on,
then. So what you got to do,

you got to yank that really hard?

Yeah. That's it, yeah. Oh! Whoa!

Is that taut enough, mate?

A bit more.

That'll do, yeah. And then staple
it. Ooh!

GREGG LAUGHS

This is a crazy job!

That's it. That it?

Yeah, that's great, that's right,
yeah.

Danny weaves 14m of webbing
across the back,

following the profile of
the wooden frame.

The tight elastic webbing provides
support without too much bounce.

That is more than double
the strength of that? That's right.

The ergonomic design continues
with a foam lumbar support to take

the strain from the arch
of your back.

I didn't realise that it comes out
at the lower part of your back.

On top of all that goes a layer
of a tough material called Dacron,

made from recycled plastic bottles.

You can feel the thickness
and the rigidity of it, it's solid,

but it's soft. Solid and soft,

that's really your battle cry, isn't
it? That's what you're after.

It's all about everything being
firm,

quality, but you've got the softness
and the comfort to go with it.

The final brother on my upholstery
production line is Connor, who's got

another ingredient for comfort -
springs.

I'm guessing that is the base.

The base is a key part because it
holds the whole weight

of the customer, so it has to be
spread evenly and firm.

Now Connor's putting on arc
springs. Arc springs?

They have an arch to them. Feel
the firmness of these springs

as you try and pull them on.

Yeah, now, that's serious, innit?

Crikey.

Made from 4mm-thick
carbon steel zigzagging to spread

out the weight-bearing load,
they rise up in an arc shape.

Whoa! That is not easy.

I know you make it look easy,
but I'm telling you... I mean,

I'm quite strong,
I'm in the gym every day,

that is hard work.

11 arc springs provide a deeper
level of comfort for the weight

of your bottom than foam alone.

An insulator pad is added on top

to create a platform over
the springs.

This makes them act as a unit,
distributing the weight more evenly

so you don't feel
each individual spring.

My little boy, Sid, treats
this like a trampoline. Yeah!

I mean, literally, like, bounces
as hard as he can on it,

but it holds it up, doesn't it?
Yeah, it does...

And now I've seen this,
I know why. Yeah.

And luckily, the sofa is designed

to take the load of two fully grown
adults.

Three brothers, three separate
stages, I think that's quite unique.

Cheers, mate. Thanks, mate.

The fabric covers are added,
and all four finished parts -

two arms, a back and base - are
wheeled to the final assembly...

..where I'm meeting Jonny Campbell.

Jonny? Hiya, mate.
All right, mate? Can I lend a hand?

Yeah, definitely.
Strong man like you.

GREGG LAUGHS

Jonny uses strong steel
brackets to secure the back

to the base in a solid L shape.

The arms are fixed in place
using a clever sliding mechanism.

- Push it flush up to it.
- GREGG LAUGHS

It's a two-man job, it's a two-man
job...

I got it, I got it.
I got it. I got it!

I got it, I got it!

I'm feeling a bit of a sense
of pride over this. Yeah, you do.

When it finishes,
the end of it, yeah, you do

put it down with a bit of pride.

Eight bolts firmly secure the bottom
of the arms to the base.

There you go. That is the first time
I've seen this as a finished sofa.

Well, almost a finished sofa.
Needs some cushions, don't it?

That's the next bit.
Thank you very much.

Foam like this gives shape
and support,

but the stuff that goes

inside the cushions is vital
for that extra comfort.

Cherry's finding out the secrets
of the perfect padding.

I'm on a mission to find out
how the foam for Gregg's sofa

cushions is made,

exploring the Vita factory
near Manchester, where they produce

32,000 tonnes of foam every year.

Lovely to meet you.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Nick Wood is at the helm.

Oh, wow. I feel like I'm in the
engine room of an enormous ship.

Well, you are, really. This is our
foam manufacturing plant,

it's the control centre,

and we've got a few seconds
for you to press the start button

to start the foaming plant.
Let's make some foam.

Come on, let's make it. Ready?

Go!

Oh, look at that,
that is beautiful.

It almost looks like a milkshake.

I suppose it's got the viscosity of
a milkshake.

This peachy liquid is a mix of two

chemicals - isocyanate and polyol -
combined with water.

It's very runny.

You would struggle
to have an afternoon snooze on that.

Yeah, you would. Right now, it's
about 2mm or 3mm in thickness,

but within a minute that will
have risen to over 1m.

35,000 litres per hour pours
onto a paper-lined conveyor belt.

The mix enters a 50m-long tunnel.

As it travels, the liquid
chemicals react with each

other, forming polyurethane.

The water in the mix causes
a separate chemical reaction,

generating tiny bubbles
of carbon dioxide.

The bubbles quickly expand,
making the foam rise.

A sheet of paper pressed on top
ensures this foam stops rising

at 1.3m in height.

It's very similar to making
a loaf of bread.

The dough is the solid part,
and the yeast reacting with water

in making the loaf of bread forms
the carbon dioxide which expands

the dough to make the bread.

That's so clever!

90 seconds after entering
the tunnel,

the foam is fully expanded.

And depending on the customer's
requirements, its sponginess

can be dialled up or down.

Absolutely feel that that's much
easier to squish... Yep.

..and that's much, much firmer.

How do you get a soft foam
and how do you get a hard foam?

We could add more water
to make a lower density

and an often softer product.

The company makes 40 different
varieties,

some of which are coloured
to identify their usage.

As our cushion foam emerges
from the tunnel, it's cut

into 2m lengths.

Wow. And there she is - the biggest

block of cheese you'll ever see.

The foam is left to cure for 12
hours, which allows the final

chemical bonding reactions
to take place.

Then it's sent to the conversion
unit to be cut

into the correct shape
for our sofa.

Dave Fielding is in charge.

Hi, Dave, it's lovely to meet you.
Hi, Cherry, nice to meet you.

Now, I've gone to all the
trouble of making you some foam,

but what I really want to do
is slice and dice it. Of course.

Do you want me to show you how?
Yes, absolutely.

A robotically controlled blade cuts
out a pre-programmed pattern.

If the computer's doing
all the work and it's automated,

surely nothing can go wrong?

So it's actually really important
when cutting a seat cushion

that we cut it the right way round.

So, the foam is made up of a
structure of tiny egg-shaped cells.

Much like a chicken's egg,

these air pockets have a greater
load-bearing capacity when arranged

vertically as opposed
to horizontally.

If we cut it from side to side,
them egg-shaped cells

are on their side and that makes
them weaker.

With the foam the right way
up for maximum longevity,

this machine cuts out 96
50x8cm cushion blocks

in under ten minutes,

ready for the all-important
final check.

So here we go - a sofa cushion!

Springy yet firm.

Perfect for Gregg's comfy
couch at the factory.

Here in Yorkshire, thin layers
of hard-wearing foam have already

been used to upholster
the wooden frame.

And now it's time for Cherry's
squidgy blocks of foam

to make our cushions.

And if you've ever struggled
to put on a cushion cover,

this is how the experts do it.

HE LAUGHS

It's like a big, blue ghost coming
out from behind a cupboard!

Plenty of pushin'
goes into that cushion.

Yes! Marius' ingenious bit of
kit is called the squeeze machine.

Cushion in, and then press the
pedal down here?

Quick press.

End of.

It applies 7 bar of pressure,
making the foam half the size.

Now I'll put the cover over?
Cover on top.

And this is where the ghost pops up?

Yeah. Just hold very tight down and
press and keep very tight.

GREGG GRUNTS

That's it. And just up.

GREGG LAUGHS

Brilliant.

Now we have to push into
the corners.

I'm really glad the ladies that do
the sewing do such a good job,

cos otherwise this would rip,
wouldn't it?

That is, like, huggable, innit?

Yeah. If you'd like to grab one,
I'll grab the other

and we'll head over to Quality.

That was good fun. Come on.

We got cushions. Cheers. Bye.

After one day, six hours and 55
minutes,

my sofa's ready
for its crowning glory.

There's the sofa. Come on!

Are we putting these straight on?
Straight onto the sofa, yeah.

I'm taking real pride over here,
I don't like the fluff on it.

Right, come on!

Just before we put the back cushions
on, we need to fit the feet, legs -

front leg and back leg.

They're quite posh,
are they solid wood?

They're solid wood, they're beech.

So they're dried in a kiln,

which means that they're stronger
and harder

and they're not going to split.

Very nice.

Brass wheel? Brass wheel, yeah.

Tip the sofa backwards.

The sturdy feet are screwed into
pre-fitted brackets which provide

a strong thread in each corner.

We need to make sure that the leg's
tight and that it's flush

to the bottom of the frame.

So the back legs need to go in.

Now we need to take it to our
balance plate and make sure

it's not wobbly.
Come on, then.

That's level, innit?
No wobble.

This is a perfect level surface,

so we know the sofa's perfectly
straight.

That's wonk-free, that is. Perfect.

Now we need to add the back
cushions.

These 74cm fibre cushions
are filled with polyester hollow

strands pumped full of air.

Softer than foam,

they gently compress as you lean
back to relax.

Ta-da!

Do we do a final test?

The comfort test. SIGHS: Ah!

SHE SIGHS

What do you think?
I'm very happy with my sofa.

Right, where's the remote?
You've got to turn that over,

- MasterChef starts in a minute.
- SHE LAUGHS

Well done. Thank you very much.

Sofas can be our pride and joy,
which explains why some people even

put protective covers over them
to stop them getting damaged.

But what's the best way
to preserve the shiny appearance

of wooden furniture?

Cherry's gone in search.

I want to know how the experts
keep their wooden furniture

looking absolutely gorgeous,

so I've come to South Devon to meet
a furniture restorer who's hopefully

going to let me in on some
polishing secrets.

Professional French polisher
Simon Gilboy has developed

a specialist wax to pamper wood,
from the legs of your prized sofa

to your favourite dining chairs.

What happens if you don't look
after your wooden furniture?

Your wooden furniture will be OK,
but it won't last as long.

So by using furniture polish,
you will protect your furniture

from water, from dust, general
abrasion, and also

it enhances your furniture.

We're starting with a block
of beeswax, a traditional ingredient

in many popular polishes,
and the base

for Simon's natural recipe.

So now we are going to smash it.

We break the block into pieces,
ready to be melted down.

Oh! Sorry. Got you!

HE LAUGHS

Beeswax is secreted from glands
under the abdomen of the honeybee,

providing the waxy material used
in the construction of honeycomb.

Simon sources his beeswax locally.
After the beekeeper has taken

the honey, the remaining wax comb
is melted down, filtered

and set hard.

Beeswax makes up over 50%
of Simon's polish.

So this is the start of our recipe.

And a lot of blood, sweat
and tears has gone

into developing this formula.

Right, what's next on
the ingredient list?

Look at this.

So that is T1-grade carnauba wax.

Where's it from?

It's from the Copernicia prunifera
tree in Brazil.

Very brittle. It's very brittle,
which means it's very hard.

OK. We add this to the beeswax,

which will harden our polish.

The carnauba will also make
it more resistant to water damage.

Right, so next is myrica wax.

Now, this is from the Andes.

This is farmed from a myrica
berry, which is grown way up,

over 1,000m high.

And this wax coats the berry.

Myrica is like sunscreen
for your furniture,

providing UV protection.

This is, like, an extreme wax.

It is. Yeah, yeah.

OK, how much?
That's probably about right.

We also add a berry wax
from the Japanese sumac tree

that gives the polish a smooth
texture.

They're heated to 70 degrees
Celsius,

forming a thick liquid, ready

for the final ingredient,
turpentine.

So this comes from pine trees.

The turpentine makes it easy
to apply.

Can I add it in? Yeah,
yeah, add it away.

Finally, once the liquid polish
is set, it's ready to apply.

Is there a special technique?

Sparingly is the thing.

It's just a little bit that goes on.

You can see it looks wet
as it goes on. Wow!

Already, it's gone a bit darker.

You can see all the grain is coming
out, the colour of the wood.

It just looks healthier and shinier.

SHE SIGHS

I'm really happy with that.

That's going to be good for another
four or five years.

It's a happy-looking chair.
It's a happy-looking chair.

Perfect for all your favourite
furniture, including the legs

of your sofa.

I've seen how the sofas
in this factory are built to last,

from 66 pieces of wood creating
the solid frame, to 48 pieces

of fabric for the soft exterior.

These sofas now deserve some careful
handling to make sure they arrive

at your home in pristine condition.

It's a super-sized job over
in dispatch, where I'm meeting

manufacturing director Kevin Wall.

Thank you, my friend. Kevin. Hello,
Gregg, how are you doing?

What do you make of that, then?

It's a beautiful sofa.
Absolutely fantastic,

you've done a great job
there, Gregg. Yeah!

Now, tell me about this place.

This is our dispatch area.

What we do is we put plenty
of packaging round to protect

the back and the arms. The legs
we've taken off,

we make sure they're in the
packaging,

and then we put a plastic bag on
to protect it.

Sofa in a bag!

Sofa in a bag, Gregg, yeah.

The finished sofa weighs
over 50 kilos.

That is well protected.

Do you think maybe we should keep
them on these wooden boards

with wheels, cos it'd be easier
to move around the lounge?

It's a long way to go down to the
South, isn't it, with this?

GREGG LAUGHS

I wasn't thinking of pushing
it all the way home.

Lorries deliver around 500
sofas every month.

That's it, that's my sofa going off
there.

Yeah. Bye-bye, sofa.

After one day, seven hours and 15
minutes, my sofa's ready to add

comfort to someone's front room.

Maybe they're watching this
programme on it right now.

The factory's sofas cushion the bums
of customers right across the UK.

And January is their busiest
month for selling comfort.

SIGHS: Ah!

I always look forward to relaxing on
the sofa after a long day at work.

Wow!

A lot of effort has gone into making
a strong but squidgy sofa,

from the ergonomically designed
frame to the layers

of supportive cushioning.

It can be easy to take for granted
just how important a comfortable

place to sit can be.

In fact, it can be really hard to
get up

once you've let yourself unwind.

Just five more minutes.

The factory has come a long way
from its first early assembly lines.

But how did we get from there
to here?

Explore the history and the future
of the factory

on an interactive timeline.

Go to...

..and follow the links
to The Open University.