01x05 - Recycling Plastic

[bunniefuu]

[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]

[BIRDS TWEETING]

JAMES: Hello.

These days,
I spend more and more time
in my Wiltshire home

and the pub I own,

thinking about
all the big problems in the world

and some smaller ones that annoy me.

Luckily, there's a place I can go
to solve them all,

or at least try.

My shed.

Right.

It's here that I have the tools...

Let's just saw some wood up.

Mmm.

...and a couple of other
highly competent blokes...

Very good.
Brace yourself.

Is she getting a ticket out?

Dirty fly tippers.

...and small.

The cereal has gone soggy.

I'll also have to take
on other people's problems.

He used to make a sound,
and now he doesn't.

By which I mean the locals at my pub
who are always bringing me
stuff to mend.

[GASPS] Is it a train set?

So, join us
and our excitable crew...

[LAUGHTER]
...who will capture
our endeavours...

That was epic.

...as we create...
[EXCLAIMING]

That feels like a terrible thing
we've just done.

So, it's never worked?
Not in my lifetime. [LAUGHS]

...and repurpose...
[GASPS]

[SCREAMS LOUDLY]
Wow!

...in my shedload of ideas.
[LAUGHTER]

What do you think?
This is just brilliant.

You might think that
sitting on this bench in Wiltshire
is very relaxing.

And so it should be,
unless your mind
is filled with concern

for all the problems of the world
and how to solve them.

Right now, I'm keen to take on
one of the most persistent problems

that affects the whole planet.

And that's... plastic waste.

In Britain, we discard 1.7 billion
pieces of the stuff every week,

and while we do recycle
nearly half of it,

that comes with its own
set of problems.

Back in the olden days,
when I was a lad,

the business of rubbish
was very simple.

You produced some rubbish,
this bottle, for example,

and you put it in the bin.
And that was the end of that.

We didn't know what happened to it.
We didn't care.

We were blissfully ignorant.

Now, of course, we have recycling.
And recycling is a wonderful thing.

I think the key to human happiness
is infinite recyclability

and abundant renewable energy.

Because then we can
indulge our desires
to produce and consume

but without filling the world
with our tat.

It does come
with a few problems, though.

I mean, this is the brown bin.
Is that glass?

Is that plastic?
Or is it cardboard?

Maybe cardboard
goes in the green one.

But that depends
which authority you're living under.

There are 39 different
recycling regimes

across the UK alone.

Do you take the tops off bottles?
Do you leave them on?

Are you supposed to rinse them out?
Take the labels off?

Are you supposed to put green glass
separate from clear?

Does that go out on Thursday,
or is it the blue bin
and it goes out on Wednesday?

People are very
annoyed about recycling
because it's too complicated.

Apparently,


put something wrong
in the recycling bin.

What if you could
recycle your plastics,

for example, yourself?

What if you could cut all this out,

all this frustration,
all this annoyance,

and at home, simply turn
all those old bottles
and what have you

into something beautiful
and enduring?

Let's try.

In case that wasn't clear,
I want to reduce plastic waste
and make something useful.

So, I consult my team
of recycling enthusiasts,

We're now set at two bar.

...and my up-for-anything carpenter,
Tony the Tool.

Oh!

And not forgetting our crew,
who have been busy
collecting and shredding plastic

for our great recycling experiment.

We are planning to make
a board game for the pub,

so Tony, Sim and I
prepare our garden smithy.

Right, situation report, viewers,

we've shredded all our plastic,
we are going to melt it,

we're going to use this little oven
and this toasted sandwich maker.

We're looking for a temperature
of around 150 degrees,

at which it will become
very plastic but not liquid.

Simmy has this attractive pair
of silicone gloves.

When we have made our plastic
into a plastic state,

one of us is going to knead it

until we've got enough
to put in our mould

to make a rectangular section.

To melt plastic safely,
it must have a number two
on its recycling symbol,

which tells us it's non-toxic.

This can be found in milk bottles,

and without giving the game away,
so to speak,

plastic lids
are perfect for our counters
and board of different colours.

To begin with,
we're going to do white,

and we're going to do it
in the oven.

The aim of our
back garden experiment

is to find out if this process
actually works.

By running different
heating appliances
all at the same time,

we're hoping to generate
enough plastic to build our game.

We've got a sheet
of baking paper on there
in the hope that it won't stick.

TONY: Shall we start with that?

Let's do the same thing
with the toasted sandwich maker.

We'll do a different colour.
We'll do the top. Blue?

Once heated, the plastic
must be malleable enough
for us to reshape it.

It's burning.

SIM: So, if we get that on there.

Okay, now let's get
some more in here,
we could reuse that.

It's getting hard
and breaking apart.

Put that on there and then...

We want to create a marbling effect

but quickly discover
it's not really that simple.

I'm not sure the colours are gonna
combine very effectively.

The table's gonna collapse.

Polymer-therma plastics melt easily,

but once off the heat,
they cool and harden within seconds.

It's gonna take about three days.
That's already gone too hard now.

Work it. Work it.

I'm just gonna shove that in there
just to see if I can get
any shape to this whatsoever.

This is taking on a rough shape.

We've made nougat.

That's not even a quarter
of what we need.

Situation update, viewers,

that is what we have created so far.

It's very difficult to get it
into a properly plastic state.

It doesn't mix together very well.
It doesn't form very well.

It sets fire to grease proof paper.
It burns Tony's hands.

Would you like to know, viewers,
what it was that we were hoping
to make for the pub?

Then you can gauge
how successful we've been so far.
[LAUGHS]

It was, is, a chessboard
and a set of drafts.

[LAUGHTER]

The artists amongst you,
like Rodin looking at
a block of stone

and being able to see
the finished work within it,

will look at that and say,
"Yes, yes, a set of drafts
and a board."

[LAUGHTER]

Oh, God, what are we gonna do?

I've done all that stuff
about bins and recycling

and how annoying it is.

[JAMES SIGHS]

But Simmy thinks
he may have the answer.

[LAUGHS] Oh!

I don't know if it's the answer.
I think it's worth trying.

We're running out of options, Sim.

So, we leave Simmy with the burden
of solving our plastic problem.

I find I think better over a pint,

so Tony and I head to the pub.

We're also meeting a local dude
who would like us to repair

his 19th century family heirloom.
No pressure, then.

Yes, I am.

Hello.
Tony. This is Tony. Hello, Tony.

What is that?

It's a Victorian
compendium of games.

That's the book.

The reason it's wrapped up
in cellophane is,

because this tray is all broken,

I have the utmost difficulty
in getting it out.

Because it all fell apart.
So, I put it in the bag
so I can lift it.

And it's Victorian, you say?

Yes, but the book of instructions
gives us some clue.

So, it's before bridge,
even auction bridge.

Yes.

[LAUGHS] Yes.

It always amazes me
when I see anything Victorian
that the type is so tiny.

Yet they had to read it
with candles, most of the time

because they didn't
have electricity.

"As chess stands pre-eminently
and without question

at the head of all the games
detailed hitherto..."

[LAUGHTER]

."..so does the game of whist
occupy the position of honour

amongst all the multitudinous
games of cards.

It is the game."

There's several pages of this
before it tells you how to play it.

Where did you get this from?

My parents gave it to me
when I was about 11.

[LAUGHS] No.

Oh, yes.

All the screws perfectly aligned.

There's a lot of work
gone into that.

Before my fascination with
the Victorian gaming world
takes hold,

we need to find out how we can help.

The main problem is this tray here.

That is a picture of it. Oh.

And you see, there's that tray
which sits in there.

To lift it out, there should be
a ring at each end.

Ah. So, that's what snapped. Yes.

Now, you can see the holes there.
Unfortunately, one of the rings
has got lost.

Whether you can get your hands
on another one...

We can make one.

Let's not forget, Tony,
that when this was made,

there were very few distractions.

There was no Internet, obviously,
no electricity, no television,
no radio.

Just good, wholesome
family fun. Yep.

Played by little children
in massive knickerbockers

and their parents
who were dying of consumption,

but had, at least, that afternoon
enjoyed a public hanging at Newgate.

Ah, the good old days.

So, I've got
all these bits together,

but where do these belong?

Da-da-dah! Something is missing
from down here.

We can reinstate that, I think,

with a bit of careful
glueing and clamping,

and then once over
with a very finely set plane.

It's beautiful.

Even though it was probably
made in great numbers.

What's your ambition for this?

To put it in a in a state, really,

where the grandchildren
can play with it again.

Peter, we shall tidy up the box,

replace that bit that's peeled off.

Yeah, and make another loop,

and blend it in
as seamlessly as possible.

Yes, leave it with us, Peter.
We will be in touch.

You will be astonished,
you'll look at it and think,
"That's great",

Thank you very much.

This might be
a relatively small repair,

but it will involve
some intricate carpentry
and some light metal work.

But the weight of history
will add extra pressure

as we attempt to get
Peter's compendium of games

back to full working order.

JAMES: Here in Wiltshire,
we're trying to tackle
the big issue of plastic waste

by seeing if it's possible
to skip the bins altogether

and recycle our plastics at home
in our DIY recycling centre.

SIM: Smoking.
TONY: It's burning.

Our idea was to make
a draught set for the pub
out of milk bottles,

but so far our efforts
have proved fruitless.

It looks terrible.
Oh, God, what are we gonna do?

But we may just have
hit upon a solution.

So, we need to melt
in small quantities.

I think so. And a smaller mould.

I was wondering if,
just as an experiment,

we put a little bit
of material in there.

It's a piece of his vacuum cleaner
from his van.

See, the thing is, ideally,
you'd put it into a hot mould,

heat the tube itself with the torch,

let it cool, dunk it in some water,

hopefully it will shrink a bit
and a nice round section pellet

of recycled plastic will pop out.

Yep.

Keep going, keep going.

Argh...

[GASPS] Man!

Look at that! Ta-dah! Hey!

What a breakthrough!
I'm so happy. [LAUGHS]

I'm so happy. Given everything
we've been through today.

It's good. It is good.
I love it.

Yeah.
We've just gotta refine it. Yeah.

We've just gotta make
decent moulds. Yep.

We put the ball in the middle of it,

and we put a lever on
something that goes in it,

and then we just ram it down. Yep.

A proper mould will speed up
this whole process,

so we waste no time
in getting back to the shed.

While Tony makes a start
melting more plastic,

Sim and I craft the smaller moulds
using my new milling machine.

Which is a lovely machine.

Isn't it lovely?

Lucy wants to give it a name.

It's a Rishton.
It is a vertical mill.

So, you could call it...
You like alliterative names.

Nice.

Vincent the Vertical Mill.
Or Ricky Rishton.

It's a girl. I think it's a girl.

Well, you've made
the lathe a man, so I--

I haven't made the lathe a man.
You did.

The lathe is a lathe.
[LAUGHTER]

I think the milling machine
should be a girl called Millie.

I'll make a little sticky label.

Update, viewers,
number eight or nine or ten,
we're not quite sure,

we think we can see an end
to the recycled plastic conundrum,

and it involves making some
very, very simple moulds,

which we're going to do here
on Millie the Milling Machine

and Doris the Drill.

Aw! [LAUGHTER]

Ignition.
[MACHINE WHIRRING]

Millie is milling.

Bet you £100 is snatches.

[MACHINE WHIRRING]
Damn!

[MACHINE STOPS]

So, this is basically our mould,

and we're gonna
put our plastic in it,

and we're gonna
press out the counters.

Using as a press
this redundant old pillar drill,

which will ensure consistency,

which is the key to mass production.

CREW: Does the pillow drill
have a name?

No, nothing has a name.
The mill doesn't,
the little mill doesn't,

the pillar drill doesn't,
the little lathe doesn't,
the big lathe doesn't,

the bench doesn't, my Mini doesn't.

The only things that names here
are Simmy and James.
[LAUGHTER]

This piece of aluminium
is not called Alan the Aluminium.

It's just a piece of aluminium.

Now we've cleared that up,
we can get back to making
Malcolm the Mould and Peter Piston,

which we need for pressing
the counters for our draughts set.

Where would you keep your g-clamps?

Do you want to use the g-clamp
that I made as a 15-year-old?

Yes. If it still works.

[CLEARS THROAT]
I believe it does. It's a bit rusty.

[LAUGHS] That's rather...
That is rather good.

Did you cast all that, or was it...
Yeah.

So, you made a wooden pattern? Yep.

Sand casted? Yes.

And used a horizontal mill
on those faces, I think,

and then turned everything else

and that was that.

That'll be marvellous.

Now I quickly turn a piston
on the lathe.

This will be used
to press into the mould
to create the counters.

Into this chirk.

Done. All we need now
is a bit of molten plastic
to go in there.

Job done. Beautiful.

He's in the kitchen,
melting a small quantity of plastic

for us to press into
our newly made mould.

SIM: Here's Tony.
TONY: Anybody order green ba*ls?

Hopefully, this time it will work.

He's got hands of asbestos.

All right, James,
would you like to do the honours?

Just... Let's try.

In it goes. Where do I stop?
Just keep going.

Can we have another one?

It's a bit rough.

Surface finish on the outside
is not that great.
It's still very hot as well.

I think the alley's probably just
sucking all the heat out of it
very quickly.

That'll do, I think.
See? It's getting better.

That one is better.
That's much better.

Yes. Yeah.

All we need to do
is repeat the process


and build a draughts board.

So, we will now shift to something
more interesting than this,

if that's possible.

Once our game is completed,

I'll be bringing it to the pub
for everyone to enjoy.

This will give the locals
another reason to drop by.

It's not easy running a pub,
you know,

what with business rates,
the cost of thatching,

spiralling wage costs,
people making off with the cutlery.

And on top of all that,
I have to think about choosing

the right flavour of crisps.
Which got me thinking,

perhaps it's time to revolutionise
the nation's favourite pub snack.

We love crisps,
but we have identified a problem,

which is that
you buy a bag of crisps,

here's a blue packet,
which is cheese and onion,
and you think, "Ah, excellent.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.
They are absolutely delicious.

Peak cuisine."

What if you get halfway down the bag
and you suddenly think,
"I fancy salt and vinegar"?

So, we were thinking,
what if all crisps were plain?

And then let's say we're in my pub

and you have,
rather than a packet of crisps,

a bowl of completely plain crisps,

and then a series of flavours,

perhaps in atomiser bottles,
that you added to the crisps.

So, you picked a crisp up
and you think,

"I think I'll have
salt and vinegar for this one."
[SPRAYS] Munch.

Then the next crisp, you think,
"I enjoyed the salt and vinegar,

but this time I'm going to have
cheese and onion."

[SPRAYS] Eat.

Every crisp could be different.

Let me talk to you a bit
about some of the flavours
I was imagining.

Spam, anchovies,

or even combine them
in a new flavour,

Ugh, it'd be minging.

Yeah.
Spam and anchovies?

It rolls off the tongue.
"A bag of spam and anchovy, please."

Cook it up. Pour them in there.
Yeah, cook it up.

With the Spam. With some Spam.

This is where everybody says,
"To get the Spam out, make a hole
in the bottom of the tin."

[CREW SPEAKING]

Yes.

People who give you advice
on the Internet.

They're right.

[LAUGHTER]

This is a nice looking
block of Spam.

When was the last time you had Spam?

About three days ago.
[LAUGHTER]

I had Spam and beans
when I was left on my own
at home the other day.

Right, there's the cubed Spam.

I have, yes.

Okay, that can go on the cooker
with a wooden spoon.

While we wait for our flavours
to blend,

I think I've spotted
another opportunity

to enhance the pub's
snack experience.

Mmm. What if...

Spam on a cheese and onion crisp.
Here you go.

Cheers.

Mmm! Oh, yeah. Mmm.

God, that's good.

That's really good. Mmm.

Does anybody from the crew
want to try a...
[WILL SPEAKING]

This is the hand
of Will Fisher coming in.

What do you think?

That's for Andy.

It's really good.

Well, it's just...

Right, back to the task in hand,

which is trying to make
atomized flavours for crisps.
This needs to be heated up.

I can do that.

Oh, yes.

Within a matter of moments,
our Spamchovy mix,
you're welcome, is ready.

Pass me a piece of foil.
I'll make a funnel. What?

As Tony fashions
a funnel out of foil

and pours the infusion
into the sprayer.

I'm already convinced
this will be a hit in the pub.

I am genuinely
quite excited about this.

This could be
a world-changing moment.

Spam and anchovy crisp

for the first time
in the history of humanity.

[LAUGHTER]
It works.

It tastes of Spam and anchovy.
That's amazing.

Step aside, cheese and onion.
Stand down, salt 'n' vinegar.

A new flavour combination
has arrived.

You have to eat them quickly.
They go soggy.

But you do
eat crisps quickly, don't you?
You don't sit and pontificate.

Sometimes you get a note of anchovy,
then sometimes you get
the Spam first.

So it's a bit of a surprise as well.

The basic idea of that it works.

You can have a bowl of plain crisps

and then add any flavour
that the pub can conceive.

There'd be a great big rack of them,

colour coded
with little signs that say,
Spam and anchovy, spice paste,

and the regulars, salt and vinegar,
cheese and onion, prawn c*ck.

It's fantastic. That has completely
revolutionised crisps.

They've been trapped for...

When were crisps invented?
Probably the 1920s. I don't know.

They've been locked into
this small minded idea

that the same flavour
has to run through the whole bag,

and it doesn't.
God, we're good.

You saw it here first.
The crisp spray atomiser,

coming soon to a pub near me.

Welcome back to Wiltshire, where,
as well as tackling some of
the world's biggest problems,

we're also often busy
mending personal effects

brought into the pub by the locals.

So, Tony and I
are back in the workshop

to get started
on the business of mending.

Peter came to the pub
and he brought us

his Victorian games box.

These bits are broken,

and Tony is an expert
on glueing things together,

'cause that's the sort of thing
he does.

There's a lot in here, actually.
It's rather cleverly done.

TONY: This appears
more broken than when we got it.

The lid, Tony,
is coming apart at the back

and needs glueing and clamping.

He doesn't want it restored,

but he doesn't want it
to fall apart any further.

So, there should be a little ring
in each end for lifting it out.

One of them is long lost,

but it's okay
because I have some brass rod

of an appropriate diameter
to make another.

Do you wanna make two
and make them match?

I mean, that's the original ring.

Victorian fingers went through that.

We won't get rid of that,
but I think they should match.

While I reacquaint myself
with my ancient soldering kit...

It has some solder paste,
various solders,

two tins of flux that I've had for,
I'm afraid to say it, 40 years.

Tony begins the delicate job
of glueing the tray inside the box.

Is it sticking together?

Yeah, it's just fiddly,

and there's so many little bits,
I think I'm gonna use masking tape
to clamp it

'cause it doesn't need
a lot of pressure. No.

Heating the rod
makes the metal easier to bend.

Have to do this without setting fire
to the Victorian Games box.

That would make the job
a lot more complicated.

Right, leave that to cool naturally,
and then it will be more malleable.

This bit at the back

it's gonna need
some quite hefty clamping
and probably leaving overnight.

That is now much easier to bend
because it's been annealed,

which is a sort of
posh metal worker's way of saying,
"made a bit softer."

Man in heaven, virtually perfect.

See, that annoys me, that.
That one's not in the same direction
as all the others.

That's properly weird, Tony.

Don't you line them up? No.
On your light switches
and your plug sockets? No.

They've got to be
in the same direction.
That's disgusting.

They've gotta be
at the right tension,

which may not be with the slot
in the right direction.

You can't compromise integrity
for lining your slots up.

I think visual aesthetics
are better than safety.

I like a certain amount
of randomness.

Look...

Whoever did this originally
has lined them up horizontally.

That's probably why
that one came undone.

[LAUGHING]

Next, we focus on the lid repairs.

It's not split.
It's merely come away.
It's slightly warped.

So, we need to get
some glue into the gap,

but Tony is taping the inside
so that any glue that goes
all the way through

doesn't run down
and spoil the inside of the lid.
Very wise.

That's nice.
The glue is squidging out,
which is a good sign.

Yeah.

With the lid of the box
clamped and secure,

I can return to crafting
two identical brass rings,

which act as handles for the tray.

Beautiful curve.

But somehow there, I've...
Maybe it was when
I squeezed the pliers,

I might have twisted it
slightly in my hand.

It appears I may not be bothered
about screws and light switches
being aligned,

but I do like my rings
to be perfectly circular.

That's not bad.

It's not bad,
but it's not good, is it?

Here's a little
jewellery mending tip

you probably never thought
you'd be getting from me.

The mistake people make,
if I can demonstrate,

is you take a ring, say,
from your necklace and you think,

"I need to open that one up
to put another one in", or whatever,

and you open it by doing that
and pulling it apart.

You will never get it back together.
Always open it by doing it that way,

Ah.

and then,
when you push it back together,

the ends will be
tight against each other

Solder it. Clamps itself. Yeah.

It's perfect.

So, you are
a bit of a perfectionist,
aren't you?

Not really, but people are watching.

Well, at least I hope they are,
because next is the incredible
science of soldering.

The way I always do this,
because it's very easy
to put too much on,

clip a tiny bit of the solder off,

I put a bit of fluxite on there,

and then, if you put
your little scrap of solder...

Oh, will it stay in place?

You can simply heat it up
and then that little bit
will run into the join.

The trick with soldering
is to heat up the metal
near the join,

rather than the joint itself.

Oh, wow. Oh!

That's impressive.

That's very impressive.

Excellent.

That was very satisfying.

I'm not good at chess.
I sort of know the rules.

Joined a chess club for a laugh.

I thought it would be exciting
and it wasn't.

Yeah. I don't know what got into me.

What were the alternatives?

There was a Rubik's Cube club.
That was new.

I wasn't a member of any clubs.

We had gangs and, you know,
a few people were interested in

making stuff out of wood
and building bicycles.

Some others
were interested in photography.

So, you just...
You sort of formed natural clubs,

but they weren't formalised,
'cause if they were formalised,

they'd involve a grown up,
and that would spoil it.

We have. Although, where's Simmy?

We don't really acknowledge it,
do we? But it is a club.

Yeah.

See, that's already
a massive improvement.

Rings are lush. You've got
the nicest rings I've ever seen.

The trick is to do that
then get a bit of tension
around the corners, isn't it?

So, all that's really left to do
is for you to assemble and glue.

Is that the dominoes tray?

Yeah, this was for the dominos.

give it a bit of a wipe down,
check the gloomy marks,

and then
give it back to Peter and...

This is so nice.

This is quite zen, isn't it, this?

Mending the old Victorian box.

Yeah.

Now all that's needed
is a good night's sleep.

But that's not always possible.

Here's a fact I recently discovered.

Four out of ten couples
are not sharing a duvet fairly,

leading to a lot of bedroom drama
and ruined sleep.

But I think I could
put an end to all that here and now.

Here is a problem
that has plagued couples

ever since
the invention of the duvet,

which was sometime in the mid-1970s.

The double duvet is, by its nature,
something to be shared equally,

but it isn't, is it?

Even with a modern,
same sex, mixed race,
gender fluid couple like this one,

you will get problems
when one of them
rolls over in the night

and steals part of it
from the other.

For example, Simmy,
if you imagine you're asleep

and you roll over and you steal...
There you go. You see?

And now Tony thinks,
"Hang on a minute."

[TONY GRUNTING]

There is, I'm afraid,
no happy ending to this scene.

But I've had an idea.

SIM: Yes?

What if... This is very simple.

I've got some bungees.

What if we bungee
each corner to the floor

Ooo, that's nice. Yeah.

And a sort of,
almost like a floating duvet.

Or a cable tie.

Cable tie is a good idea.

Do you want to double them up
so they're longer? Possibly.

'Cause then they'll...

That'll do.
[DRILL WHIRRING]

Hogging the duvet
is big news in Britain,

outranking the age old problem
of snoring

as the main reason
for nighttime squabbles.

If this works, no more.

My idea is the bungees,
which will be under equal tension

on all four corners,
will centre the duvet.

If somebody pulls it one way,
obviously, it will spring back
the other.

And this will be unknown to them
because they'll be asleep.

But the duvet will always
be in the middle.

Makes you change,
him doing all the work, doesn't it?
Yeah.

Makes a change
us just doing nothing.

Oh, it's moving.

There might be something in this.

Also, if you had a height adjustable
bungee anchoring point,

you could make
more of a hovering duvet

for very hot days, such as today.
[CHUCKLING]

Ooh. Ooh.

That's a nice draught. It is.

Be asleep.
This is a serious experiment.
[SNORING]

Obviously,
in the final version of this,
it will be adjustable there.

Oh, will you...

Ah!

James, I think you've cracked it.

It's not bad at all.
It's very good.

Just mind your eyes. [LAUGHS]

Yeah, if the bungees
become unhooked for some reason...

Look at that.

Automatically centred duvet.

The end of the argument.

We've solved it.

[CLAPPING]
Thank you.

There's your happy ending.

JAMES: You join us,
once again, in Wiltshire,

still working away,
recycling our own plastic

to create a game for the pub.

But we also like workshop games,

so we've invented one that tests
our basic knowledge of physics

and makes use of eggs
past their sell-by date.

It's called The Yolk's On Us,

and that's the last egg pun
there will be in this sequence.

But it does involve an egg.
We've got a box of eggs

that have gone way past
their sell-by date.

There are two indentations
in our simple rig
that hold the egg.

Eggs are famously very strong
in that direction. Supposedly,

you can drive a tractor over them
and all sorts of things.

But the winner is the person
who gets the most weight on there
without breaking the egg.

How are we gonna balance everything?
It'll be like Buckaroo.

Oh, okay.

I'm gonna start with this hammer,

which weighs 876 grams.

So, I'm going to put it there.
Sim, it's your go.

Anything? Anything at all,

Oh, Sim! Oh, bold!

[STRAINS] That's quite heavy.

Jeez.

But you've written it in a bit.
Bit premature because you might
break the egg.

Might break the wood at this rate.

I'm just getting it beyond the line.

[GASPS]

[BREAKS]
[EXCLAIMING]

[LAUGHTER]

It's funny. "The egg was thinking,
'I've got this. I've got this'."

This game is great,

but because Tony didn't get to
demonstrate his engineering prowess,

it's only fair
we play best of three.

Fourt thousand one hundred.

But let's be clear...

Ooh, he's gone right there.

At this point,
we're all in it to win it.

Nineteen... 1,919.

I'm not feeling that, um...

Ooh!

You've played
a very tactical game, Tony.
I have to win.

There's a little bit of water in it.

The average egg can withstand
a surprising amount of weight,

up to 35 kilograms
when pressure is applied evenly.

So, I'm going to add 1,231.

And I can't put it
any further back than that.

Simmy...
I'm finding this genuinely tense.

Four hundred and forty-five. Whoa.

Whoa! Whoa.

[BREAKS]
[EXCLAIMING]

CREW: Yep.

[LAUGHS] That's good!

If this game wasn't exciting enough,

for the final round,
we decide to add more drama.

There's a minimum weight limit
of 500 grams.

Simmy...

The Pro Hex Head Screws.

Ooh, he's just... He's ballsy.

CREW: Ooh!

That's so braking. Ooh!

It's never taken this much weight.

[BREAKS]
[EXCLAIMING]

[LAUGHS] Winner!

Ah. So, I got a lose,
so I'm down to nought,
and you had the most,

Wa-hey! It's zero...

Everybody has zero point.

Well, you can play it at home
if you've got some eggs that are
well past their sell by date,

some pieces of wood, some screws,

a piece of plywood
to protect your table,

even though you've made
screw holes in it.
You need some scales as well.

And that's an eggs-it.
[EXCLAIMING]

[LAUGHTER]
[CLAPPING]

But it's not all fun and games,
you know.

We have also been working hard
to reduce plastic waste.

Our goal was to
recycle some ourselves

and transform it into something
exquisite and enduring,

a game fit for the pub.

Have we been victorious?

So, viewers,
we are ready to show you
our draughts set for the pub,

made out of recycled plastic.

Not just recycled plastic,
plastic that we have
recycled ourselves.

This is such a big moment.

Because we're blase
about the idea of recycling,

we say, "Yes, I recycle everything",

when what you really mean is
you put it in a different coloured
bin bag.

You haven't done anything different
from what you were doing
in the 1970s,

i.e. throwing things away.
It's just now you put it
in something with a colour

so you think,
"I'm saving the environment."
Rubbish.

The way you save it
is to not recycle it
in the first place.

You take it and you turn it
into something else.

That's what we've done.
Ignore this box.

We've just put it
in this old chess set box

so that we can do what, in TV,
is called a reveal.

Is everybody ready?

[FANFARE PLAYING]

It's possibly a bit smaller
than you were expecting

from the amount of angst
and energy that was involved.

I think the word is homespun.

It's brilliant. It's exquisite.

It is exquisite and it shall endure.

Here is the board.

You might look at this and say,
"That's very small."

I say it's convenient
and travel size.

It's quite amazing how much plastic
it took to make that small set.

That's a very good point
because we had a massive heap

of milk bottles
and milk bottle tops.

Yeah.

In the interests of entertainment,

for this game,
we will be playing speed draughts.

Although I must point out
Simmy is at a slight disadvantage.

He is colourblind,
and red and green
look the same to him,

which is something
we didn't consider, rather stupidly,
when we made the set.

That's red, though. Yes.

Okay, that's right.

I couldn't see it!

You're playing a man
who can't tell the difference
between the two sets.

I take the wins where I can.

Oh, I forgot you could go backwards.

I forgot.

I am.

That's Tony, that's you.

[LAUGHS] Why is that there, then?

Because Tony's...it up.

There you go.
The first ever victory...

[MIMICS FANFARE]
...on the Royal Oak homemade
recycled plastics draughts board

was won by a man who can't see it.
[LAUGHTER]

So, there you have it.
We drank the milk,
collected the bottles and tops

and turned them
into something useful,

something that may well
outlive us all.

Now that is the true definition
of recycling.

Before Tony demands a rematch,

we must move
to another part of the pub
to meet Peter

and return his Victorian games box,

which has been fixed
for the first time in 150 years.

There wasn't
a great deal wrong with it,

but it was coming apart
at the seams here and there,

there was a loop missing,
there was a bit broken off.

I did tell him
I'd make it look like a repair.

I think that's fine, though,
because I really struggled
with making it look like new,

and I think every little mark
tells a story,

every bit has got a story behind it.

Hello. Here is Peter.
PETER: Hello.

Nice to see you again.

So, your Victorian games box, Peter,
we spent quite a bit of time on it.

Yes.

Various joints around here
have been re-glued.

Yes.

Yes.

I made you a new one.
I did promise I would
make it look like a repair

Yes. And so it is.

And now, if we opened it up...

Da-da-da-dah!
[GASPS, LAUGHS]

And remove
the very wordy instruction book,

you will see, sir, two loops...

Well done.

Those have been freshly made by us,

and Tony has reassembled
this entire tray.

And it was almost
impossible to get it out. Yes.

And if you tried,
it fell apart, literally,

because all these pieces were loose.

There's no rhyme or reason
to why it's made the way it is. Yes.

When it came apart... Yes.
...literally, every piece of it
fell apart. Yes.

And there's lots of little pieces.

But we haven't spoiled

the very extensive patina and story
that is within the wood.

I think that's the important thing,
'cause every mark's
got a story behind it. Yes.

And we had this dilemma, didn't we,
about whether we'd clean this up
and make it look brand new.

It would ruin it.

Yes.

...but we fought that urge.

Well, I think they will.

We used to play a little bit
with my children
when they were small,

but now the next generation
have come along,

and hopefully the grandchildren
will enjoy it.

And that, sir, is for you.

Right, well,
thank you very much indeed.
I'm glad I brought it along.

Absolute pleasure.
We were fascinated by it.

Don't sell it. No, don't sell it.
Certainly not.

Oh, no.

It will do many generations yet.

Goodbye. Thank you for coming.
Bye. Bye.

[IN GEORDIE ACCENT]
That's another satisfied customer.

[LAUGHS] Pint.