Made in Blighty

Although Wal-Mart likes to claim that it is a major supplier of products that are "made in America," it can be difficult to find products that aren't imported. A few years ago I attempted to find a small appliance that wasn't imported, even if it would have cost more than the alternatives, but it proved impossible! So I can totally sympathize with the new program Made in Britain, in which a man attempts to purchase only British-made products. This program begins next month on the British TV channel "Blighty" (sounds like my kind of channel!). I sincerely hope the program will be available on DVD here in the U.S. Here is more information about the show.

Join award-winning television comedian Dom Joly on an epic road trip around Britain in an attempt to fill his house from top to bottom with British-made products in the brand new series Made In Britain.

As part of this unique experiment, Dom will have his family home turned upside down and stripped of everything he owns that’s not made in the UK. He’s then challenged to go on a remarkable shopping trip, travelling the length and breadth of the country to try and replace all his foreign goods with British-made products.

Before the inspectors arrive, Dom’s quaint country cottage in the Cotswolds is a safe haven for foreign merchandise: the Italian coffee machine, a television manufactured in Japan and pants made in Taiwan. In no time at all the Joly family home isn’t looking quite so jolly anymore. In their bid to find out what’s British and what’s not, the experts have banished two thirds of everything they’ve looked at including his bed, laptop and, controversially, his wife’s cosmetics, and Dom is left with little more than his Savile Row suit, a pair of muddy Wellington boots and a lengthy shopping list for his trip.

Each episode of Made In Britain will see him tackling a different room in his house in a bid to replenish its contents with British-only goods and restore normality at home. Dom’s travels take him to Europe’s oldest waterbed company (turns out us Brits invented waterbeds!); a lava lamp factory in Poole where the psychedelic favourite was invented in a shed and bath products company, Lush, which is one of Britain’s global success stories.

Dom’s journey takes him to the heart of British eccentricity and ingenuity as he meets the quirky, colourful and charismatic characters who just won’t give up making products they believe in, all the while discovering what it really takes to be made in Britain.

Find out more about Made in Britain and Blighty here http://www.loveblighty.co.uk/.

Follow Blighty on Twitter and join the Made In Britain Facebook group now.

Links to clips:

Clip 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuI4tNXTu7I&feature=channel_page

http://hs-uktv.s3.amazonaws.com/2/dom_joly_mib_empty_house.flv
http://hs-uktv.s3.amazonaws.com/2/dom_joly_mib_empty_house.mov

Clip 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwlyegCQ3JA&feature=channel_page

http://hs-uktv.s3.amazonaws.com/2/dom_joly_mib_loo.flv
http://hs-uktv.s3.amazonaws.com/2/dom_joly_mib_loo.mov

Blighty is on Sky 534 and Virgin TV 206.