1
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,520
'This is the River Clyde
in Glasgow.'


2
00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:16,400
'250 years ago, this was one
of Britain's great trading centres.


3
00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:20,000
'It was the hub of a huge empire
that stretched


4
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,240
'from the Caribbean to China.


5
00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:26,120
'An empire founded on trade,


6
00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:29,920
'in which simple plants
were transformed by human labour


7
00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,640
'to become hugely profitable
global commodities.'


8
00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:40,240
'The trade in sugar,


9
00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:42,480
'tobacco,


10
00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:45,120
'opium


11
00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:51,320
'and whisky transformed our society,
our bodies and our minds.'


12
00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:56,960
Over the centuries, we've learned
to love these products.


13
00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,000
Their smell, their taste,
the effect they've had on us.


14
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,680
They've become
increasingly guilty pleasures,


15
00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:08,360
which are still with us,
still part of us.


16
00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:13,240
Today, millions of us can't do
without at least some of them,


17
00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:17,200
so how did we become so hooked?


18
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,800
'The answer will take me on a
journey across the world.'


19
00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,400
Oh, my God!
That's powerful.


20
00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,120
'And inside our minds
and bodies too.'


21
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:30,840
Bye.


22
00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:38,000
Gosh, that's good, isn't it?


23
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,880
'In the pursuit of pleasure.'


24
00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,720
Here's to the next time, then.


25
00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:02,920
'Yes, Scotch whisky
is the true product of Scotland.


26
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:05,240
'It cannot be made anywhere else.


27
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:08,880
'Bottled, wrapped and packed
into cases, the final article,


28
00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:12,240
'as perfect as care and consistency
at every stage can make it,


29
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,280
'is ready for the consumer,


30
00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,720
'but it all starts up
in the Scottish Highlands.


31
00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:21,280
'Up in the clear air
of the peat-covered moors,


32
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,360
'where the waters of some crystal
stream tumble quietly
over its ancient rocks


33
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:28,640
'and the hereditary skill
of the Scottish distilleryman


34
00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:33,240
'is applied with conscientious
efficiency to his superb craft.'


35
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:42,760
'Oh, yes. It was carefully made.
It still is,


36
00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:46,840
'but was it
and is it carefully drunk?'


37
00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:55,440
When I was growing up,


38
00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:59,280
people weren't over-strict
about kids in pubs.


39
00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:04,280
In fact, you'd get sent down
to get your dad


40
00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:09,920
or your Uncle Joe
and tell them to get up for dinner.


41
00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:13,320
You'd find them there propping up
the bar, a half and a half,


42
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,400
which is a half-pint of heavy
and whisky chaser.


43
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,040
That's what all
the working men drank.


44
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,280
The men who weren't working too.


45
00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,400
Drunk in the Dundee pubs,
and around closing time,


46
00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:26,480
nine o'clock in my day.


47
00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,920
Nine o'clock, they'd come out,
stagger a wee bit


48
00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:34,480
and probably, more likely,
fall over.


49
00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:36,960
A regular occurrence.


50
00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:43,840
'These days, whisky is without doubt
a source of national pride.


51
00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,080
'An almost unique phenomenon.


52
00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:51,360
'One of the few growth industries
in the entire United Kingdom.'


53
00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,040
'Its reputation abroad
has never been higher.


54
00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:04,080
'Last year, it generated £4.2
billion in foreign sales alone.'


55
00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:10,040
'But its past was more troubled


56
00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,680
'and Scotland's history
tangled up in it.


57
00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:18,560
'It's like he kind of double vision.
They come as a pair.


58
00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:23,160
'The proud Highlander
and the drunken Scot.'


59
00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,120
That's how we're seen,
that's how we sell ourselves.


60
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:31,280
Bonnie Scotland, the nation
that's 80% alcohol by volume.


61
00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:43,560
'Nobody knows when whisky
was first made in Scotland.


62
00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,120
'When it first appears
in our written history,


63
00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:49,440
'it's already well-established.


64
00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:53,040
'In 1494, King James IV of Scotland


65
00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:57,640
'orders a large quantity of
aqua vitae from a monastery.


66
00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:01,360
'Aqua vitae, the Latin name
for a kind of alcohol


67
00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:08,080
'appearing in other European
countries about the same time.


68
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:13,920
'Each country translated
from the Latin to name their drink.'


69
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:19,600
The French called it eau de vie,
the Scandinavians called it aqvavit,


70
00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:25,640
and the Gaelic-speaking Scots
called it uisge-beatha.


71
00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,280
Uisge-beatha - water of life.


72
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:35,280
'Every country faced botanical
reality when it set out to make


73
00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:36,800
'its water of life.


74
00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:41,040
'The basic ingredient
had to grow nearby.


75
00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:43,640
'The French used grapes or fruit,


76
00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:48,400
'the Scandinavians
and the Scots used grain.


77
00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:53,720
'Barley. It was Scotland's
staple food crop.


78
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,800
'The people who first-term barley
into strong alcohol


79
00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,200
'weren't distillers.


80
00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:05,400
'There was no whisky industry.


81
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:10,600
'There were simply farmers with some
surplus barley after harvest home.'


82
00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,720
'On the island of Lewis,
the Abhainn Dearg distillery


83
00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:23,600
'occasionally runs a small old still
in honour of whisky's history.'


84
00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:27,000
I suppose this was how it started.


85
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:28,440
This is how it began?


86
00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,960
Most distilleries in Scotland,
or round the Highlands,


87
00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:35,160
they just started off
as a small still.


88
00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:39,800
If you've got a reasonable harvest,
you probably setting aside


89
00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:42,800
whatever your crop for food,


90
00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,120
your crop for next year's crop,


91
00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:48,840
and then if there was a surplus,
maybe of grain,


92
00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:53,200
you would maybe say to yourself,
let's turn it into alcohol.


93
00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:54,600
It's almost vermin-proof.


94
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:58,440
That was one of the other reasons
they might have turned


95
00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,720
a surplus stock of grain, to stop
the rats and all the mice eating it.


96
00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,040
Sometimes, we'll sit down
and you get some of the older boys


97
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,280
coming in and they'll just
reminisce about days gone by.


98
00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:12,240
The great times, the good times.


99
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,720
They would say,
"We'd go to a small house


100
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:21,520
and they would have a still running
maybe for a week.


101
00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:23,920
They wouldn't be seen
for almost a month.


102
00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:26,120
These men would disappear
for a month!


103
00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:29,200
What would happen
to their farms during that time?


104
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:32,160
You had your crops so...
They timed it well?


105
00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:33,960
It was always timed well.


106
00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:36,240
Think of it,
you had to work with the seasons.


107
00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,320
You only had the grain
coming in in September, October


108
00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:41,120
and she used to have to leave it.


109
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:44,760
You would have a drink season
as well? That seems very sensible.


110
00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:47,760
That seems to be the best way
to have alcohol.


111
00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:49,520
There's a time for it.


112
00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:53,040
When you have it all the time,
it ruins the joy of it in a way.


113
00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:54,840
When you earn it, it seems...


114
00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:57,920
When you've earned it.
You've done your year's graft.


115
00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:08,280
'The method of distillation these
farmers used was itself ancient.'


116
00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,800
'Practised by the Egyptians,
the Chinese,


117
00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:18,240
'eventually the Arabs
of the eight and ninth century,


118
00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,640
'it is exotic
like the kind of alchemy.


119
00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:25,840
'It magically makes
weak drinks strong.


120
00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:28,600
'An enclosed vessel is filled
with liquid


121
00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,760
'containing alcohol in
low concentration, and heated.


122
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:43,280
'Eventually, the alcohol becomes
a vapour which flows through


123
00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:48,080
'a spout at the top of the vessel
into a coil cooled with water.'


124
00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:54,320
'What slowly drips
from the other end


125
00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,600
'is alcohol
in a more concentrated form.'


126
00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:05,200
Is something happening here now?
She should be smoking!


127
00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,080
I think there is some smoke
coming out of there.


128
00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,240
Here she goes!
That was brilliantly timed.


129
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:16,600
I can't believe it, did you press
something with your foot?


130
00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:25,320
'Like alchemy and all those other
als - algebra, algorithm, alambic,


131
00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:31,840
'the word itself is Arab.
Al-kohl - alcohol.


132
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:35,440
'The purified.'


133
00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:47,840
Right, Brian, I think you're
ready for a wee taste.


134
00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:49,560
I'll maybe try a little taste now.


135
00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:52,680
Uisge-beatha, the water of life.


136
00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,440
As we say, gle mhath. Gle mhath.


137
00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,720
Slainte mhaith. Slainte mhaith.


138
00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:14,640
Oh, my gosh. I didn't expect it
to be so syrupy.


139
00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:17,440
It's got a sort of oily...


140
00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:21,120
It's got an oily thing about it.
I never expected that.


141
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,960
Enjoy that? Tell you in a minute.


142
00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,800
Don't go all away down to Dundee
drinking. I won't, I won't.


143
00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:35,160
I'll savour it.


144
00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:37,680
There's a real taste
of the land in it though.


145
00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:41,760
Traditionally, we'd be taking that
jug away, as they say in America,


146
00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:44,600
and we'd be just passing it round.


147
00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:53,080
'So this was how whisky started
- as a white spirit


148
00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:58,520
'ready to drink as it poured
or dripped from the still.


149
00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:02,080
'Made by farmers for themselves,
or for barter,


150
00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:04,440
'or in tiny quantities for sale.


151
00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,880
'It was never likely to be more than
a year old before it was drunk,


152
00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,560
'and if people wanted to flavour it,
they added herbs.'


153
00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,000
There's something fundamentally
honest about whisky.


154
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,960
It was a drink that rhymed
with hospitality,


155
00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:31,480
very much part of the rhythm
of an agricultural society.


156
00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:32,680
A token of welcome,


157
00:11:32,680 --> 00:11:36,680
made as a gift as much as a store
for energy for the winter months.


158
00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:40,640
The Scots made whisky
like the bees made honey.


159
00:11:49,560 --> 00:11:53,040
'Some say that the first
Scottish stills were set up


160
00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:59,120
'on the west coast island of Isla,
brought there by Irish monks.


161
00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:03,000
'It might even be true.


162
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,200
'But with its eight distilleries,
Isla remains an excellent place


163
00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:12,200
'to go for a sense of whisky's
central place in Scottish tradition.


164
00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:14,560
'A nip in the morning,
a nip at night,


165
00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:18,640
a hospitable nip for visiting
friends or neighbours.


166
00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,440
'A drink to bring the harvest home,


167
00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:26,800
'to mark the passing of time
or the passing of people.'


168
00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:30,440
Most people reach for a Scotch
in a time of trial or retribution


169
00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:35,160
or trouble. You reach for a dram.
There's something a bit magical


170
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:39,840
about this spirit, that gives you
courage and strength to go on.


171
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,760
I think that's why
it's so useful at funerals


172
00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:44,920
because on an island,
you know everybody.


173
00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,640
When somebody dies,
you know them quite well.


174
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,520
It could be your best friend
sort of thing.


175
00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:55,160
Some people get whisky buried
with them. That's right. Do they?


176
00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:59,440
A few bottles in a coffin. To
carry them over to the other side.


177
00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:02,480
Yeah. Better than taking
the phone with you.


178
00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:09,480
I used to play the pipes
at funerals and weddings.


179
00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,800
I used to always tell people
that funerals were much better


180
00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:16,440
than weddings because there's
much more drink at funerals.


181
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:17,680
They're always better.


182
00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:20,240
There's nothing better than
a good funeral as long


183
00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,160
as it's an older person.


184
00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:25,080
It was a good send-off.
They always had a good send-off.


185
00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:27,720
No-one was ever rushed
to their grave.


186
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,960
We still have it.


187
00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,600
A drink at the grave site.
As soon as the body's down.


188
00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:36,640
It's the old tradition.


189
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,000
We have oatcakes, cheese, whisky.


190
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:41,520
It also wets the baby's head
as well.


191
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,640
It's almost the currency
in the community.


192
00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:46,920
Even I can remember
when I was younger as well,


193
00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:50,320
when your teeth are coming through,
you'd get whisky put in your gums


194
00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,720
to try and soothe the pain
and stuff like that.


195
00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:56,000
It used in all sorts of medicinal
and currency and everything.


196
00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,200
Integrated right into
everything in the community.


197
00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:02,880
This always seems to me that any
excuse just to drink some whisky.


198
00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:05,600
There's always a wee excuse.


199
00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,480
'A good malt whisky
goes down very easily indeed,


200
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:14,480
'but what happens
in the brain as we drink?'


201
00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:22,160
'Answering that question
has occupied a large part


202
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:26,320
'of Professor David Nutt's
current research.'


203
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,960
I took a drink of whisky,
how does it affect me?


204
00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:33,920
So, you take your wee dram,
hopefully it's only a wee one.


205
00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,520
Into the blood
and then it gets in the brain.


206
00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:40,000
Alcohol goes throughout the brain.


207
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:44,280
The way the brain works is that
we have a chemical to keep us awake,


208
00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:48,120
that's called glutamate, and we have
a chemical neurotransmitter


209
00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,480
that calms us down,
and that's called GABA.


210
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:53,880
The first thing that alcohol does


211
00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,840
is to turn on the effects
of GABA to calm us down.


212
00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,960
If it dampens down activity
in this part of the brain,


213
00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:01,440
it takes away worry


214
00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,840
and that's usually what people
are looking for alcohol to do.


215
00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:06,920
They want to calm down
and what to relax.


216
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,800
Then it starts to dampen down
activity here which leads to


217
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:15,480
sometimes a feeling of energy
and of being quite animated


218
00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:17,480
and people start to talk more.


219
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:19,760
It also releases
an increase in GABA


220
00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:23,560
which allows chemicals called
endorphins to release here


221
00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:27,760
and that's associated
with feeling good on alcohol.


222
00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:31,280
Then as you increase your dose,
ifs you take too much,


223
00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:33,680
then you begin
to disrupt the function


224
00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:36,920
of this part of the brain which is
called the prefrontal cortex.


225
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:41,480
This is the seat of self-control,
self-regulation.


226
00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,080
If you dampen down this too much,


227
00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:47,760
people switch into that very
disinhibited state,


228
00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,360
you see in people who are sometimes
very drunk.


229
00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:53,160
That's often associated
with violence.


230
00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:55,040
Often people become very different.


231
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:59,000
Their personality changes, sometimes
they just start breaking into tears.


232
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,520
They would seem normally quite
self-controlled.


233
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:06,040
Then if you carry on drinking,
as some people do,


234
00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:09,120
what happens there is this part
of the brain here


235
00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,200
which keeps you breathing,
eventually that gets shut off


236
00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:15,360
and you stop breathing and die.


237
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,080
It's a pretty awful scenario.


238
00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,800
That's why you shouldn't drink
too much.


239
00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:26,560
'In the early days,
there were safeguards,


240
00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:29,240
'limits to the amount of whisky.


241
00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:33,680
'How much of your barley crop could
you sensibly make into alcohol?


242
00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:40,760
'Whisky was only made at harvest
home and had to last a year.


243
00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:44,320
'People drank constantly but slowly.


244
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:47,120
'This was whisky's dream time.


245
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:51,600
'It lasted several hundred years.
Whisky changed very little.


246
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:55,680
'Sometimes in years of famine,
the King or Parliament might pass


247
00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:00,680
'a law against distillation,
but the laws never lasted.


248
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:05,440
'People noticed new possibilities.


249
00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,680
'Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich thinks
whisky was first deliberately casked


250
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:14,920
'on Isla. It might even be true.


251
00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:19,320
'Some time in the 18th century,
someone noticed that whisky


252
00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:24,400
'left in an oaken cask
had changed in two ways.


253
00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:29,560
'It tasted better, smoother
and it had taken colour.


254
00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,840
'It was a mild amber, a pale honey.


255
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:37,560
'The colour of a memory
of a Scottish autumn afternoon.'


256
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:50,960
Somebody said to me,


257
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:54,640
"When do you start putting
the flavour in the whisky?


258
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,680
I said the flavour started
going in 100 years ago


259
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:01,600
when the acorn fell from the tree


260
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,920
and then the tree grows
for 95 years.


261
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:07,120
At 95 years, the tree is cut down.


262
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,760
That's the age of the oak when
they use it for barrels.


263
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,680
It's 100 years ago. These are oak?


264
00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:18,280
These are oak. Whisky can only
be matured in oak casks.


265
00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,080
Isn't that colour gorgeous?
That's a natural colour.


266
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:24,240
We do not add any artificial
colouring


267
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,960
or any other additives
to our spirit. It's all pure.


268
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:31,840
What is the idea of you keeping
this? This is 20 years.


269
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,240
What are you going for on this?
It's going to be released this year.


270
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:41,440
You're the first person in the world
to try it. Yeah.


271
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,280
Apart from myself. You don't count
really?


272
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,360
I'm the guinea pig.


273
00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:51,520
Here goes. Slainte.


274
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:53,680
That's about 50 per cent strength
natural.


275
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,840
Straight from the barrel.
Oh, My goodness.


276
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,360
It's good, isn't it?
Oh, my goodness.


277
00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:05,520
So elegant and sophisticated.


278
00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:11,040
About April, starts to get warm
in Isla and the heat builds up.


279
00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:16,160
The alcohol expands inside the cask
in the spirit drives into the oak.


280
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:20,440
The oak says, "Come in, come in.
I really love you."


281
00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:25,160
In goes the spirit and takes
the flavour from the oak cask.


282
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,680
'Whisky aged in oak did taste better


283
00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:34,880
'and it tasted better the longer
it stayed in the wood,


284
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,840
'but nobody did much
with this common knowledge.


285
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:43,280
'Who wanted to wait 10 years
or 20 for a drink?


286
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,520
'For most people,
10 minutes was long enough.


287
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,520
'They drank their whisky white.'


288
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:06,600
'By the later years
of the 18th century,


289
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:10,680
'whisky's long dream time
was coming to an end.


290
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:16,000
'Slowly but surely, some people were
becoming full-time distillers.


291
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:20,800
'Their whisky was for sale.


292
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:25,200
'Some of it was good


293
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,640
'and some of it was not.'


294
00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:41,720
'Highland whisky, for instance,
mostly made by small distillers


295
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,840
'tended to be well made
and a pleasure to drink,


296
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,120
'but at the other end of the market,


297
00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:50,480
'large-scale distilleries
in the lowlands were engaged


298
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:55,760
'in the production of whisky
of a rather different character.


299
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,920
'Two families
led the lowland market -


300
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,160
'the Haigs and the Steins.


301
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:07,880
'Neither family cared much for
quality but the Steins cared least.'


302
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:09,720
One of their distilleries


303
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,080
famously produced the worst whisky
in Scotland,


304
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:16,480
but their contribution
was genuine and twofold.


305
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,800
On the one hand, the Steins were
ingenious and on the other hand,


306
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:23,680
they worked
on a very grand scale.


307
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:29,480
'The Steins were industrial.
In at the beginning of the process


308
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:33,880
'that would turn Scotland's central
belt from something like this


309
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,560
'into something like this.


310
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:41,640
'Stein family distilleries were
scattered all over southern Fife


311
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,040
'and Clackmannanshire near Stirling,


312
00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:47,840
'connected by their own canals
and railway lines.


313
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:51,360
'The Steins installed the first
steam engines in Scotland.


314
00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:54,840
'They constructed a harbour in
the Forth to handle distribution


315
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:57,840
'and look for markets far afield.


316
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:00,280
'They were the first
to export whisky,


317
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:05,440
'sending it to London
where it was turned into gin.


318
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:10,200
'There's nothing left of their
largest plant, Kilbagie.


319
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:13,160
'Kennetpans, the second largest,
barely survives.


320
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:16,040
'It was certainly active
in the 1730s,


321
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:19,800
'one of Scotland's earliest
industrial locations


322
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,120
'and it's going to rack and ruin.'


323
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:26,040
Kilbagie alone had over 300 staff
employed on site.


324
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:30,560
Do you know how many people
were employed here? I don't.


325
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:32,920
We have no record of that at all.


326
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:36,720
Any records state Kennetpans was
two-thirds of the size of Kilbagie


327
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,520
so if you work it out that way,


328
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,040
you'd be talking maybe a couple
of hundred, I would imagine.


329
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:45,880
That's quite a big scale.
It's massive.


330
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:49,120
For that time,
it was absolutely huge.


331
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:51,880
'In this photograph from 1925,


332
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:57,560
'we get some sense of the original
layout and scale of Kennetpans.


333
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:02,720
'The maltings and warehouses are 100
yards away, now hidden by trees.'


334
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,320
This is us now going into the
warehouse complex.


335
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,520
My God, it's huge!
Look at the size of it.


336
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,160
I've never worked out
the square footage


337
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,720
but an absolutely incredible size.
It's incredible.


338
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:21,000
This place was built to last,
wasn't it?


339
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,040
These Steins, they were serious
about this place.


340
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:30,360
They had drive, innovation,
and totally ruthless.


341
00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:35,560
There was a distillery in
Inverkeithing that upset the Steins.


342
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,240
All they did, they bought the mill
upstream of it


343
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,040
and cut his water supply off, forced
him out of business overnight.


344
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,920
See what I mean? They're like the
Mafia. The Clackmannan Mafia.


345
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:49,280
They had no scruples at all.


346
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,680
They're quite a family.


347
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,000
MUSIC: The Godfather Waltz
by Nino Rota


348
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,760
'The Steins weren't quite so
ruthless as the Corleones,


349
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:05,640
'but they certainly enjoyed making
the competition unrefusable offers.


350
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,680
'They certainly didn't enjoy
paying tax.


351
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,880
'Not many whisky-makers did.


352
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:17,800
'In Edinburgh alone, in 1777,
there were 408 distillers,


353
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:20,840
'God knows where they put them all,


354
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:26,400
'but only eight paid tax.'


355
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:31,160
'Most Scottish parishes were just as
full of tax-dodging distillers.


356
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:37,160
'In 1783, a man of principle
became Prime Minister.


357
00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:40,720
'William Pitt the Younger.


358
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:45,480
'Think Eliot Ness, Al Capone's
worst nightmare.


359
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,560
'Untouchable, incorruptible.


360
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,360
'Pitt looked upon the world
of Scottish whisky


361
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:53,680
'and saw that it was full
of corruption.


362
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:57,720
'He set about rewriting the rulebook
on whisky tax,


363
00:24:57,720 --> 00:24:59,440
but he made a mistake.'


364
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,400
He sought the advice
of the Clackmannan Mafia


365
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,160
and the Steins told him


366
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:09,120
that small Highland distillers
had unfair advantages


367
00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:12,200
over big Lowland distillers
like themselves.


368
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,480
William Pitt the gullible agreed


369
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:19,720
and drew the famous Highland Line,


370
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,800
declaring that whisky
made in the Highlands


371
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,000
could not be sold in the Lowlands.


372
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,880
It took a Lowlander from Ayrshire


373
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,400
to plead the Highland cause,


374
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,120
a Lowlander who cared
and wrote more about whisky


375
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:36,040
than anyone before or since.


376
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:39,840
From Burns' point of view,


377
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:45,000
it wasn't only a massive government
abuse on behalf of the public purse,


378
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,200
it was also something that changed


379
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:50,960
a crucial and beautiful element
of Scottish culture to him,


380
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,360
the small still, the quality product.


381
00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:56,760
You see it in his poem
The Author's Earnest Cry And Prayer,


382
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:58,880
where he actually points to Pitt.


383
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:01,320
Pitt is the "Premier youth"
he refers to.


384
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:05,080
"Stand forth
an' tell yon Premier youth


385
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,320
"the honest, open, naked truth


386
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,720
"Tell him o'mine
and Scotland's drouth,


387
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:13,720
"His servants humble,


388
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,360
"The muckle deevil
blaw you south if ye dissemble."


389
00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:19,840
Yeah. So it was
a cultural change for Burns.


390
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,840
Everywhere,
in the Ayrshire fields around him,


391
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,160
and then in the fields
of Dumfries and Galloway,


392
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:30,440
there was evidence that the world
of his father, of the plough...


393
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:32,400
Right. ..was coming to an end.


394
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,320
He saw that coming.


395
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,320
The pipes were starting to go up,


396
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,120
the machinery was starting
to come onto the farm.


397
00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:42,360
Burns was, in a sense,
right there at that moment


398
00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:44,800
where history just turned a corner.


399
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:48,560
Charles, what is the effect on
the whisky industry after all this?


400
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,600
Well, I think that
although William Pitt...


401
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:54,960
His agenda was to raise money,


402
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:56,760
but unfortunately,


403
00:26:56,760 --> 00:27:01,600
in trying to straighten out
the taxing of Scotch whisky,


404
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,040
he produced a system


405
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:10,200
which ultimately encouraged
the production of rotgut.


406
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:11,760
Yeah, so the whisky,


407
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,360
it really did affect
the quality of the whisky?


408
00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,400
Absolutely, because the tax was
based upon the capacity of the still


409
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,520
and the canny distillers,
the bigger distillers, overcame that


410
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:25,760
by running the stills
very, very fast


411
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,440
so as to produce much more,
which was a filthy, horrible,


412
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,640
even sometimes poisonous spirit.


413
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,440
Like toxic. Yeah. Burns described it


414
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:40,400
as, you know, "rascally liquor
for the rascally sort of individual."


415
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,360
It was low-grade stuff
for the marauders. It was.


416
00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:46,880
And there was still a market
for this? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.


417
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:52,960
And of course, it was the Steins


418
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,720
who produced toxic whisky
in the largest quantities.


419
00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:59,920
Whilst obeying the letter of
the law, they made a hooch


420
00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:04,800
that could, at its worst,
make the consumer permanently blind.


421
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:09,160
If the public wanted whisky
that was safe, let alone pleasant,


422
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,640
their only option
was to break the law


423
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:15,400
and buy the smuggled product
of the Highland stills.


424
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,480
William Pitt,
the interfering busybody,


425
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,400
had turned Scotland's
whisky industry upside down.


426
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:30,160
One eyewitness recorded the regular
visits made to the town of Brechin


427
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:31,800
by Highland smugglers.


428
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,160
Having sold their whisky,


429
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,320
30 highlanders on horseback, proudly
displaying their empty barrels,


430
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:41,240
would ride through the streets.


431
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,840
All the excisemen could do
was watch.


432
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,760
All classes drank illicit whisky.


433
00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:52,680
It tasted better and did less harm


434
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,560
than the legal booze
of the Lowlands.


435
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:59,840
Even ministers of the gospel
drank it on a daily basis,


436
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,080
like a cordial or a tonic.


437
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:04,560
Amen.


438
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,480
It was an absurd situation,


439
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,200
a fact that was underlined
by the Royal Tour of Scotland


440
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:15,040
undertaken by
King George IV in 1822.


441
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,960
George wanted the best of everything


442
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,760
and lots of it.


443
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,760
The whisky he wanted came from here.


444
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:29,360
The Glenlivet was a Highland whisky
and therefore illegal,


445
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,240
but the King got his Glenlivet


446
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,920
and no-one tried to arrest him.


447
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,440
In the year after George's visit,


448
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:40,760
14,000 illicit stills
were found in Scotland.


449
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:42,560
George's favourite whisky


450
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:46,040
was distilled by George Smith
in just one of them,


451
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,520
in a glen best described as busy.


452
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:54,080
Apart from Mr Smith,
how many other distillers,


453
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,080
illicit distillers were there?


454
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,440
Well, documentary evidence says


455
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:03,520
there was over 200 stills
in operation. 200!


456
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:05,680
Now, 200, did they share the stills?


457
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:07,440
Did they do things like that?


458
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,240
But there was a lot of stills hidden
up here. The population in the area


459
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:15,680
was a lot larger because the farming
units were smaller in those days,


460
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:17,320
but perfect, remote area,


461
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,920
and then smuggle it out over
the hills, over the coast to Elgin,


462
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,360
down to Lossiemouth,
over the hills to Aberdeen there,


463
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:26,840
or take it down to Perthshire,
the other way.


464
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,200
Clearly, the King's favourite booze
couldn't go on being illegal.


465
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:40,360
In 1823, the government at last
introduced sane whisky taxes.


466
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:43,680
No more Highland Line.


467
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,640
A flat tax per gallon
of finished spirit,


468
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,280
a simple licence fee to have a still


469
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,160
and no stills
smaller than 40 gallons.


470
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:58,480
George Smith was the first
Glenlivet distiller to go legit.


471
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,200
Almost 200 years later,


472
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,560
the Glenlivet stills
are rather larger


473
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:08,800
but in Smith's day, a 40-gallon
still was already too big


474
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,960
for any part-timer
with a barley surplus.


475
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:15,800
The truth is, 1823 signalled


476
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,920
the beginning of the end
of Scottish honey.


477
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:23,520
Henceforth, whisky was a commodity
to be bought and sold.


478
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,520
All over Scotland,
the proprietors of illicit stills


479
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:35,760
saw precisely the same commercial
opportunity as Smith had.


480
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:40,400
Within two years, the number of
licensed whisky distillers


481
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,880
increased from 125 to 329.


482
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,680
That was a lot of legal whisky.


483
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,040
And there was about to be lots more.


484
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:57,720
This new world
of sensible whisky tax


485
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:01,080
was too much
for the Steins to resist.


486
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:02,880
In 1826,


487
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:08,440
Robert Stein secured a patent
for an altogether new kind of still.


488
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:13,320
It made spirit from
any kind of grain, and it was huge.


489
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:18,240
But what mattered most
about the continuous still


490
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:22,000
was the fact that
it worked continuously.


491
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:25,600
What have we got here?


492
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:29,520
Well, this, we're standing
in the Girvan distillery


493
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,720
and what we're looking at
here in particular


494
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,120
is the continuous
distillation apparatus


495
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,160
for producing grain whisky spirit.


496
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:38,600
So this is still a still?


497
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,680
It's a still. Not as you'd
have seen before, I imagine.


498
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,280
No! It's pretty big.


499
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:45,040
Yeah, if you think of, obviously,


500
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,880
the image of distillation,
proper pot stills,


501
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:51,480
and this is really doing exactly
the same on a continuous basis,


502
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,000
so instead of producing batches,


503
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:55,640
we start this still up


504
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:58,880
and in essence, it can run
for days or weeks at a time.


505
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,840
The original design
for Stein's continuous still


506
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,600
called for two linked copper columns
40 to 50 feet high.


507
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:14,200
It was improved on almost instantly


508
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,400
but the basics
have never really changed.


509
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,160
Steam passes through
at a high pressure.


510
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,600
Seams have to be perfect
to prevent explosions.


511
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,280
This is applied science -


512
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:29,240
industry, pure and simple.


513
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:34,320
It produces thousands of litres
of spirit an hour.


514
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:41,720
What this new still produced


515
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:44,840
was certainly immeasurably superior
to the toxic rotgut


516
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,960
that the previous tax-dodging
generation of Steins


517
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:52,400
had pumped as fast as possible
down English and Scottish throats.


518
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:54,920
within limits
of sensible consumption,


519
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,600
it was perfectly safe to drink.


520
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:03,200
Pleasant, in fact.


521
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:07,000
The grain whisky it made
had a pleasing sweetness


522
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,000
and the new still made it
in huge quantities.


523
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:15,200
It was nobody's plan or fault,


524
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,840
but the new grain whisky
hit the market at the same time


525
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,920
as the vastly increased output
of the new legalised stills.


526
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:27,760
More whisky than had
ever been made before


527
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:30,880
flooded a newly urban Scotland.


528
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,280
People from the Highlands
and Islands


529
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:35,560
who would have once
made their own whisky


530
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,960
were moving into towns and cities,


531
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,280
becoming wage labourers.


532
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:48,160
Glasgow,
first five years of the 1820s,


533
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:52,960
is boomtown. The population
is going to go up by a quarter,


534
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:57,240
almost like one of these
instant cities of the American West.


535
00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:00,320
Drunkenness, I think,
booms at the same time.


536
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,000
What do you think
the prime reason for that was?


537
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,320
People were moving.


538
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,480
They were moving into towns
at a rate they'd never moved before.


539
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,240
You had awful living conditions,


540
00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:14,040
you had infant mortality
all over the place.


541
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:18,800
You had to have, you know, some means
of releasing what you felt,


542
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:25,040
so the dram is there
as the drink of choice


543
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:29,760
and there's a marvellous quote
from Hugh Miller, the geologist,


544
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:33,160
who was then a mason
coming down from Cromartie


545
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,080
and saying that this was
"happiness sold by the gill."


546
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:40,000
And if you were a mason
working out in the wet,


547
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,360
or you were carting slabs of stone
from the Clyde,


548
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:46,480
this was where you could sit down,
just a place like this,


549
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,640
and get a holiday in half an hour.


550
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:55,800
Some holiday.


551
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,920
A holiday from rent, debt,


552
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:04,600
responsibility, hard labour,


553
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:06,160
life.


554
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,400
Men were often paid in pubs


555
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,560
and all their money
ended up behind the bar.


556
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,320
The amount of damage done
was truly horrendous.


557
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,280
The old days were long gone.


558
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:31,240
What the men were drinking
in the bars and the shebeens


559
00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:33,760
wasn't something that
they'd grown themselves


560
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:38,080
and the decision to keep drinking
was made while still drunk.


561
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,320
In other words,
it wasn't a decision at all.


562
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:54,120
The 1820s and '30s are rich
with the statistics of misery.


563
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,120
In 1822, it's estimated


564
00:36:56,120 --> 00:37:02,280
that the Scots consumed just over
2 million gallons of whisky.


565
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:06,400
By 1829, that figure
was nearly 6 million.


566
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:14,400
In Edinburgh and Glasgow, there was
a bar for every 130 people.


567
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:23,960
The first temperance societies
were formed in the 1830s,


568
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,600
struggling to deal
with this perfect storm.


569
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:35,560
It was a huge, huge social problem


570
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,880
with which the temperance societies
tried to wrestle,


571
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:43,000
from the kind of houses
they were visiting,


572
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,960
where every stick of furniture
had been sold to buy drink


573
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,480
and the people were in utter misery,


574
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:51,040
wearing rags


575
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,880
and the children starving


576
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,800
and that was attributed to drink,


577
00:37:56,800 --> 00:38:02,800
where the husband on payday had just
gone down the pub and blown the lot


578
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:05,440
and there's story after story.


579
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:09,960
The city missionary goes into
different houses, and every house,


580
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,800
there is a woman with either
a black eye or two black eyes


581
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:20,320
or broken limbs because her husband
has been enraged in drink


582
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:26,600
and there's women thinking they'd
do anything to get out of this.


583
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,680
It's like a mass drink hysteria,
in some way. It is.


584
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,880
You know, it must have been like


585
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:38,840
damming up this huge kind of
flowing river, you know, of alcohol.


586
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,400
They had to go evangelical on it,


587
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:44,520
you know, "Go for a better life,
sign the pledge now,


588
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:48,240
"forsake the drink,
see how your life will change,


589
00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:52,200
"Let's have concerts


590
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,720
"and different events
without any drink,


591
00:38:55,720 --> 00:39:00,680
"let's have enjoyable festive fun
without the drink,


592
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:03,960
"let's build up
the counter attractions."


593
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,440
The various temperance movements
pulled in thousands of members,


594
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:11,840
but not enough.


595
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,120
They were trying to argue
that poverty was caused by booze.


596
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:22,840
But for most working-class Scots,
whisky wasn't the cause.


597
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:25,000
It was the anaesthetic.


598
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,760
They drank grain whisky,
malt whisky, any kind of whisky,


599
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:34,320
to escape the often unbearable
conditions of their urban existence.


600
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,040
Whether Scotland's whisky makers
liked it or not,


601
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,400
this was their strongest market.


602
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,280
There were no significant exports.


603
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:55,360
If the English thought about whisky
at all, it was as an outdoor drink


604
00:39:55,360 --> 00:40:00,200
offered by a gamekeeper to sportsmen
halfway up a Scottish hill.


605
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,680
Scotland's whiskies
came from two kinds of still.


606
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:10,120
From the continuous stills, grain
whisky flowed almost constantly,


607
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:13,360
sweet, light, lacking in character.


608
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,760
From the traditional pot stills
flowed malt whisky,


609
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,760
often peaty and fiery,
hugely varied.


610
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:24,120
One man's malt
was another man's poison.


611
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:29,280
Cue the so-called whisky barons


612
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,320
who would mix the fiery malts
and the sweet grain whiskies


613
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:34,680
to produce a new kind of product -


614
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:40,080
a whisky that would sell not just
in England but around the world.


615
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:42,400
OK.


616
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:45,920
So...


617
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:50,360
This is grain. I'll just let you
have a little sniff of it


618
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:51,680
before I put it in.


619
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:54,520
It's lovely. Smells good.


620
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,440
Yes, and you might be getting
some vanilla coming through.


621
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:00,480
That's right, that what is.
There's a wee bit of vanilla in it.


622
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,720
Now, I'm going to add some malt


623
00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:05,840
so obviously this is a top secret,


624
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,320
so you can't look at the labels. OK.


625
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:13,720
'The whisky barons were looking
for a blend that was sweeter,


626
00:41:13,720 --> 00:41:19,040
'blander and more consistent to
open the door to mass-market sales.


627
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:22,560
'Then, and now,
the recipes are secret.


628
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:27,080
'Dewar's most expensive blend
contains around 40
different whiskies.


629
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:32,480
'My personal blend contains
one grain whisky and two malts.


630
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:36,560
'Stephanie refused to tell me
which ones.'


631
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,120
OK. So I'm going to try this.
There you go.


632
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,320
The Cox blend. The Cox blend.


633
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:48,560
So from this, you're getting
a sweetness coming through. Oh.


634
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,840
Gosh. That's...
Well, that's a cask strength.


635
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:55,240
Wow! So I'd give you
a little bit of water.


636
00:41:55,240 --> 00:41:58,000
Wow! Save the head. Ah, God.


637
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:01,480
My ancestors would be re-emerging
if I took much of this stuff!


638
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:09,360
So you see that when you add water
to whisky, the whisky almost squirms.


639
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:13,680
Oh, my God! And it then
releases different compounds.


640
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:15,920
Now, that would last me a year


641
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,120
because you just want to drink that


642
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:21,520
and you don't want to drink it...
Savour it. Savour it. It's just...


643
00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:24,520
It's lovely. Would you like to try?


644
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:33,160
Dewar's was only one of several
companies offering blended whisky


645
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:37,040
but they had a secret weapon -
the younger son.


646
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:40,080
Tommy Dewar was the sort of salesmen


647
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,800
whose foot stayed firmly
jammed in any open door


648
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,280
and in 1892, he took his foot,


649
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:49,520
address book and sample case on tour


650
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:51,760
of almost the entire world.


651
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,920
Two years and 26 countries later,


652
00:42:55,920 --> 00:43:00,520
he was back with
32 established export agencies.


653
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:05,880
The profits of Dewar's and Sons
more than doubled within a year


654
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,440
and thanks to the effort
of Tommy Dewar


655
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:13,080
and those of other travellers with
perhaps only slightly smaller feet,


656
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:16,520
Scottish blended whisky
went international.


657
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:22,280
Afternoon, sir. How are you?


658
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:25,680
I'd like a blended whisky,
Scottish, please.


659
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:31,840
It conquered bars...


660
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:35,520
saloons,


661
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:37,680
hotels...


662
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:42,000
..in territory after territory.


663
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:47,400
By the late 1890s,


664
00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:53,160
Scots blended whisky was available
pretty much anywhere you went.


665
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:57,720
The export business boomed


666
00:43:57,720 --> 00:44:01,040
and the English upper classes
took to whisky too.


667
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:04,320
Dewar's and Buchanan
both gained royal warrants


668
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:07,640
and contracts to supply
the Houses of Parliament.


669
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:13,520
All the blenders dipped
the same well for sales purposes -


670
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,320
kilts and whisky.


671
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:17,920
The Scots and their booze
were inseparable,


672
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:19,560
married in the public mind.


673
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:22,560
In 1897,


674
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:27,640
Dewar's made the first ever filmed
advertisement for an alcoholic drink


675
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:29,160
and here it is.


676
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,320
The message is, I think
you'll agree, comically clear.


677
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,800
But how else would you sell it?


678
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,440
Scots and whisky go together.


679
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:54,680
Yes, but that message
was for export only.


680
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:57,680
On Scotland's city streets
and in its slums,


681
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:01,120
the relationship between
the poor and whisky drinking


682
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:03,560
continued to be grimly close.


683
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,040
Temperance campaigners
pressed for new laws.


684
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:14,680
They wanted alcohol banned, but
the new laws they got fell short.


685
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:19,560
In 1903,
the Licensing Act For Scotland


686
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:22,400
merely closed pubs early, at 10pm.


687
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:28,920
In 1909, the tax on domestic whisky
was increased by 30%.


688
00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:33,520
The Chancellor responsible
was Lloyd George.


689
00:45:35,720 --> 00:45:40,600
Lloyd George was far
from unsympathetic
to the temperance campaigners


690
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:45,520
and by 1915, as Minister for
Munitions, he was openly arguing


691
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:49,680
that drink was a luxury
Britain could no longer afford.


692
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,320
He called for outright prohibition


693
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,800
but once again,
the laws that followed fell short.


694
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:01,160
The Immature Spirits Act of 1915


695
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:06,040
argued that spirits straight
from the still did most damage,


696
00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:08,720
decreed that whisky
could not be sold


697
00:46:08,720 --> 00:46:12,960
until it had been matured in cask
for three years and a day.


698
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:17,120
Unable to sell any whisky
for three years and a day,


699
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:20,560
many distillers and blenders
went bust,


700
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:24,360
but it was the making of
the whisky industry nevertheless.


701
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:29,440
All whisky would now improve in cask
for a minimum of three years.


702
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:33,160
Scottish whisky became a product
of unparalleled excellence


703
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:35,400
and smoothness - by accident.


704
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:42,600
Because we found ourselves in
two minds when we looked at whisky.


705
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:44,960
It was our proud history


706
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:49,280
but also, it was our national shame.


707
00:46:56,920 --> 00:46:59,000
In my hometown of Dundee,


708
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,400
prohibition was a burning issue,


709
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:06,600
best expressed by the surprising
career of Eddie Scrymgeour.


710
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:12,640
Now, Scrymgeour was famous.
He was actually almost mythical.


711
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:17,160
He'd beaten Winston Churchill
in the General Election of 1922


712
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:19,960
and Churchill was hardly a pushover,


713
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:23,360
but Scrymgeour had beaten him
on a single issue.


714
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:30,240
Scrymgeour wanted prohibition. He
wanted alcohol off Dundee's streets.


715
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:35,480
Scrymgeour held his seat
on the basis of that single issue


716
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,440
for another nine years


717
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:41,840
and elsewhere in Scotland, other
voices were calling for prohibition.


718
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:46,360
Some licensing districts actually
went as far as banning alcohol.


719
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:49,760
The general level of distrust
for booze in Scotland was such


720
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,840
that more districts would certainly
have followed, if it hadn't been


721
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:57,760
for America's ill-considered
experiment with prohibition


722
00:47:57,760 --> 00:47:59,680
between 1920 and 1933.


723
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:03,720
Good news for the criminals,


724
00:48:03,720 --> 00:48:07,120
who gained control of
the entire market for strong drink.


725
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:10,720
Their only competition
was each other. You dirty rat!


726
00:48:10,720 --> 00:48:12,480
Good news for Hollywood -


727
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:14,800
raw material for 1,000 scripts.


728
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:16,720
Al Capone, jalopies,


729
00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:19,440
snap brim hats, massacres,


730
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,600
G-men, tommy guns,


731
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:24,280
films we were still watching
when I was a kid,


732
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:28,240
which gave us all a script,
a lot of things to shout about


733
00:48:28,240 --> 00:48:31,360
when we played
on Dundee's backstreets.


734
00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:34,080
(JAMES CAGNEY VOICE)
Top of the world, Ma!


735
00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:35,840
You dirty rat!


736
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,600
Oh! Is this the end for Rico?


737
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,880
Prohibition was a failure.


738
00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:45,160
In fact, if anything,


739
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:48,520
it encouraged the very thing
it was trying to exclude.


740
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:54,600
A huge amount of the bootleg liquor


741
00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:58,680
shipped into America during
Prohibition was Scotch whisky,


742
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,080
the most reliable booze
Americans could lay their hands on.


743
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:07,840
When Prohibition ended, it left a
massive American market for Scotch,


744
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:09,800
which still exists today.


745
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:16,760
Do you think Prohibition worked?
Does it work, browbeating anything?


746
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,040
Well, it depends on
what your outcome measure is.


747
00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:22,240
So if you were a doctor,


748
00:49:22,240 --> 00:49:24,120
Prohibition actually reduced


749
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:26,560
the number of people
dying from liver disease


750
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:29,360
but of course, the cost of that
was this vast increase


751
00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:32,680
in organised crime - in fact,
the invention of organised crime.


752
00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:37,080
In the end, society said,
"The damage done by the crime


753
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:41,720
"is so much greater than
the benefits, the health benefits,


754
00:49:41,720 --> 00:49:44,320
"that we've got to
get rid of Prohibition."


755
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:48,080
Nobel prize-winning economists
have looked at this whole issue


756
00:49:48,080 --> 00:49:53,160
and they have said prohibition
maximises the profit for crime.


757
00:49:56,400 --> 00:50:01,040
In the Dundee of the 1930s, the
prohibitionist tide had receded too.


758
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:03,440
Eddie Scrymgeour had lost his seat


759
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:06,440
and the payday binge
was alive and kicking.


760
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:12,440
One of Ian Fleming's models for
James Bond was a Scottish writer,


761
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:14,240
Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart.


762
00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:18,880
In his youth, officially a diplomat,


763
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,000
in reality a spy,


764
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:26,040
Lockhart was in Russia during the
Revolution. He was not a timid soul.


765
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:29,840
In 1951, he published
a history of whisky


766
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:34,200
and its inextricable involvement
with Scottish identity.


767
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:39,120
He recalls walking down Dock Street
in Dundee in the '30s.


768
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:41,960
"Every third house was a pub,"
he wrote,


769
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:46,280
"and every pub a vortex in which
the week's wages were engulfed.


770
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:49,960
"The drinkers had spilled out
onto the pavement, men and women,


771
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,560
"necking whisky from bottles


772
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,440
"and fighting with bottles in hand."


773
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:57,680
Lockhart was terrified.


774
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:02,160
And this is a man who's spent time
in revolutionary Russia,


775
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:06,280
who'd even been locked up in
Moscow's notorious Lubyanka Prison


776
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:11,040
on suspicion of attempting
to assassinate Lenin himself,


777
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:14,000
and here he was,
scared by Scottish drinkers.


778
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:20,680
It wasn't just Dundee, of course.


779
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:22,720
Other journalists and novelists


780
00:51:22,720 --> 00:51:25,800
recorded similar snapshots
of alcoholic violence


781
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:29,520
in the slums of all
Scotland's major cities,


782
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:31,640
where people drank to escape


783
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:33,800
and the drink fuelled violence,


784
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:39,320
where drink and poverty and violence
had become somehow traditional.


785
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:44,840
From the '30s to the '50s,
it was the sort of reality


786
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,880
that documentary makers
try not to capture.


787
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:49,360
You just get glimpses...


788
00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:56,080
..between shots
that try to tell a nicer story,


789
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:57,600
and fail.


790
00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:04,400
The late '50s and '60s saw
the first focused attempts


791
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:10,480
to eradicate both the causes and
the consequences of alcohol abuse.


792
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:12,760
The eradication of slums,


793
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,360
the welfare state, the NHS.


794
00:52:17,720 --> 00:52:22,920
And as for the booze, chancellors
raised the domestic tax on whisky


795
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,880
to almost prohibitive levels.


796
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:28,840
Most whisky went abroad.


797
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:32,080
Whisky is one of the exports
that did very useful war work


798
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,480
and is still carrying on.


799
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:37,600
One thing - we may not
get the whisky here at home,


800
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,200
but, well, we don't get
the hangover either.


801
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:48,080
The domestic whisky market
gradually shrank.


802
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:52,280
The industry survived because of
those booming foreign sales.


803
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:54,960
Successive chancellors
kept the pressure on,


804
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:58,240
kept increasing the tax on whisky.


805
00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:02,000
Even the great deregulator,
who liked a whisky herself,


806
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,680
kept the genie firmly bottled up.


807
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:09,560
By 1993, a bottle of whisky
somewhat smaller than this


808
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:12,400
cost almost £11 -


809
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:14,920
£7 of which was tax.


810
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:20,960
Adding tax to whisky
is now traditional,


811
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:27,120
an established part of the
Chancellor's script come Budget day


812
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:30,760
and whisky is simply too expensive
for the binge drinker.


813
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:32,480
It's a luxury drink.


814
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:35,080
If whisky was
the only game in town,


815
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:37,760
we would have solved the problem


816
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:41,320
but it isn't, and we haven't.


817
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:45,560
Where are we now in alcoholism?


818
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:48,120
Have we risen, has it risen?


819
00:53:48,120 --> 00:53:49,640
It depends where you are.


820
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:50,960
Well, Scotland.


821
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:55,360
Scotland has seen the most terrible
rise in alcohol-related problems,


822
00:53:55,360 --> 00:54:00,800
so 20 years ago, Scotland had
low levels of deaths from cirrhosis.


823
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,520
Now Scotland has
the highest cirrhosis deaths


824
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:06,080
and England and Wales
is following on,


825
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:08,160
but they're not as high as Scotland.


826
00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:14,120
Scotland now has
one of the highest rates
of alcohol consumption per head


827
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:17,640
and some of the highest number
of deaths from liver cirrhosis


828
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:19,000
in Western Europe


829
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:21,400
and Professor Nutt
thinks he knows why.


830
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:27,000
It's completely clear to me that what
has happened in the last 20 years


831
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:32,480
is that this massive influx of strong
lagers, 8% lagers and ciders


832
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:34,440
has really fuelled alcohol damage.


833
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:38,680
Whisky may not be
what they're drinking,


834
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:42,120
but we'd be lying to ourselves
if we tried to pretend


835
00:54:42,120 --> 00:54:46,440
that whisky historically hadn't
functioned as the gateway drug.


836
00:54:48,520 --> 00:54:51,920
The strong drink
we traditionally abused.


837
00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:55,040
Now Scotland's urban poor


838
00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:58,840
have simply found something
cheaper than whisky to drink -


839
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,280
vodkas, superlagers and ciders,


840
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:03,560
cheap fortified wine


841
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:09,480
and on average, Scots drink
20% more alcohol per head per person


842
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:12,560
than any other British population.


843
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:19,480
The only truly unchanging feature
of this sad landscape,


844
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:22,520
the problem we seem
unable to solve...


845
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:26,200
..is urban poverty.


846
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:34,560
When Robert Bruce Lockhart
was winding down
his book of whisky 1951,


847
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,480
he knew the notes he had to strike
were bittersweet.


848
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:41,360
His walk down Dock Street
back in Dundee


849
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:43,680
had filled him with sorry knowledge.


850
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:48,920
"There is no Scot," he wrote,
"who does not know whisky's dangers


851
00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:52,240
"and I myself have been
near enough to destruction


852
00:55:52,240 --> 00:55:55,160
"to respect whisky, to fear it,


853
00:55:55,160 --> 00:55:57,960
"and to continue to drink it."


854
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:02,640
If Bruce Lockhart was writing today,


855
00:56:02,640 --> 00:56:05,160
perhaps he would feel
much less pressure


856
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:08,360
to apologise for
Scotland's whisky industry.


857
00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:12,680
After 200 years of the sometimes
less than gentle heat


858
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:15,680
applied by Prime Ministers,
chancellors, excisemen


859
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:17,560
and ministers of munitions,


860
00:56:17,560 --> 00:56:22,760
whisky has become
a completely different drink -


861
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:27,920
almost certainly made better and
more creatively than ever before.


862
00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:33,400
It's become a drink
of international standing,


863
00:56:33,400 --> 00:56:36,880
not just domestically,
in Scotland or Britain,


864
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:38,880
but of the entire world.


865
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:44,240
90% of Scotland's whisky
goes abroad.


866
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:49,760
The malt whiskies,
for over a century seen


867
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:53,120
as mere ingredients
for the mass market blends,


868
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:56,920
now command the respect
of connoisseurs.


869
00:56:58,720 --> 00:57:04,240
Individual bottles have recently
sold for as much as £120,000.


870
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:09,680
Whisky is perhaps no longer
part of the problem.


871
00:57:09,680 --> 00:57:13,760
In fact, as one of
the very few growth industries


872
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:16,480
left in the entire UK,


873
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:20,080
maybe it's part of the solution.


874
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:25,080
Are you surprised
the number of barrels in here?


875
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:28,640
Well, we're going to need them all,
Brian, because, you know,


876
00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:32,080
the wealth of demand for Scotch
whisky has never been better.


877
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:35,840
It's fantastic. It's a golden period


878
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:39,960
and it means so much to the economy
of Scotland as a nation.


879
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:43,040
There's very, very few industries
now in Scotland left.


880
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:46,320
There's no shipbuilding,
there's no car manufacturer,


881
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:49,760
there's no steelworks, no gold mines.
No manufacturers at all.


882
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:51,840
So whisky's critical to Scotland.


883
00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:57,280
Of the total wealth generated
by exports from the UK,


884
00:57:57,280 --> 00:57:59,040
both food and drink,


885
00:57:59,040 --> 00:58:01,360
25% is generated by whisky.


886
00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:05,000
That's a huge amount. It's massive,
it's absolutely massive,


887
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:07,120
so it's so important to this country.


888
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:12,880
Not bad for
an agricultural by-product.


889
00:58:42,200 --> 00:58:45,920
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