Inside the Factory: Gregg Wallace BBC show to feature family-run Yorkshire furniture business

Joanne Trott, a sewing machinist who has worked with the firm for 19 years, said that she hopes the programme will inspire young people to consider jobs in sewing or manufacturing.

She said: “Young people don't really look at sewing as a job these days, it's all about computers or health and beauty, so hopefully if young people see it they might think they can have a go.”

Joanne, who is one of HSL’s longest serving staff members, is able to complete the sewing on a chair in around half an hour, completing up to 16 chairs per day.

Charlotte Akroyd, head of manufacturing at HSL, who is also featured on the programme, said: “I think people don't realise how much goes into working somewhere like this, but hopefully when they watch the programme, they will.

“People think of factories and they don't realise there are actually quite a lot of skills that go into working here.

“People like Joanne, who have worked here 19 years, the level of sewing skill they have is amazing. It's not something you can just pick up and get a qualification for, it's something you have to learn over years and years.”

This week's airing of the show follows a process of almost two years, which culminated in Gregg Wallace and the Inside the Factory team visiting HSL’s West Yorkshire Facility 12 months after first choosing the business as a candidate for the programme.

Charlotte added: “We knew 12 months in advance that we were going to be on the show. We first started asking staff members to be part of it around three months before, getting people who we knew would be confident and who would want to speak on camera.

“We had to get all the information on the factory together for the producsers down to every last detail, including how much cotton we use and how many staples we use and the timings for everything, it was really thorough.”

HSL is a specialist chair, sofa and bed manufacturer, which makes a minimum of 800 seats per week. Though many of the factory’s processes use machinery, including the cutting of wood and fabric, much of the work is still done by hand, including upholstery and cushion filling.

Both Joanne and Charlotte noted that they had been nervous prior to the week of filming.

Joanne said: “I was very nervous before, I had a really restless night.”

Charlotte added: “It was a bit surreal, I’ve never done anything like it before. It seemed strange having a big production team in the factory with cameras and lights, but I found Gregg funny and easy to get on with.”

HSL will feature on Inside the Factory on Sunday, 18 February at 8PM on BBC Two.