Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory (2008)
Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory is a United Kingdom television documentary series broadcast on Channel 4 in March 2008. Filmed in "fly-on-the-wall" style, it shows the efforts of Willie Harcourt-Cooze to establish a brand of 100% cacao chocolate in the UK. The series centres around "Willie" Harcourt-Cooze, assisted by his wife Tania Harcourt-Cooze née Coleridge, who aims to grow high quality cacao beans on his farm in Venezuela, and then process them in the UK into luxury chocolate products. A follow-up series, Willie's Chocolate Revolution: Raising the Bar, aired on Channel 4 over three consecutive nights, 7–9 April 2009. This followed Willie's attempt to introduce a high-cacao chocolate bar, "Delectable", in the British market.
Seasons & Episode
Willie Harcourt-Cooze has a mission to grow and produce his own chocolate from bean to bar. It's harvest time and Willie takes his family to Venezuela to oversee their first major harvest. But is the crop good enough to get their chocolate business off the ground? But after more than a decade spent working on the farm and developing his chocolate cooking ideas, Willie is yet to make any money from his dream. He's up to his neck in debt and his family are starting to feel the pressure of Willie's chocolate obsession. The pressure is on to crack the UK chocolate market with this year's harvest. We follow Willie's journey as he chases his fantasy, from bean to bar.
After celebrating a bumper cacao harvest in Venezuela, it's time for Willie and his family to come back to the UK and the challenge of starting a profitable chocolate company in a competitive market.
Willie's all set to go into production on his dream chocolate but how will the British public react to the 100 per cent cacao taste? With mounting debts, machinery woes and no orders it's time to pull out all the stops.
The orders for Willie's 100 per cent cacao bar have started to arrive but they're not coming thick and fast. Can Willie push his product from the niche market to a mainstream ingredient? The pressure is on for the final push.