“It came from a plot worthy of a Dan Brown thriller, driven by intolerance to become a world favourite – Everyone loves a Bagel.”

Just Green-Lit by Paul Stewart Media and Moving Features Ltd. “More Than A Roll With A Hole” is a documentary which tracks the history of the western world’s favourite roll.  We explore the dark period of religious persecution in 13th century Poland, when the church banned Jews for making, eating or even touching bread, as they considered it holy food that Jews were “unworthy to touch”.  With the enlightenment of one Polish prince, this ban was ended but the church fought back, so the Jews were forced to develop a different type of bread, one which was boiled first before being baked.  The result was delicious and thus the bagel was born.

We will look at the “Bagel Diaspora” and how the bagel spread across Europe to the UK, the Americas and the rest of the world and how it’s changed subtly on the way.   Bagels are ubiquitous appearing in cafes from Bangor to Bangkok. We track the exodus. We will look at the history of the bagel and the people who make them.