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In the late 1960s and early ’70s, the serendipitously named Haddon Salt was well on his way to becoming the Colonel Sanders of fish and chips. Instead, as this short documentary recalls, his once-thriving restaurant chain H Salt Esq became the fast-food empire that never quite was. With jaunty direction from the Canadian filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, The King of Fish and Chips features the charismatic Salt explaining how the American Dream came calling after the Second World War, whereupon Salt moved from Skegness in England to Sausalito, California. There, he sold the deep-fried delicacy alongside the ‘romance of England’ to enthusiastic American patrons. However, his company’s growth was curtailed after he decided to let Kentucky Fried Chicken buy his ascendent business and the product suffered. Charmingly told, Proudfoot’s exploration of what could have been is also a light parable on the importance of ‘doing things right’, the pitfalls of cutting corners, the perils of relinquishing your name, and the necessity of moving on.
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Wellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
11 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
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Politics and government
How it looked to Afghan women to see the Taliban return to power
33 minutes
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Love and friendship
Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment
11 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes
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The ancient world
The six priestesses who kept the flame of ancient Rome alight at risk of death
5 minutes
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Engineering
A close-up look at electronic paper reveals its exquisite patterns – and limitations
9 minutes