In the Marmite Gene Project Film we see a series of families across the UK excitedly reading their Marmite Gene Test Results over breakfast. The Marmite Gene Test determines whether you are born a Marmite lover or a hater. As you’d expect from such a polarising product, the people’s reactions to their gene test results are rather extreme.

Marmite is the savoury spread with the really strong flavour. We’ve always known that Britons either love or hate it, but we’ve never really understood why. Which got us thinking, could people’s Marmite taste preference be in their DNA? So we used recent advances in medical science to set up the Marmite Gene Project. Working in collaboration with a leading DNA technology company, we made an incredible discovery: Marmite taste preference is genetic. We then created a Marmite Gene Test kit so people could test themselves at home. The kit is available for purchase on the Marmite website.

The UK has a great acting tradition, but the talent pool for great comic talent remains relatively small. This was a significant challenge given our script required not just a handful of incredible comic performances, but 12 of them. Fortunately our director has many years’ experience as a leading British comedy and features director. The director ran a series of casting workshops where the actors were invited to engage emotionally with their role, stop “playing a part” and instead react honestly as the character. Key to this was the actors being given the freedom to interpret the script in their own way, using words and gestures which felt most natural to them. The end result was a series of thoroughly convincing comedic performances, from a cross-section of UK families, with actors ranged in age from seven to seventy. Proof of the old adage that “preparation prevents piss poor performance”.