In Make Me A German, a BBC programme broadcast next week, the Rowlatt family discovers – as we did – that life in Germany might look similar from the outside, but is very different on the inside. The premise of the programme is that Justin Rowlatt, a journalist, and his wife Bee take up the lives of an ordinary German family to experience their robust economy, superior quality of living and legendary efficiency. Justin works in a pencil factory, one of the small enterprises that employ a majority of German workers, while Bee stays at home to look after the children. Justin is impressed by his German colleagues’ dedication, while Bee is delighted by a German “forest kindergarten” where children climb trees and toddle around dragging branches – although she is dismayed by the four-hour daily quota of housework she is expected to fulfil.