the most important item in any British home
…because the whole tea-making process must be completed within the 3 minute TV ad breaks
So many people (millions) turn on their kettles at the exact same time that the UK has had to build special power stations underneath mountains that go from zero to max output in seconds in order to cope with the load
and highly-qualified engineers carefully scrutinise the TV guides so they can flip the switches seconds before the ad break starts and prevent the entire electricity distribution system from exploding
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup#:~:text=TV pickups occur during breaks,demand on the electrical grid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station