Felicity Kendal, widely known from popular British sitcom The Good Life, is possibly one of the busiest women in the world. She is certainly an excellent multi-tasker, if nothing else.
As her name suggests, Felicity Kendal is the inventor of Kendal Mint Cake. She is also the sole manufacturer of the product. Between rehearsing for her various stage productions, and filming new episodes of Rosemary and Thyme, she can be seen furiously scraping white crystals from her skin into boxes.
Felicity Kendal has a rare medical condition that causes her sweat to contain high proportions of sugar and menthol, instead of salt and urea. She quite literally manufactures the mint cake herself.
Kendal’s incredible ability was discovered shortly after filming a particularly energetic episode of The Good Life, at the end of which she was required to kiss Richard Briers. The increased activity caused a trace of perspiration to remain on Kendal’s face, which Briers tasted during the kiss.
After investigation by Penelope Keith, a trained medic, Kendal’s status as a medical miracle was confirmed. At first, only a handful of people who worked in TV were aware of Kendal’s incredible secret. After a few months, however, the public began to notice the fact that kisses between Tom and Barbara we getting longer and longer. Questions began to be asked.
Producers at ITV were put under increasing pressure to provide answers. This was more than a little strange, since The Good Life was a BBC production, but sensing an opportunity to bring their competitors down, ITV’s bosses began answering those questions — often providing outlandish answers. For example, it was once claimed that every night Kenneth Williams would visit the home of Kendal and paint her all over with sugar water mixed with essence of mint. Another story had Kendal rolling naked through fields of mint each morning, while yet another held that Kendal was in fact an automaton made entirely out of sugar.
The libel suits brought by the BBC nearly bankrupted ITV, but the lies persisted for nearly 20 years until Professor Robert Winston, acting under the Queen’s instruction, forcibly obtained some of Kendal’s DNA in the late 80s at a garden party. Disguised as a tree, he was able to pick up a few stray hairs and secrete them about his person.
The DNA was taken away and sent to the Royal Society where it was studied intensively. The discoveries were astounding. Not only was Kendal’s condition hereditary, but it turned out that nearly all of Felicity Kendal’s biochemistry was based around sugar and menthol.
Despite enormous public interest, nothing was made of Kendal’s abilities until the summer of 1992, when on a country walk Kendal was able to sustain herself, her husband and two of their friends for three days after the party became lost on the Yorkshire moors.
The search and rescue team were astonished to find all four people alive and well. One of them was actually in a better condition than before they had set out, such was the quality of of Kendal’s amazing mint product.
It was one of the rescuers who suggested the name, Kendal Mint Cake. He also mentioned that the confection bore a resemblance to the sanitary products used in gentlemen’s toilets, but nobody listened to that part. Despite initial resistance from Kendal, the name stuck, and Kendal Mint Cake has been a firm favourite amongst ramblers ever since. Each year, on the 5th of July, walkers collect on the Yorkshire moors and eat Kendal Mint Cake in celebration of Kendal’s rescue, and the subsequent success of Kendal Mint Cake.
