British pubs, pub culture, the perfect pint and one Essex barmaid’s extraordinary 53-year career come together in this episode of Mark and Pete. Sally Ward began pulling pints on her eighteenth birthday and, more than half a century later, has finally called time. Fifty-three years behind the bar. That is rather more stability than British politics has managed, and with noticeably better customer service.

We look at Sally’s remarkable working life and what it tells us about the role of the traditional British pub. A good pub is not merely somewhere that sells beer. It is a meeting place, a refuge, a community noticeboard, an unofficial counselling room, and occasionally the only place where somebody notices that an elderly regular has not appeared for three days.

But what actually makes the perfect pint?

Mark and Pete examine beer temperature, clean glasses, properly maintained beer lines, the correct head, cellar conditions, and the long-running north-south disagreement over whether foam is part of the pint or an elaborate means of charging for air. Cask ale should generally be served cool rather than freezing cold, with clean lines and a glass free from grease, detergent and the lipstick of a previous customer. Standards, in other words. A dangerous concept, but worth trying.

We also discuss the decline of the British pub. Nearly one in five UK pubs has disappeared since 2010, while more than one in four has closed since the year 2000. Rising costs, changing drinking habits, business rates, taxation and the loss of younger customers have all played a part. When a pub closes, however, the community often loses far more than a bar.

This episode explores pub closures, village pubs, real ale, beer quality, hospitality, loneliness, local communities and the value of places where strangers gradually become neighbours. We also correct the famous Benjamin Franklin quotation. He probably did not say that beer proves God loves us and wants us to be happy. He was talking about wine. Still, the sentence has been hanging in pubs for years now, and nobody wants to cause a scene.

The perfect pint matters. But the perfect pub matters more: well kept, warmly run, open to newcomers, and staffed by somebody who remembers your name, your usual order and, ideally, when you have already had enough.