The Repair Shop (2017–…): Season 7, Episode 25 - Episode #7.25 - full transcript
Jay Blades and the team bring three treasured family heirlooms, and the memories they hold, back to life. First at the barn is Andy Crook from Cornwall. His hopes for restoring a very special inheritance rests on musical instrument expert Pete. The rather tarnished tuba belonged to his late father, Frank. Both he and Andy played in various brass bands over the years and shared a real love for performing. Andy discovered the tuba in his mother's loft after decades of believing it was long gone. He dreams of being able to play his beloved dad's instrument. However, the tuba has been rendered mute from damage caused over 30 years ago - a crucial valve is missing, and a leaking joint makes this fix a tricky one for Pete.Horologist Steve skills are really put the test when Kamal from Cheshire arrives with her family's mantel clock. Her Sikh parents came from India just after the second world war and, although it was a struggle for them to settle in Yorkshire, they made a happy life and Kamal is hugely proud of them. The clock was the beating heart of their household. She clearly remembers the sweet chime and she yearns to hear it once again. After years of being stored in the basement of her childhood home and only recently unearthed, the metal encased clock is in a bad way, but Steve rolls up his sleeves and brings it back to life. And silversmith Brenton is intrigued by an Asian curiosity brought in by Tracy Lavery and her daughter Zoe. The bronze pot is in the form of a lion dog with a hinged head and is thought to have been designed for burning incense. It joined Tracey's family when her grandfather brought it back from his worldly travels and has been passed from mother to daughter ever since. It's been used as a money pot mainly and has captivated each family member. However, at the ripe old age of at least one hundred, he is desperate for an over haul - his tail has detached, his hinge is broken and he's cracked in places but fortunately he's in safe hands with Brenton.
where precious but faded
treasures... This is bad.
I don't think I've ever seen a chair
quite so broken as this.
..are restored to their former
glory. That's lovely!
It's just lovely, isn't it?
Furniture restorer Jay Blades...
Bringing history back to life
is what makes The Repair Shop
so special. ..and a dream team
of expert craftspeople... Amazing!
It's a bit like brain surgery.
Go on! ..come together to work
their magic...
Woohoo! When you look at something
that looks so hopeless like this,
it makes me even more determined
to get it back.
That's teamwork. ..employing
heritage craft skills passed
down the generations...
It is a privilege to be able to do
something for somebody that means
so much to them. ..preserving
irreplaceable heirlooms...
To bring those pieces back to life,
it's just the most wonderful thing,
and I'd like to do it forever.
..the team will restore the items...
Wow! ..the memories... I'm so happy
to see it!
..and unlock the stories
that they hold.
That's made it all worthwhile.
In The Repair Shop today...
I don't think I've seen one ever
as bad as this.
..a clock that gives Steve and
Kirsten a hard time.
I can't really paint
something like this and breathe
at the same time.
But a beast from the East
brings good news for Brenton.
This is definitely brass
or bronze, which is just great.
First at the barn is Andy Crook
from Cornwall.
His hopes for restoring
a very special inheritance
rest on musical instrument
expert Pete Woods.
How we doing, you all right?
Fine, thanks.
That is a big tuba, innit?
It's a monster, isn't it?
So, Andy, is that yours?
No, this is my father's tuba,
and I came from a place called
Wigan,
which is a very big brass band area.
When I was a young lad, I always
wanted to play the trombone
and I hassled and hassled my dad
to take me to a band, which he did.
And on practice nights,
he would come and sit
by with his newspaper and watch.
The band conductor looked
across and said to him, "Right,
you need to join in as well."
So he found a tuba
in the cupboard and he started
to learn and we learned together.
Wow! Really? So that's how he
started his career, yeah.
So both of you got in a band
at the same time? Yeah, yeah.
And then we later split
two different bands,
so for many years we competed
against each other. So we were both
practising at home and then we'd go
to the competition,
and it was a good rivalry,
it was great.
The family lived and breathed brass
bands for a number of years.
What's your dad's name, sorry?
Frank Crook. Was it just brass
bands, your dad used to play?
Well, no. My father moved on from
brass bands in the late '70s to
join
a comedy band called Laughing Stock.
He dressed up as a Rear Admiral.
OK. There were a five-piece band -
playing music, but continual
jokes, tricks all the way through.
They were doing the northern
club circuit, working men's clubs,
Labour clubs, constitution clubs,
etc. Yeah, yeah.
Their two claims to fame was they
got called to go to the Crazy Horse
club in Paris. Wow!
They apparently went down a storm,
and then they went
onto a TV variety show.
My father was a very, very quiet man
until he got
onto the stage, and then
he just turned into a performer.
It was amazing, the transformation.
You have to be a good musician
to put the comedy
into the music as well.
And you've actually seen your dad
perform? A number of times,
yeah. I was very proud of him.
Yeah. That's nice, man.
My father passed away in 1998. OK.
The band split up long before that.
Did your father give you this, then?
No, he didn't. I wasn't aware of its
existence until
my mother passed away about a year
and a half ago. I thought all his
instruments and all his equipment
had all gone.
So how did you feel
when you found out?
Oh, it was quite emotional, in fact.
Yeah? The last person
to breathe into that instrument,
to blow a note in there, was my
father.
Yeah. Nobody's done it since.
Yeah. What's actually wrong with it?
Right. Because there's a valve
missing,
you can't actually play it.
It's supposed to be shiny.
Many years in the attic have
oxidised it.
And so if it could be cleaned up...
Yeah. I'm not too concerned
about the dents. That would spoil
the history
if you took them out, yeah.
So your intention is to play this?
Very much so, yeah.
That's what you want to...?
To play that again
would be...so much to me.
OK. We started off together.
I do miss him. To hear it played
again, to hear the sound,
not only for him,
but for the family... Yeah.
..would be fantastic.
Yeah, we've got make that happen
for you. Thank you for bringing it
in. Thank you.
All right, you take care. Bye-bye.
See you soon.
This tuba's so important
because it belonged to my father.
He was not only my father,
he was my friend,
my mentor, he was my rock.
He would be so excited
and so pleased that I'm doing this.
Yeah, I think it would make his day.
Well, he's brought us
in a good old tuba.
Needless to say, it's in a little
bit of a state at the moment.
Obviously, a valve missing.
First thing I'm going to do is take
out the two valves that remain
and check them out, and then I can
see what I've got to do
to make a new one.
That's what the valves look like.
They're a piece of tube,
large pieces of tube.
What they do is they divert air
down the extra pieces of tubing
to lower the note.
Obviously, the longer the bit
of tubing, the lower the note.
So we've just got to make
a replacement.
The other thing we've got to do
is we've got to check it for leaks.
Very suspicious here, I'm getting me
thumbnail underneath.
If we've got an air leak,
it'll throw the tuning out.
We're going to fill it with water,
See how much water gushes
out the joints and see
where the leaks are,
and then I'll know what I've got
to get on with.
Next to arrive is Kamal
from Cheshire.
Hello!
Hello, hi! I'm Steve.
Hi, Steve. I'm Kamal. Come on into
the barn. Thank you.
She's hoping horologist
Steve Fletcher can rejuvenate
a treasure from her childhood.
Right, you've got a clock for me.
I have indeed.
It looks as if it's had a life.
It certainly has.
SHE LAUGHS
So this has been in my family
for over 50 years,
it's older than me.
It belonged to my late father.
My dad died in 2011,
which was a very sudden death
which has devastated all of us,
and my mum
really struggled without him.
I mean, they'd been married
for about 54 years.
Sadly, she passed away in 2017,
and it was something that had come
to me
when we were clearing out the house.
I thought, I wonder
where that clock is?
And I found it in the cellar,
tucked in the corner.
For me, this clock represents quite
a lot of interesting things
about my family and my family
history. OK.
My family were Sikhs, and originally
from Punjab region,
and they were part of a very
pioneering generation of Indians
who were invited to come over to
England to help to contribute
to post-war regeneration. Yeah.
Life was tough for them. I mean,
they were only allowed
to bring £5 in their pocket... Whoa.
..which was set by the Indian
government at the time.
What did your parents do
when they came over here?
My mum worked in tailoring
and my dad was in engineering,
but it took a while to get
established.
They experienced a lot of racism,
discrimination, and I think
it's a lot to be said about them
and who they were, and the strength
and the resilience
that they had to overcome
a lot of that, really, and very much
integrate into, you know,
life in England.
I mean, my dad was very much
a Yorkshireman, really.
He'd spent most of his life
in Yorkshire as much
as anything else.
So that's how he saw himself.
It's very brave to come
to a completely different country
with a different culture. It is.
I look back and I'm incredibly
proud of what they achieved.
To me, the clock represents
something about him and who he was.
Where was the clock
when it was in the house?
It used to be in the front lounge...
Yeah.
..which is where my dad would keep
his, like, really nice, special
things. Yeah. OK. And tell me
about your memories of the clock.
It just had a really lovely,
very soothing chime, really.
But it was always there.
There's a picture of me
standing next to the clock, yeah.
So how come this clock
ended up in the cellar?
I don't know if it's something
that my dad had placed there
because he couldn't get it to work,
but didn't have the heart
to throw it away.
Was it a damp basement?
Erm, It wasn't too bad,
but obviously you can see that...
THEY LAUGH
..there's quite a lot
of rust on it.
I remember this being very golden
and this being very,
sort of, shiny black.
It looks like a real challenge,
but I'm hoping I can do
something for you.
Thank you. All right. Bye-bye, then.
Bye-bye. Bye.
The clock's a lovely reminder
of my late father and
the sacrifices,
I suppose, that he and my mum made.
There's something very comforting
about the chime of the clock.
It feels in some ways the last bit
of a memory that I've got of him
and my childhood, I suppose.
This clock is in appalling
condition.
I don't think I've seen
one ever as bad as this.
It's made of metal.
The paint is all peeling off.
It's rusty.
Here we've got the missing bezel.
I hope this dial's going to clean
up all right, there's loads
and loads of cracks on it.
Maybe it might need some attention.
We're just going to have a look
inside and see
what there is inside.
DULL CHIME AND RATTLING
There's a lot of rattling
around going on.
HE CHUCKLES
The mechanism is all there,
which is good news,
and fortunately, I can't see
anything on here
that's been messed around with,
which is great news.
I will strip it down, give
it a good clean, see if there's
anything that needs to be repaired,
and hopefully, the mechanism
will be the easy part of this job.
I think the case
will be the hardest part.
I need to strip the whole case
down, get it sandblasted
so that I can refinish it,
and it's going to look great
when I've done that.
While Steve's got a plan
for tackling rust, Pete
suspects his challenge is
escaping air.
It's important there's no air leaks,
even little, tiny ones.
It throws the tuning out,
it makes notes difficult
to produce properly.
WATER GUSHES
Every joint's susceptible.
Ah! I can see there's a nice
big leak down there.
It's almost like a water feature.
It's actually in quite an awkward
place.
I've got to find a way of blocking
that hole up so I can start
repairing it properly.
I've got to get them nasty
air leaks sealed.
I'm going to push it in so the holes
close up,
and then I can solder them up.
That's as near as I'm going to get
it, time to solder now.
This tuba brought a father and son
together to make music,
and fixing it is also a family
affair.
Pete's brought along his son,
George, to help.
All right, George, can you give us
a hand polishing this, please?
I've still got to get on with
the valves.
OK. We're leaving all the dents
in the slides as well, please, mate.
Right, OK... OK? I'll get them done
for you. That's great.
No worries. Cheers.
I'm using brass liquid polish.
I'm just strapping it down.
I'm using different thicknesses,
so then I can get in all
the nooks and crannies.
It's good fun working with me
dad. I've worked
with Dad on and off for about 20
years,
since I left school, anyway,
and he was pretty much doing
the same thing when he left school.
It's a bit of following in Dad's
footsteps, but I play the trumpet,
anyway, so I've always
been into the brass instrument.
When Andy came in, there was a valve
missing.
It's a 1920s tuba, you can't
just pick up the phone
and a new one will be delivered
the next day.
So I phoned up my friends,
searched round.
Luckily enough, somebody
a tuba exactly the same.
So they very kindly lent me a third
valve so I can copy it.
So at the moment, I'm just making
a paper template of it.
I'm going to do, like, a brass
rubbing
to find out where the holes are.
And then I can transfer
that onto the new piece of tube.
So that's my stop punch marks.
All I've got to do is drill it.
I've now got to open up these holes
to take that size of tube,
so I'm just going to use a cone
cutter and gradually open them
up to make sure
I get to the right size.
They're looking quite nice,
actually,
now, so I just got another four
more to do. Just hope they all go as
well.
I've now got all the ports
into the tube to make the valve
for the tuba.
So now all I've got to do is
silver-solder them in to make sure
they stay
in there and don't come out again.
We've more or less made the valve
now.
So we're just on the final bit,
which is putting the end cap on.
It's been a fair old job,
making this valve.
It's great when you're in a factory
with all the machinery all set up,
when you have to do one by hand it's
not quite as easy.
So there it is. Now all we've got to
do is fitted to the tuba.
Tracy Lavery and her daughter, Zoe,
have travelled from Devon.
They're relying on Brenton
West's silversmithing skills
to fix a curio that's a traditional
symbol in the Far East, but firmly
rooted in their family.
BOTH: Hi. How are you doing?
I'm fine, thank you.
So what's in the box, Tracy?
In the box is the foo dog.
A foo dog? A foo dog...
..who is affectionately known
in our household as Me Dad.
Me Dad? Me Dad. All right!
When my dad left my mum
years ago, she decided,
cos it wasn't the prettiest
thing she'd ever seen,
she nicknamed it Me Dad
after my dad.
Wow! Is your mum still with us?
No, she died three years ago.
OK. Yeah.
Even though she called it Me Dad,
she was attached to it.
It is a connection to my mum
that makes him so valuable,
and also her cheeky sense of humour
because the fact that she called it
Me Dad, it just reminds you that
that's what my mum was like.
Says a lot about her personality,
doesn't it? Yeah. Right.
Has Me Dad just always been
in the family?
Well, I think I can remember
it on my grandma's mantelpiece.
And then, when my grandma
died, it was left to my mum. OK.
It's always been with my mum.
Wherever she went, he came with her.
He came with her. Yeah.
And what did she use it for?
She would put a note in it,
our shopping list, and some
money for us.
And she would say, "Would you go
to the shops?
"The money and the note's
in your dad."
And then when it came into my
possession, I sort of carried
on the tradition, not so much
with shopping lists,
but more with money for the girls.
And your memories of this, Zoe,
what were they like?
The lunch money would get put
in there, so the first person
down there might have had slightly
more money then than the second.
Yeah. So, yeah, we always had
a little bit of a race in the
morning to see
who could get there first.
BRENTON LAUGHS
Do you know where your gran
got it from?
My grandad was a boilermaker
and went to sea, so he used to bring
back all kinds of things.
Yeah. And we think he must
have brought it back
from Asia, perhaps Japan.
It certainly has the taste
of the Orient about it, doesn't it?
Yeah. What was it originally used
for?
I was told it's an incense burner,
so you'd put the incense
inside and then the smoke
would come out of its mouth.
OK. How did it get broken?
Don't know how it got broken.
It was broken when my mum had it,
and I can remember her trying
to get it fixed. Yeah.
Nobody knew what to do with it.
Did she keep it until she died?
We, about ten years ago, had a house
fire which destroyed
all of our property.
So when everything was getting
rebuilt, this was one of the main
items that my grandma
wanted to hand down to us,
so that we've still got
a bit of family in the home,
cos we'd lost everything,
including all pictures. Everything?
Yeah. That is really important,
cos that's basically the family
connection that you have.
Yeah. Yeah.
What's actually wrong with him?
His head's come off. And then,
his tail,
I haven't got anything to hold
that on with.
So his head comes off. He has got
a couple of little cracks
round the top.
So what would you like Brenton
to do to it?
I'd like its head and its tail back
on, basically.
You don't want it polished up or
anything, do you? No. OK.
No, I want him to look
like he looks. But work.
Yeah. OK. Yeah. And then you can
still use it for the same thing?
Yeah? Yeah, he's going to stay
on the window ledge.
Yeah. And we've got no little people
at the moment, but perhaps one
day we'll have little people.
OK. No pressure. Yeah!
THEY LAUGH
Well, thank you both
for bringing Me Dad in.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
All right? Bye-bye.
Take care now, bye-bye.
The foo dog's the one thing
that I've got left of my mum's.
Towards the end, she had
Alzheimer's, so we lost bits
of her, but...
It's OK, it's all right.
It sums up how cheeky and naughty
she was and that she called
it Me Dad.
And I think this would have meant
an awful lot to her to see Me Dad
in one piece again.
What an amazing thing it is.
It's a lion dog from Asia,
and it is an awesome-looking beast.
But unfortunately, it's had a bit
of a hard time, so I've just got
to decide how I'm going
to repair it. The tail,
we've got a hole
and a plug on there, so I've just
got to re-solder this on.
The worst problem is this great,
big, heavy head has got a hinge and
one
of the hinge bearers has broken
off of the body.
What I think I'll do is
I'll solder this on and put
a new pin through, and hopefully
this will hinge forwards
and backwards nicely.
Before I start any of this work,
I just want to absolutely guarantee
it's not spelter or pewter that's
been coloured brown,
and when I heat it up
it's all going to melt.
So I'm just going to give
it a little, tiny scrape
with a scalpel.
SCRAPING
And that noise indicates it's a hard
metal, and I can actually see there
that this is gold-coloured,
so this is definitely brass
or bronze, which helps me
a great deal.
It means I can use a soft
solder on this.
It gives me lots of leeway
and latitude for heating it,
which is just great.
Steve is feeling equally
positive about the metalwork
of the old mantel clock.
The parts for the case have come
back from the sandblasters.
They made a great job,
they've taken the paintwork
off and the rust off.
I just need to build layers
of primer up on it now and make sure
it's a beautiful, smooth
surface, so that when I paint
it with the final black coat,
it's going to look beautiful.
Steve has enlisted
Kirsten Ramsey's ceramics expertise
for the chipped clock face.
I'm going to use a coloured fill
technique and that mimics
the enamel beautifully.
This is a lemon yellow.
I've got a slightly warmer yellow
here which I'm going to add in.
I think that's all right, I think
I'm good to go with that.
I'm just going to put some metal
leaf on the ornaments of the case
to try and get a good
finish on them.
This isn't gold leaf,
it's an aluminium leaf.
And I just find it easier to use.
This is very, very satisfying to do.
That looks really good,
I'm very happy with that.
I'll just get onto all the other
bits now.
I find painting dials actually
incredibly difficult.
Can't really paint something
like this and breathe
at the same time.
I'm using an Indian ink for this.
It has the intensity, the blackness
that I need for the numerals.
When the line goes right,
it's very satisfying.
Now that I've cleaned all the parts
of the clock, I can see much
more clearly the wear
that's taken place,
and it's wear in the pivot holes.
So the pivots are the actual axles,
of the wheels of the clock.
And because they're turning so many
times, the holes, they actually
start to elongate.
I'm just going to work on this hole
now, which is worn
over in this direction,
and I need to bring
it back to centre. So I'm going to
file on the other side of the hole,
just to centre it all up.
There. So I've centred that all up
now.
And this should just fit
in snugly now.
Beautiful.
I'm just going to pop the other
plate on top to make sure
that the wheel spins nicely.
There we are.
So I just need to go through and do
all of the other pivot holes now,
and then it'll all be ready to get
back together
and hopefully work perfectly.
Pete's restoration
of the tuba is nearly complete,
not least thanks to his son.
George has done a great job on this.
It's a lot of work, polishing
the silver.
Now all I've got to do is start
assembling it.
So I've just got to grease up
the slides and away we go.
So now I've got to put valves in.
Just going to put some valve oil
on which lubricates the valve
going up in there.
And now for the special valve,
the one that I had to make.
I think Andy's going to like this.
The tuba arrived at the barn
silenced by damage. It had last
been played by Andy's late father
over 30 years ago and was a poignant
reminder of the close relationship
between father and son.
Now Andy's returned.
I'm in trepidation,
a bit of nerves, but really excited.
I just can't wait to see it.
I've been thinking quite a lot
of Dad and listening to his music
and really reminiscing about
the good times that we had.
I'm hoping that I might get
a little bit my dad back.
Andy, hi. Good afternoon.
How's it going? You OK?
Great, thank you.
Hello, Pete. Hello, Andy. Nice to
see you again. How are you feeling?
A little bit nervous, but really
excited to see if you've been able
to do anything for me.
You're looking forward to seeing it?
Yeah, very much so.
Go on, Pete.
HE CHUCKLES
Wow, that's incredible!
It's amazing, and it's
got some of the dents in that
I remember him actually doing.
We've left you all the dents
for the memories in there.
That's fantastic.
My father didn't want a pristine
tuba because it was all part of his
act.
Yeah. And that's what it is.
I'm amazed. It's a miracle.
Well, it's now got all the valves
in there, I managed to make one.
That is incredible.
It was a pleasure to do.
Oh, brilliant.
Do you fancy giving it a go?
Yeah. So I've actually listened to
Dad playing and I've written
the music out.
I've not had an instrument to try
it on, so fingers crossed,
I've written it right.
HE PLAYS A MELODY
Times 11.
HE LAUGHS
If you haven't had anything
to practise on,
that's marvellous, mate.
Well done. It feels so good to be...
..doing that. I bet. Yeah.
It feels very, very good.
I hope you'll carry on using it.
I most definitely will, yeah.
Make your own dents in it now. Yeah.
And every time I do,
I'll be thinking to Dad.
It evokes so many memories
and so many emotions.
I can feel his presence
just by holding it.
Yeah. Yeah, it just brings
a little bit
of my father back to me.
Thank you. I'll be forever grateful.
Brilliant. Andy, it's been an
absolute pleasure meeting you.
Thank you so much for bringing
this in. Thank you so much.
Lovely. Thank you. It's been good
doing it. Thank you, Andy. OK.
I am absolutely elated.
The tuba brings back all
the memories, all the good times.
He was a very good father.
We had so much fun, and the tuba
itself, just to look at it,
brings back the fun we had
and the laughs we had.
It's just so good to have it back.
Brenton has been pondering
the positioning of the foo dog's
broken-off tail.
I'm wondering whether it goes
down or up, and I feel
that it probably goes down.
I'm just going to use some
soft solder.
Hopefully, this will stay in place.
The solder is like a plumber's
solder.
It will join the two bits together.
Right, just let that cool down,
and then I can start
to look at the cracks.
One of the hinge bearers has broken
off of the body, and that enables
it to hinge up and down and not
fall off.
I've got a pair of spring tweezers
and they are permanently closed
by the spring, and then if
you squeeze them, they open.
It'll hold on to something,
and that won't fall out.
And I'm now going to solder
this back on.
I know this is really important
to the family to get this functional
again because it is the only
thing that they've got left
from that period and it does
evoke memories for them,
so I want it to be as nice
as possible.
That's soldered really well.
So now I've got a little bit of
colouring to do
where the bronze has become
slightly clean, and the solder
marks,
just so it's all the same colour
again.
What I'm using is a patinating
fluid.
it reacts with the bronze
and with the solder
and makes them go dark, and a very,
very quick reaction.
And what it does is it matches
the original patination.
The repairs now look like they're
100 years old.
Having revitalised the metalwork
and mechanism of the mantel clock,
Steve is ready to reinstate
its crowning glory.
Kirsten has made an amazing
job of the dial.
I mean, it's just fantastic.
And I've sourced this bezel
here that fits onto the dial
assembly really, really well,
so it's all coming together.
This really is a transformation.
Most clocks, when I restore them,
I'm very careful not to do too much
to them, but this was in such poor
condition that I didn't
have a choice.
Right, now just time to put
the pendulum on, make sure
it's all ticking away nicely.
Just pop it onto the mechanism
there.
TICKING
HE CHUCKLES
That sounds really sweet.
Fantastic.
The clock was rusty and hadn't
worked for years, but for Kamal,
it was a powerful link to her late
father and childhood memories
of its chime.
The clock's really important
to me because it's symbolic
of my family history, my father.
Seeing this beautiful clock restored
would be just something that I think
he would just be delighted
to have witnessed, I suppose.
Hello. Hello! Hello! How are you
doing? I'm good, thank you, yes.
Good. How are you feeling?
I'm excited,
I'm nervous, a little bit,
you know...
So what are you hoping for?
I'm hoping to see the clock
in its former glory. OK.
And I'd love to hear it chime again.
Want to see it?
Oh, gosh! Go on, then!
SHE LAUGHS
Yeah? You ready? I think so, yeah.
OK, Steve.
SHE GASPS
Oh, my gosh!
That's actually
better than I remember it.
SHE SIGHS
It's lovely. Thank you.
Just one more thing, I'll just...
CLOCK CHIMES
Oh!
LAUGHING: That's amazing!
I just never thought it
would ever, ever work again.
It's just amazing!
I'm actually shaking. Oh!
I feel so sort of overcome.
I feel like I'm about nine or ten,
hearing it in the living room.
Yeah. Wow! And my dad's just around,
listening to some music,
and we're kind of in and out
as children.
It just takes me right back there,
it's just beautiful.
It feels like that is just symbolic
of who he was, I think.
Yeah. I just can't wait to get it
home! I'll bet.
HE CHUCKLES
Honestly! We can get Steve to wrap
it up and bring it out to you.
I really do appreciate it,
thank you.
You're more than welcome. It's been
such an enjoyable job to do for you.
Oh, thank you all. All right?
Thank you. You take care now.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye now. Bye-bye.
When I look at the clock now,
I obviously think about my dad.
It feels like that real
big connection to him,
and I miss him every day,
so, yeah, it's a beautiful,
beautiful symbol.
With repairs to the body of the foo
dog finished, Brenton's final task
is ensuring the lid will be attached
securely.
I'm just making the pin,
which will hold the head in place,
and the pin is very slightly
tapered,
so when it goes in there,
it locks into place.
So I've just marked on my pin
the length there needs
to be of this saw,
and I'm just going to saw the end
off...
..so when I put the pin back in,
it'll be exactly the right length.
So now I'm going to put the pin in.
I don't want to damage this quite
frail thing, so I'm just
going to press that home.
So that's the pin in now,
let's just see if this works.
There we go.
So that's looking fantastic.
And Tracy can come and pick
this up now, and put pocket money
and lists and whatever they like
in it for the next 100 years.
The foo dog has been part of family
life for four generations,
but broken for many decades.
Tracy and her daughter, Zoe,
have returned, hoping he will bring
many more years of service.
The foo dog is basically
my connection with my mum
and my mum's family.
I'm just really excited
to see what he'll look
like being whole again.
There they are. Hello. Hello! Hello.
Hi! How are you doing? You all
right? Good!
I'm fine, thank you. Hello, there.
Welcome back, both of you.
You excited to see your foo dog?
Yeah. Really excited.
Yeah? Can't wait to see him.
We need him back now, please.
You need him back? Yes, please.
Go on, Brenton.
Oh! Oh, he just looks like he
always did. Oh, he's just lovely!
Oh, Mum! Yeah.
That's just what I wanted. Yeah?
I didn't want him to be polished
and looking like new, I wanted him
to look like that.
That's what I remember.
Look at all the cracks!
Yeah, you've never seen him
when he's done that before,
have you? No.
He HAS had some of his dust
taken off, hasn't he?
THEY LAUGH
Does he want it back?
No, I don't want it back.
It makes me happy that his pieces
aren't going to get
lost and he's going to stay
like that.
Sorry, I wasn't going to cry.
SHE LAUGHS
He's been broken for such
a long time,
and my mum would have loved
to have seen him back in one piece.
Yeah? Being able to open it properly
takes me back to getting
it off the mantelpiece and getting
the money and the note out.
It does take me back. So it's been
passed from your grandmother
to your mum, and now you've
got it... Yeah. ..then, who's it
going to, after?
One of the girls, whoever wants
it, basically. OK.
We'll let them fight it out.
Shared custody, maybe?
Shared custody will be good?
Who's more likely to keep it whole?
You, probably. Correct.
THEY LAUGH
OK! So we know where it's going now.
THEY LAUGH
Well, he's yours to take home now.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Bye! You take care now.
Thank you. Bye! Bye! Bye-bye.
Beaming smiles, that's what
I like to see.
Same here, same here, and hat's
because of you.
Thank you. Well done, sir.
I've never seen the foo dog whole
in one piece, so to have it now
as a whole ornament, and know
that it's going to stay
like that is really nice,
and it's going to be something
that is now passed down through our
family forever more, hopefully.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
It's my mum's history,
my grandma's history,
but it is my history as well,
and just good to have a little bit
of history left and in one piece.
I just feel like I've got
one of the last pieces
of my mum back again.
Join us again...
That fits in there like a glove,
I'm happy with that.
..as our experts
weave their magic...
That's astounding. I don't
understand how you've done that.
THEY LAUGH
..in The Repair Shop.