The Repair Shop (2017–…): Season 7, Episode 38 - Episode #7.38 - full transcript

Welcome to The Repair Shop, where
precious but faded treasures...

This is bad.

I don't think I've ever seen a chair
quite so broken as this.

..are returned to their
former glory.

That is lovely.
Isn't 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...

Yahoo!

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
is just the most wonderful thing,

and I'd like to do it forever.

The team will restore the items...

Whoa!



..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'm just going to very gently tap
this on the outside

to try and get rid of any dents.

..Brenton and Steve focus on a
faulty piece of photographer's kit.

Someone's obviously had a go
at getting this working

and it would have done more harm
than good.

He's such a sweet owl,

I don't want to risk causing any
unnecessary damage.

And an ink-stained bird ruffles
Will's feathers.

I can see this is going
to be a mammoth task.

But first to arrive at the barn
is Matthew Bowland, from Leeds.

He's hoping organ restorer
David Burville can breathe new life

into an old friend.

Hello, there! Hello.
How are you doing?

Hi there. Very well, thank you.
Nice to meet you both.

What have we got in the box?

So, what we've got here is
a wooden, carved whistling man.

A whistling man?

So, if I show you the back, it's got
some musical workings inside.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

But he hasn't whistled for probably
more than 20 years, maybe 25 years.

He's never worked since
I've had him. No.

And how long have you had him?

I inherited this from
my grandparents.

They died about 17 years ago,
so this is the only thing I've got

from their house
after they passed away.

So, it means a lot to me.
And what were their names?

Well, the grandkids, we call them
Nana and Gana,

but their real names were
Roy and Valerie.

Every time we used to go
around to my grandparents' house,

one of the first things I used to do
was ask my Gana to wind him up.

When we used to go into their living
room and my Gana had a certain seat,

and it was behind him, on there,
all the time.

So, you'd run up, jump on him,
ask him to wind him up.

I wasn't allowed to touch him,
that's one thing when I was little,

because he was quite delicate.
Yeah, yeah.

Gana had to wind him up,
I was not allowed.

And what was it like, going
to the house? What were they like?

They were really, really nice, fun
friendly, sorely missed people.

And this reminds me of my
Gana and Nana.

Do you know where they got
this from?

I had no idea where it came from.

Then recently, I've been talking
to my dad, and he remembers playing

with it when he was a child as well.
No way.

So, what memories did your dad
have of him?

They're similar to me, he wasn't
allowed to touch him either.

I really love the style of the
carving on him.

It's that Black Forest, sort
of Austrian/Swiss-type feel to him.

Although he looks like a sort
of Charlie Chaplin-type character,

with the bowler hat and that sort
of thing.

He's a good looking bloke, I think.

And what's actually wrong with him?
He doesn't whistle.

The inside of the workings, they
look and they smell old. Yeah, yeah.

There used to be some sort
of key to wind him up.

I've never had the key
since it's been passed down to me.

Every time I go to
a little antique show,

I always look at all the little
spare keys they have,

but I've never found one to fit,
unfortunately. That's a shame.

I just think it's about time that we
hear his tune again. Yeah.

Do you remember the tune he plays?

I don't actually remember the tune
itself, but when it is playing,

all the memories will come

flooding straight back to me.
Yeah. That's it.

Hopefully, he will still whistle.

Yeah. Need to wet his lips
a little bit.

He just wants a drink of water!

Well, Matt, thank
you for bringing this in.

I'm sure we're going to be able
to sort something out with that key.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Thank you very much.

Cheers, thank you. All right, you
take care, Matt. All the best.

I can't even put into words
how happy I am that

I might be able to hear him whistle
again, even though I can't even

remember his tune,
it's been that long.

So, to hear him working again
will be just amazing.

I must admit, I think he's great.

He's such a little character.

And this is a really simple
little mechanism.

This is the main drive spring,

and it's wound up here where, the
key would actually go onto.

And then these are the little
bellows and they provide

all of the air for that
little, tiny whistle.

The miniaturisation in this is
phenomenal, really.

This little air governor,
which actually maintains the speed,

that seems to be stuck.

I'm not quite sure yet why that is
jamming, but hopefully,

once I've cleaned it,
it'll become apparent.

But the first thing I've got to do
is to remove the bellows,

and then I can put this brass unit
into my ultrasonic bath

and give it a really good soak
and a clean.

And I'm just going to leave that
and then that will start

to really clean the muck
off that thing.

Next, Gillian Hoy, from Kent,
with a memento from her childhood,

which requires Steve Fletcher's
clockwork skills

and the metal know-how of
Brenton West, who also happens

to be a vintage photography expert.

Hello. Hello. Hello there.

What have you brought us?

I have bought you a darkroom timer.

Oh, right. It was my dad's.

He passed away last year and I found
it sitting on the shelf

in the cellar.
He was a keen photographer,

always had been,
from the 1950s, 1960s.

That was his absolute passion,
photography.

And it was my job,
growing up, to watch the timer

when he was developing the pictures.
Oh, right.

So, he would say to me,
watch the clock.

But what he was really saying was,
keep your fingers away from what

I'm doing, because I was probably
about a seven or eight-year-old

child, but I always had to tell him
when it was nearly time to go off,

cos it's really loud.

You know when your time's up.

So, you were his little helper,
then? Definitely, yeah!

Did you go out and about with him
and take photographs as well?

As a family, we went out on
day trips and things like that,

but we'd lose him sometimes and he'd
to be off somewhere, like,

"I've just got to catch this light,"
or, "Look at this, it's amazing."

And he would always see things
that we wouldn't see, you know,

he had a really good eye for it.

It was almost like looking
at a master craftsman

doing their work.

I look back at him now and I think,
wow, what a clever man,

because he was completely
self-taught.

So, this timer is obviously quite
a memorable part of your childhood

with your dad.
It is really important.

I mean, it's not a pretty thing
at all,

but it just reminds me of him.

He wasn't just Dad,
he was a really good friend,

you could tell him anything.

He absolutely adored family
and he was always there for advice

and a really, really good,
hands-on grandad.

So, he was great, really.

And did you pick
up the photography bug?

I haven't, but my daughter
Deanna has.

She's just about to finish
her master's degree in photography.

Wow. So, we're hoping to convert our
loft into a darkroom

for my daughter, and I just would
love her to have Dad's timer.

Him and Deanna
had a real, special bond.

They were very, very close
and it was good, really,

that he's kind of passed
that bug onto her.

So, this is quite
important to Deanna. Yeah.

And I think, as well, for me,
it's a part of my childhood

that I'm passing on to my children.

And when was the timer used last?

It was probably about 41 years ago.

Oh, gosh!

OK.

It's just very rusted.

It's got a bit of damage to the
front and it's dented, bless it.

It does work but the time, it does
slip a little bit.

It certainly won't be fit
for purpose

if it's not doing an accurate time.

Why, is that important?
It's very important.

I mean, it's to the second,
because the chemicals have got

certain times, when they act
on the film or the paper,

and if they're not exactly accurate,

they can be over or underdeveloped.
Ah, right.

It was really, really good fun
and I miss it terribly.

That's why I'm hoping that,
when Deanna gets up and going.

that I might be able to sneak in
a little bit

and watch the timer.

Well, I really, really hope that we
can get it working correctly,

to the second. To the second, yes.
To the second.

Because if we don't, I'm in trouble.
You are.

We'll do our best for you.
Thank you. OK. Bye-bye, now. Bye.

The dark room timer was a massive
part of my childhood.

It's time spent with my dad
when I was growing up,

and it has really special memories.

I just want to remember him
how he was.

So, what you do is you can set
the time in the light,

and then because the levers
are sticking out, you can feel them

in the dark, or in the red light,
and then you pull the lever down

and you know what time
you're getting.

It will give you an alarm when that
predetermined time is elapsed.

Hence the big levers,
that makes sense. Yep.

OK, well, I'll take the mechanism
out, give you the case

and you work your magic. OK.

The mechanism, I can see straight
away, is just full of oil and dirt.

Someone's obviously had a go
at getting this working

by pouring some oil in there, but
they've put oil in the wrong place

and it would have done more
harm than good.

These timers, they're now mostly
electronic, but it's so nice

to have a mechanical one.

I'm going to strip the mechanism
down completely, give

it a really good clean,
I can then see if there's anywhere

that I need to repair and correct.

I'll get the case over to Brenton
so that he can get the dents out

and refinish it,
make it look really nice.

I do need to try and find
a new glass here.

And once I've done all that,
it's going to look really good.

It's going to sound great as well.

Nice, loud tick to it.

In the outdoor workshop, David's
quest to restore the whistling man's

forgotten tune has led to
a worrying discovery -

why the all-important
mechanism is stuck.

Unfortunately, the cleaning process
has brought to attention

a rather drastic problem.

Here is the little air governor.

So, this spins round and this
gets its power and drive

from a little cog here.

And that works onto a
tiny little screw thread.

Now, what's happened is, this screw
thread has actually broken.

So, what I've got to try and do is
work out how

I'm going to get that back
onto there.

So, I'm going to get this out
and then I'll have a look and see

the best way to do it.

Now I've got the fan governor out,

I can now see where this little
broken thread

is actually supposed to attach.

And by the looks of things, it looks
like a relatively clean break,

but there's not a lot of metal there
to actually hold it on.

That's going to be really tricky.

I think the best way that I can do
this is to use my

very, very small lathe and hopefully
line them up perfectly so that I can

then just apply a tiny, tiny amount
of silver solder.

So, I think this must be one of,
if not the smallest thing

that I've ever actually
had to repair.

If it's out of line
by even the tiniest amount,

it's not going to spin.

So, I've really got to be precise
with this.

All right,
let's see if that's worked.

Well, it's actually stayed there,
so that's one good thing!

I'm really pleased,
that looks absolutely in line.

First time I've ever done
anything like that,

so I'm really, really,
really shocked and surprised

at the same time.

Put that back in and hopefully,
that's going to work nicely.

The bellows in the little
whistling man are actually done

with a type of leather,

and this is very, very strong,

but like all natural products,
it deteriorates over time.

And he really needs the bellows
re-leathering.

I've made my little patterns
from the original bellows,

and they're now
glued onto the leather.

And so, that's now ready
to be glued actually

onto the bellows themselves.

This is really going to give
him his lungs back.

This is going to give him
his whistle.

So, they're looking really good.

I just need to leave
those to dry now.

I've got to make the key.

I've got a piece of brass rod here.

What I need to do now is to drill
a hole in the centre

so that I can then file
that out with a square file.

Great. So, that fits really nicely.

The next step is to actually make
the little handle part.

So, I'm going to use a little design
that I've just drawn

on a piece of paper and cut that
out of a piece of brass.

And hopefully, that should work.

As David strives to unlock the magic
of one childhood keepsake,

another is just arriving.

It belongs to Phin Hall,
from Hampshire.

He hopes Will Kirk's woodwork skills
will see its charm restored.

Hello, there. Hello.

What's in the bag?

This is a little wooden inkwell.

Very sweet.

So, where did the owl come from?

So, it belonged to a writer
and actor called Seymour Hicks,

and my grandad was a builder and was
doing some work on his house.

I guess Seymour Hicks must have
noticed that my grandad took a bit

of a shine to this, and at the end
of the job, he gave it to him.

So, this was in your
grandfather's possession.

And when did you first see
the owl yourself?

So, my first memory of the owl
was on his writing desk,

so probably when I was maybe
eight or nine.

I used to take him little stories
that I had written for him to read.

And my suspicion is that because
he thought I was into writing

and used to stand and look at
the owl, that he thought

it would be a nice gift
to give to me.

Did it inspire you to do
any writing? Quite possibly.

I've written 12 books and I'm
hoping more will be.

12 books, that's pretty impressive.

So, were you quite close
to Grandad Stanley?

He was quite a quiet chap,
very few words,

you might get a, "Well done, boy."

And that would be it for the day.
Yeah.

A man of deeds rather than words.

Now, I'm sure the ink
should be inside the inkwell

rather than running down the back.

There's a lot of ink there,
when did that happen?

When I was about 11, I was given my
first fountain pen

and I thought it'd be a great idea
to put the ink in the inkwell,

since that's what it's made for.

So, I carefully poured it in
and then knocked it over.

I was putting tissue on it, trying
to see if I could get it out.

After about maybe a week or two
of it sitting there looking at me

accusingly, I hid it in the loft
so that nobody else would know.

How long it was in the loft for?

Almost 30 years. 30 years?

And I only got him out again
when my parents moved

and I got a box full of my
old stuff in it and there he was.

It's just a bit sad that I've ruined
something that was a gift from...

It's the only thing I've got
from my grandad.

What exactly would you like me
to do with the owl?

Well, underneath his little
wobbly head here,

there's no way to stop that ink
just falling out again.

I mean, obviously, it's got
this ink stain all over it and

it'd be nice to have it back
to bare wood.

And these bits are missing.

Whatever you can do to get him back
to how I remember him

when I first got him from my grandad
would be amazing.

I've got a third book in this
series of children's books

I've got to finish off and it would
be nice to have it out where

I do my writing and that sort
of stuff and for him to sit there

and maybe look at me
slightly less angrily.

That'll help me to get through
to the end and get it finished.

Well, he's one of the sweetest
things we've had in the Barn

and he'll probably feel
quite at home in the Barn as well.

I don't know how hard it might be
to remove those stains,

but I like a challenge. Excellent.
So I'd love to give it a go.

Thank you. Thanks. Cheers, bye-bye.
Bye.

When I knocked the inkwell
over and it got covered in ink,
I felt terrible.

It's something I was entrusted
with by my grandfather.

It was obviously something that
he'd treasured and I'd ruined it,
effectively.

Even with the ink stains,
I want to keep it,

but without the ink stains,
that would be just wonderful.

Now, I really like this inkwell,

it's the first owl inkwell I've ever
seen, and he's looking quite sad.

There are a couple of things
that need to be sorted out.

First of all, I need to remove
all that nasty ink stain.

I'm really worried about this.

I have removed ink from wood
in the past, but not as bad as this.

Second of all, we've got

the damage to the
wood on the front of the book.

That needs to be patched in.

And finally, I need to somehow plug
that inkwell on the inside, so if

he did fall over in the future, we
won't have any bad spills like this.

There are ways of removing ink.

You can use bicarbonate of soda,
you can use bleach.

Bleach is quite abrasive.
He's such a sweet owl,

I don't want to risk causing
any unnecessary damage,

so I'm going to use a cotton bud,
with some slightly warm water,

a little bit of bicarbonate of soda.
Right...

I'm just going to work that into the
surface on the back of the neck

and see if that starts
to loosen up that ink.

Look at that!

So much has come off,
which is great.

But it's such a deep colour

and I'm concerned that has gone
really deep into the wood.

And I've not even
started on the insides.

I can see this is going to be
a mammoth task.

There's light at the end
of the tunnel.

I can actually see the colour
of the wood coming through,

where I've been rubbing there,
which is a great sign.

There's still loads of ink here,
but so far, on the outside,

I'm really pleased. That bicarbonate
of soda trick is really working.

Persistence will pay off.

Also in need of a spruce up is
the dark room timer that's

lost its tick, which Steve has
dismantled as much as possible.

The rest of the pieces
that are left on this plate

here are actually riveted in place,
so I don't want to disturb that.

There's no need. As long as I can
clean all the bearings,

because they're not worn at all.

I'm going to put all of this
in the clock cleaning fluid now,

give it a good scrub up.

And I can get it all back
together again.

Steve has given me
the case for the dark room timer

and I've got to knock this dent out
and I'm going to do

it from the inside
and then smooth it from the outside.

So these are doming punches and I'm
just going to use one of these,

just to knock this out a bit more.

I now need to dress that on a stake,

which I'm going to
make from a piece of steel.

So I need this shape to be in this
piece of steel to almost be

a mould for it. So I need to grind
this piece of steel in the vice.

Just trying it on there, see
if it fits. Yeah, it doesn't quite.

So, take a bit more off.

Right, let's give that a go.

So I've got a very smooth hammer
here and I'm just going to

very gently tap this on the outside
to try and get rid of any dents.

So that's knocked the dent out
and it didn't take much effort,

but if I hadn't made the correct
tool, it would

have been impossible to make
this look nice.

And it's made a lovely job of it.

I've now got to remove the paint
and the rust

and prepare it for repainting.

I've cleaned all
the parts of this clock up,

so hopefully, once
I get it all back together again,

it should tick beautifully
and it should keep really good time.

Right.

Now I've just got to pop the main
lever that gets pushed down to

wind the alarm mechanism up.

I think that just slips under there,
somehow.

This timer is very much
like an alarm clock,

but without the two pairs of hands
telling the time.

It just has the two hands
that are actually timing

the developing of the photographs.
Slightly different.

I'll just wind up the actual clock
part of this and see

whether it ticks away all right.

Great. That's working really well.

I just need to get the other
bits on and then

I can pop it into the case,
once Brenton has completed it.

David's restoration of the whistling
man is almost complete, but

whether the statuette will perform
on demand again is yet to be seen.

I've now got the bellows
back into the mechanism.

I'm just going to use this new key
and we just give him a little wind.

And we'll see what he does.
The moment of truth!

TUNEFUL WHISTLING

Oh, that's fantastic!

He's got plenty of puff. The
mechanism's running nice and free.

I think it's time to put him back
into his body now and I'm just going

to give him a little bit of a buff
up, ready to hand back to Matthew.

When this miniature musical man
arrived at the Barn,

he'd not piped up in 20 years.

Now Matthew is back to collect
the heirloom which reminds him

of happy times
with his grandparents.

Today's dream is that the whistling
man will whistle his tune again.

I've missed him loads.
Can't wait to have him back.

And hopefully, I remember the tune!

Hi, David. How are you doing?
Hi, Matthew. Nice to see you again.

Good. And you,
and you. How are you doing?

I'm excited to see what you've
managed to do to the whistling man.

If he was fixable and what
he looks like and sounds like,

more importantly.
So, would you like to see him?

Oh, I'd love to see him, please.
OK.

Oh! There he is!

Oh, look at him!

Oh, that looks amazing! More
importantly, is there a key for him?

Well...

That is a key! That is
a key and a half, that, isn't it?

I'm not going to lose that
any time fast! Wow!

That's the first time that I have
ever wound him up myself. Cor!

WHISTLES

Oh, my God! I DO remember it!

Oh, that's amazing!

That is so cool!
It takes me back to my Gana.

It reminds me of sitting on his knee
and, yeah, it takes me back to

when I was little.

Cor! That's absolutely amazing!
Thank you so much! He's...

He's back.

He's got his voice back.
He's got his whistle back.

I'll be winding up all
the way home now. Yeah.

Matthew, thank you
so much for bringing him in.

He's been an absolute pleasure
to work on and I hope

he brings you many years of joy.
Well, just thank you again.

I'll take him back up to Yorkshire,
where he belongs. Yeah. Great.

Thanks ever so much.
Take care. Bye. Cheerio!

He whistles again.
I'm so over the moon.

Hopefully, I'll be able to show
this to my kids and my grandkids

and their grandkids forever.
It will stay in the family now.

Thanks to Will's cleaning marathon
and a coat of polish,

the little ink stained wooden owl
now has plumage to be proud of.

I have never had to remove
so much ink from wood before and to

be honest, I didn't really think
that I could do it in the beginning.

So to get to this point now,
I'm pretty chuffed.

How's it going, Will? Hey, Jay.
You've cleaned it up?! Look at that!

Show me the back. That is spot on.
So, what else have you got to do?

Well, I'm about to start patching
the damaged wood on the

front of the book. OK. Whilst you're
here... What you after?

I have an empty ink pot here.
There's been no lid on there. Yeah.

So, I need to make
a stopper for the top. All right.

You see where I'm going with this?
I know where you're going.

You want me to make a stopper.
Please. All right. Cool. Lovely.

There for you. You've got it all
prepared and everything.

All prepared!
It's all right. Top man!

That is dainty, isn't it?

Put a cork in it, Jay, and just make
the stopper... All right.
All right, I will do.

So let's crack on with this.

Now, that fits perfectly.

So all I've got to do is cut
that down and fill it up

and then test it, see if it works.

I've cut away all the damage
to the front of the book.

I'm going to glue these on
and I can shape it in to match.

This is going to be really hard to
glue together because the back

of the book is curved and to get
a normal clamp on there will be

really hard to get it to
stay in place, whilst it's drying.

So I use these really handy
upholstery springs.

The idea is, if I get some glue onto
the piece of wood there,

I can prop that in place,
open up the spring,

and then it holds it in the right
place whilst it's drying.

There we are. All glued
and clamped up.

I'm going to leave that to dry
and then I can start carving,

which is one of my favourite things.

Just replacing those three corners
has really brought out

the shape of the book.

The wood that I've patched
the damaged areas with is

slightly lighter than the rest
of the owl, so I'm going to mix

up some shellac polish with a few
pigments, just to blend them in.

My plan is to get the colour
matching spot on,

so much so that Phin will never
know where the original damage was.

Steve's restoration of the dark room
timer is developing nicely.

Now he's reassembled the mechanism,
he can fit the new glass front.

I've just popped the little grommet
in the centre there of the new

glass, it just protects
the glass from the button that goes

through there from getting
scratched.

There we go. That's good.

I've just got to pop
it into the main case.

Brenton's made a super job of that.

It's going to look so smart
when this is up together.

It looks great, it's working well.

Gillian's going to be so, so pleased
and I'm sure when she hears

the ringing of that, the alarm bell,

that's going to take her
right back to the days

when she was next to her dad,
helping him with the developing.

Lovely. Lovely. Really happy.

For Gillian,
the broken timer evoked precious

memories of the father
she lost just a year ago.

And who inspired her daughter Diana
to pursue her grandfather's passion.

My dad's dark room timer really
means a lot to me.

Because we lost him so suddenly,

my daughter was really
stuck on a photography project

and she just was like,
"Oh, I wish he was still here."

I hope that I'm going to be
transported back to that

little eight, nine-year-old child
that watched the timer for my dad.

So I'm quite excited to see it.

Hi, Gillian. Hello.
How are you?

I'm a little bit excited to see
what's underneath the blanket.

It's spurring us on to get the
dark room going in the attic

and when I was moving all
the dark room things,

I've just noticed
the trays that we used to use

and the different bottles
and the things to get the film out

and it's really been great
reliving it over again.

Memories coming flooding back,
by the sounds of it.

Well, we'd better let you have
a look at it. OK.

That's his timer.

That's my dad's timer.

Oh, I just can't even speak.

Come up to the table
and have a look at it.

It's perfect, absolutely perfect.

I feel like he's back with us,
to be honest. A little bit.

It's so beautiful!

Would you like to try it? Er...
Oh, OK.

Right. OK.

TICKING

What does that ticking
remind you of?

It just reminds me that I've got
to tell you in a second that

it's just going to go off!

Got to switch the light on. Yeah.

How long have I got? About a second.
ALARM

That's definitely as loud
as I remember it.

It's perfect.

Dad would have loved the fact that
it's going to be put to good use.

And Diana is definitely going to use
it? Yeah, without a doubt. She is.

It'll be great.
I just can't wait now.

I can't thank you enough.
Honestly. Thank you so much.

I really do appreciate it.
Very welcome. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye now.

When the timer went off,
I was just transfixed by it

because it just felt like I was back
when I was a child, watching it.

In getting this back, it is
like a part of Dad still with us

and not really gone away.

Thanks to Will's persistence,

the owl inkwell is nearly ready
to fly the nest.

This is looking really good.

You can't really see where those
join lines are,

which is exactly what I'm after.

The colour looks lovely
and actually, you can

see a lot more of the original
detail.

To sort of give you
the impression of feathers,

there are areas round the wings.

He's quite a handsome little owl,
actually.

How's it going, Will?
Hey, Jay. Look at that.

All done. That's a very smart cork.

There you go. Phin's going to love
that. Top man. Cheers, Jay.

The last thing I need to do is pop
the ink pot back in the centre,

then it's over to Phin.

A childhood gift to
a budding author,

this intricately carved owl became
a sorry casualty of a mishap

with the ink it was
designed to hold.

Decades later, Phin hopes it can
perch on his desk again,

as he pens his next novel.

Just to have it in pride of place,
where it's not looking awful,

it'll be like when my grandfather
gave it to me the first time.

Part of me still feels like...

But it's impossible to actually get
those ink stains out of that wood.

I'm tentatively hopeful.

Hey.

Hi, there. Nice to see you again!
Nice to see you again. You well?

Very good, thanks. Good.
I see a lump under this cloth!

There was a lot of ink.

There was more ink in the owl than
an inkwell itself. Yeah.

I think that's possibly the case.

I'm hoping to see a beautifully
restored wooden inkwell. Yeah.

If such a thing is possible.
A massive weight off my shoulders.

Shall we have a look? Go for it.

Hm!
You've nailed it! Look at that!

That's astounding. I don't...

I don't understand how
you've done that.

Oh! How have you done that?!

How is that even possible?

That's genius! Of course,
you've put a little cork in it.

Do you know? It looks even better
than I recall, as a kid.

That's amazing!

How do you think your grandfather
would feel

if he could see this, looking pretty
much what it would have

looked like when he first saw it?

He'd probably want to keep
it for himself. Wow!

That can sit there and inspire me
to keep on writing. Yeah.

I might put some owls in the
stories. Yeah. That's...brilliant.

He looks less furious with me.
He just looks like a friendly owl.

Well, I'm pleased that you're
happy with the results.

It's been an absolute hoot.

Brill. Thank you, Will. Thank
you very much. It's been a pleasure.

That's excellent. All the best.

I have to admit,
I'm feeling slightly stunned.

I'm still trying to get it into my
head that it's been repaired.

Having it up on my desk will be
just a nice

reminder of my grandfather and the
times we had when I was young

and yeah,
it'll just bring back nice memories.

I feel quite euphoric, really.

Join us again for more expert
restorations... I like varnishing!

I do like varnishing.
..bring memories back to life...

I don't know how you've done that!

It's beautiful!
..in The Repair Shop.