The Repair Shop (2017–…): Season 8, Episode 8 - Episode #8.8 - full transcript

Welcome to The Repair Shop

where precious
but faded treasures...

There's an awful lot of work
to do here.

Things are definitely going to have
to get worse before they get better.

..are restored to
their former glory.

Look at that!

Furniture restorer Jade Blades...

Bringing history back to life

is what makes The Repair Shop
so special.

..and a dream team
of expert craftspeople...

Solid as a rock.



It's actually quite miraculous,
to be honest.

..coming together
to work their magic...

Look at that! Tailor-made!

Just got to keep calm and carry on.

OK, here we go.
It's going to look great.

..employing heritage craft skills
passed down the generations...

This is how it was, so this
is how it will be again.

..preserving irreplaceable
heirlooms.

Some objects can have so much
emotional attachment to the family,

and that's what pushes me
to want to get it right.

The team will restore the items...

Ohh!

..the memories...

So that's the link between you and
your grandad. And now my son.



..and unlock the stories
that they hold.

I'm just blown away!

I'm flying!

In The Repair Shop today...

Just like a giant can opener.

..Dom and Susie chart new terrain,
restoring an archaic farming tool...

It's not just a case of making
something that looks nice,

but actually has a really
important purpose.

..while Kirsten takes on
a World War II survivor

that met with modern-day disaster.

As you put that last piece in, it
regains the strength that it has.

It's quite a magical feeling.

And...

Come on, baby.

They're in the right place.

..a dream team rescues an evacuee
from the Balkan conflict.

This is nothing like any
of my daughter's dolls.

But first, arriving at the barn,
a cherished reminder

of a life-changing journey
through turbulent waters.

It belongs to Jenny and
James Hollis from Sheffield.

Hello! Hello.
How are you doing?

All right.
You all right? Good, thank you.

I'm Jay. You are? James. Jenny.

So what we got in the paper there?
So, we have here

a painting.

Oh, Lucia, if you don't mind
joining us.

Lucia Scalisi is the barn's
resident art conservator.

Hello. Hi.

I'm Lucia.

And that looks
like a really nice painting.

Can you tell us about it, please?

So we know it's by an artist
called Edwin Hayes,

who painted lots of seascapes in
the - mostly - 19th century. Right.

This was my grandparents'. OK.

So my grandparents lived in Canada.

And what were their names?
Alex and Eileen.

OK. So, when Eileen died,
my dad's brought back

a couple of paintings and said,

"Well, do you want one of these
paintings from your grandparents?"

And we went for this one.
You went for this one? Yeah.

Why? Why this one?

So, it just reminds me a lot
of the Pembrokeshire coast

and Pembrokeshire coast is kind of
a very sort of special place to us.

Yeah.

Um, so eight years ago, we had
a little baby boy who was premature

and really sadly, you know,
he died after 37 days and,

that summer, we went to
Pembrokeshire on holiday.

And it just kind of connected

Elijah, our son, to this kind of,
this sea theme, I guess.

I can understand.

Have you got any other children?

Yes. So we have Jonah,
Amos and Gabriel.

They were little, but they took
on board an enormous amount.

He was 25 weeks and three days
when he was born, so he was tiny.

He was in a an incubator

and he had a ventilator
to breathe for him.

I waited 16 days
for a proper cuddle.

Um, it was amazing.

He was perfect and miniature.

And then he got really,
really sick, didn't he?

So they did surgery on him

and he was stabilising,

but his brain had been
catastrophically damaged.

He was never going to make
it out of neo-natal care.

How do you move on from that?

His arrival and departure was
a life-changing experience for us.

I think you have before Elijah,
and you have after Elijah, erm,

and we're all right.

Not all of that is bad,
you know? Not all of it is bad.

And we've been back to Pembrokeshire
most years, haven't we?

It feels like a little extra place
where we belong

or that holds
very precious memories.

How did the sea comfort you guys
when you had that loss?

I think it's a good metaphor
for grief in terms of

it can be quite calm sometimes,

but sometimes quite rough
and choppy and unpredictable.

That's kind of what spoke to us
about the painting, really.

In the event that your baby dies,

you come home
with...with a small box

rather than a lifetime
of of, erm...

..experiences.

And so the painting sort
of, for us, I think, links

the past with a new chapter
for Elijah's story, as well,

and a couple of years ago,

we had a phone call from
a charity work we with,

saying that a team of rowers
were wanting to row the Atlantic

to fund research
into premature birth,

and they wanted to name their team
after our son, Elijah.

And so it sort of sealed the deal
for it being Elijah's painting.

What would you like Lucia
to do to the painting?

Oh, well, I would love it
to be cleaned

and this huge patch of mould,
if that could, if that could go,

that would be amazing. OK.

I guess something with the frame,

but I do really love
this simple frame, actually.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

I think when I look at it,
I can see, but when I look

really closely and squint,
there's all this detail there.

I can see the discoloured varnish,

so I anticipate a few really lovely
details to come through.

That would be wonderful.

Yeah, be a lot more radiant,
I think.

Yeah. That'd be lovely.

Where would the painting
be if Lucia is able to restore it?

I'd probably like to hang it in
the hallway near the front door.

That idea that you come and you go
from home and he's there,

part of who we are.

You guys are so brave.

Thank you for bringing this in.

Can't wait to see what you do
with it. Yeah, me too!

Bye. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye!

We've owned it and we've loved it,
but actually, you can only love part

of the painting's story
because it's not able to be hung,

and we're really, really excited
and happy to leave it here

because we know that
when we come back,

it will be ready to be on show.

I don't think I've ever
worked on a painting that's

been so emotionally charged.

There's a lot riding
on this painting.

First response would be
to take out of this frame.

It's just stuck in
with masking tape,

and I think I'm going to take
the frame to Dom and ask him

if he will regild it.

Once it's out, I'm going to do
a cleaning test to see what dirt

is on the surface, but a really
straightforward and simple way

of treating mould like this is
to actually sit it in sunshine.

It's going to
get a little bit of UV

and it's going to really
kill off the mould.

Now I've taken the frame off, I can
see the signature more clearly.

It's been rubbed a bit along that
bottom edge because of its movement

within the frame, and I'll prepare
the frame to make sure

it doesn't happen again.

It's such a beautiful painting

and it became a metaphor for them,
for their emotions,

and that's really quite beautiful,
and that's what art does.

I can only hope I can do
my best with it.

The next item tells a story
from former Yugoslavia

and the Balkan Wars.

Owner Ana Jovicic from London has
kept it close since childhood.

Hello. Hello. How you doing?
Very well, thank you.

Good. I'm Jay. And you are?
I'm Ana.

Let's have a look
what you got in the bag.

This is my most prized possession.

Oh, wow. And we have my...doll.

Aw, bless.

Julie and Amanda, do you mind
joining me?

Oh, yeah.

Hello! Hello.

Who have we got here?
So, this is my doll.

She comes all the way from Bosnia,
Sarajevo, where I was born,

and I received her for my third
birthday

and she was a gift
from my mum and my dad.

And sadly, when the war started
me, my mum and my brother fled

to Croatia, and sadly we fled
in a rush to get out of there,

and we didn't take anything with us

and sadly, Baby was left behind.
Oh, wow.

So you was quite
young when you had to flee.

Do you remember anything
about the war?

Yeah, I do. I do.

I have some pretty scary memories,
I guess, for a child.

Our house was in the very centre
of Sarajevo.

It was being... There was
grenades all the time

and we were seeking refuge
in one of these caves,

and my uncle had me on his shoulders
and my dad was waiting for us

and there was a grenade
that exploded in front.

As he goes, "I thought that was it.
That was that was the end."

And, thankfully, we survived. Yeah.

This was before we fled. Me
and my mum and my brother fled.

What about your dad?
My dad remained.

He was fighting in the Bosnian Army.
OK.

Me, my mum and my brother
were out in Croatia.

My mum didn't know if my dad
was alive or injured

or if everything was OK.

So she made the decision to go back
to see if she could find him.

Your mum went back,
and it was still wartime? It was.

Yeah, Sarajevo was still
under siege.

That is unbelievable.
Yeah, that's right. What happened?

So, when she got there, my dad
had actually been injured.

He'd been shot and he needed
critical urgent care

and, based on that, they were able

to get a pass
to come out of Sarajevo.

OK. Right. And while she was there,
she went back to the house

and she didn't pick up anything
of any value, of any possessions,

but she came back and she got
my doll

because she knew
how much I loved it. Oh, wow.

Where did he get surgery?
You guys were still in Croatia.

So, they actually... There was
a military hospital in London

where he was seen. Wow.

We all flew out at the same time
and we were made refugees here

and we were very welcomed.

And we didn't have anything
when we arrived here,

but my parents still talk about it
as the happiest times of their life.

You know, they'd come from a war
where every time they stepped out,

there was a fear of dying.

I've never been in that situation

and it's, like,
it's impossible to imagine.

And even what your mum did,
to go back there

and find out where dad was.

But then, on top of all of that,
going to get your doll.

Yeah. I know, I know it sounds
silly, but I love this doll

and, you know, all of my childhood,

it's all I've ever
really played with.

She went everywhere with me,
so I was very thankful

that I was reunited with her.

Does she have a name?
She doesn't, she doesn't.

She's just Baby.
That's fine! That's cool!

Once we've taken Baby
into our care...

..what would you like us
really to do for her?

Firstly, when you lay her down,
both of her eyes are supposed

to close, but we have one that
still kind of works,

the other one is stuck.

And then her legs and arms have kind
of started falling apart. Ah, yes.

I have a little baby girl
myself now... Aw...

..and I'd love to pass my doll on

and for her to be played with
like I did.

How old is your daughter?
She is almost two.

And does she play with Baby
now, or...? She doesn't.

She's a little bit scared of her!
Yeah.

I'm guessing that that's
not her original clothes.

It's not, it's not. No.

Do you remember
what she was wearing?

It was kind of like a little romper,
and it was pink short sleeves

and very short bottoms as well. OK.

And a thank you
for bringing Baby in.

Thank you all so much.
Absolute pleasure to meet you.

Thank you. No problem. You take care
now. Thank you, bye-bye.

My doll is really important to me.

All my earliest memories, and as I
was a little bit older,

when we came to London,
it was my security.

I didn't really know anyone,

she was almost like a friend,
something familiar,

which I didn't really have
when we came here.

So, she's always
been very special to me.

What a family history, eh?
Yeah, amazing.

What do you think is wrong
with Baby?

I think the clothes, actually,
are covering up a multitude.

Is it? Yeah, yeah.
Let's have a look.

I can see quite a bit of damage
going on here...

Yeah. ..that's going to need
some repair work.

So, we're going to have to have
a look at all that.

And the eye mechanism?
The eyes are stuck.

So, the mechanism isn't
working properly.

All right. I'll get Steve to have
a look at that.

So, once you've got it all off,
Steve can have the head.

Yeah? Brilliant. Thank you.
No problem. Cheers.

What have you found?

The armpits. Oh, yeah. They're not
looking good under there.

Are you thinking we need to do
a new body?

It's kept her together, hasn't it?

She hasn't lost any limbs
or anything,

but I don't think this material
is going to take much repairing.

Then let's just give for a whole new
strong body.

That would be lovely, I think.

So, I'll pass her over to you and
you can start taking her apart.

Will do.

Come on, Baby.

It's going to be absolutely fine.
You're in the right place.

Art restorer Lucia is ready
to remove the layers of grime

from the seascape painting,

which connects its owners with their
baby son, who died prematurely.

I'm really optimistic about
the cleaning of this painting.

It's going to be really lovely
for Jenny and James

to see it afterwards.

This is the surface dirt, but it's
also removing some of the varnish.

But I think there's quite a bit
of nicotine on here, too.

It is really quite strongly yellow.

Look at how dirty that is.

It's lovely.

It's going to really look a lot
brighter when I've finished it.

Hey, Lucia. Dom! Dom! The very
person. Come and look.

Oh, my goodness. Come and look.

I think it's such
a nice little painting.

It's beautiful and you're the very
person I needed to see... OK.

..re: the frame.

This? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, structurally, it's OK.

Yeah. It's just the paint job,
the gilding. Absolutely.

Can I do it in gold leaf?
Yes! Yeah?

Cool. OK, leave it with me. Great.
No worries. Thanks.

Lucia helps me out an awful lot
here, so it is really nice

to be able to return the favour and
do something for her for a change.

It's going to look beautiful,
but I cannot gild

over this flaky,
chipped-off surface.

There really is nowhere
to hide with gilding,

it shows up everything.

So, I'm going to remove all
of these loose, unstable parts

to really see what I'm working with.

It's really lovely to have taken
off the discoloured varnish

that was obscuring
a lot of the detail.

We've got this lovely bright blue
passage in the sky here

and we get a better idea of this
sort of squall that's coming in

to the land and why these guys on
the rowing boat

are rowing like mad to get back
to the port.

Right, I'm ready to start
the retouching.

Basically, the mould has come
through the paint

and been nibbling away.

I'm going to start retouching
using my dry pigments

and synthetic resins to mock up
the colour of the paint.

And I'm getting, with that mixture,
a nice sea green.

This is going quite well.

Once I finish this, I'm going
to move on to the sky area.

I've spent a long time standing
this down.

It's just changed colour.
I haven't painted it.

This red layer underneath
the gold leaf is called bole,

which is a mixture
of, like, clays with a rabbit glue.

And it's just a perfect primer,

basically, to apply gold leaf
on top of.

And I'm going to be using a modern
alternative of the same thing.

I will have to let this dry, sand it

and get probably two more coats
on there

before I'm ready for the gold leaf.

This is genuine gold leaf.

23.7 carats.

It will shine forever.

If I can get it on there
in one place.

I'm just using matte lacquer
and some pigments

of sort of brown, earthy tones

just to sort of knock it back a bit
and neutralise it a little bit.

Dom. Lucia!
Hi. How's it going?

Really well. I'm very excited to
see the frame.

It's ready, just about. I've just
finished sort of knocking down

that gold,
so it sort of aged it a little bit.

I think it looks really nice. Great.

Here you go. Pop it on there.
I'll let you do it. Thanks.

Oh, it's beautiful.
Is it OK? Yeah.

I'm very happy. Good.
Thanks.

See you later. See ya!

A job well done leaves Dom free
to welcome the barn's next visitor,

who's quite at home
in this pastoral setting.

Farmer Simon Lumb from Halifax.

His piece of
agricultural history has

already captured the attention
of Dom and Susie.

What an obscure thing.
Very obscure.

Hello. Hello. Hello.
Pleased to meet you.

Lovely to meet you, Simon.
Please take a seat. Thank you.

I've got to ask, first of all,
what on Earth is this?

We've both been here,
trying work it out!

This is definitely
a link with the past.

It's called a fiddle drill.

Me grandfather bought a farm in 1947
and this come with the farm.

It's for putting seed on.
Oh, like grass seed? Grass seed.

That's it - grass seed. Oh, OK!

So, you've got a hopper at the top
for putting the seed in.

I see. So, you load it up.
Seed goes through that hole.

Yeah. And then,
why it's called fiddle drill,

it's cos it's like fiddling
with a bow.

You've got a bow to this mechanism.
Oh, OK. Oh, OK.

And depending on the size of
the seed,

it can have a projection
of 20 feet.

Goodness! What, they'd spray out
of here? With this, yes.

Wow. So...

Clever, see. Yeah.
Smart.

What's your first memory of this?

I think my dad using it in the field

in front of our house.

It's funny, when me dad
were using it, I thought

he'd got some sort of musical
instrument in the field.

Because... Actually...!
..it is like a musical instrument.

A big violin, or... Yeah.
Yeah, that's it.

I think there's a certain,
with, like music,

there's a certain rhythm
with this piece of equipment.

Yeah. So, who taught you how to use
this, then?

Me dad taught me how to use it.
What was he like?

Erm, he was...

..he was amazing, but he was very
stubborn in the things he did.

He actually couldn't read and write,

but as he retired and he went
and did some evening classes,

he learnt all about English
and stuff, and he's written a book.

Has he really? Yeah.

And there's an article in
about this,

and we didn't know that it was
with the farm until I read.

How lovely. It's like, you know
them things when you say,

I want to ask him a question,
and he isn't around any more.

Let's look at his book.

And there it is. It's all in there.
It's all in there, yeah.

So, is the farm still in
your family? Yes.

Me dad took over from
me grandfather,

and then I've took over from
my father, who died in 2016.

So, there's part of his memories,
are still in this device.

It's a connection between my dad
and my grandfather.

So, it doesn't look like
it's been used for some time.

So, the spinner's seen better days.

Yeah. That's obviously been
well used, hasn't it?

That's right, yes.
I think it needs a new bag.

I think you're probably right. Yeah.

And, originally, I think they had
a strap like you get

on a drum, for holding a drum.

Yeah, cos this must have sort of
cut in your shoulders.

It does, it does. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, so if we can get it working,
what... Do you have a plan for it?

Well, ultimately, I want to pass it
on to me four sons

and to keep it in the family

and use it on the farm,
where it's been all its life.

So, this would still be,
if you can get it working...

A useful piece of kit.

It's linked to not only the past,

but it's also linked
to the future.

Yeah. It's brilliant.
And to be able to pass it on.

It sounds like you've got an awful
lot of memories

wrapped up inside this.

Yes, I only have to smell
this device... Smell it?!

Yes. And... Go on, have a go.
Have a snurge.

A snurge. A snurge?
I'm going to have a snurge!

I'll start sneezing.
It's seed.

That's the grass seed smell.

It's ingrained within this machine.

That's the smell of your childhood,
is it?

That's right, the smell of
my childhood, yeah, yeah.

I think this is going to be a bit of

a journey of discovery for us both,
isn't it?

Yeah, but it'll be so much fun.

Yeah, looking forward to getting
into it.

Thank you very much for explaining
what it is and how it works.

Leave it with us.
We'll do our best!

Thank you very much. See you later.
Take care. Bye-bye. Bye.

The great thing
about this fiddle drill,

it does bring back a lot
of happy memories.

Dry-stone walling at four,
tractor driving at eight,

you know, all these sorts of
activities that young kids

will never experience today.

And you tell 'em and they just don't
believe you, you know?

So, what do you reckon?
I think it's a fascinating thing.

I've definitely never worked on
one of these before. OK.

First things first, really,
we need to strip it down.

OK. I'll take it all apart.

I need to get in here,
to all this wobbly mechanism.

It's just all very worn and loose.
It is.

This does have to be replaced
with leather.

This would have been
so uncomfortable.

He's had enough torture,
with this cutting into his side.

I think so.

And I think it needs a new bag.
There's no saving this, is there?

No. I'll get it apart and see
what I need to do.

And I'll bring back these bits
in for you.

Lovely. Cool.
Sounds great. Thanks, Suzie.

OK, where to start...

That's come off in one piece...ish,

which is great.

I just want to see this.

Here we go.

Cool. That's good.

Ugh... Right...

The bag is off.

Right...

That needs to go over to Suzie
and she can work her magic.

Inside the barn, the Bear Ladies
are already working their magic

on the doll rescued from war torn
Sarajevo.

While Julie works out how to
strengthen the joints

on her vinyl limbs,

Amanda's made a start on
a replacement cloth body.

So, I'm marking out the new pattern
straight onto the fabric.

The only thing I'm having to make
allowances for, because the vinyl

is actually stitched to the fabric,

and over the years, in places,
that has caused the vinyl to split.

So, I'm having to make sure
that I leave extra on the legs

and on the arms so that
we've got room to double up

and really strengthen those seams
once Julie's done the repairs.

So, this is the first piece pinned
onto the fabric.

Once I've done that for all
of these pieces,

I will cut them all out

and then I can start machining it
back together.

Mechanical whiz Steve has taken
on the doll's head.

Hopefully he can solve the problem
of her squiffy eye.

I've had to repair quite a lot
of dolls in my time

because I've got four daughters

and, obviously, you know, they broke
them quite often

and I'd always repair them,
mostly.

I can see in the side of the eyeball
that there's two little pivots

and the actual pivot
has completely broken away.

But you just can't get to the back
of the mechanism

because there's a casing
at the back

that's moulded into
the actual main head.

So, just going to cut the casing now

and hope for the best.

I think I'm always getting there.

Got to a point now where I think
I can actually push the eyeball in.

There we go.

And that's it.

I think it'll be straightforward
repairing the eyeball

and then I can put it
all back together again,

pop it into the eye socket,
glue it up,

and hopefully it'll work.

Blinking good!

So, before we put her together,
I've decided that I think the best

thing to do to make the limbs strong
again is to line it

with felt and PVA glue.

This will form a flexible
but strong lining,

which should allow me to stitch
through it

when we put her new body
back in place.

That's the leg done.

One more leg and two arms to go.

So, this is the material
for Ana's doll's clothes.

When her doll was new, she was
wearing a pink romper suit.

We've been lucky enough to source
a pattern from the '80s

that we think would be the style
that Ana's doll

would have been wearing.

I imagine they're quite comfy
to wear.

I wouldn't mind one myself,
actually!

I've taken all of the eye unit
apart now.

I need to put this new pivot

that I've made out of brass
into there and glue it in.

All right, that's that pivot
in place.

I'll just pop a bit of glue now
to hold the weight in place.

That's the weight that that will
turn the actual eye

to the correct position.

It just keeps the eyeball balanced.

Right, I'll just leave all that
to set

and then I can pop it back
into the eye socket.

I'm just going through the process

of reattaching Ana's doll's arms
and legs.

So, what I'm going to do
is I'm going to continue

around the top of this arm,

whip stitching
this fabric into place.

I will then do more of a traditional
running stitch,

I'll go round a couple of times,

and then hopefully the arm will be
as secure,

if not more than it originally was.

I'm all ready now to put
the eye unit into the eye socket.

It's a bit of a tricky operation,
this, to get the eye unit in.

Hm... Um...

Let's have a go
at doing it this way.

This is nothing like
any of my daughters' dolls.

I really take my hat off
to surgeons.

Fantastic.

The eye is opening and shutting
correctly,

and I just need to glue
that eye socket together now

and then I can get it back to Julie
and Amanda

to pop it, pop the head back
onto the body.

The restoration of Elijah's
painting is almost complete.

Lucia's final task is reuniting
the canvas with its re-gilded frame.

Dom's done a beautiful job
of the frame.

It's very sympathetic to the style
and the age of the painting.

I've lined the rebate of the frame
on the inside

so the picture has
an actual cushion to sit on.

And Dom's also made a wedge for me,

and this actually enables the
painting to be raised up

so we can see the signature.

Oh, beautiful, beautiful.

James and Jenny have returned
to collect a painting that connects

them so strongly to their son
Elijah, who was born prematurely

and died after just 37 days.

It's a really important day for us,

coming back to collect
Elijah's painting.

I feel like I've missed it,
and to have another chapter

for Elijah's story,
that's really special.

Hello. Hello.
How are you guys doing?

Good. Yeah, excited. All right,
thank you. Excited?

I don't think you're as excited
as me and Lucia,

cos we're, like, over the moon
with this one.

Aw. Yeah.

Have you been thinking about it
over the time that it's been here

and what it means to you?

Yeah. Yeah, we have.

We were sort of talking about how,
you know, with our other kids,

they're always kind of
making new memories

and they're kind of doing stuff
like learning to ride bikes

and do all that kind
of exciting stuff.

And this is like having
kind of a new memory made for us.

It's fantastic, it's really
exciting. Really special.

Shall we show them now?
LUCIA: Shall we?

Yeah. You ready?

We're ready. Yeah.

Go on, then. Shall I do it?
Do the honours. Yes, please. OK.

Oh, look. Oh, wow.

Oh, look at it.
Oh, my goodness me.

It's beautiful.

Amazing. Look at all the colours.

Look at them!
It's beautiful. Oh, man!

And look at the frame.

Is that the same frame?

Dom did the frame.

Wow. Yeah. Very talented.

Goodness me.
JAMES: Brilliant.

It looks just such
a beautiful proper paint.

Yeah. It's amazing.

I can't believe the sky
and the light on the water.

I feel like his signature
is more visible...

Well observed! Well spotted!
Well spotted, yeah!

Cos I've always looked at it
and thought,

"What a shame his name's
covered up."

So that's... Oh, right!
Well, it isn't any more. It's there.

It's absolutely beautiful.
Thank you so much. Thank you.

I can't stop looking at it.

How on earth have you done it?
It's absolutely beautiful.

Amazing. Wow.

It's really beautiful.
Thank you so much.

Thank you for giving me
the honour of working on it.

It's my pleasure. But thank you.
THEY LAUGH

Thank you so much.

All right. All right.
OK.

Bye. Thank you.
Bye-bye. Take care now.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

I can't believe
how brilliant it looks.

It speaks to us
in so many different ways.

It's incredible.

Leaving the hospital
and leaving him behind,

you come away with empty arms.

To have something really special
and meaningful

that you can hold and
that you can own

and that you do really love
is quite something.

You know?
It's really exceptional.

Amazing. I love it.

As one treasured item returns home,

another is just arriving.

Belonging to Alex Walsh
from High Wycombe,

it's a very well-travelled keepsake

that needs the attention of ceramics
expert Kirsten Ramsey.

Hello. Hello.
How you doing? Fine. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Kirsten.
Hi. Alex.

Can we have a look
what's in the box?

Oh! Goodness.

That is... That's a broken plate.

Yeah. Wow. It is.

Tell us about it, please, Alex.

It's a plate which was bought
in a Paris department store

in about 1937.

It was my dad's first present
to my mum.

They were both living in Paris
at the time

and they were there when the Germans
invaded France in 1940. Right.

And my dad got his parents
and my mum's parents back

to the UK and they brought
this this plate back with them

because my mum apparently insisted
that this was one of the things

which went in one of her suitcases.

But my mum was a nurse in
a British military hospital. Right.

And she couldn't leave because
the hospital was still working.

And so my dad decided he would stay
behind with her.

But by the time that she had
permission to leave,

the Germans had already invaded
the whole of the north of France.

Oh... So, the routes were cut-off.

All the routes were cut-off
to the UK.

And so they then made a run for it

and managed to get to Spain.

And they got married on the run.

Goodness. It's quite romantic, that,
isn't it? It is!

Married on the run!

Then what happened next?

Well, they were interned
cos they didn't have any papers.

So, my mum spent about four months
in a Spanish prison camp...

Goodness.
..and my dad spent two years.

And eventually he got back
to England in 1945.

Right.

Then, after the war, I was born
in the Canary Islands,

which was where my dad was working.

We lived in Nigeria, Morocco,
Tunisia,

Yemen, Uganda,

and the plate was coming everywhere
around with us.

Really?

And then when they came back and
settled in the UK,

my girlfriend, who is now my wife,

came in and said
how much she liked it.

And my mum said,
"Oh, you must have it!"

So, it got passed on to her.

We did look after it well
for about ten years.

I believe you! I do.

I do believe you.

So, how come it's broken?

We made a mistake, I think, of doing
some decorating,

and we took it down... Yeah.

..and we put it back up
when the decorating was finished.

Right. And about two weeks later,
we heard a crunch

and it had fallen off a wall.

How did you feel?

Oh, absolutely devastated.

It is a memento of my mum,

and it's also one of the only things

which dates from that period
before the war.

And I think I'd like to pass it on
as a family heirloom

with the story.

It's certainly got a story,
hasn't it? Yeah!

I'll certainly do the best I can.
Yeah.

Thank you very much.

You take care now. Thank you.
All right, bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Seeing the plate the way
it is at the moment is devastating,

really, because the plate was a sort
of symbol of my parents' love

and the fact that it's been
a constant

throughout the whole of
their marriage.

And it would be fantastic to be able
to put it back up on the wall again,

hopefully more securely this time.

This is an earthenware plate
with a glaze,

and it's got an incised decoration,

giving it
this really lovely texture.

This area here, I suspect Alex
has probably stuck together himself

and he hasn't done a bad job,

but I will try and take this apart

so that I know that this is
going to be stuck

all with the same material.

And I'm going to use
a paint stripper

and see if that hopefully will start
to soften the old adhesive.

I'm just trying to push some paint
stripper down in between the cracks.

I'm now going to wrap this up
quite tightly in the foil...

...and that gives me a nice
atmosphere of paint stripper

around the ceramic pieces.

And I'm going to pop that
to one side

and leave it to work its magic.

Metal expert Dom has his hands full

with the antique farming tool
that had been put out to pasture.

This, or what's left of this, is
the main part of the fiddle drill.

The seeds fall into this and get
flung out and shot across the field.

Over the years, a bit of rust,
a bit of wear and tear,

a bit of weather - it's just worn it
all away

and there's barely anything left.

Now, I know that Simon wants to be
able to use this fiddle drill again

and that's been the main deciding
factor, really, for me

to decide to remake this.

Some elements, like these blades,
are nice and straight,

so I can just use my tin snips
to cut those out by hand.

The circle, on the other hand,
would be a nightmare to cut out,

it would be very, very difficult.

Luckily, I've got a tool for that.

Now, this is my circle cutter.

This is a very, very old cast iron
machine

and its sole purpose
is just to cut circles out.

That's all it does.

So, you can clamp the material
you want to be a circle

down in there, twiddle that down.

Perfect.

So, as I'm turning this lever,
it's spinning the blades

and they're pulling it through.

Look at that! Look at that!

It's just like a giant can opener.

Oh, here we go.

I think that's it.
There we go. Brilliant.

Ha-ha, look at that!
Perfect circle.

And there is no way you could do
that by hand.

And when I hold that up
to the original,

that is the perfect size.

I just need to drill a hole
in the centre

for the bobbin part to go through.

Then I've got to figure out how
on Earth

I'm going to solder all of
this together.

I've got this amazing waxed
cotton fabric

that is such a close match
to the original.

I'm just going to start marking out.

I really like working on this item

because I'm very attached
to agriculture myself

and to think that this was a tool,

it had a major job to do
and how important it was.

So, it's not just a case of making
something that looks nice,

but it actually has
a really important purpose.

Lovely.

Now what I need to do is pin
this all together

ready to be sewn.

Soldering for, some reason,
I don't know why, I just can't...

I think everything has to be so
clean and pristine,

and I'm not very clean or pristine,

and I think I maybe struggle
with that.

But Brenton, bless him, spent
so long

trying to teach me how to solder.

Uh... I'm hoping...
I'm going to try it.

I'll do it myself.

I need to channel my inner Brenton.

That's lovely.

Now what I need to do is make
the body strap

and I can take it all over to Dom.

I'll tell you what, I am so pleased.

This is the first time, actually,
I've ever made something physical

with just soldering it together.

It's brilliant.
I'm really, really pleased.

It's so nice to see it all
come together.

And look at that - side-by-side
comparison to the original.

It's spot-on.
I'm really over the moon.

I'm just going to give it
a quick clean now

and prep it for some paint.

Dom has asked me to make
a leather body strap

to go on the fiddle drill.

And that's great, that's fine.
I love doing that.

Only he doesn't want it
looking new and perfect.

He wants it to look aged
and as if it's been around the farm

a time or two.

So, I've got some leather that's
been knocking around in the barn

for a little while,
but it's still a bit too smart.

So, I figure I'm going to start
trying to age it

and make it look really scuffed up.

On the other side of the barn,

scuffs are the last thing Julie
and Amanda want for Dolly

if she's to look pretty in pink
again.

Now that I've cleaned
Ana's doll's head,

she's looking so much better
and I'm really pleased with it.

I remember Ana saying that

her daughter was a little bit scared
of her,

so I thought maybe we could try
and put some eyelashes in

and just take that sort of
starkness out of her eyes.

Steve's done a lovely job and it's
great to see them working again,

but there should be
some eyelashes in there.

That's her little rompers. Oh, look!

Aw, that's beautiful.

She's got a little white top
to go underneath.

Well, she's just about to come over.
Booties!

Here she is, then.

Oh, thank you so much.

I can't wait to see her all dressed.

Right...

Fingers crossed. Yes!

THEY LAUGH

Rescued from a childhood home
in the midst of the Bosnian War,

this doll was a little girl's best
friend as she settled in England

as a young refugee.

Ana's hoping Baby can be an equally
precious playmate

for her own daughter.

I've definitely been reminiscing
more about my childhood

since I've handed her over.

I've been talking about the story
quite a lot with my mum and my dad,

and it will be wonderful to see her
as she would have been back then.

Hi! Hello. Welcome back.
Thank you very much.

It's lovely to be back,
lovely to see you all.

And I'm super excited
to see what she looks like. Good!

What are you hoping for?

I hope her eyes have been repaired.
OK.

I hope her little limbs
are attached to her body again.

Are you ready? Absolutely.

OK.

Oh, my goodness.

ANA LAUGHS

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, she looks absolutely incredible.

Oh!

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

She's amazing.

And her eyes close.

It's amazing to see her again
in this condition.

You've done such an amazing job.
I'm so happy.

You haven't stopped looking at her!

She's just beautiful, isn't she?
She is, she is.

Well, maybe to me!

And what you going to do with her
now?

I'm going to take her to see
my parents first. OK.

I think they're really going to love
seeing her again

and seeing her as she was.

Very special memories to all of us.

And then she's going to reclaim
her position

in my daughter's bedroom.

Hopefully, she won't be so scary
to her any more.

Yeah, that was one thing
that we were quite aware of

when you brought her in
and you said that, which is why

we were keen to make her eyes
pretty again.

And also why Amanda put
a little headband on as well.

I love it.

I just hope your daughter loves
her as much as you do.

I'm sure she will,
I'm sure she will. Yeah.

And, you know what, I will anyway!
Yeah.

That's the main thing.
Job done!

You take care now.
Thank you very much.

Thank you.
Bye, Ana. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Oh, well done, ladies. Thank you.

It was a little bit overwhelming,
to be honest.

It's a lot of memories came
flooding back, a lot of my past.

She's the one possession
that I've had through childhood

into adulthood.

It's one of the only things
that we have from Sarajevo

and it's incredible to think
that she will remain in our family

now that she's strong enough,
that she will survive, you know,

years of playing with my daughter
and hopefully grandchildren to come.

I feel honoured to have her back.

On Kirsten's bench, the paint
stripper treatment has successfully

undone the previous glue job
on the 1930s Parisian plate.

It's done its job beautifully,

which means that
I can start cleaning

this old adhesive off the breakages.

You've got to be a little bit
careful

with an earthenware like this.

It's a really soft body,
and with a sharp scalpel,

you could easily sort of scratch it
or make dents.

You can see that coming off
really well.

I quite often have things
that are half stuck,

and obviously people have thought,
"Yeah, I can do this,"

and kind of started popping
all the bits together

and then reached a point
where it's like,

"Do you know what?
I'm just going to leave this."

So, it's, for me, that's quite
interesting.

Right... I've got to have a think
about the order

that I put these pieces back
together in.

I'm just going to apply the adhesive
along the middle

because, as I press
the two sections together,

they're going to spread out
to the edges.

So, I'm just using this tape
as an additional pair of hands,

really, just to pull
the two sections together.

What I love when you get
to this stage is,

although the bits are locked
together,

it feels like it could fall apart
at any moment.

But as you put that last piece in,

it comes together and it regains
the strength that it had as a whole.

It's... It's quite a magical
feeling.

The plate is now back together.

It's really lovely just to see it
as a whole again.

And I can start to tackle
the filling.

More often than not,

I'm trying to get a really smooth,

glassy and sometimes translucent
fill.

But on this, it's...it's quite
dense,

it's opaque, and it's also got quite

a grainy texture
to the surface of the glaze.

So that's actually going to be quite
fun to try and copy that.

I'm going to use a colour fill
technique

that gives you a really lovely,
sympathetic restoration.

It's just purely filling the areas
where you've lost ceramic

and glazed surface.

I'm going to start
with these really dark areas.

It's actually a dark blue, really,

rather than a black, I would say.

Because I'm using fine ground
pigments,

they're incredibly intense

and it's very easy to get the colour
wrong.

Because of the pitted
and textured surface,

even at this stage, I'm going
to texture it very slightly

using my tool.

The colour looks good. That crack's
just disappearing nicely.

It's very satisfying, this process,
when it goes well.

Leather restorer Suzie has ploughed
ahead with the restoration

of the fiddle drill, as has Don.

Hey, Dom. Suzie, how's it going?

Good, good, good.
I've got some goodies for you.

Oh, my God, you've done it.
How's it gone?

Well, I have a new strap for you.
Oh, my God.

And... Oh, I love it.

Go on. Ta-da!

What do you think?
Aw! You are good.

It's going to look brilliant.

OK, I'll leave you to get
on with it. Cheers, then.

Thank you so much, Suzie.

This is...always a really nice
moment,

and it's a very rewarding
part, and I've got new screws,

new hardware, I've got everything

laid out, but I just want to make
sure now that I get every component

back in the right place, nice
and tight, nice and snug,

make sure that this fiddle drill

spreads the seed as well as it
should do.

This is looking brilliant,

it's come so far.

You know what? The last thing
to attach this is beautiful leather

strap that Suzie made.

Well, all that's left to do now
is find some grass seed and see

if this thing actually works.

For Simon, this touchstone
of his family farm provides a link

to the generations of farmers
before him, and to his sons

who still work the same land.

It's always been held in esteem,
has that fiddle drill.

It was always one of them
rituals on the farm where

you brought it out.

There was a bit of a ceremony
on it and we used it on the farm

and we put the seed on.

It evokes all your senses.

You can... You can hear it.

There's the "prr-prr" of it putting
the seed on.

There's the smell of it from the
seed and the look of it, you know.

It's just an amazing thing, really.

Hello again.

Lovely to see you again.

Lovely to see you as well.

How have you been without the fiddle
drill? I've been missing it.

It must be strange because it's been
in that family farm for generations.

Since 1940.
So it's probably never left.

No, that's been its home.

Yeah. And it's an item we can pass
on and talk about and talk about my

dad and his father before him.
Yeah, yeah.

And it'll bring it all back to life
in a way,

and hopefully I'll be able
to teach the grandchildren as well.

Ah, lovely.

Oh, come on, I've got to let
you have a look. Yes.

Oh, fantastic.

Oh, it's lost its rattle.

You've kept its character,
and I like the brass screws.

Good. Brilliant. Yeah, I like that,
and I love the strap, Suzie.

Oh, yeah. Brilliant, that.
Isn't it brilliant?

That's far better than a piece of
barley twine

cutting in your shoulder.

I love that, yeah.

As they say in Yorkshire,
it's grand.

It's grand.

It's brilliant.

Fancy going outside and giving
it a go? Yes, please.

Yeah? Excellent.

I'm a little bit nervous now, Suzie.
I bet you are.

Over there? Yes.

Yeah, looks a good spot,
where the moles have been.

Very good.

Oh, yes. Right time of year, right
weather for putting some seed on.

Ooh, there you go.

Oh! Got to open this lever,

walk along and do this. Yes.

It's like patting your head
and rubbing your stomach.

Yeah. Tell me about it. OK.

Am I getting...? Here we go.

Oh, my God! That's a lot of seed
coming out!

That's the noise
you were talking about.

That's a heck of a lot smoother
than I've ever known it, that.

Steady on.

THEY LAUGH

It was great to see it going again.

Yeah. The sound that it makes,
the look of it, the smell of it -

it's just evokes all the senses
of when I used to work

with my father.

Kirsten's masterful restoration
of the Parisian plate

is nearing completion.

It's all back together, it's filled,

but it still doesn't look 100%

because the areas that I've filled
I've been sanding and I know

from experience that once I start
polishing them up now,

that's when all these joins are
going to just blend in.

It's a little bit like magic.

The fills should just disappear.

This plate was one of just a handful
of family possessions whisked

from Paris when France
was invaded by Germany.

It survived decades of world travel,

but after falling from a wall,

arrived at the barn in bits.

Owner Alex is hoping he'll be
collecting it in one piece.

It's become a family heirloom,
and if a plate has been restored

something like it used to be,

then that will also help to
alleviate

some of the guilt we felt
about the fact that it broke

under our custody.

How you doing, Alex? Fine, thank
you.

You all right? Hi, Alex.
It's nice to see you again.

Nice to see you.

How are you feeling? Nervous.
Excited.

You ready? Right.
I can see you're ready.

I'm as ready as I ever will be.
OK. Absolutely ready.

OK, Kirsten. Right.
Let's let him see it.

Wowee. Yes.

That is...

..quite incredible, isn't it?

I mean, it looks absolutely perfect.

Well done. It's incredible.
It really is. Wow.

Does it live
up to your expectations?

It's beyond my expectations.

I don't know what I really
was expecting.

Yeah. But I wasn't expecting
something as good as this.

I mean, it is just absolutely
amazing.

I just thought I'd be able to see...

..more evidence of cracks
or where it's been repaired or even

chips, because I know there were
some chips as well. Yes, there were.

But, I mean, the colour matching,
everything is...

I mean, I have absolutely no idea
where you've touched it in.

It's brilliant.

It is absolutely extraordinary.

It's been a pleasure to work on.

It really has.

And your wife, what do you think
she'll think of it?

She'll be absolutely delighted.

Yeah? She loves it.

Alex, thank you for bringing it in.

It's been a real pleasure.

Well, thank you.

It's been an exceptional job.

It's all yours.

Thank you for bringing it in.

I'll get the door for you.

Having the plate back
is going to give us an opportunity

to use it, to be able to tell
children, grandchildren

all about the story of my parents.

It's travelled all over the world.

It's survived all sorts of moves

and this is just the latest chapter

in what I hope
will be a very long life.

Join us next time where the barn's

talented craftspeople...

If this snaps now, I'm in real
trouble.

..revive more treasures...

Oh, it's incredible.

..in The Repair Shop.