Welcome to the Repair Shop.
Where cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.
Anything can happen. This is the workshop of dreams.
Home to furniture restorer Jay Blades.
Nowadays, things are not built to last,
so we've become part of this throwaway culture.
It is all about preserving and restoring.
We bring the old back to new.
Working alongside Jay
will be some of the country's leading crafts people.
I like making things with my hands.
I love to see how things work and I want to know how things work.
Whether it is a Rembrandt or somebody's family piece.
Every painting deserves the same.
Each bringing their own unique set of skills.
You're about to witness some magic.
They will resurrect,
revive...
Oh, yes.
..and rejuvenate
treasured possessions
and irreplaceable pieces of family history.
Oh, my goodness me. It looks like it is new.
Bringing both the objects... SHE GASPS
Oh, wow.
..and the memories that they hold back to life.
- SOBBING: - Oh, thank you.
In the repair shop today,
ceramics conservator Kirsten Ramsay carries out some serious surgery
on a cherished Victorian gnome.
- Oh, yeah, look. - It is unbelievable.
So that's why it has taken me so long to get that off.
Whilst firefighting historian Stuart Black keeps a cool head
while tackling the restoration of an antique helmet.
You have done a smashing job on that.
I don't even want to touch it, it's so clean.
But first into the repair shop today, Rosie Gorman.
- Hello. - Hi, I'm fine, thanks, how are you?
Who has travelled from Lancashire on a super-secret mission to test the
mettle of furniture restorer Jay Blades
and musical box expert Stephen Kember.
- What have we got here? - This is a smoker's music box.
A smoker's music box?
That is a very old smoker's music box.
It has been in our family for as long as I can remember.
That's cute.
Behind every little door
is something that a gentleman would have used.
So where would the cigarette...? This looks like...
Yeah. Definitely.
Is that where the cigarettes go?
I would imagine that is where the cigarettes sit.
There's a...tobacco pouch here.
And in the box as well, so these are all the carefully collected bits.
This is the music bit. So this would sit on the bottom.
- Yeah. - My mum's often told me that the tune that it goes.
However, it would be amazing to have it working.
It would be a surprise for my mum, she doesn't know I have it.
She doesn't know? She doesn't know that you've got this?
- No, no. - You've taken it out of the house?
- Smuggled? - I've taken it out of the house.
- Smuggled out of the house. - Contraband.
How long has this been in the family, then?
This was given to my mum from her father.
It was given to from his mother.
And then we think it goes further back through her father.
However, it's been broken all my life.
- Yeah. - But my mum has seen it and had it working.
Music will be produced while you lit your cigarette.
- And just relax. - OK.
At the end of the day.
Now, I did actually notice there is a little hole
in one of these decorative pieces here.
And I suspect that that is probably for the on-off switch.
Oh, wow.
And what we've got there is something
- that looks suspiciously like an on-off switch. - Wow.
So we're going to get the music playing?
Get the music playing, doors working?
- Yeah. - We'll get back to you.
- Fantastic. - Is that all right? - Thank you ever so much.
- You're welcome. - Wonderful to meet you both.
- Thank you. Cheerio. - Bye. - Take care now.
The music box is so special for my mum.
Because it's one of the kind of only things she has, really,
of her father's, who she had a really close relationship with.
And because it's music, being able to hear something, hopefully,
will take her right back into her childhood.
The ethics of restoration are that you shouldn't improve something.
You shouldn't make it better than it originally was.
- Yeah. - But I think it might be an idea to adapt it...
- Right. - ..so that it is still going to be around in 50-60 years' time.
OK.
It is down to musical box maestro Steve...
Hm.
..to bring this intriguing piece of history back to its former glory.
The plan for the music box is in two phases.
We've basically got the wooden
cigarette dispenser part.
And we've got the musical part.
So I'm going to deal with the musical part first.
So we've just taken off the comb.
Here. So now I can relax a little bit.
I've sort of...defused the bomb, as it were.
Music is produced when the tuned metal comb is plucked by pins on the
spinning cylinder.
So next, Steve must use tiny droplets of oil
to try and free up the locked mechanism.
Oh, looks as though we're spinning.
But it's still very dirty.
So we can remove the cylinder now.
Here we are.
So the next time you see this, it should be nice and clean,
with all the congealed oil removed, ready to be reinstalled.
But what we will have to do, when we reinstall it,
is straighten some of these rather bent pins.
OK. Wish me luck.
From worn-out woodwork in need of a revamp
to dilapidated Daleks that have lost their voices...
That doesn't sound right.
..the repair shop's talented team of craftsmen
pledge to put the shine back on Britain's treasured possessions.
Next in need of rescuing is Roy Farrier,
who has a challenge for firefighter and memorabilia expert Stuart Black.
What have you brought along, then? Let's have a look at this.
It's a fireman's helmets.
- My grandad's. - It looks like it has been through the wars.
Or through a few fires.
He was born in 1892, so it's the best part of 100 years old,
I'm guessing.
And whereabouts was this? What town?
He was a fireman in Sandwich in Kent.
I've got a photograph of him, it's dated as 1935.
We believe this is him.
Tommy Farrier.
It's great to bring it in, Roy.
And if you are happy to leave it with us,
we'll get cracking and we'll see you when it is all done.
- Good to see you. - Good to meet you.
- Thanks very much. - Thanks. - Goodbye. - Goodbye.
Now, Stuart just needs to get this 100-year-old helmet
ready for action.
It is always lovely to work on something like this.
It's back in the glory days of the British Fire Service.
If an item like this could tell a story, I would love to hear it.
Slight tweak at the end, using the pliers.
The nice dinging sound
means that we are making perfect contact with the metal.
If it starts a dull sound, stop hammering,
we're in the wrong place.
That's the sound we want.
This historical helmet is sparking curiosity.
The Fire Service, wouldn't it be proud,
you would be proud to be a fireman, basically?
That's right. There was a lot of civic pride.
As well as, you know, personal pride in being it.
- Yeah. - There was a lot of gentlemen fire brigades, as well. - Right.
- They were almost like social clubs, really. - Oh, yeah.
They were the ones that had really posh equipment.
You wouldn't have just leather straps,
they'd be lined with velvet.
- Oh, come on. - And the lining, instead of being leather, would be silk.
So you'll have silk in there?
- Yeah. - This one looks like he's done a bit of work,
so he's been in the wars, yeah?
Yeah. He was an Indian rather than a chief.
- He's a worker, he is a grafter, isn't he? - That's right, yeah. Yeah.
And while Roy gets on with his grafting,
Steve has taken up the challenge of restoring a musical smoker's
paraphernalia case.
These mechanical novelties
were popular at the end of the 19th century.
The cylinder music makers were put into keepsakes
such as jewellery chests,
photograph frames
and smoker's boxes like this one.
Having thoroughly cleaned all the individual pieces,
Steve can now focus on bringing this antique musical gizmo back to life.
Oh, I like this.
Good, well, we've got the sort of dissected creature here.
- Is that the same one? - Yeah, yeah.
But you've cleaned that up well.
We're doing all right because we've cleaned all the nasty
congealed oil off there.
- Yeah. - We've got a little pin-straightening to do.
You're not really going to straighten one of them?
I'm going to straighten several.
There's quite a lot that are bent.
Have you got bionic eyes?
Yes. These are my Joe 90 glasses.
- I remember Joe 90. - And when I put these on,
I turn into a superhuman pin-straightener.
- It's quite a tedious sort of job, but it is... - Oh, man!
It's what I do.
The music box mechanism is well on the way to being fixed.
So Steve can turn his attention to the turning doors of the cabinet.
The way it functions at the moment is,
when the knob at the top is turned, the doors will open like that.
The only problem is, two of the gear wheels are missing,
so two of them don't open.
So we have to put this brass insert into one of the door pillars.
So that we can screw
the gear wheel, its replacement, onto one of the door pillars,
so that this one will open, as well.
Steve's got to be precise as he guides the powerful pillar drill.
One wobble could ruin the precious antique.
Get in.
What I will do now is I will put the gear wheel in place.
So that's going to go in there.
We're going to screw in...
Oops. So that's nice.
Right, now, fingers crossed.
There you go, look at that.
Now, we've got to assemble the cylinder and the motor
onto the bed plate.
So that we can get the clockwork motor running,
and the cylinder turning, before attaching the comb.
Which is going to produce the music.
Little bit of a test there.
So...wish me luck, boys.
Because if I wind this, it should start rotating.
And it does, look at that, lovely, so we're off.
With movement restored, it is time to bring out the bionic glasses,
and begin the all-important pin-straightening.
The box is well on the way to getting its music back.
There you go. There's one for you.
Between them, this talented team have a wealth of experience.
And all the skills to take precious possessions
from lacklustre to luscious.
Great, smashing, super.
Hi, guys. How are you doing?
The next customer has arrived.
And he is eager to see ceramics expert Kirsten.
I brought this old chap in.
I thought you might be interested in repairing him for me.
Philip Bennett is a keen gardener living in north-west Wales.
And behind closed doors, his home reveals an extraordinary obsession.
The collection is around 205 at the moment.
I'm not allowed to have them all out.
My wife isn't very keen on them.
I actually detest them.
I think they are horrible, scary little creatures.
Not my favourite thing.
Scary or not, Philip is desperate to get this particular gnome repaired.
This gnome is very special to me because he was my mum's favourite.
My mum always thought he was a very cheeky chap that reminded her of me.
So this is homage to Mum?
This is an homage to Mum. Yeah.
- Lovely. - Her favourite gnome.
He has had many repairs and bashes over the years,
he's lost a lot of definition in his arms.
His head's come off.
And he's lost all his detail colouring.
So not much, then? No?
He is in bad shape.
Kirsten could actually, I think, fix this.
Initially, you can see that there's glass fibre,
and that is quite unsightly, really, isn't it?
It is, yeah.
It's been broken across the hat there.
That could certainly be improved.
Though, on his hands, if you look at the fingers,
you can see there is quite a lot of detail there, whereas on that hand,
someone's actually gone over that with restoration.
So Mum's gnome is definitely in safe hands.
And we will be in contact and let you know when we have worked on it.
- Great stuff. Thank you very much indeed. - Thank you. - Thank you.
So what are you thinking of doing?
I think we need to be quite careful how we paint it.
I don't want it to look brash.
We need to be quite sympathetic with the painting.
It would be wonderful to see him repaired again.
Looking like he used to. He used to look...
It will do justice to the people who made him,
and also great for my mum's memory.
Him being her favourite gnome.
Kirsten will have her work cut out
to get this Victorian cheeky chappie
back to looking his best.
I've applied some paint stripper.
And I am hoping that it's going to...
The solvent's actually going to start to dissolve
the previous repair.
- What is the silver foil for? - It... - Just to keep him warm?
- No. - What's it for?
It contains the solvent, really, so it actually works more effectively,
and also it just kind of minimises the fumes, really, a bit.
- So, yeah. - OK.
So this is the test to say whether it has gone right gone wrong?
- Absolutely. - So just, no pressure. - No. I'm really hoping...
Should we get everybody to come and have a look at this?
- No, don't, no. - No? All right.
I'm hoping that it will have worked on the adhesive
that's holding the fibreglass together.
Fibreglass. OK.
So let's have a look, then, and see what's under here.
Oh, look. OK, that's great.
So...that basically means that I can now apply more to the piece
and actually start trying to strip away some of these layers.
- So it's going good? - Yeah, I think so.
Right, so I've nothing to worry about, then? I'll leave you alone.
- Thank you, cheers. - All right? - See you. - Take care.
Musical box restorer Steve has been meticulously repairing
a much-loved piece which has been in the owner's family for generations.
How are you doing, Steve?
Well, not too bad, but I've just got to attach this, the mechanism.
So I've come at the wrong time, haven't I?
You've come at the perfect time.
- Oh, right? - You are about to witness magic. - Is it?
So would you like to...
- You going to trust me? - ..be the first person... - Oh, right, cool.
- Are you ready for this? - I won't break it. Yeah, I won't break...
- You might. Give it a push. - Oh, stop it.
TUNE PLAYS
Oh, well done.
I think the restoration went quite well.
I think Rose will be happy. I know it's a family piece,
and there's a lot of sentiment attached to it.
So I'm sure that she will be pleased.
I think I've done a good job.
There we are. All ready for dispatch.
270 miles away, the musical box is safely back home in Lancashire.
Rosie and her daughter are about to reveal the surprise to mum Siobhan.
Hi, Mum.
Hi, are you all right?
I am fine. What's...?
- Come and sit down. - Why?
I just want to show you something that we've got for you.
And I'm sorry for sneaking it out of the house.
- No. - We know how special it is.
How did you get it out of the house?
We managed it.
We've been on a bit of a secret mission for a little while.
Just want to show you that all the doors open again.
Oh, my word. Rosie.
You haven't got it working?
- Just have a... - SHE GASPS
A little.
Erm...
TUNE PLAYS
Oh, my... Rose.
How have you done that?
We wanted to do this for you
cos you're the greatest mum ever.
Oh, thank you so much.
Oh!
When Rosie switched it on and the music came,
it just evoked so many memories.
Because it was such a lovely tune and so melodious.
That... Well, I was speechless.
For me, this has been so worthwhile.
To be able to see my mum's reaction, to be able to make her so happy.
She has been supportive of me throughout my whole life.
She is a fantastic grandma, a fantastic mum.
And just to be able to give something back to her
that means so much - no amount of money would have been able to
give her that reaction and make her that happy,
so I am absolutely delighted.
Back in the repair shop, ceramics restorer Kirsten
has been spending hours patiently peeling away many years' worth
of old repairs on Philip's gnome
in order to tackle the damage that lies beneath.
Most of this area was covered with the fibreglass,
and I've managed to remove it,
revealing quite a lot of lovely terracotta detail.
It's just quite a long, slow process of mechanically picking away at it.
As Kirsten carefully removes the layers of fibreglass repairs,
the original damage is revealed.
This is just sort of coming loose now, really, here.
I think that's going to come off.
Which it is.
That's great.
And what is really good is that, actually, underneath
this restoration, I can see there is quite a lot of original left.
That's good.
I'm going to have to try and get this off
and see what we're left with.
But she's only just getting started.
The left arm needs similar treatment.
- How we getting on, then? - I've had a bit of a breakthrough, actually.
This arm is just about to come off, actually.
Oh, what, are you going to take the other one off?
Yeah, it was really badly stuck.
And there was sort of a really bad sort of crack there.
So I couldn't actually just leave it.
Because it would have looked really awful.
- You're going to pull his arm off? - Yeah.
Oh, yeah, look.
Oh, my... That's unbelievable.
So that's why it has taken me so long to get that off because...
So that is the wooden dowel, then?
- Don't touch it. - I won't touch it.
- it's only cos it might... - I like touching stuff.
Now you've just got to get that out and then it's a case of putting him
- back together again, isn't it? - Yeah, that's right.
Kirsten won't be able to achieve a clean repair
unless that dodgy dowel is removed.
And for that, she needs a carpenter.
- Will, have you got a minute, please? - Yeah, sure.
- Gnomey. - Stumpy. - Stumpy.
I was just wondering if you had a small saw
that might be able to cut that off for me?
- Yes. - Yeah?
- OK? - Right, just give me two seconds. - All right, lovely.
I have never amputated a gnome's arm.
Or anything else on a gnome.
No, too close.
Could you just come up a wee bit more?
- Further? - Yeah, that would be great. There? - Yeah.
- Fantastic. - Oh, God.
Thank you.
That is great. Lovely.
- Yeah? - Thank you so much.
Oh, my gosh.
- Right, over to you. - Lovely.
Having cleaned and repaired the amputated arms,
Kirsten can now reattach them properly.
The arms are on,
so I thought I'd try and deal with this crack
that runs through the face and the hat here.
So I'd like to just stabilise it with an adhesive.
I'm going to fill the cracks and then stand back,
and then get painting, which is the bit I know Philip is keen to see.
Kirsten is nearly on the home straight with Phillip's gnome,
and Stewart is working up a sweat
getting his fireman's helmet to shine.
Keep polishing the main body,
and started moving it in so that it is dropping into all the recesses.
Doing it this way,
it brings up all the detail and it makes the best of brass work.
Now, all that is left to do is carefully reassemble
this beautiful piece of firefighting history.
Unfortunately, by the time its owner, Roy, arrives to collect it,
Stewart's been called out, leaving Jay to do the honours.
- Hello, Roy. - Hello, Jay, how are you?
- I'm very good. - Good to see you.
Likewise. You've come to get your grandad's fireman's helmet,
- is that right? - That's the one.
Hold on a minute, I'll just get it for you.
I'll put my gloves on.
Oh, you've got special gloves?
Stewart was adamant.
It is a shame that Stewart isn't here.
But he is an active fireman, so he's on call at the moment.
He can't be here.
But he did want you to know that he took great pride,
and he enjoyed working on this one.
I'll show you what he has done for you.
- Oh, look at that. - I think you are going to have to
do the honours to get it out, actually, cos I can't touch it.
Oh, that's brilliant, isn't it?
He's obviously dressed the back, because this was badly creased.
Yeah.
- And he's repaired, he's fixed all the straps as well. - Yeah.
That's brilliant.
Let us have a look on the inside.
He's managed to get the tape as well.
- It's great. - Yeah? - Yeah, that's absolutely... - You happy?
I'm very happy. It's super.
- He has done you proud. - First-rate. - He's done you proud, there.
Now to go back home safely now.
That's great.
- Good to see you. - Likewise, sir.
- Thank you very much indeed. - All right? You grab that,
- I will get the door for you. - Thank you. - All right.
I'm overjoyed, really.
It is super.
I mean, it couldn't really have been better.
This is a piece that was closest to my grandad.
He would have said, "Oh, give me the helmet, I'll repair it."
But I think that even he would say,
"Thank goodness it's gone
"to someone that knows what they are doing."
My grandad would be very, very pleased with the result.
Over in Ceramicsville,
Kirsten is still hard at it
on the restoration of that ravaged antique gnome.
She has fixed the structure.
The arms are on.
Now comes the fun part.
It's always really nice to do the painting, actually.
It is when the piece starts to come back to life, really.
Part of the pleasure of the job is
actually returning the objects to the owners.
And I just hope that he'll be happy with it, yeah.
And the owner's back.
And eager to be reunited with his favourite ceramic sidekick.
- How are we getting on? - Ta-da.
Ta-da? Is he...? Well, the shirt is bright, isn't it?
Today, I am feeling rather nervous.
To see my old friend again, having left him here.
Which was a very difficult thing to do,
and I'm very excited to see how he's turned out.
Do you think Philip will be happy?
- I think he's going to be over the moon. - Yeah. Good.
He's going to be really chuffed with this one.
- How are you doing, Philip? - Hi, Philip. - You all right?
- Yeah, fine, you? - Come over. - Has he been behaving himself?
No.
- Not at all. - Good, hasn't let me down, then.
Right, are you ready to see your friend?
- I certainly am. - There we are.
Wow.
He looks almost real.
I found all sorts of different fillers, different adhesives,
he even had a wooden dowel in the arm.
I tried to get it out and I couldn't,
so in the end I had to ask Will, our furniture restorer,
- if he could saw it off. - That's me.
- Thank you. - That's OK.
It was a big job.
He's got his red hat that you asked for.
Yes, indeed, exactly what I wanted.
Yeah?
And I didn't go sort of overboard with the face.
- He looks great. - Yeah? - Fantastic.
- Oh. - Yeah, he will definitely be taking pride of place now.
He's going in our living room.
- Is he? - My wife says he can stay there now.
- Oh, is it? You've got the approval? - I've got the royal approval, yeah.
Well done. Well done.
After many hours of painstaking restoration,
Philip's little friend is more than ready to return to gnome sweet gnome
in Wales.
Well, having the gnome back and restored
to as close as he was all them years ago,
is like having a piece of Mum back.
He's restored to his former glory.
It's great. When I see him now, it will remind me of Mum.
To go to all that effort to restore him was doing justice to the guy
who made him in the first place,
put all that effort into creating such a wonderful piece.
And he will now spend his retirement in that condition.
He'll never be going outside again.
Join us next time
as more cherished possessions go from neglected to perfected.