Welcome to the Repair Shop,
where cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.
This is the workshop of dreams.
Home to furniture restorer Jay Blades.
Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune on stuff that once it's broken,
they just bin it. But everybody has something that means too much to be
thrown away, and that's where we come in.
Working alongside Jay will be some of the country's leading craftspeople.
Every piece has its own story.
It's amazing to think that some of my work becomes part of that story.
I've always played with things, I've always repaired things,
and I just love it. There is a real pleasure in bringing people's pieces
back to life again.
Each with their own unique set of skills...
I can't wait to get started.
..they will resurrect...
..revive... I'm warm, man! ..and rejuvenate...
..treasured possessions and irreplaceable pieces of family history...
Wow! ..bringing both the objects...
She's fantastic!
That's just taken me back 50 years!
..and the memories that they hold...
Oh! Oh, yes!
..back to life.
Oh, my God!
QUACKING
In the Repair Shop today,
Steve feels the heat in his struggle to repair a vintage steam car...
You can hear it cooking, though.
Yeah. Either that, or the paint's bubbling off!
THEY LAUGH
..while Dom's skills are put to the test with some creative metalwork.
It's kind of a bit of origami now.
I just need to fold this along the lines into the shape that we want
for the top of the lantern.
Once you've folded it, there's no folding it back,
so we've only got one chance.
Today in the workshop, a love story
between two people, and two bears.
Hello, nice to meet you.
You too.
Jill Preston has brought in two childhood treasures.
They are absolutely adorable
and they look very comfortable in their little basket.
She's hoping toy restoration team Amanda and Julie can nurse these elderly bears back to health.
Aw! So this is Little Ted.
That's Little Ted. And who did he belong to?
He belonged to my husband, Edwin,
who had him, I think, from the very beginning.
We think he must be about 70 years old,
and my husband used to hold him by the neck.
We can see that! THEY LAUGH
But he's still smiling! Yeah!
He doesn't mind at all. No.
And this one here, he lived with me all my life.
I had him for as long as I can remember.
So, how did you meet your husband?
I was playing tennis with a friend of mine,
and along came my husband-to-be and stole my tennis ball and ran off with it! Oh!
And that is my first memory of him.
And how old were you then? I was 15.
Gosh! Wow! So you met when you were 15?
Yeah, we were married for 44 years.
That's lovely. Oh, that's amazing.
And he was the love of my life. As he is!
Oh, that's wonderful.
But four years ago, Edwin was diagnosed with cancer,
his death giving an even greater meaning to the bears.
It's just this connection between teddy bears and our life, really.
That's lovely.
So, in effect, these two kind of got married... They did. ..when you got married.
They kind of united together. Yeah, they did, absolutely.
Is there anything that you particularly would like us to do?
Is there anything, you know, that's special to you, that you'd like us to keep?
The squeaker doesn't work any more.
Oh, dear. But I'm very happy to put them in your hands.
Absolutely. Well, they're absolutely delightful,
and it will be an honour to work on them for you.
That's really kind of you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
I'm feeling sad and happy at the same time.
They represent the life that we had together.
And, you know, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all, they say, and it's so true.
To put the love back into these two bears,
Julie and Amanda will first have to carefully take them both apart.
Somebody's already opened up this tummy.
There we go, it just pops now.
Here's the squeaker that she misses, here it is. Aw!
Yeah, well, we can see why that's not working, can't we?
Look, it's full of stuffing.
Someone's been in here already.
What's he got in there? Well, it's a ball of wool.
Oh, there's another one. Ready? Yeah! More wool.
SHE LAUGHS
Oh, my goodness - look at that!
They've just put the whole ball, like a whole lump. Yeah.
How funny is that?
But this is probably all they had to stuff him with. Yeah, definitely.
You couldn't have gone down the shops and bought a bag of stuffing like you can do now. No, no.
The next item to arrive at the Repair Shop also holds fond memories.
Sandy Powell needs help reviving a treasured item which belonged to a dear old friend.
How are you doing? All right. Pleased to meet you. Likewise. In you come.
Steve, would you mind joining me?
Hello, I'm Steve. Hello, Steve, pleased to meet you. Sandy.
Hi, Sandy. Is it all right to take it out, yeah? Oh, yes. Absolutely.
Oh, what a great-looking piece!
It is a steam car made by Mamod. How exciting!
I like steam stuff.
So, tell me a bit about it.
It was left to me by an old mate, Peter,
who sadly passed away seven years ago.
Me and Peter were PT instructors in the Navy,
and we always kept in touch.
Peter was a man's man.
He was the type of guy that, when he walked in the room, people would go,
who's that? OK, my kind of guy.
And he was... Yeah, yeah, he was just a lovely, lovely man.
This piece will be a reminder of Peter.
Oh, absolutely. What would you like me to do with it,
apart from get it going?
Just get it going. He always said, I'm going to get that car going.
Never did! Steve, can we do this, can you fix this one?
Yeah, I think so. I don't want to do too much to the outside.
I mean, I'll clean some of the rust off.
OK. But I don't want to make it look brand-new.
It sounds like an easy one for you, then, Steve, eh?
We'll see. OK. THEY LAUGH
Thank you for bringing it in. Leave it with us. Thank you very much.
And we'll get it sorted. Thank you, Sandy. Thank you very much.
This classic motor was produced by Mamod,
a British company that's been making steam-powered model vehicles for over 70 years.
I can't take too much of the mechanics apart,
because it's all riveted together, so I'm going to clean it up the best I can.
I'm pretty sure that the safety valve is working on it,
so that's one of my main concerns always with a steam toy.
Sometimes these safety valves get seized up,
and it makes it really dangerous.
The actual boiler could rupture and then hot water could spew out of it
and obviously scald somebody.
Yeah, that's working nicely.
Meanwhile, Amanda and Julie have been carrying out drastic surgery
on the two bears. Now that they're in bits, it's time for a bath.
It's amazing, isn't it? They don't look dirty, but it's amazing,
70 years of... Yeah. ..dust and loving, and...
..all sorts. Look at the colour of my water!
How's yours doing? Mine looks like a really bad, unpleasant cup of tea!
It takes five washes to get the teds clean.
Once dry, they can be rebuilt.
The early bears were stuffed purely with wood wool.
That was everything - head, body, limbs,
and they were very firm, very hard - not very cuddly for children.
And then they started to use, later on, kapok.
It's a plant material, but it is really, really soft.
I'll have to add a small bit at a time so I can get it in all the little bits.
With Big Ted's head whole again, next, Amanda can sew on some new glass eyes.
So, my needle goes in through the eye socket like this.
I've packed him quite firm, so it's a bit...
I have to be quite firm with it.
I have to make sure I come out at the bottom of his head. Like that.
So we then just pull like this, so I can kind of adjust by pulling that string.
I think the glass eyes that he would traditionally have had,
really bringing his face to life again.
And you can see he's really coming together now.
Outside the barn, Steve and metalworker Dom are awaiting the next repair.
Hello, I'm Steve. Sheila, lovely to meet you.
Jeremy. Hi, Jeremy. Have you got something for us? We do.
Jeremy and Sheila Newcombe have brought their prized possession
all the way from Newton Abbott in Devon.
Oh, gosh, OK. Cor!
Let's take it into the workshop and have a look at it, shall we?
Shall I take this one? Oops!
Oh, it's falling apart before we get in! Exactly!
We'd better get it in quick!
After being stored in a shed for the last three years,
Jeremy and Sheila are hoping that it's not too late to save this family heirloom.
Well, I can see what it is. Tell us a bit about it.
From my understanding, this is a Victorian lamp stand -
the top of it. I know that my father acquired it in 1964.
He was in the process of arranging for the demolition of a large old pottery.
This lamp post was a feature outside these buildings,
and he positioned this lamp stand at the bottom of the garden,
and it became a feature of the house,
then, throughout the whole of my childhood,
and right the way through to the time when we were married.
And then in recent years,
we've positioned the lamp stand now in our property.
So, this has got a lot of meaning to you?
I suppose it has,
because it's been something that's related to my family life through most of it.
This lamp has always been part of it.
When was the last time you saw it working?
Probably around the 1990s.
It was all together, but it was really fragile.
So I took the elements apart, and I have all the elements with me,
including the glass and the bits of the frame that are missing.
The corrosion is so far gone that there are elements here that need to be completely replaced.
Absolutely. I think the best thing you did was take it down
and save the pieces before it fell down.
I was all for getting a reproduction one to put on top of our empty lamp post!
Oh, no! But I couldn't live with that.
Well done! I think you've got your work cut out.
Yeah. Thank you so much for coming in.
Dom's first job is to work out which parts of the lamp can be salvaged,
and which will have to be scrapped.
I'm going to start with this top perimeter that's missing.
I've got half of one bit there and a little bit of one left over here.
This is very, very thin steel,
and the water's got in and it's just completely rotten.
I want to keep as much as I can of the original structure and the original piece,
but this is so far gone,
the best thing to do would be to just make a new section.
While Dom starts work on the lamp,
Steve returns to the restoration of the steam-powered toy car,
and improving the old and rusty bodywork.
I'm just taking small bits of wire wool, wrapping it around a stick,
and just pop a bit of wax on it just to help the cleaning process.
So, this is just a wax furniture polish.
Basically, it helps stop any scratching of the wire wool,
and it's a great technique for taking light rust off of items,
or verdigris or loose paint.
I'm going to repaint the panels that are poorest.
I've got a paint just the right colour.
With the bodywork refreshed,
Steve can concentrate his efforts on getting the engine up and running again,
and he thinks he's finally identified the issue.
I've actually taken off the piston.
That's the piston there.
That's the thing that actually drives it.
That goes up and down like that and drives it.
So, I've polished it all up so it's nice and smooth...now.
Beforehand, it wouldn't move very well,
so the steam car wouldn't have worked very well at all.
Toy restoration experts Julie and Amanda are in the final stages of
restoring the pair of teddy bears.
And with owner Jill due back to collect them,
Jay is checking up on progress.
So, how are you getting on? Ooh!
He's coming along, isn't he? He is coming along.
Does that look a bit more recognisable as a bear?
It does look...yeah. But you can help me with the next bit.
What, are you going to stuff him now, yeah? Well, I'm going to stuff him. I've made a start.
I've just started putting a layer of kapok in,
and you can see he's only got a little body. Into that body, we need to put this.
And this is? This is his original trouser leg. Yeah.
And the other one's inside there,
and his original arms and body are all in that little parcel.
So you've not got a lot of space. No.
My fingers, cor blimey!
There you go. So it's in.
But we do want him to have more of a teddy, rounded tummy.
Well, he's got a six-pack - that's all right, isn't it?
Not very cuddly, though! All right!
But if we gently push a little bit of kapok in and around that little parcel of fabric,
with a little bit of tweaking and working, we can get him looking like he's... Do you want to have a go?
He needs quite a bit, though, doesn't he? He will need quite a bit.
Well, how's Big Ted getting along, anyway?
So, he's going to have a layer of that in his tummy first.
OK, wood wool. And one thing that's really important for Jill...
SQUEAKING
He's got his squeak back.
OK, cool. So you're going to get his tummy as firm as his legs?
Yeah. Cool. Just got to keep working on it.
I've got to go. OK. OK. All right. I'll leave you to it. Bye. See you.
Big Ted and Little Ted were the respective childhood companions
of Jill and her late husband, Edwin,
who were married for nearly 50 years.
Jill is hoping the Repair Shop has managed to preserve the memories they hold.
Hello again! How are you doing, Jill?
I'm fine, thank you. That's good.
How are you? I hardly slept last night.
It was like a child with a birthday party today! Bless!
Are you ready? I am. Are you sure?
Yeah.
Wow! Wow!
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, I can't believe it.
THEY LAUGH
It's just amazing. Oh!
You can pick them up. Oh!
Oh, bless you!
Oh!
Oh, I'm being silly. No, you're not being silly at all. You're not being silly at all.
I'm so happy that you're so pleased. Oh, goodness! Oh!
What an amazing job.
I think Ed would have been so proud.
Yeah? Good.
It's absolutely lovely.
Thank you so much.
It's like a dream come true. It's lovely.
Pop them in there, then.
There they go. I feel a very lucky person today. Good.
I was a little bit worried, because I didn't want them to look sort of
over-done-up and like new, but they look amazing, because they look their age,
but they're absolutely beautiful.
I will always make sure that they stay together,
because I think that's the way it should be.
In the metal workshop,
Dom is recreating the handmade metal frame of the Victorian lamp.
To fill in the gaps, he's calling on the help of resident stained-glass expert Matt Nichols.
Hi there, Dom. Matt, hey. All right? How's it going? Yeah, not too bad.
I heard you needed some glass cutting. I do, if you've got time.
I just need to make this look like this, if that's OK?
Yes, well, I'll do my best, yeah, see if I can do that.
So, I use the edge that's already straight. OK.
Cut as accurately as possible on the inside of the pen line.
But obviously, you're dealing with just a couple of millimetres,
aren't you? Yeah, I need quite a tight fit.
Got to really try and be accurate. OK, so, starting at the top...
So the way to do it - thumb either side like that,
hold it and then you just pull down and pull away.
And it's just that? Yeah. Just like... Pulling it apart. Yeah.
And move your hands apart. That's it, that's it, nice.
Like that? Yeah, and then down and away.
Wow! Brilliant, yeah. All right. Yeah.
OK, moment of truth. Go on, then. Yeah.
You know what? I think that's bang on, isn't it? That's pretty good.
Great. Three more to go. Lovely. Thank you very much. All right.
So I'm working on the top part of the lantern now.
This is probably the most rotten piece from the whole lantern.
As you can see, there's really very little left.
This is obviously too far gone.
The only real solution, I think, is to just make a new one.
To recreate the top of the lantern, Dom first makes a paper template.
That all looks OK. I'm happy with that.
He then uses it to mark up the steel sheet before cutting it out.
It's kind of a bit of origami now.
I just need to fold this along the lines into the shape that we want for the top of the lantern.
The actual machine is really straightforward.
It's just got almost some jaws that grab and clamp the metal,
and then a flap at the front, which folds it up.
So, once you've folded it, it's done. There's no folding it back.
So we've only got one chance.
There you go. You can see it's one really nice, straight, even,
on the line. It looks ideal.
That's perfect. You can see there it fits really nicely all the way around.
So I've just got one more of those to make for this side.
I'm really pleased with that.
Back inside, mechanical whizz Steve has been rebooting an old toy steam car.
He's reconditioned the engine, touched up the paintwork,
and finally, it's ready for a test drive,
and there's someone who's more than happy to help take it for a spin.
Are you ready to test it? Yeah, yeah. I'm going to fire it up.
I've been able to locate a burner tray.
So what are those? They're burning blocks.
OK. It saves putting methylated spirits into these things.
So - pop that in there. All right.
And then it's just waiting for it to heat up and boil up.
But it should be quite quick.
You can hear it cooking, though. Yeah. Either that or the paint's bubbling off!
THEY LAUGH
Yeah. Oh, there we go. Ahoy!
Are you ready to catch it? Are YOU ready? Here we go.
Look at that. It's on a roll, it's on a roll! Oh, it is!
There we go. So, that works all right. It works perfect.
So I'm pretty pleased with that.
Pretty pleased? Come on, man! It's more than pretty pleased.
You've got it working and it looks the business.
Sandy's going to be... I think he's going to be enjoying this.
Do we have to give it to him straightaway?!
THEY LAUGH
Sandy is back to see the car that he's been so determined to restore in memory of his old friend Peter.
Hi, Sandy. How are you? Hello, Steve. Nice to see you again.
You too. Come up to the table. Thanks a lot.
Right, it's been an interesting job to work on.
I bet it has. Let's have a look at it, shall we?
Oh! Wow!
Is that the same car? Yeah.
That's wonderful, isn't it?
Crikey! I didn't expect that.
So what was the tricky part?
I guess the tricky part was making sure that the piston was all working smoothly.
That was quite tight and rough.
Right. I've taken it all apart, cleaned it all up and smoothed it off,
and I've painted the rest of it.
It's really good, isn't it?
Can we see it moving? Oh, you want it working? Yeah!
I'll just light it up.
MOTOR WHIRS
Ha-ha!
There we are. Wonderful.
We've had great fun with it!
I bet you have, yeah.
What would Peter be thinking now, do you think?
Well, he's up there looking down,
and he'd have a big silly smile on his face,
cos he's that sort of guy. Yep.
If he was here now, he'd be running round, shaking everybody's hand.
It's a memorial, really. It's a good memory of a good mate.
Absolutely. Thank you very much. You're very, very welcome. Thank you. OK.
There's just one project left to finish.
Out in the metal workshop,
Dom's giving the Victorian lantern a much-needed lick of paint.
Now he just needs to fit the new glass back into the frame.
It's a tricky part of the build,
because it's obviously a very old frame.
I've straightened it up and got it back into a solid shape.
But there's no room for error with glass, because it's perfectly flat.
I mean, if these uprights are not quite straight,
it's going to cause problems with gaps between the metal and the glass and things like that.
So, this is a real test of the previous work that we've done.
I've got two more pieces in the door.
Fingers crossed that they're all going to go in as well as that first one has.
OK, that's the last piece in.
Fantastic that they all fit really, really nicely.
Brilliant. I can't wait to see Jeremy's reaction when this is back in pride of place in his garden.
Jeremy and Sheila came to the workshop with just a broken rusted frame.
100 years had left the lantern no longer fit for purpose.
But after hours of careful reconstruction,
the heirloom that's been a landmark for so many family events is being
returned to light up their lives once again.
I can remember the lamp post from when I was 11 years old,
something like that. So, yeah, it has lots of fond memories.
We dream of it being able to be used
and to be properly repaired for years to come.
Wow! THEY LAUGH
What about this, Sheila? It's big!
Oh, exciting!
Oh, wow!
Look at that!
Well, that exceeds my expectations.
That is stunning, isn't it?
That is wonderful.
I would not have believed it, would you?
I think it's amazing. A lot of this is the original metalwork that he's
carefully repaired and extended.
And I absolutely love it.
Yes, your dad would be amazed.
I don't think it's ever been this good, has it?
It's never been this good!
Oh, Dad would be chuffed. He'd be pleased that we'd taken the trouble
to inherit something that he started, that he started,
and put it back in good order for many years to come.
I feel a great deal of satisfaction.
It's a job done.
It's something that's been finished that was unfinished before.
Shall we do it? It looks cool, doesn't it? Let's just hope it works.
Wow! Oh, wow! That is great!
Oh, it's superb. It's lovely, isn't it?
I'm delighted that it's turned out so well.
And I think it's wonderful. Yeah.
I love it. We're really pleased.
Cheers, darling. Here's to your dad.
Join us next time, as more treasured possessions are revived...
Oh, wow! ..and their precious memories restored...
She is just beautiful.
..in the Repair Shop.