Welcome to The Repair Shop, where much-loved but broken treasures...
This is amazing. It's absolutely brilliant.
..are brought back to life.
Welcome to my universe.
It's pretty marvellous.
Furniture restorer Jay Blades...
It's so nice that we can be part of that, kind of, history
to just keep things going.
..and a dream team
of some of the country's most skilled crafts people...
I'm having a lot of fun and I'm really liking the end result.
Sounds like teamwork.
..bring their talents to bear
on beloved pieces of family history...
Look at that. I'm liking what I see. Yes.
Is this working? You beauty!
..utilizing expertise passed down the generations...
Now, I'm going to teach you how to do it the old-fashioned way.
..transforming priceless pieces of family history...
Oh, my goodness, me.
..The Repair Shop team will resurrect the items...
Oh, gosh!
..the memories...
I'm going to have to hug you.
..and the stories behind them.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, thank you so much.
I can't see it because there's tears in my eyes.
This is a very emotional job to do...
..but incredibly worthwhile.
In The Repair Shop today...
It's like a "whodunnit?"
And I'm going to find the culprit, the smoking gun.
..Amanda and Julie grapple with a giant...
I think this is probably the biggest bear that we've ever worked on.
..whist Steve comes to the rescue of a rather special clock,
and in the nick of time.
It is as bad as I thought it was.
At any point, this could have given way...
..and it would have been catastrophic.
But first into The Repair Shop today,
widower Albert Thompson and his daughter Lynne.
He's hoping the team can help restore a beloved item
that holds dear memories for him.
You must be Lynne. I am, yes. How you doing, Albert?
Hello. You all right? Yeah. A bit out of breath. Oh, bless you.
Well, take a seat. Thank you very much.
You're more than welcome. What have you got here?
A dilapidated radio. An old GEC.
Ooh. Yeah. Mark? If you don't mind joining me?
Yes, of course.
It's got quite a bit of history to it.
Well, Mark's our expert on radio. Hello, Mark. Hi.
Pleasure to meet you. Pleased to meet you, as well.
You mentioned it's got quite a bit history.
Tell me about it then, Albert?
Well...
..when me and the wife, Eileen, first started courting,
we'd been courting about a year... OK.
..and then while we was downtown we saw these.
I think it was in Boots, they used to sell all sorts at that time.
And it was up there and it was £2.50.
Me and the wife clubbed together and we bought it and...
..we used to take it all over with, you know?
In the car and get out the car, go up the beach.
And once we were on the beach and this were going,
everybody started to come towards us.
ALBERT AND JAY LAUGH
Yeah. So this radio has been, like,
the life of the party for a lot of people,
and also the family.
It used to go on holiday with us as well.
Yeah. It's had a good life.
It's had a good life. It's had a brilliant life.
And it's lasted for years and years and in 19...
I think it were 1985, it just stopped.
I couldn't get it to go,
and a nephew of mine,
he fiddles about with electrics and that, and he got it going.
Right. Those on there, my nephew... They're off of toothbrushes.
No! They are.
THEY LAUGH
Really?! Those are three toothbrushes.
And that's what he did to get it going.
Apart from that, it's as it is.
I mean, that's the original on there.
You can tell the amount of use, in fact,
the handle's always the first things to go.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. I used to have it in the greenhouse with me. Yeah.
And two years ago, it stopped.
And it was two years to the day when Eileen passed away.
She were an absolute ace and...
..I really do miss her.
It's all right. It's all right.
And it's never gone since.
So it's very precious to you, isn't it? It is.
Yeah.
I just wondered if you could do anything with it
and get it repaired so I can get it back in the greenhouse.
We'll get this sorted for you. Thank you very much.
Thank you for bringing this in. All right?
Yeah. Means so much to me and my family.
Yeah? It really does.
Yeah. Pleasure to meet you. You will look after it, won't you?
Of course I would, don't worry.
Thank you. You take care now.
Bye-bye, now. Goodbye. Goodbye, Lynne.
The radio, to me..
..it means a lot.
It was the 1950s when we bought it,
so, yeah, it's been with us a long, long time.
And...
..I just don't want to get rid of it.
I want it to be working again.
Now that's a story.
It's one heck of a big story.
It's something which makes you sort of feel
that you really want to get it working again.
I would love it to get repaired cosmetically as sympathetically...
So probably get Steve on these bits. Yeah.
Everybody's going to be on this one.
So it's over to you to get to get that working. Thank you very much.
Mark will need to draw upon a lifetime's passion
and experience in electronics and radio
to get this very special item playing again.
Looking at Albert's radio internally for the very first time,
I can see there are a couple of things already
which are going to cause an issue.
One, we have a broken connection on what looks like the long wave coil.
And I can see there's numerous components
which will be needed to be replaced for safety anyway.
So the first thing I've got to do now, of course,
is get the actual chassis separated from the external case,
and then this case then can go over to one of the other experts
to start looking on how they're going to clean it up.
A mystery item is on its way to The Repair Shop.
Stefan Ward and his ten-year-old daughter Jessica
have brought another member of the family who has seen better days.
Hello. Hello.
Hi. Hello.
Pleased to meet you. Pleased to meet you. My name's Julie.
Hey, Julie. Welcome to The Repair Shop. Amanda.
Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch
are the resident bear repair pair.
Big Ted. Oh. He doesn't look very big, does he?
At the moment he's looking a bit sad and sorry,
and needs some tender loving care, I think.
Oh, my goodness. Oh!
All right, let's go.
So he's obviously empty. He's empty,
and he's been in this bag for about 15 years... Oh, my goodness. Wow.
..in the garage.
THEY LAUGH
Oh, yes. So he is Big Ted.
Yeah, absolutely. Fantastic.
We don't know what type he is. OK.
He was bought by my father in 1963 for my mum,
bought with a pay packet. I think it was £12 he cost.
So what possessed your dad to...?
Well, I think my mum was 17 at the time,
so they'd just started going out with each other.
So I think it was a young love, grandiose gesture
of a great big teddy bear.
How did he get him home? Ugh, I have no idea.
Oh, you'll have to ask him.
On the bus, probably.
Imagine him walking up the pathway to see her with this...
Absolutely, absolutely. ..huge teddy.
I used to sit on his lap and read books when I was a young boy.
You used to...? Ah, yes, I would read,
or mum and dad would read to me while I was sitting on his lap.
And then when my mum and dad moved up to the far north of Scotland,
he came with us and then he was about to be thrown out,
so I emptied him out, put him in the bin bag.
I was going to say, how did he come... And I always said... Yeah.
..to be empty? Well, it was easier to transport that way,
and, eh, I moved.
And then when I got married and Jessica came along ten years ago,
I always said we must get him repaired.
OK. So you've never actually seen him...
..as a sort of stuffed fluffy bear?
No. So you've never given it a cuddle? No.
What you know might notice, and this is how we know who he's made by,
cos he's all one. He hasn't got separate ears.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
And he was made by a company called Wendy Boston.
And Wendy Boston designed and made a bear
that could be put through the mangle
and then could be pegged on the washing line
by its ears. And they wouldn't fall off.
So if we can manage to get him back to how he was
or as close as we can, what's his future?
He'll be Jessica's. Yeah.
Have you got many? Too many, sometimes.
You can never have too many.
That's just what we say. Oh, I say that all the time.
Yeah. We're going to need a bigger car.
I think, maybe. Yeah. OK. Thank you very much.
Thank you for bringing him to us. Nice to meet you. Thank you.
Bye. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.
He's been in that bag for probably about 15 years.
I was just looking forward to seeing him brought back to life
and in a condition that we can use him again.
It's going to be fun to see him back to full health
and fully stuffed, isn't it, Jess? Yes.
He's amazing. I love him. Yes.
It's certainly a job. I want to see him the other way through.
I want to see him in all his fur-age.
I think we're going to have to clean all this off... I know.
..before we even attempt that,
otherwise we're just knocking our heads against a brick wall...
Absolutely. ..because it will all stick on the outside.
So, what about we start off just giving him a really good shake?
OK, so how do you propose we go about this?
I'm going to move to the head... OK.
..we're going to hold the bear,
going to lift about a foot from the table and then... Go.
Like that!
It's a start, isn't it? It is a start.
So I think we've shaken as much as we can.
I think that we are just literally
going to have to get this off by hand.
They need plenty of space to work on all six foot of Big Ted,
so Julie and Amanda take him outside...
..where they can really get to grips with ridding him
of all his old stuffing and fluff.
I'm quite enjoying this.
I'm just wondering what time the picnic hamper will arrive.
Nice glass of red.
Prosecco. Prosecco.
With Big Ted's innards as clean as a whistle,
it's time to turn him the right way out.
So I'm just going to nip his original closing seem now.
Now, let's just be careful as we peel it back.
You ready? Yeah.
It's in really good condition inside. Yeah.
Come on, Big Ted.
Here he comes.
Oh, wow!
How's he looking? He is looking great!
Both eyes? Yes?
Yes! Look at that! Look!
He, when clean, is going to be absolutely stunning...
..and I can see why the family love him so much. Yeah.
Beautiful.
While Amanda and Julie tussle with meters of fur outside...
..inside, radio expert Mark has been
meticulously deconstructing and testing the transistor's components.
So how we doing, Mark?
Yeah, fine. I've now taken this apart.
I've got to remove some of the components.
These, we call them capacitors,
and there's about a dozen or so I'm going to have to replace.
And effectively I'm changing them for little ones like this.
All right, cool. So what's this one going to do? Where's that going?
That one's actually going to be going into here.
I've scraped back already so I've identified its value.
This says, if you can see it on there, 0.1 microfarad.
OK. And 0.1 microfarad, to confuse you, is 100,000 puff.
THEY LAUGH
No, it's not! Yes, it is! Seriously?
100,000 puff? It's 100,000 puff,
and that's 100,000 puff.
What is a puff? It's a fraction...
And this is going to confuse you.
THEY LAUGH
..of a farad.
It's a fraction of a farad?
Come on, you're just winding me up, ain't you?
So what does 100,000 puff do?
In essence, it's a value which is being calculated... Yeah.
..to allow certain signals
which you do not want to have at that part of the circuit.
Well, that made perfect sense to me.
You're going to change it, basically. Yes. OK.
So you've got a bit of work to do, then?
I've got a fair amount of work to do.
All right, well, let me get a case off you... OK, thank you.
..get started on that. There we go.
Thank you. Enjoy that. I will do. Um, yeah,
carry on with your 100,000... 100,00 puff. ...puff, yeah.
The capacitors enable the radio to tune into particular frequencies.
But Mark suspects there's more to this repair
than simply replacing them.
Now, one weak point of a radio of this type of design
is in fact the local oscillator.
And the local oscillator is, in essence, the heart of the radio.
And my gut feeling is that that's where my fault's going to be.
So the next thing then, really, is to use an oscilloscope.
And that's something similar to which you may have seen, say in a hospital,
which can monitor a heart,
which will then hopefully show me a waveform.
And there is absolutely nothing. The oscillator is not functioning.
While Mark continues getting his waveforms in a twist
trying to diagnose the faulty radio,
gear and cog genius Steve Fletcher
has delved into his stored bits and bobs.
He wants me to make a new tuning knob
and I've found lots of components.
A lid off a pot. Various brass bits.
This lamp stand that I'm going to turn the outside off.
I'm just about to start the knurling of the lamp stand.
It's going to be the outside of the tuning knob.
And knurling is basically putting a texture on a piece of metal,
or anything actually, just to give it some grip.
That's brilliant. That works really, really well.
Very, very pleased with that.
Jay's next conscript to team radio is leather expert Suzie.
Suzie. Me old mukker. It's the handle.
Doesn't look very healthy, does it? No.
So what we didn't want to do,
we didn't want to have a brand-new one on here.
So that will go on there... OK.
..somehow, because this is from a similar radio. OK.
And as it's from a similar radio, it's slightly bigger.
Oh, I see. So that's the original.
That one's the donor, which is slightly too big,
but it does look the part.
Matches perfectly, doesn't it? It does.
So what you're asking me to do is retrofit this to this radio?
Yes, please. I want you to work your magic.
If anybody can, I know you can. OK.
So let's make this one special for Albert. Yeah, no problem.
Suzie wants to keep as much of the original handle as possible,
reinforced with parts of the replacement one,
all backed with a strengthening piece of leather.
With hand sewing, it is overall a much better quality finish.
It just takes such a long time.
Mark, meanwhile, has identified yet another issue
with the circuitry.
So, applying the volt meter against one of the leads of the transistor,
in reality, I'm expecting to get a voltage.
It's clearly not there. It's very, very low.
And if I look very carefully here,
in fact, I can tell that there is actually a break in the wire
which I didn't initially see.
It's like a "whodunnit?". There's somebody's done a murder
and you're now looking for the suspect.
In this case, the murder - the transistor has been snuffed out,
there's no voltage present
and I'm going to find the culprit, the smoking gun,
and I think I may have found it.
This could be case closed.
As Mark addresses the broken wire...
..then it's time to bring back the test equipment.
It's trying to pick up,
but I don't think the oscillator's still functioning right.
There might be another break somewhere.
No, there's a lot more to do with this. This is a sick radio.
Next into The Repair Shop are Nigel and Viv Berge
bringing with them a fragile piece of family history.
Hello. How are we doing?
How are you? I'm Viv. All right, Viv. I'm Nigel.
All right, Nigel, I'm Jay. So what have we got here, then?
We've got an old skeleton clock. A skeleton clock?
Hold on a minute, then. Steve? Got a clock over here, mate. OK.
Hello, I'm Steve. Hello! Steve, nice to meet you. Hello. Viv.
Steve is the resident clockmaker,
well-versed in anything that ticks.
Oh, my word.
Now, that does look nice. And that would sit over the top.
That's a really nice looking clock.
So what is the history behind this, then?
Erm, it was my grandfather's clock.
He was a professional soldier before the First World War.
I think he won it in a race.
OK, right.
He was wounded in the latter half of the First World War.
He got a shell splinter in his shoulder... Oh.
..and so it completely ruined his left arm. Right.
And after the war he took up athletics or running... OK.
..to just help with his health generally. Yeah.
And I understand this was a prize he won. Wow.
That's a nice prize, though, innit?
When he died, it got passed on to my father
and he had it for years.
I remember seeing it in his front room ticking away merrily
on high days and holidays. Oh, bless.
I used to wind it every Sunday,
and subsequently on his death, it's come down to me.
So when is the last time you saw this working then?
15 years ago, 20 years ago. It's never worked in our house.
It's sat on my shelf in the dining room where we just look at it.
Well, it's a nice thing to look at and I think that,
correct me if I'm wrong, Steve,
but it's called a skeleton clock because it has no body?
That's correct. Yes. Yeah? That's right.
And you've got the original dome? That's the original dome.
Which is fantastic. Most of these get broken.
I'm not even trusted to dust that. Are you not? No.
You rarely get an original one so it's nice to see that.
If we can get it working,
it is my intention to pass it on to my son... Brilliant.
..who's coincidentally, suffered almost the same injury
as my grandfather did. No? He's only 30 now,
and three years ago he was involved in a horrible motorbike accident...
..and he's lost the use of his left arm. Oh, my word.
So having this handed down to him,
what's that going to mean to him and you?
Well, I'm hoping it will be a big inspiration for him
and he's hoping to compete in the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Really? All right. That's his challenge. That's his target.
So is it fair to say that he's got a fighting spirit
from his grandfather? Oh, I would think so.
Or great-grandfather, isn't it? Great-grandfather. Yes, yes.
I can see how much it means to you, and will mean to him as well.
Yes. Yeah. So you're going to hand this down to him
and it will be on his mantelpiece... That's exactly...
..next to his gold medal.
NIGEL LAUGHS
That's the idea. Listen, thank you... Thank you.
..for bringing it in. It's a pleasure.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye now. Bye-bye.
It's a sort of... A sign of my grandfather's courage
in adversity, almost.
And now that my son is in a similar sort of position,
it's going to be really nice to be able to pass that on down to him
and give him some sort of inspiration as well.
This is quite a nice skeleton clock. It has been well finished.
There's masses of wear.
All right, I'm just going to lay on its back,
then I can take the main plates off.
This is where we find out where all the trouble is.
All right, well, that's the one side.
This is the one thing that I've been looking... Ugh.
It is as bad as I thought it was.
This pivot here...
..has worn down to almost nothing.
That means that at any point,
if someone had carried on using the clock,
this could have given way and it would have been catastrophic.
It does actually mean that I've got to set to and re-pivot that.
Which can be quite a tricky job.
The other thing that I've noticed
is that some of the teeth on this wheel here, this first wheel,
there's a whole section of teeth that are bent over.
Oh, dear. So there's an awful lot of work involved in this.
And, yeah, got my work cut out on this one.
Over on their workbench,
Julie and Amanda have also got their hands full.
They've cleaned up 55-year-old Big Ted,
but before they can begin the many repairs
they must first remove his eyes,
which were rather special for their time.
So this company were the first company
that actually patented safety locking eyes
to make them safer for children.
Up until then, they were glass and on wire.
They're in two parts...
So you can see the actual screw part is the pupil of the eye.
Quite ingenious, really, at the time. Yes, yes.
The company are historic, I think, in their own right
for actually pioneering this. Mm-hm.
At the moment, we are working on the main repairs
that Big Ted needs.
I've come across some holes in Big Ted's fabric...
..and for this one, I'm going to have to actually patch it.
Hopefully, if he's got enough fluff still on him
that when we groom him through, that little bare bit won't show.
"Bear bit".
AMANDA LAUGHS
That's a good one. The bald patch won't show.
So we've just got to sort of painstakingly work our way around
the whole of his body, make sure we haven't missed anything.
And then he'll be all strong again.
I think this is probably the biggest bear that we've ever worked on.
Jay, meanwhile, has a delivery for the next stage of the process.
How are we doing, ladies? Oh, thanks, Jay.
Now this... Brilliant. ..is 20 kilos of stuffing...
BOTH: Yeah.
..and it's heavy.
We don't think this is going to be enough.
I think we need to get another one.
Yeah, we may order... What? Another 20 kilos?
10, I think. So another 10? That is under pressure in there.
So once this is opened, all of the stuffing, it just starts to...
..come out? You want to open it, don't you?
I do want to open it but I'm a bit worried about it.
It's not going to explode or anything.
You said that with a smile. I don't trust you.
It is out favourite bit... Is it?
..when we get a new bale, yes.
It's just going to grow now, isn't it? Yes. All right.
So this is a polyester filling. OK.
It's clean, it's hygienic, it's safe stuffing,
and it's the most appropriate thing nowadays to put back inside Big Ted.
So this has exploded. Can you still see Amanda?
I can still see you.
But you still want me to order another 10 kilos?
I think so. Yeah. Let's be on the safe side.
All right, I'll get ordering. All right, thanks, Jay.
The final repairs are finessed.
Then it's time to get all six foot of Big Ted
back to his cuddly self.
It's a mammoth task we've got here. I know.
We've been looking forward to doing this, though.
OK, I'm taking my bracelet off
cos I don't want to lose it in Ted's leg. No.
And together. Ooh. It's going to be a long day.
I'm just going to go in with my stuffing stick
and really firm it up and make sure we've got into all the corners.
We go in with this and twist like this,
and it gets tighter and tighter and tighter
until it's nice and firm and it won't lose its shape.
With the stuffing starting to fill out Big Ted's nooks and crannies,
it's time to pop his eyes back on.
The eyes are actually quite small for such a Big Ted.
It's like putting on the fiddliest pair of earrings, in the dark.
Yes.
THEY LAUGH
Have a feel and see what you think.
Perfect. Well done. OK.
It's been a team effort and taken days of work
to renovate a beloved 1950s transistor.
However, it's still radio silence over an expert Mark's workbench.
It's been quite a game, this particular one,
because there's been so many faults with it.
And the aerial has a coil which is broken
and I cannot locate where it's broken from,
it's so fine - the wire.
And the only way, now, to resolve the problem
is to actually replace the whole unit.
And if I do it right, we will then have some magic
and may even hear some music in the air.
Having swapped out the broken aerial for a donor unit,
Mark reconnects and solders the wires.
This actually looks very encouraging.
We've now got a...what we call sinusoidal waveform,
that is one which is repetitive, goes up and down.
And that is working well.
Looking at it, I can tell straight away
it's operating in the long wave bandwidth.
We have a switch on the radio for medium wave.
Yeah, look at that. We've actually have got both functioning
so that now tells me we've got a good chance
of getting this old lady back into operation again.
Owner Albert was just 22
when he and his then girlfriend Eileen bought the radio,
which provided the soundtrack to their love story for over 50 years.
Daughter Lynne has returned with him.
I think my Dad's been quite lost without the radio.
Even though it didn't work before, it was still in the house
so it was still there.
I'm hoping that when he gets it. back,
he can listen to it and it'll bring back memories for him and my mum,
when my mum was there. So, yeah, I can't wait.
We meet again. How we doing? Hello, Jay. Hi.
Hello, matey. How you doing? All the better for seeing you, matey.
Aw, bless you. I really am. Take a seat.
Nice to see you. Hi, and you.
Hello, there. Pleasure to meet you again.
So, tell me, what was the radio like when you brought it in?
I couldn't get it to go.
It was just stood there for two years.
And hopefully... Hopefully? So what are you hoping, then?
Fingers crossed. What are you hoping?
I'm hoping... Yeah? ..it is in working order.
I want it to play. You ready for it?
ALBERT GASPS
Aw, look at that.
Oh, my God. Look at the dial.
Aw!
ALBERT CRIES
Aw, that is brilliant.
Aw, thank you so much.
No, it's a pleasure. Thank you.
Yes, I'm glad you like it. One little thing.
We left the toothbrush handles on it cos I thought that was quite cute,
erm, who repaired it, so it was quite nice.
Oh, thank you. I hope you don't mind.
No, no, no, no. It's brilliant.
Look at the handle.
It's like it was when I bought it.
Well, the next test is to show you if it's working or not.
So... I'm not touching it. You're not touching it? All right.
Well, I'm going to touch it.
For the big moment, Jay's enlisted the help of a local radio station.
RADIO PRESENTER: I've got something just a little bit different
for you now here on Spirit FM. We've had a request for Albert,
and hopefully this next tune will bring back a few memories.
This is dedicated to Albert and Eileen.
# That beauty's often hidden... #
Oh, Eileen.
I can see us dancing at the old baths.
We used to smooch to this last dance at baths.
This was the last dance, yeah? Yeah.
# And every night I'm thankful. #
That's fantastic.
Ugh, I can't believe it.
It's a pleasure.
Glad we could do it for you.
That is brilliant. Thank you, guys.
Pleasure. Ah, I don't know what to say.
You don't have to say anything,
you've said everything by the way you are.
This is absolutely superb.
I never thought this would be going again. Never.
Mum would be saying now as well,
"Right, you can get your greenhouse done."
THEY LAUGH
She would. She would. Yeah, exactly. That's what she'd say.
She was a slave driver, there's no doubt about that.
She was a brilliant lady. Brilliant lady. Come here, sir.
It's been a pleasure. Nice to see you. And you.
Thank you. Cheers.
It's been an absolutely fantastic ordeal.
I never expected that. Never.
I didn't think he'd be able to do it.
And it's all nice and clean, ain't it?
And I've still got my two tooth...my three toothbrushes.
Yeah. I think just looking at it,
we were like, "Wow."
But then to actually hear it playing was even better.
He is an absolute genius.
He's made an absolutely superb job.
He wants a damn knighthood, he does.
I'm still shaking now.
I am absolutely over the moon with it.
Back inside the barn,
clockmaker Steve is cleaning the brass components
of the ornate Victorian skeleton clock.
So you can see, even after the first clean,
how it's come up pretty gleaming.
He can now begin work repairing the worn pivot
that had caused the clock to stop.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to cut this off,
drill it and put a new pivot in it.
I'm just going to cut that now.
Now I need to drill it.
There we go. Nice new fresh pivot.
One of the things that I identified that was wrong in this clock
was that about 30 of the teeth of this wheel are bent.
What I use is this tool,
it's actually a broken watchmakers tool,
but it's got a nice taper on it
and that slides into the slots.
And then you can get a tight hold
and just twist the bent teeth straight.
It's just a matter of going around all of them, now.
So this is basically doing a bit of dentistry.
Good, that's straightened out nicely.
Steve's in his element repairing this antique timepiece.
But he's going to need help from his fellow craftsmen
to complete the job.
Will Kirk is the go-to guy when it comes to wood restoration.
Oh, missing something near there. Yeah.
And I wonder whether that's Brenton's field there,
putting that metal inlay in?
Brenton, can you come and have a look at this?
Could you help by filling in that inlay, there? Yeah.
It's metal.
Yeah, I can pierce you a new one of those.
So if I make that... Yeah. ..fit that and then you can...
Stick it in. ..glue it in when you're done over here.
Yeah? Sounds like teamwork.
That's quite a complicated design,
so what I've done...
..I've photocopied it and I'm going to stick it onto a piece of brass
and then I'm going to saw around all of those little edges.
Silversmith Brenton West gets to work
carving out the perfect inlay...
..while Will puts his antique furniture expertise
to good use on the rosewood base.
What I'm doing here is, I'm trying to match the grain of the wood,
not necessarily the colour.
It's easier for me to match a new piece of lighter veneer
to a darker area cos then I can sort of darken the colour down
in order to match it in.
Will glues down the replacement veneer
and secures it in place while it dries.
I can be quite liberal with this
cos I'm going to sand the entire thing over.
So I'm going to let that first coat of polish dry.
And once it has, then I can go round with some pigments
and a bit of polish
and start blending in to match the surrounding veneer.
OK, well, I've sawn the photocopy out. Great job.
Now, I've left the piece of paper on top
to stop you scratching it cos that's polished underneath.
You are very clever. That's upside down. Brilliant job. Excellent.
Lovely. Thanks a lot, Brenton. OK, no worries. Cheers.
How we doing, Steve? Yeah, all right.
You have done a brilliant job here.
It does have a dome that goes on top of it.
Yeah. That's supposed to be cleaned as well.
I'm going to help you. All right. Thank you, sir. That's kind.
Years and years of grime.
Oh. Do you know that sound? Squeaky clean.
That's a good sound, innit?
There you go, look at that. Oh, look at that.
Doesn't that come up well? No, it does.
I think they're going to be proper happy with that. Absolutely.
Thank you very much. You're more than welcome. Right.
Be careful now. I will. Don't drop it. I won't.
Things are rather more horizontal in the toy repair section.
Right, so you need to get up into that bit between his ears.
Do you want some more stuffing? Hold on.
Between his ears. I know, but my arm's not quite long enough.
Well, I'll help to pull him down this way,
and you push it up.
Julie and Amanda have been tackling the mammoth task
of stuffing a previously deflated Big Ted for the last six hours.
Your bear obsession has literally got out of control.
Why are you placed on the floor?
Well... Having too much fun over here, aren't they? Too much fun.
It's not as easy as it looks, actually.
We've got to get... Here's the hole to stuff in. Right.
Here's the distance away from the hole we've got to reach.
Ah, that's what you're doing.
I thought you were just messing around on the floor.
Look at his eyes as well!
But, of course, Will, your arms might be longer.
WILL USES BEAR AS PUPPET: Hello, hello.
THEY LAUGH
Your arms are longer, you're welcome to... There! Ooh, yeah.
Oh, my gosh! Give him some stuffing, quick.
It's kind of like trying to birth a cow, isn't it?
Why didn't we think of someone with longer arms to begin with?
It's exhausting. Ah!
That's my workout done. That's your work done.
Erm, this looks really quite creepy... Aw, no...
..but I'm sure that when it's finished it's going to look lovely.
Well, if you need us you know where we are.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.
All right, good luck. See ya!
With Big Ted's family due back to collect him,
there's just enough time
to reinstate his distinguished features.
Pleased? Yeah. High-five?
I think we need a hug this time. Yeah, I do. Well done.
Well done.
When owner Stefan brought Big Ted to the repair shop
he had been in hibernation, flat-packed for 15 years
and was a shadow of his former cuddly, colossal self.
Ten-year-old Jessica had never seen him in all his glory.
But today that's all going to change,
as she's returned with her dad to collect him.
Big Ted when we brought him in was in a terrible state.
I'm just looking forward to seeing him again
and seeing how he looks
and just bring him back to life so that Jessica can enjoy him.
Hello! Hello, welcome back.
Hello. How are you? How are you? Nice to see you again.
Are you excited?
Yes.
The last time I saw him he was flat.
Yes, in a bin bag. In a bin bag, yeah.
I think we should just let them see, don't you? Yeah.
Yeah. We won't make you suffer.
BOTH: One, two, three.
Oh, wow! Oh!
Oh, it's amazing.
What do you think?
I can't even talk.
THEY LAUGH
Hello, mate, how you doing?
Oh, he's brilliant.
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
Aw, you're so soft and cute. Oh, I love you.
I love him. I thought you might.
Good thing you'll be cuddling him tonight, won't you?
Yeah. That's wonderful. Wonderful.
He looks in great condition.
Are you happy?
Yes, definitely. Very, very happy.
I never thought I'd see him again.
Ah, it's brilliant. Thank you.
BOTH: You're very welcome.
We've enjoyed doing him.
Shall we take him home now? Yeah.
I haven't seen him for so long so just actually seeing him
for that first time just blew me away.
I was speechless and he looked absolutely brand-new.
Are we ready? Up.
THEY LAUGH
I'm going to keep him forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
With Big Ted safely on his way home,
Steve's on his final push with the skeleton clock.
With all the components cleaned and repaired,
it's time to rebuild the elaborate mechanism.
After you've done all the work to a clock like this,
it's really nice to get it back together
and looking as it should do.
Just make sure all the wheels turn.
Good.
I'm going to pop the pendulum on.
And all being well, it will tick away merrily.
There. Beautiful.
With the final pieces in place,
all that's left is for Steve to reveal his work
to owners Nigel and Viv.
With them is their son Peter,
who's taken a break from his Paralympic training
to accompany his parents.
You can see how much it means to him.
It's a very emotional piece of family history.
I remember listening to the clock in my grandfather's front room.
It had a very even, deep tone to it.
I think just listening to it and hearing it again
will bring back an awful lot of memories.
Hello.
How are you? Good to see you. I'm fine, thank you, Steve. And you?
Yes, I'm good. Hi, Stephen, nice to see you again. You too.
My son Peter. Hello. Nice to meet you. Hi.
Right.
So can you remember how your clock looked when you brought it in?
Oh, yes. Yeah. It looked, erm, tired,
I think was the expression I would use. Yeah, yeah.
Bit's falling off...
It needed some work, didn't it?
So you can remember the clock as well, then? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
The clocks always been on the mantelpiece, so... All right, OK.
..something we can look at but not touch, sort of thing.
Right. OK.
So I'm excited to see what it looks like in its glory.
OK. Well, look, I'll not keep you in suspense any longer.
So...
Oh. Oh.
Crikey, that's amazing.
The colour... Can you hear it?
What a job you've done.
It's the colour I can't get over. It's just sparkling, isn't it?
Look at the badge as well, I've never even noticed that.
That's gorgeous. And the ribbon. Yeah.
Dad was always on about getting some new velvet.
Oh, it's just amazing.
You've just brought it back to life. The veneer.
You've put... Oh. You've even got the time right.
THEY LAUGH
That's superb, isn't it?
Wow. You OK?
That dial.
I love it. Yeah.
I think dad and grandfather would be looking down on you
and thinking, "Job well done."
Thank you.
What have you got planned for it now?
Where are you going to put it?
Pete here is just about to buy a house, aren't you?
Yeah, we're looking at houses at the minute.
And so what I intend to do
as soon as Pete has got a house,
I'm going to present it to Pete and put it on your mantelpiece.
So that would be the fourth generation then and...
..it was an inspiration for grandpa...
..and so hopefully it will be an inspiration for you
to help with your continued recovery. Yeah.
Thanks, Dad.
Thank you.
Oh, wow. I didn't know you were going to...
Oh.
Oh, it's going to be treasured, that's for sure.
I'd shake your hand, Steven, but over this side. Yeah.
THEY LAUGH
That's lovely.
When Steve first unveiled the clock,
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
After all those years looking at it from how I'd remembered it,
to seeing what it actually should be like
just knocked me flat, really.
Just looking at it, it was just so amazing.
It just didn't look like the same clock that we brought in.
Well, it was symbolic for my great-granddad's recovery.
He went on to do good things in athletics
and it's massively going to spur me on to doing good things as well
and we have a new house that we're shortly going to be moving into.
And it's going to take centre stage, that's for sure.
Join us next time as more precious items are rescued...
I think with a few more little tweaks,
this is going to work absolutely spot on.
..and their cherished memories restored...
Thank you so much.
..in The Repair Shop.