13x06 - A BMX bike, Danny la Rue's dress, a firefighter's painting & a dynamometer

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to the Repair Shop...

- I'm ready to see some magic.

- ..where precious but faded
keepsakes...

- It's in a bit of a sorry state.

- Deep breath.

- ..are restored to their former
glory.

- New beginnings and new memories.

- Lovely.

- We could do that.

- A dream team of expert
craftspeople...

- Perfect teamwork.

- That's the fun part.

- It's going to look absolutely
stunning.

- ..using traditional techniques
passed down the generations...

- If someone's made it, then I can fix
it.

- Go on, my son!

- ..restore irreplaceable treasures...

- Ah!

- Oh!

- Take it away, Mark.

- ..and unlock the stories that they
hold.

- Hey!

- Oh, my God!

- It's like it's brand-new.

- You're a wizard.

- Thank you so much!

- Hello!

- You got a busy day?

- Yes, yes, we're always busy.

- How you doing?
- Good, thanks.

You?
- Very good.

- What do you think?

- I think it's amazing.
- Thank you.

- Expect nothing less from you.

- As the barn gears up for a day of
saving the nation's treasures,

bike restorer Tim Gunn is eyeing up
his next assignment.

- Are you good on a BMX?

- I used to be, yeah. Bunny hops,
wheelies...

- Endos was the one.
- Endos.
- Up to the kerb.

Back up, bosh.

- In fact, that scar there is a BMX.

- Is it?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not going over a ramp again.

- Here on a mission for a special
someone,

Sharon Reed.

- Hello.
- Hello.

- You must be Sharon.
- I am, yes.

- And this is your bike, or is it...?

- No, it's my husband Dave's bike.

I'm not brave enough to get on a bike
like that.

- So where's your husband, then?

- Um, he's got a condition called
Chiari malformation,

which affects the balance,

severe headaches,

tiredness...
- Right.

- So, unfortunately, he's not well
enough to make it down today.

- When did he get this?

- I bought this bike for him,
Christmas '97.

- Hold on.

How old was he when he got this bike?

- 30.

- TIM CHUCKLES

- What?!

All right, why did you buy him this
for a Christmas present? Why?

- Well, back in the day, he was a keen
BMXer.

- OK.

- He started riding when he was about


He lived on a council estate and they
had, like,

a grass mound out the front.

So that's where he used to sort of
practise trying to get air and...

- THEY LAUGH

- Yeah.
- ..try and do the flips, like, the
spins and stuff.

So he had people look up to him doing
some of the tricks

and that back in the day.
- Yeah.

- Because he just had the courage to
have a go.

- Yeah.
- You've got to be fearless on these,
yeah.

- He loved doing freestyle tricks,

the bowls and the ramps.

I think he just liked the thrill of
trying different tricks and seeing

how he can land them.
- Yeah.

- So, how long have you guys been
together?

- We first met when we were 13.

Dave used to ride his bike down to
meet me.

- Yeah.
- So his bike was in one hand,

I was in the other.

- THEY LAUGH

- Going for a walk with a bike.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And his ghetto blaster on his
shoulder.

- Proper stylish geezer, ain't he?

- The full kit.
- Eh?

- I think it was the crazy side of him
that attracted me, I think.

And then we had a daughter when I was


so the BMXing took a bit of a back
burner then.
- OK.

- He gave up to be able to work
full-time

and bring up a child with me.

So it was about ten years before he
rode again.

- And then when he was 30 years old,
you bought him this?

- Yeah.

- Wow.
- Yeah.

Yeah, give him that spark back and...
- Yeah.

- ..just give him back something that
he gave up for...

..for us.
- Yeah.

This must have looked amazing on
Christmas Day.

Like, he must have lost his marbles.

- He certainly did.
- Yeah?

- I had the box hid behind the sofa,

and the kids opened their presents.

And then I got this one out...

..and yeah, it was the Dave that I saw
back in the teenage years.

- Oh!
- Wow.

- And then he was out in the street,
obviously,

riding his bike on Christmas Day.

- Yeah, yeah.
- With the kids in the close.

- Aww, bless.
- He rode it most weekends.

- Yeah.
- That's nice.

- And I'm glad, because, yeah, it gave
him those few years

of reliving a little bit of childhood
again

before the illness took hold, so...

- Will he ever be able to ride the
bike again? Does it...?

- No.
- No.

He must be gutted about that, Dave?

- Yes.
- Yeah, I bet.

- Yeah, it was one of the big things
that was hard for him to accept.

- That he can't ride?

- That he won't get back out there
again,

because it was such a big part of his
life,

being able to get out and just be
himself...

- Yeah.
- ..on the bike.

- So what's actually wrong with it?

- Yeah, it's looking rather rusty.
- OK.

- The wheels certainly tell a story.
- LAUGHTER

- For us all to see Dave just smile...

- Yeah.
- Yeah, it would be pretty amazing.

He's going to want to put it up on his
wall

until the grandchildren are ready and
big enough

to take it off the wall and for them
to ride it.

- Yeah.
- Having life back in the bike will
bring his memories back.

- I'm just really looking forward to
bringing it back

to how he remembers it.

- Thank you.
- OK.

- Well, Sharon, thank you for bringing
this in.

All right? OK.

- Yep, right, thank you.
- All right, see you soon.
- Take care.

Thank you.
- Bye-bye.

- What a present to get as well.
- Oh, it's just brilliant.

That's what I want.
- Yeah, me too.

- To have a BMX come through the barn
is brilliant, but Dave's story

just makes me want to do as best a job
as I can

so this shines up on Dave's wall like
he remembers it.

There's a few things that I'm a little
concerned about.

Some of the rust within the chromework
on the frame,

it's not great.

I'm hoping that with a little bit of
elbow grease and the right sort

of materials, we should be able to
recover most of it

and make it shine again.

So just spinning the wheel, I can see
that it's not true.

It wants centralising to the hub, but
the rest

of it just wants a really good clean.

And I want to try and preserve the
integrity of it,

but also make it shine.

The first thing really to do is just
to take it apart

and then assess it as we go along.

- As Tim starts salvaging the prized
push-bike,

painting conservator Lucia Scalisi is
planning her own rescue mission

on behalf of some of Britain's bravest
-

firefighter Stefan Mannion and cadet
instructor Barbara Botsford.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.

- How are you?
- I'm good, thank you.

You brought in this quite incredible
painting.

- Yeah, so this painting is out of our
mental wellbeing garden

at Holloway Fire Station.
- North London.
- Yeah.

It's just a nice place for if you've
come back after,

you know, a busy shift, bad incidents,
things like that,

we can go in the garden and have a
coffee, have a chat.

For example, like, our station
attended Grenfell and

we were at the Wennington fire last
year with all the big wildfires,

and we went and it was like a w*r
zone.

Just every house had been burnt to the
ground.

But, yeah, it's just nice to have
somewhere like that to go back

and then just massively just
decompress and breathe,

and just...and then just reset for the
next one.

Yeah.
- Yeah.

And then sharing that experience with
your colleagues who are sat

in this calm space, I guess?
- Absolutely, yeah.

And that's the best way to do it,
really.

That's why we take so much pride in
the garden

and our mental wellbeing space.
- Yeah.

- You go in, you sit down, you hear
the water running, you see the fish.

It's just a very peaceful space.

And it's not one you would expect to
find on a fire station,

but one that is so necessary.

- It's a great space.

But this is, like, the centrepiece of
our garden.

- It is absolutely magnificent.

Who painted it?
- Colin Jones painted it.

He was a firefighter at Holloway Fire
Station quite a long time.

And he retired a couple of years ago.

- He spent hours of his own time when
he was off-duty

doing the painting and basically
building the whole garden.

- Fantastic.
- He did an amazing job. So yeah, I
think it was Colin's way

of expressing pride in our station,
really.
- Yeah.

How did it get so damaged?

- To be honest, it is outside.

It is really exposed to the elements,

and I think that's where it's gone
wrong, really.
- Absolutely.

I'm just wondering if this might be
mould, actually.

Do you think?
- I'd potentially say so, yeah.

- These helmets were bright yellow.

- Oh, really?
- Oh, yeah.
- Bright yellow.

And the hose was the bright red.

The fire was much brighter,

so you could really see that it was a
fire.

And this was a big smoky area.

- It's a great depiction of the job.

- It's a unique piece.

And we're just very proud that it
belongs to us.
- Yeah.

- We want this picture to always be
there

for the teams that come after us.

- I think it's just a big statement of
how proud we are

of the station, really.
- Yeah.
- Cos we all love it there.

- Yeah. It's a great painting,

and I'll do my best.

I'll see you soon.
- See you soon.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.
- Bye.

- There it is.

How you doing, Lu?
- Hi, Jay.

Yeah.
- Wow, it's big, innit?
- It is.

- OK!

THEY LAUGH

- It really is. And it's got problems
like you wouldn't believe.

- Is that the varnish coming off
there?
- Yeah.

It's delaminating.

We have this beautiful example of a
tear,

but the primary problem is this -
black mould.

This has been hanging outside in a
wellness garden,

and it's got very damp.

And it's coming through from the
back...
- Wow.

- ..and eating the protein in the
paint.

You know, the oil in the paint?
- Yeah.
- Loves it.

- Is that what's feeding it, then?
- Yeah.

So, we can k*ll the mould with UV
light.

So, sunshine is perfect. So that's
what I'm going to do.
- OK.

- Put it on the easel and let it get a
few rays and see what happens.

- All right, well, let's get it on
there before it eats any more.

There we go.

Oh, that is bad, isn't it?

- Yeah.
- Wow.

OK.

All right.

OK.

All right, I'll leave you to it.
- Thank you.

OK...

- It's quite therapeutic, really.

- It certainly is.

Works better for me than therapy
itself, actually.

- Yeah?
- Oh, yeah.

- And cheaper.
- As well!

- With the BMX in pieces, Tim is
removing the rust

using a handy household hack.

- The best method for cleaning chrome,
actually,

is just using kitchen tinfoil.

I could use a very fine wire wool,

but that sometimes scratches the
chrome,

and tinfoil, it's softer and it won't
harm the chrome,

but it will hopefully take off the
rust.

So I'm just rubbing with a fair amount
of pressure.

And it's just a very, very simple,
clean method

of recovering chrome plating.

Actually, just doing that small area,

you can see the transformation

and you can start to imagine what it
was like when it was new.

There's an awful lot of chrome to go
through.

I've just got to keep attacking it,

and get it as shiny as I can.

Chromework on Dave's BMX has come up
beautifully.

I'm really, really pleased with it,
but there are lots and lots of other

little bits on this bike that need
specialist cleaning.

This is the bottom bracket.

It's the bit that has the bearings
that take the cranks, that allows

the rider to pedal it along.

So it's quite an important piece of
the bike.

So to clean this I've got a bowl of
cellulose thinners.

It's got to be clean, so when it goes
back in the frame,

everything works properly.

I'm just going to leave that to soak
for a bit.

There's all the rest of the bike to
clean.

I just want to make it functional and
beautiful once again.

- While Tim uses every trick in his
book to get the stunt bike gleaming,

outside, a showstopping repair is
arriving

for textile conservator Rebecca
Bissonnet.

- What's the most favourite thing
you've worked on, then?

- It was Queen Elizabeth's coronation
dress.

- Coronation one?

- Yeah, and it was just covered in
embroidery and jewels

and it was just...

- This one's not a coronation one,

but it's special.
- OK.

- Himself no stranger to a bit of
sartorial razzle-dazzle

is performer Ceri Dupree, from
Cardiff.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.

- Look at that.
- Oh!

Oh, my goodness.

- OK.

- Now, that is what you call a dress.
- LAUGHTER

- That's not mucking about, is it?

- Wow!
- Flamboyant or what?

- It is, isn't it?
- Cor, blimey.

All right, tell us about it.

- Well, it was worn in 1969 by Danny
La Rue.

- THE Danny La Rue?
- The Danny La Rue, yeah.

- So, for someone who doesn't know
Danny La Rue, could you explain?

- Danny La Rue was the most famous
sort of female impersonator

in the whole of the UK in the '60s and
'70s.

You know, the first bloke in a frock
to appear in a Royal Variety show.

The Queen mother loved him. Princess
Margaret loved him.

The Queen loved him, you know?

I can remember the first time I ever
saw him on television.

It was Christmas Eve, and we were
waiting for our colour television.

The man put it in, installed it, and
the first thing that I saw

on colour television was Danny La Rue.
- Danny La Rue!

- And my mother said, "That's a man."

Like, "What?!" I was ten.

- Yeah, yeah!
- 10, 11...

"That's a ma...?" "It's a man."
- Yeah!

- I said, "Oh, my God." And I don't
know,

I just thought, that's just amazing,
you know, wonderful.

And I followed him through his career,
and I sort of grew up,

and I was appearing in a cabaret in
London, Madame Jojo's...

- Hold on, you went into the same kind
of profession?

- I did, yeah, yeah.

- Inspired by Danny?
- Well...
- Come on, tell me.

- Inspired by Danny La Rue,

but my parents were performers, my
sister's a performer.

And anyway, I ended up working in this
club, Madame Jojo's,

for two years.
- Madame Jojo's...

- Danny La Rue came in one night.
- No way.
- Yeah.

And I met him after the show.

- Yeah?
- He bought me a drink and was
chatting away,

and it was just nice to meet him, you
know?

And I got to know him, and got quite
friendly with him.

He was everything I expected him to be
and more.
- Yeah.

- You know, he'd sit drinking
champagne

and tell all these stories.

I mean, he had a nightclub in London
for years, and the people that went

there, the people he met, you know,
Charlie Chaplin

and Barbra Streisand, Bette Davis,

Princess Margaret went there, you
know?

Anyway, one night I'd been drinking a
bit of champagne.

So I said to him, "Look, I don't want
you to die,

"but when you do, actually, you know,
go..."
- Yeah.

- "..would you leave me a costume?"

And Annie, his dresser, was in the
kitchen there, and he said

to her, "Annie, love, look,

"dig him something out when I pop my
clogs."

Bless him, he did...he did leave us.

Yeah, it was really, really sad, you
know?

And then, of course, I kept in touch
with Annie, and she gave me this.

- Wow.
- Wow.

- So I wore it in pantomime one year,

cos Dan wore it in 1969 as Queen
Passionella in Sleeping Beauty,

and I was playing Queen Passionella

in Sleeping Beauty in the Grand
Theatre.

- So what's wrong with the dress?

- Well, this would be, what, 54 years
old now?

We put those on there because it
didn't fit right.

They used to be all diamante, all
edged on there.

I mean, those boobs have been put in
there, new ones.

- Oh, have they, yeah?
- Yeah.

The train is pretty bad.

That's very bad, there.
- I see that.

- All those frills have gone there.

And this is not the original lining.
- Yeah.

- So your intention is for Rebecca to
repair this,

and then what are you going to do with
it?

- I'm a patron of a couple of
charities,

and we have costume exhibitions,

and I would put this in as the
centrepiece, as it were.

- It's got to be.

- It's keeping Dan's name out there
and his legacy alive, you know?

Yeah.

- Well, thank you for bringing us in
and taking us back down memory lane.

It's a real joy.

- My absolute pleasure.
- Nice one.

All right.
- Bye-bye.
- Take care.
- Bye.
- Bye-bye. Thank you so much.

- Now, that...is a dress.

- That is a lot of dress.

- Imagine that.
- Yeah.

- Danny La Rue wearing this, eh?
- Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it?

- I'll tell you what, he's going to be
looking down.

You best do a good job of that.
- Even more pressure!

- All right.
- OK.
- I'll give you a hand.

Wow.

- Wow, this is a lot of dress.

It makes me smile.

It's the colour and the textures and
the fabrics and, you know,

you can imagine Danny stepping out,

and this dress really would have
shaped him

into a fantastic hourglass figure.

So this is a huge job.

We've got this really fine chiffon,
which has got rips.

We've also got some missing trim from
across the top here.

And Ceri had also put these little
straps in

to hold the dress together.

I think that's partly because this
padding is really heavy.

This is a later addition.

It's pretty hefty, and I think it's
pulling the dress apart.

We've also got this incredible silver
lining.

It's not quite fitting with the rest
of the dress.

So I think my first thing to do is to
investigate what's under there.

You assume it's been put on maybe to
hide some damage, and I was hoping

that I might be able to find maybe
some remnants

of the original lining underneath.

I've actually found this...

It's just amazing!

..golden fabric, and so far it looks
like it's in great condition.

Every dress has a silver lining,

and this is my silver lining,

though it's a little bit gold.

I've got a lot still to remove,

and hopefully I won't have any nasty
surprises.

- Lucia's got the hose out on the fire
station painting.

- So, now the sun has done the job of
drying out the mould,

and the UV light kills it,

I'm just using a museum vac, which is
controllable suction,

to take off the debris.

It's not bad.

I've found worse behind paintings,
that's for sure.

Dead birds that get stuck down there,

certainly plenty of spiders and
insects.

It could be a lot worse.

And I can see a lot of the dried-out
mould is coming off as well.

It will always be stained,

but it's now turning into a pale grey
stain.

So I'm thinking that the sun has
actually done its work.

So no pressure, low suction.

Let's finish the job.

Oh...

Whoa.

Oh, I've turned it over, having got
the frame off,

and I was looking around this tear.

And this is where the actual varnish
is delaminating

from the surface of the paint.

So where it's all foggy, it's actually
air in between.

I'm trying to see if there is any
possibility that I can get

this varnish off the surface of the
paint.

I need to find a little...

Oh. This little piece of varnish here,

so that's actually lifted up. I
haven't done that.

It was just there.

So what I'm going to do is...

..get my palette knife.

Look at that.

- SHE GASPS

- Look at that!

- WHISPERING:
- Look at that.

It's like a crocodile underwater.

Look at that.

Oh, this is going to be so satisfying.

So I'll just let this go as far as it
will go, gently.

I've never had this where it's
actually peeled off

without any effort.

Right, we're going to see some flesh
tones.

The varnish is coming off this easily

because it's not a painting's varnish.

It's meant to be put on, basically, a
wooden surface, so it soaks in,

and it hasn't really bonded with this
surface at all.

Oh, this is unbelievable!

This is really quite something.

I'm very happy.

- Now the myriad parts of the vintage
BMX are meticulously cleaned

of rust and grime,

Tim can turn to the wheels that
launched a thousand tricks.

- I've got the rear wheel of Dave's
BMX lovely and clean.

It's come up really well, but having
just put this in this

lovely old wheel building jig now, I
can see that the rim itself

has got quite a lot of dents in it,

probably because Dave's been BMXing
too much.

You know, it's had a lot of bashes and
crashes,

and the rear wheel is part of the bike
that takes the most impact.

- GENTLE SCRAPING

- So as I spin it,

you can hear the rim touching the
guide.

And my job, really, is to make it not
make that noise.

So to pull the rim over to that
side...

..I have to release

spokes on this side, and all it takes
is a few turns

of the spoke adjuster to drag it
across.

To do that, I have a simple little
tool called a spoke key.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going
to release two or three...

..spokes, and see if that makes a
difference.

These spokes are actually quite tight,

and what I don't want to do is
over-strain them.

So you can hear now that that noise is
gone,

which means that it's not touching the
guide any more.

- Golden girl Rebecca is having a bit
of a song and dance

with the cabaret dress.

- I've managed to get the lining off,
so I'm really pleased.

It's got this gorgeous lining
underneath,

and I think it looks really good,

and it's all in one piece.

So now that that is done, I need to
start to think

about how I'm going to tackle these
layers and layers of chiffon.

Throughout the whole of the cape,

I've got quite a few areas of these
tears and these splits.

Because the chiffon is so fine, I'm
sort of limited to what I can do.

So my plan is to use a silk crepeline,
which is a very,

very lightweight silk, and I will be
able to put

it behind all of these holes.

And that will give a strength to this
weak area.

And it'll also hold these tears and
splits in place.

I'm going to have to use an adhesive,
because I don't want

to be stitching into this really fine
fabric.

So what I'm going to do is basically
make this into a sticky fabric.

So, I'm just going to tape it down

onto the polythene.

My fabric is nice and flat, so I'm now
going to add my adhesive.

Right. That's done.

I've now got this crepeline sticky on
one side

so I can put it behind all of these
areas of loss.

So, I'm just going to peel the
polythene off.

And... A bit of trouble seeing this.

So, that's better.

Try and get it as straight as we can.

This will be nicely supported and keep
everything in place

for another good few years to come.

That's worked.

Right, so that's one down,

there's about 600 left to do.

- How's it going, Will?
- Hey, mate.

- Oh, what's this one for, then?

- Floorboards for my flat.

Nah, I'm joking!
- A little bit of private work is not
good!

Be they Old Masters or 21st-century
firefighters,

Lucia gives every artwork the same
impeccable treatment.

- I've repaired some of the tears with
my nylon gossamer and beaver film,

which gives a really nice patch on the
back,

and it's super thin.

But for the larger losses where I
can't bring the tears

together, I'm going to infill them
with original canvas

from this painting that was on the
back of the stretcher.

And it will also give me a really nice
original surface

to do my retouchings on.

So this is... It's a little bit
fiddly,

but it's a nice fiddly.

So I'm happy with the way that that's
fitting in that loss there.

And I'm going to actually put the
patch on the back

with my nylon gossamer.

Like that. Just going to lay in there
like that.

So I use a bit of my release paper on
top, which means that the patch

won't stick to my heated spatula.

And then have a look.

That's holding it all into place.

That's good.

- From repairing tears to tearing up
the dirt track,

Tim's rebuilt the restored BMX

and is proudly installing the
finishing touches.

- Now that I'm putting on things like
these handlebar grips, it kind of

reminds me of when I first got into
cycling and riding a bike,

and to have that feeling of riding
down the road for the first time

gives you such ultimate freedom.

It allows you to be someone completely
different and explore.

It takes you places.

Hopefully with Dave and his BMX, it's
his past riding a BMX,

enjoying life with his mates, and
obviously that's how he met Sharon.

So it's a real tangible link to those
memories, and it's something

that a simple BMX bike can bring.

And it's so rewarding, from my point
of view,

to be able to just put it back
together, overhaul it,

and be able to be part of that story.

- Restoring this bike means Dave and
Sharon will be reminded

of the heady days of hops, drops,

and the flush of new love when they
first met.

- Lovely work, Tim.
- Oh, thanks very much.

- Nice and shiny.
- It's a lot shinier than it was.

Very pleased with it.

- Right, here we go.

- Hi.
- Hi.
- Welcome to the barn.
- Morning.

- You must be Dave.

- I am.

- It's a pleasure to meet you, Dave.
- And you, sir.

- So, BMXing and bikes,

is that something quite big for you,
then?
- It was...

It was my life.

Every day, if I could get out and
ride, we would be out doing BMXing.

And, well, Christmas come along and
it's just...

LAUGHTER

- You must have been made up.

- Something else. Absolutely made up,
yeah.

- Yeah.

Shall we have a look at what Tim's
done for you?

- Oh, yes.
- Yeah?

You ready?
- Oh, yes.

- OK.
- OK.

- Oh, my lord.

- Oh, wow.

- I was not expecting it to be that
shiny.

Look at it!

- That's amazing.

- That is awesome.

That is absolutely fantastic.

I can't get over it.

I really didn't think it would come up
as well as that.

That is beyond me.

It is... Blown me away.

- It's not often he's lost for words.

- No.
- Yeah.

That's made my job very rewarding.

- It symbolises my youth,

takes me back to happy days.

- Yeah.
- Happy days.

- Just to see it gleaming again, and a
life brought back into it...

Yeah, it's just...it's amazing.

I think it's meant more to me than I
thought it did, to be honest.

- To see my bike in that condition
absolutely blew me away.

Like a child at Christmas.

Like I was in 1997.

It's amazing. I am...

..stoked.

- Have you got a pocket watch?

- Yeah, I've got a few.

- Think you'll like this one coming in
as well.

- Oh, really?
- Yeah.

- Is it a watch?

- You'll have to wait and see.

- Is it a clock?

- You'll have to wait and see.

- Is it...?

No, I'll wait and see.

- That's what I like to hear.

- Next, a piece of Britain's proud
industrial heritage.

Brothers Nick and Chris Leek are
hoping Steve Fletcher

can revitalise their marvellous
machine.

Hello, how are we doing?

- Fine, thank you.
- Good.

That's a nice pocket watch you've got
there, eh?

- It's a great pocket watch.

- I don't think you've seen one of
these before,

let's put it that way.
- No, never! What is it?

- It's called a dynamometer.

- A dynamometer?

And what does that do?

- It's for measuring the strength of
twine, which was used to make

sandbags or coal bags or wheat bags.

- So you test the strength of the
twine?

- If you buy a sandbag and you threw
it down and that burst,

they wouldn't be very happy, would
they?
- No, they wouldn't be.

- It was the first thing I had to do

when I joined the family business at


"Chris, you've got to test the
strength of the twine."

- So how old is this family business?

- Well, we think it goes back to about


- Oh, wow.
- Cor, blimey.

- My father was in the business,
grandfather, and even before.

I mean, several grandfathers were.
- That's right, yes.

I enjoyed my career there. I spent 42
years.

- 42 years?
- Yeah. In the family business, yeah.

- So how does it actually work?

- You used to get some of the twine.
You put a bit on here,

and then my brother will show you

that we used to wind up the handle on
the end.

And as you can see, it's getting
tighter and tighter.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- Unfortunately, this part of it
doesn't work at the moment.

- So, as you wind that, that goes
round, depending on the tension?

- It should do.
- Exactly.

And then when this breaks, that will
stop going round, and that will

tell you it's at whatever...
- What the breaking strain is.

- So, you'd make bags for who?

Who are you making the bags for?
- Anybody.

- We have got an article from the East
Anglian Daily Times, 1919...

- Right.

- ..where there was a long list of
items that we supplied

to the British Army, and also 200,000
sandbags

to the Belgian Government for the
First World w*r.

- Well, there were a lot of sandbags
used.

- Yeah, because you had all the trench
work.
- Yeah.

Prop up the sandbags...

- I think we made mess tin covers so
that all the earth from the bombs

didn't land in your mess tin.
- Oh, my goodness.

- We made mattress covers for all the
troops.

- You made all those?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

We've got a picture of the people
outside the factory,

and there's over 300 people in it.

- Oh, wow.

- In the old days, also, we had a hire
business

where we had a million 12-stone sacks

in the hire fleet for the harvest.
- Every harvest.

Then they used to come back and we
used to empty them, repair them,

and put them back on the stack for the
following year.

- Yeah.
- Cor, blimey.

- But then, of course, the trade
disappeared

because everybody went to bulk.

- Yeah.
- And plastic.
- Yeah, of course.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Has the factory completely gone now?

- 1987, yes.
- Yeah.

- It must have been quite a sad time
for you to close the factory

after it had been in the family for
generations like that.

- Yes, I was there the day Dad got the
people together

and actually told them. And it was a
sad day.

- Is this the only piece of equipment
that you've got left

from that factory?

- It's the only physical bit, I think,
that we've got left.

- This is quite significant to you,
then?

- Absolutely, yes.

- You know, we've got something to be
proud of about it.
- Yes.

- How much of it would you like me to
clean up?

- Well, you can take some of the dust
off!

I got a feeling that this is brass,
and that should buff up nicely.

I'm not sure.

- Yeah, and I think the wood could be
freshened up.

- So what would it mean to see this
restored?

- I think everything.
- Yeah?

- Memories.

I mean, especially for me, because I
used to use it, you know?

And it's nostalgia, isn't it, at the
end of the day?
- 100%.

- And we're proud of what we had.

- I cannot wait to take it apart and
have a look and see how it works.

- Super. Well, good luck.

- Thank you very much.
- Nice to meet you.

- Take care.
- Lovely, thank you.
- OK, goodbye.
- Bye-bye.

- What an amazing piece of machinery.
- You like this, don't you?

- I love it to bits.
- Eh?

- I love quirky things.

And this is such well-made quirkiness,
isn't it?

- This is proper quirkiness.

- Yes!
- You can't wait. Go on, enjoy
yourself.

- I really empathised with Chris and
Nick

having to close their business down
after generations,

because I've come from a long line of
craftspeople,

and for me to close down the business
would be a real heartbreak.

So yeah, it must have been really sad.

And this really does signify what they
did in the factory.

It's all very tired, and I think that
it'd be nice

if everything was polished up.

So I'll certainly hand over the wooden
part to Will.

It's always nice to...

..take things apart that I've never
taken apart before,

to see how things work.

Well, that came apart fairly easily.

So I can actually see two huge springs
in here, which obviously

the handle fights against when it's
winding down a piece of twine.

And both springs are absolutely fine.

So I can see this pinion,

which is in really good condition,

although the actual bearing part here
is very, very stiff.

I think that might be some of the
problem.

This pinion runs into a rack,

which runs up and down and turns the
hand around.

I think because it's been stored for
such a long time in a damp place,

everything's just seized up.

What I'm going to do is strip it all
down,

give it a good polish, good clean,

sort out the seized bearings.

- With the many tears and the tiers on
Danny La Rue's frock now repaired,

Rebecca can focus on getting its
bounce back.

- This padding is just too heavy on
the dress,

and it's pulling it apart at this area
here.

My solution is to create a really
lightweight but firm padding

that can go in here.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going
to use this fabric.

This is brilliant stuff.

And it's a bit like a really thick
craft felt.

And it's magic, because you can create
it into a shape.

And then, by applying heat, it
hardens.

But it's really lightweight.

I've never actually made boobs before.

I've made shoulder pads, but boobs is
new to me, so...

Let's hope it works.

- SHE LAUGHS

- OK.

It's a really good shape.

All I've got to do now is cut them
out.

Aw, great.

That's fitting really nicely, so I'm
going to try and anchor it in

just using some of the seam lines and
some of the diamantes,

just so that I can't see the stitching
that I'm putting in.

- I'm on the home straight with this
painting.

I'm doing the final retouching.

When this painting came in,

I honestly thought it was going to be
a salvage job.

It's so fragile because of the mould
and the damp,

but it's been miraculous.

So we've got a little bit of a
resurrection going on,

and I'm absolutely thrilled to bits.

I had no idea how this was going to
turn out,

but I'm really pleased with it.

I'm going to continue with this
retouching, and then it

will be ready to go back to Holloway
Fire Station.

- Painted by a long-serving colleague,

this tribute to the bravery of
firefighters

was badly in need of rescue.

Eager to see it installed in that
vital relaxation space,

Lucia's travelled to North London to
see Stefan, Barbara,

and the rest of the Holloway heroes.

- Hello.

- It's so special to be here, guys.

Thank you.
- Very excited.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

- We've got from young cadets through
to serving firefighters here,

to senior officers who are all...
Everyone's very excited.

- Are you ready to see the painting?

- Absolutely. Yes, please.
- Really?
- Yes, please.

- OK.

- Look at that!

That's incredible.

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

That's superb.

- TEARFULLY:
- Thank you so much.

- My pleasure.

- That is incredible.

- It's beautiful, and it's our
picture.

It's our picture back.

- It's brilliant. Thank you so much.

- It's amazing.

That window wasn't there.

But look at how it stands out.

It's a miracle that she managed to fix
it.

And you know, the story of how it got
fixed

will be one that we tell in the Fire
Cadets,

because it is just incredible.

Part of Holloway's history.

We're just thrilled to have it back.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- It means... It does mean the world,
yeah.

It's brilliant.

- Hey, Steve.

Is this for me?
- It is, yeah.

This is the backboard of the
dynamometer, which was used

for judging the breaking point of
yarns and strings

and what have you.
- The dynamometer?

- Yes!
- That's a first for me.

- I know. It's a good word, isn't it?

- It's a nice bit of wood, actually.

- It is.
- Mahogany.

- It's very tired, as you can see,

and I know that you can spruce that up
and make it look brilliant.

- So, a clean and a polish?

- Yeah.
- OK.

I'll take it away.
- Lovely. Thank you.

- With Will set to task on the wood,
Steve turns his attention to gently

degreasing the brass parts of this
rather remarkable machine.

- The first thing I need to do is

get all the small parts into the
clock-cleaning fluid.

And now I need to do some hard
scrubbing

of the rest of the brass work that is
too big to go into the pot

of clock-cleaning fluid.

The wire wool that I'm using is a
really fine wire wool,

with a little bit of clock-cleaning
fluid on.

I'm just gently rubbing the surface,

and it's just coming back to that
beautiful brass colour now.

I've cleaned all of the parts for the
dynamometer,

and I'm just moving on to the main
hands now.

It was heat blued originally.

Heat blueing is where you raise the
temperature of an item

until it changes colour to get a nice
dark blue on it.

Because, number one, it looks
brilliant.

It looks absolutely fantastic.

The other thing is that it does
protect it from rusting,

because people are going to be

turning it with their hands all the
time.

And the acid in your fingers can make
a hand rust.

And I'm sure when Chris sees it again,
it'll take him back

to the time when he used to use this
to test the strength

of all the yarns that they had to do.

So I've taken most of the rust off,
and now I'm just making sure

that the surface is smooth.

If there are any little bits of rust,
any blemishes at all,

it will really stand out like a sore
thumb as soon as it goes blue.

I like to make a perfect job before I
put it in the kiln.

If you heat steel up to about 275
degrees, it'll turn dark blue.

If the temperature went over 275
degrees,

it'll start going a very light blue.

So it is quite critical that we get it
to the right temperature.

That's great.

- MACHINE BEEPS

- I just need to come back in a couple
of hours and hopefully

it will be that lovely colour.

- So my plan is to use my home-made
cleaning solution.

It's made of white spirit, methylated
spirits,

and a bit of linseed oil.

When you mix it up, it goes into,
like, a milky colour.

This is now ready for polishing.

Maybe one or two super-thin coats of
polish should really lift

the surface and bring out the lovely
colour in the grain.

- This has blued really quite nicely.

Slightly lighter than I thought it was
going to be,

but once I get some lacquer onto it,
it'll darken it down a bit.

That looks fabulous.

I think once it's against the brass
dial, it'll look superb.

So, I'll let that dry,

and then I can get on with the
reassembly of the whole dynamometer.

- Having replaced the old padding with
a perkier pair,

it's almost showtime for Rebecca and
the Danny La Rue dress.

- I'm just going to remove these
braces.

So these aren't original to the dress,

and were put in when it had that
really heavy padding in there.

It would have had a lovely trim all
the way down.

I suppose it just sort of finishes off
this neckline, which is how it

would have been when Danny would have
worn it.

So the final thing to do is to get the
jewels

all the way down the neckline.

I am going to just start at the centre

and work up either side.

Just stitching it into place along
that very edge.

Danny was one of the first mainstream
female impersonators,

and he would have just looked iconic
in this dress.

So I hope that when Ceri sees this
dress,

he can see Danny stood there, at his
most elegant,

and I hope that it will remind him of
their friendship.

- This flamboyant frock once graced
the curves of entertainer Danny La
Rue,

but the rigours of the stage had left
it looking bedraggled.

Ceri's keen to see the dress full of
sparkle once more -

a fitting tribute to his hero and
friend.

- It's so exciting.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- Are you all right?

- Excited and nervous at the sort of
same time,

cos I know exactly how much work goes
into creating this.

And then obviously, to get it back to
its former glory is probably

just as much work, if not more, you
know?

Some of his stuff is in the V&A, you
know,

and maybe that might end up in there
one day.

Who knows, you know?

So...
- Are you ready?

- Yes!
- Are you ready to see this?

- Oh, my God.

You've done the neckline, all that...

Flippin' hell.

I just think it's fantastic.

And the history in it, the colours and
all the, you know,

it lights so well.

- It's been lovely to work on, really.

- Yeah?
- Yeah, you can almost feel his
presence, you know, in that.

- I just wish that he was still alive
and he was here to...to see it.

I'm doing a costume exhibition next
year, but that will be in it

as the pride of place.

It's fabulous that you've brought it
back to its former glory.

He'd have been very pleased, I'm sure.

Thank you so much. Thank you, thank
you, thank you.

- You're welcome.
- Bye-bye.
- OK. Take care.

Rebecca! That was good. Yeah!

- He seemed pleased.
- Yeah!

Well, I'll help you pack it.

- Lovely. Thank you.

- One of my idols when I was a kid
became a friend of mine,

and I was important enough for him to
leave that costume to me.

And that means a lot.

I think Dan would be absolutely
thrilled that this dress

has been brought back to its sparkling
self.

He'd be absolutely thrilled. I know he
would.

- Will has done a lovely job with the
backboard

for the dynamometer, and I've got
everything else all set

to put back onto it.

So, here goes.

Just popping the big springs on now.

There we go.

I can then start on the main
mechanism, which is just a little

unit that holds the rack, which is
basically like a toothed wheel,

but on a straight line.

And this acts with this wheel.

And when you pull down this hook here,

it turns the hand.

And then when the yarn breaks,

this stays exactly where it was

so that it then records the breaking
strain.

I've absolutely loved working on this
dynamometer,

and I think the significance for

Chris and Nick is so, so big.

It's not just a machine.

It signifies the whole of their trade
and what it was,

and it was an amazing business.

And I still think they should be very,
very proud of that business,

because it was of its day.

And just because things have moved on
doesn't mean

that it wasn't an amazing, amazing
achievement.

- This dynamometer represented the
last piece of a family business

dating back to the 1700s,

proudly employing thousands and
supporting the w*r effort

before closing its doors in 1987.

It's a proud legacy for brothers Chris
and Nick, who remember

operating it in their youth.

- Wow, Steve. It's beautiful.

- It's lovely, isn't it?
- Yeah. It's stunning.

- Yeah.
- Really stunning.

Wow, they're going to be blown away
with this.

- Take that over the top there.

Oh, that's perfect.

Hello.
- Good morning.
- Hello.

How are you feeling?

- Quite excited, actually, yeah.

Very excited.
- Yeah?

- You know, for me, it just brings
back so many memories.

It really does.

I mean, I'm 76 now, and I was 18 when
I started using it,

and, you know, it's...

I just want to see it back as it was.

- Yes.
- Hopefully.

- I'm very excited to show you this,

because I've so enjoyed working on it.

- You've never seen one before, have
you?

- I've never heard of one!

Let alone seen one, so, yeah.

So, uh, let's have a look, shall we?

- Yes, lovely.

Oh, look at it.
- Wowee.

- That is superb.

- I never expected it to look anything
like that.

- No, that is lovely. It really is
lovely.

Yeah, and it's got the dial.

Look, Nick, and the...
- It looks absolutely fantastic.

That is... That was black.

I thought that was... I thought that
was mild steel.

- I heat-blued the hand.

- You've done a cracking job, there,
Steve, really.

- Yeah, you have. The tingles are
going up my back.

- Yes!
- Aww!
- They really are.

It's a fabulous feeling.

And it's the... It's the history of
our family.

- Do you want to have a go at testing
the strength of a piece of yarn?

- Yes! Let's have a go.
- OK, let's take it down.

- When was the last time you actually
used this for a purpose?

- When I was 18 years old.

- 50-odd years ago?
- It is.

I'd sit here and then I'd just wind
like this.

- Here we go.
- Oh, wow, it's moving.

- It'll stretch.

It's now stretched to an
inch-and-a-half.

- Oh, yes, I see.

- Now two inches it's stretched.

And the dial's up to 20 on the dial.
- 20...

- Now...
- That's some...

- Boing!

- LAUGHTER

- There we go.
- There we go. So that's at 28-ish on
the dial.

That's terrific.

Absolutely terrific.

- Right, well, it's yours to take away
and enjoy.

- Great, super.
- Thank you.
- Thank you very much, Steve.

Thanks, Lucia.
- A pleasure.

- Thank you, Steve. Well done.

- Great pleasure.

- Thank you.
- Bye-bye now.

- Bye!
- Bye!

- That's great, isn't it?

- A dynamometer.

- Yes.
- Dynamometer.

Say it.

- Dynamometer.
- Very good.

- Thank you very much!

- LAUGHTER

- I didn't expect it to look like
that.

To bring something back to life, which
can be passed on,

I think is great. So, I'm really
pleased.

- It feels fantastic.

It just takes me back,

and it's the only thing that we've got
left of our family business.

It's a symbol of that time, really.

- If you have a treasured possession
that's seen better days

and you think the team can help,

please get in touch at...

..and join us in the Repair Shop.