13x14 - Episode #13.14

[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.

- I don't think I'm even breathing at
this point.

- Lovely.
- So exciting.

- A dream team of expert
craftspeople...

- Stroll, stroll, stroll.

Back, back, back.

- It's going to look absolutely
stunning.

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

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

- It's so much fun.

- ..restore irreplaceable treasures...

SHE SCREAMS

- Take it away, Mark.

- ..and unlock the stories that they
hold.

- Oh, my God.

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

- You're a wizard.

- Thank you so much.

- These are the most awkward handles.
- And it's heavy.

- What's in it?

Like a thousand mini ukuleles or
something?

- Taking on the first assignment of
the day is barn's resident

silversmith Brenton West.

- Nice shirt today, Brenton.

- Thank you. It's the summer vibe.

- And the tan is looking good, as
well.

- Hoping to see an extraordinary
family heirloom transformed,

Rio Goldhammer knows Brenton is the
right man for the job.

- Hi, there.
- Hey.
- Hi.

- You must be Rio.

- I am.

- What do we have here?

- This is a very, very old silver tray
that's been in my family for...

..pushing 200 years now.
- 200 years?
- God.

- My grandad always said it was given
to the eldest son in the family,

which is kind of why I have it.

And because of that, we sort of think
maybe it's

a pidyon haben tray.

It's a Jewish ritual that is performed
when the first

son is born.

So if that's the case, then my
great-great-grandad would have lay

on this tray as a baby.

- Oh, really?
- Yeah.

Essentially, the first son has to be
kind of bought

back from God.

So you kind of pop the baby on the
tray, and they sort of say,

you know, "Would you prefer to keep
your money

"or have your son?"

And they said, "Oh, I'll keep my" son.

- Oh, that's quite sweet. "I think
I'll keep him."

Whereabouts did it start its life,
then?

- It probably would have been bought
by my great-great-great-grandfather,

cos it's mid-19th-century Viennese.

My great-great-grandfather was, like,
a lawyer in Vienna.

He kind of spent his life, um, working
towards,

like, Jewish rights.

He was ultimately in Sanok, which is a
small town in Poland.

And he was, like, deputy mayor of the
town.

- Not everyone has something like this
that has been held

by generations and generations before
them.

- My brother and I were very close to
our grandad Arthur.

And, actually, as the years go by,
it's probably the most kind

of cherished physical possession that
I have.

I suppose as I've got older and learnt
of the journey

that it must have taken to actually
get here and to survive where a lot

of my relatives didn't.

- What is the tray's journey? How did
it get here?

- Well, my family and a lot of
families like mine, especially

in Vienna and Poland, were kind of
either captured by Nazis

or by Stalin.

My grandad was only six when the w*r
started,

you know, when they got put in the
camps.

So he actually came out an orphan - it
was already kind of

too late for my great-grandparents.

He was at an orphanage in Moscow, and
I think his auntie -

so my great-aunt Hella, who had kind
of escaped to Australia

just before the w*r in about 1938 -

she managed to find him, get him on a
boat to Australia.

Now, my assumption is that Hella took
this to Australia with her.

- Yeah.

- Because certainly my grandad
wouldn't have had it with him.

But also, when you were in gulags, in
a prison camp, the only way

to actually survive this time was to
sell the possessions

that you brought with you.

- I can see a handle missing, but what
would you like done

to the tray, and what's actually wrong
with it?

- Well, it'd be great to have the
handle back.

I mean, that's the main thing.

Obviously, some of these kind of
ornate flowers on the edge -

so there's been something there - and
then obviously it's quite dull,

so it doesn't have much of a shine.
- Yeah. OK.

- If I could see it as my ancestors
saw it, then that'd be pretty

special, I think.

What this has endured is obviously
some of the worst horrors

of the 20th century, which my family
endured as well.

And this is kind of -just represents
the fact

that against those odds

and in spite of everything, we are
still here.

- I will do my best to make it look
beautiful for you.

- Thank you so much.
- Lovely to see you.

- Thank you.
- See you soon.

- Bye.
- Bye-bye.

- What amazing history.

And this is sort of here to tell the
story.

- It still exists.

- Yeah.
- Incredible.

- Well, it's had a past,

it's down to you to give this a
future. Good luck.

- Considering this has been round the
world, it's hardly surprising

that it's got damaged like this.

I'm going to have to make a whole new
handle for it, so I've got

a handle to copy, luckily.

I can make one exactly the same.

I've got to replace the missing
foliage.

Again, I've got a pattern over here
that I can copy.

It's going to be a lot - a lot of hard
work to make that again.

Yeah, it's going to be a challenge.

This tray is absolutely filthy dirty,

and the first thing I'm going to do is
take it outside

and give it a bath.

- Next, art conservator Lucia Scalisi
is waiting in the wings

to greet thespians Mark and Diane
White from Fife.

- Hello.
- Hello.

- Hi, there.
- Hi. Hello.

You've brought in a painted canvas.

- Yes, it's from our drama club in
Leslie in Fife.

- What's the club called?

- Leslie Amateur Dramatic Club.

- Mark is chair of the club and I'm
the secretary.

We think Leslie Drama is the oldest
continuously performing drama

club in Scotland.

- The club was actually set up in


in Leslie, and their first performance
was actually in 1905.

They had the rehearsal rooms at one
end of the high street

and the town hall at the other.

So all the scenery and all the parts
of the stage like this were carried

down the high street.

- That must have been a sight.

- I would imagine.

- And this sat above the stage in the
very centre for everyone

to look up at when they were...
- Fantastic.

- ..waiting for the play to start.

- Who painted this canvas?

- We believe this one was painted in
about 1950 by a gentleman called

Andrew Hurd, who was chairman and did
virtually everything

in the club for a period of about 50
years.

- He was a painter, a scenery creator,
an actor, a director.

We still have members of the club
today who remember Andrew

and remember him putting it above the
proscenium arch

of the stage.

- And how come you're both into drama?

- I started doing drama when I was in
high school -

musicals mainly -

and then I joined Leslie Drama.

And then you joined two years later,
and we played opposite each other

in a one-act play where we were
dressed as Greek statues.
- Yep.

- And in 2010, we were married.

- So you actually met on stage?

- Yes.
- How romantic.

How romantic.

- Sort of like star-crossed lovers.

- So you have a love of drama and the
club

and you're bringing all that together.

And you've got your own little love
story going on,

or big love story.
- Yeah.

- And is the club still there?

- In 1981, the club had to move from
the town hall.

We moved to several high schools, and
there's an awful lot of people

that actually didn't know that Leslie
Drama Club existed,

because we've been hidden away.

- But the club is returning to the
town hall

after all these years.

- We're moving ourselves back into the
heart of the community,

which is what we've wanted to do for a
long time.
- Yeah.

- The council had closed it about six
or seven years ago.

When it came on the market, I
inherited unexpectedly.

So I was able to actually go to the
council with a cash offer,

and now we're able to actually
preserve it for the people

of Leslie.
- Well done.

That is really quite an amazing feat,
isn't it?

It's really quite something.

- They're just itching for the doors
to open so that they can come out

on a Saturday night and see live
theatre or live bands, comedians,

whatever, in the town hall in their
own little town.

- So it's a real hub of the community.
- That's right.

- Yeah, that is amazing.

So what do you want me to do with this
canvas?

- Just maybe get it looking a bit less
sad, I think.

As soon as you touch it, the paint is
coming off.

- Yeah, that's the nature of it.

The fact that it's still here is
really quite a tremendous thing.

What would it mean to you personally
to have this restored?

- Well, we're heading towards our


We felt it was the ideal time to get
it restored and get the canvas put

back in the middle of the hall,

much as we're hoping to put the club
back in the middle

of the community.

- So that everyone from Leslie can see
it and be proud of the club

that they've got that survived through
everything.

So we're just standing on the
shoulders of giants

and going forward and getting this
back where it should be.

- That is a lovely way to put it.

- Yeah.

- Well, if you're happy to leave it
with me...
- Absolutely.
- ..I will

do my absolute best to get it spick
and span.

- Thank you very much.

- All right. I'll see you soon.

- OK, then. Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.

- I think it's a really interesting
painting.

I think the story is really quite
magical.

I love the idea of an amateur dramatic
society really bringing

in a whole town together, and it's
just magnificent.

It's all torn along the bottom here.

I can't restretch it,

so what I'm going to do is strip line
this bottom edge.

Now, that's adding another piece of
fabric on the bottom

that will allow me to be able to pull
this around the actual wooden

stretcher that it's on.

And then after that, the retouching.

There's some big scratches and losses
here, but my first

approach has to be the consolidation
of the flaking paint -

it is actively flaking - so I can't
really do anything

until I've actually got the paint
reattached.

But before I even get to that stage, I
also need to do some

little cleaning tests and I'll go into
the different colours

and see what happens.

- Outside, Brenton is getting to grips
with his repair of the silver tray.

- The handle from this end of the tray
is completely missing.

This handle is intact, luckily, and
I'm going to attempt to cast

a new handle using casting sand, so I
need to put some sand

in the bottom of this,

make the bottom impression,

put this other box on top, put sand on
top, and hopefully

I'll have a mould I can pour some
silver into.

Now this sand I'm using is a special
casting sand,

which is a very fine sand that's got
an oil mixed with it,

and that makes the sand stick
together.

If this works, this will be the
biggest thing that I've ever cast

using this method, and I'm still not
sure if it will work or not.

It might end up that I get bits of
handle that I've got to solder

together, and I might have to cast it
more than once.

I've got to put some releasing powder
- I use plaster.

If you put that on the lower half,

it stops the two halves sticking
together.

OK, I'm going to put this half of the
mould onto here

and start to put sand into this part.

And hopefully mould the intricate part
of the handle.

- Come on, Julie. Keep in a straight
line.

You all right?
- I love being your lumberjill.

- LAUGHING:
- Yeah! A lumberjill, I like it.
- Yeah!

- Now I've made the two halves of the
mould,

I've got to melt some silver and try
pouring that in -

see if it makes an impression.

I've got some scrap silver here, which
is part of my collection -

whenever I'm making something, any
offcuts go into this little pot

to melt and make into other things.

That's reached the thousand degrees.

Hopefully the silver will have melted
in that crucible.

I've got to be quite quick because
it'll cool down very quickly

as soon as I take it out.

That is molten.

Wow.

- HE BLOWS SHARPLY

- Go out.

Let's have a look and see what it
looks like.

Look at that.

Really, really, really, really pleased
with that.

So I'm just going to leave that to
cool down, and then I can

start cleaning it up and trying to
match it to the tray.

It's going to look really fantastic.

- Next, metalworker Dominic Chinea has
swooped in

to answer a distress call from Sally
Wilkinson from Norfolk.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- Welcome to the barn.
- Thank you.

- Sally, I don't know where to start.

I've got so many questions.

I guess, what is this?

- This is a model of East Anglian Air
Ambulance.

My late dad, Alec Garrard, made it.

- Why, I guess?

Why did he want to make this?

- He always did make things -

he made me stilts,

he made little drums, and he made his
own car.

- He made his own car?

- He made his own car, yes.

- But fully, like, on the road, like a
kit car?

Or he built it all?

- Built it all. It's in the 1950s.

- That's impressive.
- He liked to bang his hammer about

and everybody used to know. "Your
dad's here, we can hear him."

He probably went round the workshop
and found bits and pieces

to make it up.
- Bits of tin, bits of aluminium, bits
of wood.

There's all sorts in here.
- Yeah, that's my dad.

- And then this looks like a bit
of...maybe drainpipe?

- Yeah.

- Obviously a clever man. I love it. I
just love this ingenuity.

It's just... It's brilliant.
- Yeah.

- Why did he want to make this?

- To put on the top of the roof of
Bullock Fair Charity Shop,

to promote the charity shop and the
Air Ambulance Charity.

He started the charity shop in 1999
and I worked there full-time.

In all, we've raised £2.3 million.

- 2.3 million?
- Yes. Yes.

- So this was kind of a weather
vane...

- It was, yes.
- ..on top of the roof?
- Yes,

and the propellers used to go around

and helicopter used to go around,

and the little man used to go up and
down in it.

- So this little guy, he...?
- That little guy, yes.

- How?!
- There's... Inside,

there is, um...

My dad made it,

it was an electric drill.

- So the drill would kind of wind the
string up or something?

- Wind that up and down, yes.

He used to get up on the roof and
change the battery.

And the little man used to go up for
two or three hours.

- That's such a...
- He was always creating things,

making things, doing things for the
shop

and repairing it where it needed to be
repaired.

So, yes, greatly missed when he went.

So, yes, it was very sad.

That was 2010 he passed away.
- OK.

- The shop still keep going.

- But he's left behind an amazing
legacy.

I mean, this is kind of a symbol of
it,

but there's a lot more to it than
this.
- It is, yes.

It's why I want it repaired.

It's a symbol to him for all that he's
done.

- What are you hoping I'm able to do
to it?

- The propellers came off.

They are a bit insecure.

- Yes.
- It needs a repaint, so it looks like
it was originally.

You can see it's all a bit battered.

- If I'm able to repair it, please say
it's going to go back on the roof.

- Oh, yes!
- Yeah?
- Yes,

it's definitely going to go back on
the roof

so everybody can see it.
- Good.

- It always reminds me of Dad when I
see it up there.

And that's like a legacy for him
because that's what he did.

He made things...
- Yeah.
- ..and everybody can see it.

- Just - I'm honoured to be a very
small part

of such an amazing thing.
- Yeah.

- Leave it with me and I will do the
best I can.

- All right. Thank you.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.

- I love the challenge of getting this
helicopter working again.

The body is mostly made of aluminium,
which is clever

because it doesn't rust and
deteriorate in the same way

that steel does.

But the paint is just flaking off.

One way or another, I'm going to get
this little guy

popping up and down again.

It kind of looks a bit like me.

Should we call him Little Dom?

- DOM CHUCKLES

- This is very clever.

Look, a bit of filing cabinet there.

A couple of pulleys off a VCR or
something like that.

There is literally a drill in here.

Absolutely brilliant.

But first things first,

I need to get all of this mechanism
out so I can have a proper look.

- That looks like a massive whistle,
David.

- It basically is. It's actually an
organ pipe.
- Oh, no way.

- But, um, not a very healthy organ
pipe at the moment, so...

- No noise coming out of it.
- Wants a bit of work, yeah.

- The painted stage canvas' unstable
surface

is causing all sorts of drama for
Lucia.

- From the cleaning test...

..I worked out it's quite a
problematic painting.

It's painted in a household emulsion,

so we've got a lot of crumbling,

and there's a lot of loss in this
bottom area in particular.

The first thing I've got to do is get
the paint fixed back

onto this canvas.

Consolidation is putting an adhesive
onto the paint layer to reattach.

I'm using my heated spatula, which
helps the adhesive to flow

and also to fix very quickly.

Because this canvas is so rough, for
this paint to still be attached

to it is nothing short of a miracle,
to be honest. But the bits

that are flaking are happily sitting
back down where they belong.

So once the consolidation is done,
I'll feel much more confident

about handling the canvas, and then
I'll be able to move

on to the next stages of repairing the
most damaged areas.

- Now the new handle for the silver
tray is cast,

Brenton can turn his attention to the
missing decorative moulding.

- I'm going to make a silicone cast of
it, and then I'm going to use

a metal clay which has silver in it,
and hopefully I'm going to put

that clay into my silicone mould,

and when you fire it in a kiln, the
clay burns away and leaves

just the silver behind.

It's quite miraculous how it works.

I need to mix up equal parts of this
silicone.

This is very similar to the moulding
compounds that a dentist might use

for making moulds of your teeth and
your mouth.

We're just making sure that it's in

to all of the little intricate flowers
and stems.

I'm just going to try and peel this
off and see what it looks like.

Oh, it's coming off quite well. OK.

I'm just going to push this clay into
the mould.

That's OK.

I'm going to try and peel the silicone
away from the clay

without breaking the clay.

And the clay is quite fragile now.

So we've got the detail of the flowers

on here that is on the tray.

And I've now got to cook that at 800
degrees.

And hopefully I can make this piece
fit into the hole on the tray

and you won't be able to tell that
it's ever been repaired.

- With any restoration, preserving the
touch of the creator

is paramount, and the homemade
helicopter is no exception.

- This lovely sort of handwritten text
on the side -

I love that, and I think little
details like that

give it its character and I don't want
to lose that,

which is very easily done with a
brand-new paint job.

So I'm just taking some time to trace
around all

of these little details,

so once I've rebuilt the helicopter,

I can actually paint all of these back
on.

Now...I can get on with the paint
stripping.

I'm going to use a chemical stripper
for this.

It's kind of sad in a way, to be
brushing away so much history,

but it's got to be done.

It is the best thing to do for the
helicopter,

however painful this is.

Already it's all wrinkling up.

Brilliant.

Once I've finished stripping off all
of this paint,

I can turn my attention to the
mechanism.

That is not going to be
straightforward.

- Already in the throes of a major
challenge,

Lucia - stabilising the weak and
tattered drama club canvas.

- I finished the consolidation, and
now I'm working on the back

of the painting.

The bottom edge was completely broken,
so the next job is to attach

another edge to the bottom so that I
can then put it back

onto the new stretcher.

I'm using polyester, which is very
stable.

This won't respond any differently to
the actual main body

of the canvas.

I've prepared it with a feathered edge

so that it makes it a thinner aspect

when it's sitting on the back of the
painting.

I'm going to just line it all up.

Let's see what happens.

I've got my lovely lining iron.

Oh, that's quite nice.

Melting beautifully.

And then I've got a new stretcher.

It's got crossbars, so it's a lot more
stable than the other one.

You can see these are the original
canvas edges already curled

up around the edge of the stretcher.

And I'm going to reattach that with
copper tacks.

And this is the new bottom edge.

Once all the edges are attached to the
new stretcher,

we're on the home straight.

I've done the tacks on the edge of the
painting,

and it's tensioned,

and I've applied the first coat of
brush varnish.

This is a particular varnish that A*DS
consolidation, but it also

provides me with the isolating layer
between the next phase -

which is the filling - which I'm doing
now.

There are many losses all over the
surface of this, so I'm filling

using a commercially prepared acrylic
filler.

It's very adaptable.

It has a lot of plasticity, quite
elastic.

And for this type of canvas, it kind
of needs something quite substantial

to sit on the surface.

And this filling provides me a ground
on which I can

do the retouching.

And also just to bring it all up to a
nice surface level.

Once all the fillings are in place,
I'll be ready for retouching.

- After a sterling effort, Brenton is
on the home straight,

and his repairs to the silver tray are
coming up roses.

- I've got the piece that I made for
the hole in the bottom

sitting in place.

I'm really pleased with the way it
looks. That fits well.

The handle is cleaned up.

I think I can solder this onto the
tray now.

I'm just going to heat this area up

and pop a little bit of solder into
it.

Once it's hot enough...

..it'll flow into the joint,
hopefully.

There it goes.

This handle now feels pretty secure.

I can lift the tray up by it and it's
strong enough.

I've got to let that cool down, clean
it up,

then I've got to give this whole tray
a big polish,

and it'll be ready to give back to
Rio.

- This Viennese silver tray has been
in Rio's family

for almost 200 years, but arrived at
the barn dulled

and missing a handle.

- Hey, Brenton.

- Lots of polishing.

- Look at it, I can see it reflecting
on your face. Goodness me.
- Good.

- For Rio, the hope is the tray

will be a fitting tribute to family
members

k*lled during some of the darkest
moments of the 20th century.

- Hi.
- Here he is.
- Hi, Rio.
- Hi.

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

- Yeah, thanks. Yeah, a little bit
nervous.

But, yeah, I can't wait to see what it
looks like.

I'm just desperate to...have a look.
- THEY LAUGH

- Go on, Brenton.

- Oh, wow!

Wow. It really is...

It really is...

It's like it's brand-new, isn't it?

To say this is 200 years old...nearly.

Wow.

- Looks very different, doesn't it?
- Yeah.

I mean, this is the tray that my
great-great-great-granddad

will have bought.
- Right.

- I know, you can't tell, can you?

- Yeah!

Oh, wow.

It's majestic.

But, um...

And I wish my granddad could see it,
to be honest.

He would have been very happy.

- What do you think he'd say?

- You could always tell when he was
kind of delighted with something

because he'd just kind of grin.
- Yeah.

- It would have definitely gone back
up on the highest shelf.
- Yeah.

- Pride of place, this time with its
own kind of reflective glow.

It's always represented kind of
survival and endurance

and all these things that we like to
say

when things have been difficult.
- Yeah.

- The fact that it's broken is because
our family was broke -

and so were many others. To restore
it, it's kind of just...

It's no longer just about survival.

It can be wonderful again, you know?

It's beautiful.

- Well, I'm very pleased to say it's
yours to take home.

- Amazing.
- Get it back where it belongs.

- Thanks again.
- You're welcome.

- I'll get the door for you.
- Thank you so much.

- Cheerio. Bye, Rio.

I think he was happy, wasn't he?

- Well done. Well done.

- You know, we loved my grandad to
bits,

and to keep these stories going,

to have family members that didn't
make it, or that did make it

and have since passed on, you know, to
make sure

that their memories are still alive as
well.

And, you know, it feels... It feels
really good.

- As one assignment draws to a close,
a new one begins.

- So, Chris, if you weren't a
bookbinder, what would you be?

- Basketball player.
- Really?

Really?
- Well, I'd like the height.

- Basketball's loss is bookbinding's
gain,

which is good news for Anjali Prasad
from Manchester.

- Welcome to the barn.
- Hello.
- You must be Anjali.
- Yes, I'm Anjali.

- Nice to meet you. I'm Will.
- Hello.
- I'm Chris.
- Hello.

- What have we got here?

- It's a version of Ramayan

which was written by my
great-grand-uncle in 1914.

This book is small because it's...

It just puts the events of Ramayan in
a chronological order.

Ramayan is one of the scriptures which
is very important in Hinduism,

and it is the story of the fight
between good and evil

and how goodness wins in the end.

- Wow. Goodness.

- It's been written in a dialect of
Hindi which seems to be dying out.

- So is this like a one-off or are
there more of these?

- I'm not aware of any other copy.

- And this was made by your great...
Is it your great-uncle?

- My great-grand-uncle Sri Jagmohan
Mahato.

- Whereabouts?

- This is in pre-independent India, in
the state of Bihar.

- So what inspired him to write this
in the local dialect, then?

- So that people could get a better
improved knowledge of Ramayan.

My great-grand-uncle was a
self-educated man.

- Oh, wow.
- He could read and write various
languages such

as Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, also the
local dialect.

He was the first person in our family
who actually

got himself educated.
- Wow.
- Really?
- Yeah.

And he also helped to improve the
local irrigation

in the village.

- I'm sure that the locals must have
really appreciated it.

Really appreciated it.
- Yeah, he was well-known in the area

and he died at a very young age - in
his 30s -

and he didn't have any children.

- Goodness.

- So he had adopted my grandfather as
his son.

- Oh, so that's how it's passed over?
- Yes.

So, yeah, this book is what connects
me to the village from where my

parents and my ancestors came from.

And this represents the basis of what
we are today.

- What exactly is wrong with the book?

- The front page is pretty damaged.

It is in two pieces.

- Oh, goodness.
- I think most of the damage is on the
front page.

Later on, there's some damage on some
of the pages.

And of course the binding is coming
off as well.

I would like this book to be preserved
so that we always

remember what my great-grand-uncle
did.

- I can't wait to see what you do,
Chris.

- Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thanks very much and we'll see you
soon.

- Thank you. Bye-bye.
- Bye.

- The Ramayan booklet is an abridged
version of the ancient poem

about Prince Rama rescuing his wife
Sita from a demon king.

Many versions of this sacred text
exist, but the original Sanskrit

is attributed to the sage Valmiki and
contains 24,000 verses.

- Well, goodness me,

what a unique book!

Obviously the front cover is just
hanging on by a thread

and there's some tears just in the
middle.

There's some page loss,

which would be nice to find something
to fill in the losses.

And then some little creature has sort
of nibbled the corner here.

So again, it probably could do with

sort of little bits of paper putting
in there.

The binding, it's really a traditional
open stub binding.

It actually is disintegrating,

but I think it's important to keep the
look of that,

you know, because that's what has been
there for all these years.

So I don't want to get rid of
anything.

So the first thing I'm going to do

is start taking it to pieces.

- Dom's been answering the mayday on
the little helicopter

with big issues.

- It's so interesting, sitting,

looking at these parts and all these
pieces.

I'm just amazed at Alec's creativity
and ingenuity, really.

But I want to simplify things for
Sally.

She's not got time to be climbing on
the roof

and changing the battery for the
drill.

So I've gone for solar power to power
it.

Then I can run wires down to a motor

very similar to what's inside this
drill.

There's basically a motor and a
gearbox

to lift up the rescue man.

I'll get it wired up now,

test it and see what happens.

The heat lamp that I use to dry my
paint gives off UV rays,

and hopefully this solar panel will
read that as the sun.

- HE CHUCKLES

- Ah!

Ooh!

There we go!

Look at that!

Yeah, when I hold it right in front of
the sun -

my artificial sun...

That is so cool.

This is absolutely brilliant. I'm so
chuffed.

If I can get all this wired into a
switch

and everything else that I need inside
the helicopter,

Sally can put this back on the roof
and never have to go up there again.

It's been a really interesting process
of re-engineering

and rethinking parts to try and get it
to work,

but also trying to keep some of the
history.

Unfortunately, there are some areas
where I've had to re-engineer

and the propellers are one of those
things.

I've got what's left of the original
ones here.

I think this central hub was the top
of a clothes rail -

designed to be indoors in a shop -
made of steel,

and it's just completely rotten.

And these gutter sections are broken
and corroded.

I can't just slide that on the top,

so I've redesigned the main central
hub for the propellers.

I've decided to use aluminium because
it doesn't go rusty.

And then I'm just welding on these
support braces,

which eventually I will rivet on the
actual propellers.

And that should sit up on that
helicopter on the rooftop

of the charity shop and spin for years
to come.

Ah, look.

Oh, I'm pleased. That is really,
really good.

That means now I can very carefully
rebuild everything

and then paint it.

Perfect!

- So I've now fully dismantled the
pamphlet, and now

I'm going to be sifting through some
vintage papers to try and find

the perfect bit of paper to fit in and
cut in and repair.

It's a bit of a job, because I'm
trying to find the bit of paper

that feels right, the perfect weight
and approximate sort of colour.

And it's surprising how, when you
start looking at the vintage papers,

every one does feel completely
different.

All these bits of paper, I've picked
them up over the years.

It'd be lovely to organise them,

but for some reason I've never got
around to that.

It's chaotic, my collection,

a bit like myself!

- HE LAUGHS

- That's really nice.

I haven't thrown anything away for 40
years

and it's EXACTLY for this reason.

Ooh, look at that bit.

Oh, that's even better.

So there's two more bits of paper I
need to find,

and then I can start to repair them.

- Every time I use the foot pedal of
the lathe

like this...
- Right.

- ..it blows the fuse.

- LAUGHS:
- Well, don't do it!
- Well, yeah.

I knew you were going to say that!

- Now that the theatrical canvas is
strong enough

to tread the boards again,

Lucia's next act is to restore the
missing detail.

- All the filling is done and I've
started retouching,

so I'm mixing my colours up using
acrylic paint,

but the colours I'm going to be
working with

are the greys of the background.

This lovely vermilion pink, which is
the circle.

And then I've got yellows and browns

and that's the basic palette, really.

It doesn't matter about being super
accurate to start with -

I need to get the base colours in, so
I need to get rid of the white

and then I can start doing the colour
matching proper.

So it's quite a big job.

Do you know what, it's really
satisfying once you get

the right colour mixed up.

It's very, very satisfying.

These drama clubs, you know, they're
so few and far between.

And for a small town like Leslie to
have its own drama club,

and you can see the passion that both
Mark and Diane

brought in with them.

It's a wonderful thing for a small
town to have.

- This canvas graced Scotland's oldest
continuously performing drama club.

But the green rooms and greasepaint
had taken its toll.

For Mark and Diane, the canvas is
symbolic of their own double act,

having met on stage performing at the
club.

- Oh, wow, look at you. You look
fantastic!

Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi.

- Lovely to see you again.
- And you.

- So, are you looking forward to
seeing the painting?

- Very exciting.
- Oh, just a bit.

- What are you hoping for?

- Just for it to be able to be
displayed for at least

another 50 years really,

so that the legacy can carry on.

It's part of our history because we
met through the drama club



And who knows who else might meet
there in the future?

- Are you ready to see it?

- Yeah.
- Yes.

Yes, we certainly are.
- Definitely.
- OK.

- Wow!

Gosh!

It's so clear.

- Yeah.

Isn't that just amazing?
- Yeah.

- You can see so much more of the
colour now.

You can't quite take your eyes off it.
- No.
- It's incredible!

Oof!

It's just seeing the difference in it

from the time that, you know, we found
it.

It's just brilliant. I just love it.

- It connects us with the history so
well.

I just can't wait to get it hung in
the town hall now.

- Oh, that's great to know.

That is great.

Well, it's ready for you to take home,
so I'll pack it up for you

and get it ready to go.

- That's lovely.
- Fantastic.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you very much indeed.

- Great pleasure.
- Thank you.
- Bye.
- Bye-bye.

- It's really exciting to think about
putting the canvas

up above the stage in the town hall,
at the heart of the community,

where everyone can see it and enjoy
it.

- It's part of our history, it's part
of the drama club.

It's also part of Mark and I's history

um, and hopefully we're going to be
looking to the future

with the opening of the town hall,

and other people can use it as part of
their history as well.

There he is.
- Nice one.

- I've returned your tool.

- Just in time, as well. Good.

- Chris is now embarking on the
crucial part of his restoration -

stabilising the pages of the Ramayan
booklet.

- The front cover,

as is always the case,

has got the most damage on it.

There's quite a lot of page loss,

and there's some two quite hefty
tears,

one almost sort of severing the paper
in half.

To repair the page loss,

I'm going to introduce some new paper

which I found some vintage paper for,
and then again strengthen

all the edges with some Japanese
tissue.

It's a surprisingly simple process,

as long as you've got a light box, and
this is a home-made light box.

I made this, you know, 40 odd years
ago.

I like gardening,

so it's a seed box with a bit of
plastic screwed in

and a light in the middle.

It's not, in terms of books, really
that old.

What's amazing about it is that

Anjali's great-grand uncle wrote

this book in a language that is dying
out

in the hills of India.

All the history of it, it does give
you sort of goose bumps,

and it's one of the real pleasures of
working on something like this.

Pop this over.

I'm going to put a tiny little line of
paste along this very edge

of this original paper, and then I'm
going to join that together.

And then I'm going to overlay some
Japanese tissue,

and the Japanese tissue is going to be
the bond.

So I can adjust the cracks

and then I can start to Japanese
tissue it.

So that can go into the press so it
can dry.

And that's what I need to do to all
the pages now,

so I can get on with that.

So all the pages now are dry and
mended.

And on the front cover, for example,

I'm really happy.

It does feel a whole lot more sturdy.

On the inside, there's the odd sort of
shadow from where

the Japanese tissue has been,

and that's what I'm just going to sort
of colour down

and sort of tonal in.

I'm going to use a tiny bit of
watercolour paint.

I've got a whole load of bits of paper
where, over time,

you just make sort of colours up,

and you can reinvigorate them by
adding a bit of water.

It creates a bit of colour and I'm
just adding very slightly

and blending in all the time.

- It's almost lift-off for the
home-made helicopter.

- Now I've got the mechanics of the
helicopter completely sorted,

the bodywork is all back in place,

the paint job is looking its best
again,

it's time to look at trying to get
little Dom, the little rescue man,

coming up and down.

Basically, the string has two beads at
each end

and he's winched down, the bead stops
at this arm

and that pulls it down and flicks a
switch, and then it winds it up.

And then the bottom bead pulls it,

switches the switch and sends him back
down again.

In theory, that's how it's supposed to
work.

That's it. He's climbing. He's going
up.

Yes!

Ha-ha!

Look at that.

I'm really relieved, for starters,

and just over the moon.

Once I've finished off these last few
bits in here,

I've got to attach the propellers...

..and give it back to Sally.

- The model air ambulance was built by
a local philanthropist

to draw in the crowds to the charity
shop that funded the cause,

and provided a quirky landmark for the
town.

- Becky, do you mind giving me a hand?
- Yeah, sure.

- I can't quite cover this up on my
own.
- No, it's a bit large, isn't it?

It's looking great.
- Thank you.

Up and over hopefully.
- OK, go.

- Ooh!

Oh, nicely done. Yes!

- For Sally, it symbolises her dad's
love for building things

and the joy and generosity it's
brought.

- Sally, hi.
- Hi.

- Welcome back to the barn.
- Nice to see you again.

- How have you been?
- I've been nervous, excited.

- Nervous?
- Everything was going to be...

I've missed it.
- Oh, bless you.

- So, yes, I've been looking forward
to this day.
- Yeah.

- Represents my dad and what he's
done.

I just like to keep this part of him
alive.
- Yeah.

Well, do you want to see it?

- Yeah.
- Yeah?

- SHE LAUGHS

- Wow!

That's brilliant.

That really is.

And you've got drainpipes on there, as
well.

You've done it just like he's done it.

- So it spins around now nice and
freely.

- Brilliant, yes.

- And the propellers spin around.

- That's fantastic.

- I have had to repaint it, but I've
kept his writing.

- I'm more than happy.

That's in my dad's style.

That's him down to a T.

You've done him justice.

- Thank you.

- Dare I ask, does the little man go
up and down?

- Well, the last thing I wanted was
for you to have to go

up the ladder every day and change
that battery.

So I've come up with a solution.

So on bright, sunny days...
- Yeah.

- ..this will be the sun.

I've put a solar panel on the top.

- Wow!

Oh, isn't that fantastic?

Isn't he lovely?

Oh, brilliant!

Wow!

You did an amazing job.

People will see that

and they will see the little man going
up and down.

And it means a lot to me cos they are
looking at what my dad made.

- Yeah.
- That means a lot.

- I will get it all packaged up for
you and sent back to the shop.

- Yeah.
- And then you can get it back on the
roof where it belongs.
- OK.

Thank you very much.
- Thank you.

- Thanks.
- See you later.
- Bye.

I feel absolutely fantastic to see my
dad's helicopter again.

He made so many different models and
different things.

And then this represents the last
thing that he really made,

and it just means so much to us all to
have it back again,

cos it's in remembrance of him.

And I'm pleased that we can remember
him in that way.

- After a lot of painstaking work,

Chris has reached the final stage of
restoring the battered Ramayan.

- All the pages now are blended in,
the colour.

They're all mended, they're all dry.

And now it's time to bind them
together.

And I'm binding them in exactly the
same style as it came into me

and as I presume it was originally
bound - with exposed sewing.

It's a really bold, simple, but
extremely effective method

of binding individual pages.

It's just a matter of...

..punching holes in the paper

and then sewing through those holes.

It's part of the aesthetics of the
binding.

I do love that statement.

This is such a small statement for a
book that is so important,

and I think that's fantastic.

I'm always slightly nervous handing
something back.

I hope I've done it justice.

- Worn and falling apart at the seams,

this version of the epic Hindu tale of
the Ramayan,

written by Anjali's great-grand-uncle

over a century ago,

is believed to be the last surviving
copy.

- Chris, great job.
- Thank you, Will.

- Right, let's get it covered up.
- Brilliant.

- Now Anjali is hoping the precious
keepsake can endure as a symbol

of her roots and those of future
generations.

- Anjali, nice to see you again.
- Hello.
- Hello.

- Welcome back.

That's a smiley face.

- I just want to know what the book is
going to look like now.

- Right, shall we have a look?
- Yes, please.
- Yeah.

Go on, Chris.

- Fantastic.

It's beautiful now.

All the pages are beautiful now.

And the page where there was so much
damage,

that has been restored, as well.

That's fantastic.

And the best bit is that you have kept
the original binding.

It's fantastic.

That's beautiful.

- Exactly how it came in, I wanted it
to go out,

but obviously all secure.

- Thank you.
- That's all right.

- One of the many reasons that this is
so important to you

is the fact that it's that link to
your great-grand-uncle, right?

- Yeah, this is the only link I have
with my great-grand-uncle

and it will be his message and his
values.

So hopefully that will be taken into
the generations to come, as well.

- It was lovely to see you again.

How do you say goodbye in Hindi?

- It would be Namaskar.

- Lovely. Well, Namaskar.
- Namaskar.

- Thanks a lot.
- Thank you.
- Safe travels. Bye-bye.
- Thank you.

- Good job.
- Thank you, Will.

- The book almost feels like new.

Now that it's repaired, I can look at
it,

I can read through it, and I can turn
the pages.

It is a connection which I have with
my great-grand-uncle.

I can imagine him writing the book,

telling the message of Ramayan to
other people.

- If you have a treasured possession

that holds a Christmas memory

and would like to ask the team for a
special festive fix,

please get in touch at...

..and join us in The Repair Shop.