05x11 - Ted the Teddy Bear

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop, where
precious but faded treasures...

It's in a bit of a sorry state.

..are restored to their
former glory.

I'm going to teach you how to do
it the old-fashioned way. All
right.

Furniture restorer Jay Blades...

Now the fun begins. I know.

It's so nice that we can be part
of that history

to just keep things going.

..and a dream team of
expert craftspeople...

Looks absolutely amazing. Wicked.

You really start to see the
thought that went into making it.

..come together to work their
magic...

Teamwork? Absolutely.

Yes! Beautiful.

..employing heritage craft skills
passed down the generations...

Ooh!

It's my duty to make sure that
this all goes back in working order.

..preserving irreplaceable
heirlooms.

It's absolutely amazing,
it really is.

It's like keeping a bit
of our family history alive.

The team will restore the items...

SHE GASPS

..the memories... Yes! Yes!

..and unlock the stories
that they hold.

It's touched my heart.
It's amazing.

In The Repair Shop today...

One there.

..Pete tunes in to all his talents,

restoring a relic from the
music halls.

It's not as if you can just go
down the road and get spare parts.

Anything that's got to go on there
we've got to make.

While Will taps into his many skills
for century-old box of memories.

I'm trying to find the best
shape for the job,

much like a surgeon picking
his favourite scalpel, I suppose.

But today's first visitor
is Leslie Keller from London.

Hello. Hello. Hi.

Welcome.

She's hoping toy restorers
Julie and Amanda

can get a very old friend
back on his feet.

What've we got here? Ted.

OK. Oh, bless him.

Hello, Ted. Aww!

Tell us about Ted.

Well, he means an awful lot to me.

I, as a baby, was left
on a doorstep in a carrier bag.

Oh, my goodness.

I was four and a half months old,
it turned out.

I only weighed eight pounds,

so I really had been quite
ill and neglected.

The people whose doorstep I was left
on applied to foster me

and eventually, when I was 14
months old, they adopted me. Wow.

And this was the first toy
that they bought me.

Can you tell us a little bit
more about your parents?

Yeah, they're Mary and John.

They were just an ordinary
working-class couple.

Wonderful, wonderful parents.

A wonderful life they gave me
and I became their princess.

Oh, wow. Aw.

Special people. Yeah, they were.

He signifies an awful lot,
doesn't he, in your life?

He signifies...
Look, you can see he's been loved.

He signifies the love that my mum
and dad gave me.

So, what would you like us to do?

He's well worn, as you can see,
and he's had an accident. OK.

I met my husband when we were 16
and we got married at 19,

and this had been in my bed,
right the way up until the marriage.

And I thought, before we moved
Ted to his new home,

I'd give him a bit of a tidy up,

so I washed him and I
sat him in front

of my mum's two-bar electric fire.

Oh, no!

Went away to do something else
and forgot, and burnt his feet.

Aw. You must have felt devastated.

I was. He's so fragile now.

Yeah, we can sort
all that out for you.

And his growler doesn't work.

You've obviously squeaked it an
awful lot. Quite a lot, yeah.

For the last 54 years,
he's just had to be wrapped up,

in case he disintegrates.

Oh, Ted! Time you came out, mate.
Definitely.

He's lovely.

Well, look after him and we'll let
you know when he's ready. OK.

Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Ted's very important to me. He's
a representation of my beginning.

I feel a bit sad.

He's been like that for some years.

I feel that Ted's in good hands.

What a story.
Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

So, what do you think?
He's lovely.

He just needs a bit of
strengthening.

Obviously, that's the obvious
damage to the foot pad.

And a little clean. Yeah. OK.

I'll I bring his box. Go on, then.

Just going to get
to the squeaker, here.

Trying to let Amanda examine,
while I'm...

Oh, thank you.

..while I carry on.

Is this going to be repairable,
do you think?

Well, it still makes a
little bit of a noise.

Can you hear this?
QUIET SQUEAK

Oh, I did. Yes.
Just a tiny, little bit.

Perhaps Steve would be able
to do it for us. Yeah.

Imagine growing up with him.
Look at that little face.

I mean, look at him. I love him.

You love him so much...

I love him so much
I'm going to take his leg off.

It's got to be done.

That's the obvious damage
to the foot pad,

but what's also happened
is he's lost a little bit

of the bottom of his leg, here.

I'm going to have to take
everything out and reverse it,

and do it from the inside.

That way, I'll be able to set
the foot pad in and it'll look

like it did originally, rather than
just putting a cover on it.

This area on Ted's tummy
is very frail and has actually got

broken threads and damage
where the edge of the squeaker

has been cutting through.

I would like to put a felt lining
inside there and down over the top.

I'd like to wash this before
I start doing the lining.

Would you like me to wash those for
you as well? That would be lovely.

Great stuff. Thank you.
I'll get them ready.

Next into the barn is Wendy Smith
from Leicester,

accompanied by husband Fred.

They're hoping musical instrument
restorer Pete Woods

can give a family
heirloom its pluck back.

How are we doing? Fine, thank you.
I'm Jay. I'm Wendy.

Wendy? This is my husband Fred.
Hi, Jay. I'm Fred.

Hi, Fred. Hi, Pete.
Nice to meet you.

So, what have we got in here, then?

It's my mother's banjolele,
which she played in the 1920s.

Oh, wow. That's like what George
Formby used to use.

It certainly is, mate.

It's an amazing
little instrument.

The bigger one of the family
would be the banjo, of course.

OK, so tell us about Mum, then.

She was a dancer.

She used to take it around
the country with her.

Playing in where? Like, music halls?
Music halls, yes.

What's Mum's name, sorry?

Well, her name is actually
Phyllis Munday. Phyllis Munday?

But she changed her name
to Phyllis DeMund

because it was more theatrical.

Oh, that was her stage name?
Yes. It was her stage name, yeah.

She was born in 1907.

I was the last child of four

and I didn't sort of know a lot
about her life, early life.

She was just Mum to me.

Have you ever heard your mum
play this, then? No, no, no.

When we cleared her house,
we found it in the wardrobe,

which was a real surprise

and sort of "wow", you know?

We didn't even know it existed.

When we found the photos and
matched it up to this, we thought...

It really needs saving.

So is this how you found it, then?
That's how we found it. Yes

I'm afraid so, yes.
With no strings? Nothing.

Would it have had a skin
on there as well, Pete?

Yeah, it would have had a vellum
skin on there.

And she probably meant to have it
put right, but you don't know.

So this is the last thing you've
got, this is the last instrument?

It is, yes. Yes.
There's nothing left.

There's nothing else. It's all gone.

I've got the photos
and the posters, but I have nothing

tangible of Mother,
nothing left to touch.

So, yes, it would mean an awful lot.

Well, you've brought it to
the right place. I'm sure we have.

Can't thank you enough for bringing
it in. Thank you ever so much.

Thank you for looking at it.

Thank you, Pete. Nice to meet you.
You take care now.

Take care. Bye-bye. Bye.

I don't think there were many
ladies in the 1920s

doing what my mother was doing.

I'm so proud of her because I
didn't realise until recently

what an interesting life
she had led.

I'm hoping that, by leaving
the banjolele with Pete,

it's going to look beautiful.

It's going to look just how it did
when Mother played it in the 1920s.

Traditionally, funny enough,
these were made by drum makers.

It's like a little drum. All right.

So, apart from the
skin and the strings,

what else is wrong with this, then?

We've got 11 of them missing.
What's these, then?

Those tension the vellum up.
The skin? The skin.

Oh, right. To then
pull it in nice and tight?

Yeah. There's a bridge missing,
which the strings sit on. Right.

This was made pre-1940.

It's not as if you can just go
down the road and get spare parts.

No. So anything that's got to
go on there we've got to make.

Do you want me to order you some
strings, as well, and some skin?
Yes, please.

Because we're going to need some,
aren't you? We're going to need
some -

otherwise it's not going to
work very well, is it?

Number one, needs a good clean.

Needs all the metalwork off.

He's missing all but
one tension rod,

so I've got to make 11 screws,
11 nuts.

The banjolele was a nice,
light instrument.

So if you were travelling from
music hall to music hall,

it was a good instrument
to accompany yourself on.

Just look at George Formby -

he didn't do bad out of it.

Just got to be a bit careful not
to lose any of these fittings.

You can't buy them off the shelf

because they've all got
to be hand done.

Right, now that bit's ready to be
polished, I'll put that to one side.

I can start making 11 rods.

Across the barn, singed and
squeakless Ted

is ready for his head-to-toe
repairs, one of which requires

the skills of mechanical
expert Steve Fletcher.

How you doing?
Yeah, good, thank you.

I need a little favour. Ohh.

I've got this squeaker that
I'd like you to have a look at.

What noise is it supposed to make?

"Eek!" Oh, right!

Or, "Eek, eek, eek!"

Yeah, I'll do that for you.

Yeah? Thank you. All right.
Brilliant.

With his voice box in safe hands,
the bear ladies can turn to Ted's

feet, accidentally toasted
off in front of an electric fire.

I was just looking at this and you
can actually see the singeing.

Yes, yeah. Can't you?
Yeah, you can. Oh, poor Ted.

This one I've kind of opened
up, spatch-c*ck his leg.

This should be a straight line
across the top,

so you can actually see what's
missing.

And I'm just going to pin
a piece of fabric

onto the back of his foot.

I've gone for a sort of part hairy,
part bald fabric

because I want to keep it kind
of authentic.

Tiny, little stitches.

I think that's going to blend
really well. I do, too.

I'm going to paint this material
with a rubberised paint to seal it,

because at the moment it's
leaking like a sieve.

All the air is coming out.

It's nice when you can repair
something like this

because, if you put a brand-new
squeaker in,

it just wouldn't be the same sound.

Ted's newly mended
feet are now ready

for some custom-made foot pads.

What we do every now and then is we
make up these batches of fabric,

and we use a soft cotton
and we paint it

with a mixture of
PVA and acrylic paints.

What I'm going to do is use some
beeswax on there

and I'm going
to really rub it in.

We're trying to make it look
like it's been there forever.

You know, brand-new, shiny pieces
would stick out like a sore thumb.

This is a technique that we've kind
of developed for ourselves, really.

So I think I'm happy with that now.

It's starting to sort of
match up, colour-wise, as well.

At the front of Ted's tummy
there was a small hole

from constantly pressing
the squeaker.

By lining this hole with felt,

we should end up with something
stronger and firmer

that will last for a lot longer.

Even though he's old,
I'm sure that Leslie

is still going to want
to cuddle him

and that's why we're going to extra
lengths, really,

to make sure that he's strong.

Hopefully it will remind Leslie of
her parents. Yeah.

Bring back those lovely memories...
Yeah.

..of when she was a little girl.

I actually don't think
she'll put him down.

Let's just see if
I've got this right.

Drum roll. Drum roll.

Oh, look at that.

You've done this before,
haven't you?

I think I might have done, yeah.

Well done.

How are we doing, ladies?
Oh, hello! Hi, Jay.

Got you those supplies you wanted.
Wonderful. Brilliant.

Thank you. I'll pop it up there.
So, where are you at, then?

Actually, you brought this at the
perfect time

because we're just about to start
stuffing the limbs. That's his feet.

Oh, wow, you've got the
feet back on. Yeah.

Oh, right.

Very small pieces at a time,
poking it in.

And get it right
into the corners. Yes.

As far as I possibly can.

And twisting it at the same time.

Yes. Oh, well done.

See? You've only got to
teach me once.

Shall I do this one and see who
gets there first?

Of course it's going to be you.
It might not.

Next into the barn are Valerie Tame,
from Basingstoke, and daughter Anna,

with an item that could revive
some forgotten memories.

They are hoping antique wood
restorer Will Cook can help.

Hi, there. Hello.

I'm Anna. Nice to meet you.
I'm Will.

Hello, Will. Valerie. Valerie, nice
to meet you, I'm Will.

So, what do we have here?

In the box is Minnie,
my mother-in-law's tea chest.

Lovely.

It was given to her at the end of
the 1920s,

beginning of the 1930s. OK.

We know she got it in payment, as it
were, for something she had done.

We think it was assisting
at childbirth, delivering a baby.

Childbirth? Yes.

Was she a midwife? No.

And there was no NHS.

And you'd have had to pay the
doctors.

And the woman wanted to pay, but
Minnie wouldn't take the money,

so she gave her this lovely tea
chest.

Well, I'd certainly take this as
payment.

I can see why she agreed. Yes.

It's in a bit of a bad state.

Oh, I know. It's so sad.

Beautiful, when she first had it.

Well, we've used it for other
things and

it has got a little bit damaged.
A bit of damage to the handle.

Well, it's the inside that's very
bad.

Is the inside really bad? Yes.

It doesn't look too bad on the
front. Oh!

Oh, my word! I know.

What's happened?

Well, just a few weeks ago, my
husband took it up and he

picked it up, thinking it was empty.

Straight on the floor.
Smashed on the floor.

It just went like that.

And is that your tape work?
I've taped it. Terrible, isn't it?

I'm sorry. I hope it doesn't spoil
anything.

How do you feel about the tea caddy,
in its current condition?

It's a bit of a sad state, isn't it?

And it would be lovely
to have it looking something

like it was when it was given to my
nan.

Were you quite close to Minnie?

She was, she was an incredible
woman, actually.

The loveliest mother-in-law
you could ever have.

She was formidable, I think, is the
word. But she was amazing.

And this box - as a child, I used to
love opening this up and looking

inside, and taking out all the
precious treasures

and oddities inside it.

One of the things that was always
kept inside is a glass and cork
syringe.

Oh, yes, we've still got it.
Used for we don't know what.

It's best not to ponder on!

Another lovely thing it had in it is
my grandfather's service discharge
medal.

So it's more of a box of family
treasures,

rather than tea caddy. Yes.

Why now? Why have you decided to
bring it down to us?

My father, this really sums up his
family, not just because of the box,

but because of the things that were
kept in it, which, for him,

are really significant. They are.

As time has passed, my dad's...

Memory has failed and he can't
remember a lot about the past.

Sorry! That's all right.

Darn it! Darn.

We're quite emotional about the
box.

But it isn't just about the box, is
it?

It's everything that's...
What it conjures up.

It's inside, everything that
surrounds it as well. Yes.

And I think it's particularly about,
you know, Dad and my nan.

And it's really important
to us because my dad is much

more connected to the past now
than he is to the present.

What we want to do is, is bring
this back to something

that he would recognise and
remember from when he was a boy

because I think that's what's
important to him now.

His memories of brothers and
sisters,

and, of course, my nan and this box

are the most important things.

So, we're here for him.

Yes, indeed, we are.

Well, I hope to do a wonderful
job with this.

And I will do my very best to make
sure I get it looking as lovely

as it once did. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you for coming
down.

Thank you. That's OK, I'll see you
soon.

It's the first time the caddy
has been out of our possession

for nearly 100 years,
between myself and Alan's mother.

Oh, it's the memories, the memories
that box contains,

especially for my husband.

I think it would be wonderful
for Dad to see it repaired. Yes.

It's a tribute to my father and to
my grandmother, as well.

Getting it restored would be a
tribute to both of them.

Well, this is a lovely tea caddy.

This is walnut.

I think, when it was first made, it
would be quite striking to look at.

However, part of that knob
there's broken off.

It's missing bits of wood
round the outside

and is in a bit of a sorry state.

Inside, you would have had two of
these tea caddies.

I think usually one
would be for black tea and one

would be for green tea.

Usually, I would restore this back
to how it was originally made.

I think it would be quite nice to
restore this one box,

but maybe even line the rest of the
space,

so Alan and Valerie can put
their treasured memories as a sort

of keepsake box, and a touchstone
for Alan, to sort of...

..keep in touch with the past as
much as with the present.

There's quite a lot of work for me
to be getting stuck into.

Oh. That was keeping that in place.

If there are any dry, old bits of
glue here, they really need

to be cleaned back out and fresh new
glue needs to go back in there

because, if one thing is going
to fail,

it might all fail again. So, I'll
clean it all out properly

and reglue and clamp it.

Well, that looks like
an absolute mess.

However, the lid fits firmly shut
and it's all nice and square.

So I'm going to leave that to dry
now and, once it has,

I can take off the clamps and see if
it fits back in the caddy.

On his work station, Pete's fully
dismantled what remained

of the banjolele that toured
the music halls of the 1920s.

He now faces the mammoth task of
recreating from scratch

each of its many lost parts.

These tension rods, we've got
one of them,

luckily enough, for a sample.

Got to make 11 of these.

These get tightened up because
the vellum will go

across the top,
which gives it the sound.

Vellum is a cowhide, specially
prepared. It lasts for

thousands of years, but, of course,
not on a banjolele or a drum.

Right. Here we go.
Got some steel now.

We've just got to heat the end up
and try and put

that little hook on.

It's a tricky little bend.

Same way as a blacksmith would work
metal in a forge -

just heat it up and away you go.

That's now fitting on there.

We need to cut it off to length.

That's about the right length.

I think they're almost identical
now. What we've got to do now,

take it to the lathe, put a thread
on it.

Better going slow. You couldn't
have it going fast

because it doesn't cut the thread
correctly, if you've got it

in a fast gear. It just makes
a mess.

Just will completely chew it up.

So you put it in slow, goes lovely,

and there we go.

A nice, fresh, well-cut thread.

We'll just test the old nut
on there.

Look at that. Spot on.

Only another ten more to go.

While Pete presses on with
the metalwork...

..Will has found a spare moment to
help with the sorry state

of the banjolele's wooden parts...

..starting with cleaning off
decades of dirt

from having lain hidden in
a cupboard.

I'm going to use a little bit of
methylated spirits on a rag.

This is the first banjolele
I've ever worked on.

MACHINE WHIRS

Now that the banjolele's clean,
it's ready for polishing.

This is my French polishing
pad here

and on the inside...

..I've got some lamb's wool.

Once you pour the polish inside,
when you go to polish up

a surface, it releases just enough
polish to cover the area

that you're working on without
flooding the area.

There is an art to French polishing.

Circular motions, really work
the polish into the grain.

Then I finish off in straight lines
to pull out any of those

circles that I might have made
in the polish.

Once that's dried,
it'll be looking lovely

and ready hand back to Pete.

Hi, Will. All finished.

Oh, that's brilliant. Thanks, mate.

That's a lovely job. That's come up
really well, hasn't it?

On their workbench,

bear repairers Julie and Amanda's
restoration project, Ted...

He's got such a kind face.
He has. He has.

..is almost back to his lovely self.

SQUEAKING SOUND
Ah! Hello. Must be Steve.

There we go. Perfect.

SQUEAKING SOUND
Sounds like Sooty.

It does, doesn't it? No, it's Sweep
that made that noise. Sweep. Is it?

Right, OK. Yes, Sooty didn't
make any noise. No, he didn't.

It was weird, wasn't it? Thanks ever
so much. That's brilliant.

They have an awful habit, these
teddies, if you think

you've got it all in and then you
go like that,

see, and they've moved the squeaker.

OK, Mr Bear.

I'm not having any messing
this time.

I'm going back in.

WHISPERING: You're not going to
get me this time.

BEAR SQUEAKS
A-ha! Oh. Gotcha!

It's so nice, isn't it, to see
him sort of coming back?

So there is done.

Lovely. Just give him a bow and he's
all ready to go back to Leslie.

They're just in time.

Leslie's returned to see if her
furry friend,

who'd been through the wars,
has managed to scrub up enough

for a life on display.

My teddy bear, Ted, was the first
present my adoptive parents

ever gave me.

Ted has been in a bag for the last
50-odd years

because I'm frightened of him
falling apart,

so that'd be lovely to get him
out again.

Hello. Hello. Hi, Leslie.
Welcome back.

Thank you. Nice to see you again.
And you, too.

How are you feeling? Um, excited.

Good. That's good.

Excited. Not worried, just excited.
Good. Good.

We're really excited to see
what you think.

You ready? Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, he just looks wonderful.

Really, really wonderful.

You'd never know that I toasted
him. No!

Oh, God. He's lovely.

Thank you so much. You're welcome.

You're so, so welcome. He's got
a new bow. Yeah.

He looks so smart.

Yes. Has he had a wash and brush up,
too? Oh, he's had a bit of

a brush up, yeah.
But he hasn't been in front of

the fire. You didn't put him...? No.
No, no fires were involved.

Oh, he's gorgeous.

He's gorgeous.

You're magic.

THEY CHUCKLE

Has he got...?
BEAR SQUEAKS

That hasn't happened for
a long time.

I wondered when you'd find that.

Steve was able to fix it.
Oh, that's lovely.

Thank you, Steve. You're welcome.

Oh, he's absolutely wonderful.

I can't say thank you enough.
We've loved doing it, haven't we?

Yeah, absolutely. We've kind of
fallen in love with his little face

because it's absolutely adorable.

He is, isn't he? Yeah. You can't
have him, though.

All yours. It's all yours!
Thank you.

And enjoy him. I will.

Thank you. Bye-bye, Leslie. Bye.
Thank you. Bye.

Aw.

It's absolutely wonderful what
they've done to Ted.

Just overwhelmed, really.

My parents always knew that Ted
was my comfort blanket.

They'd be pleased that he's now
able to come out,

where everybody can see what
a wonderful little bear he is.

Will is now back on his main
project of the day,

the 1920s tea caddy.

Having repaired the box that owner
Alan recently broke...

That's a perfect fit.
Fits really nicely in there.

..and knowing that Alan and Valerie
use the caddy

to store precious mementos,

Will wants to create a customised
compartment to hold them.

I'm going to make the new tray out
of this recycled piece of plywood.

Now that's all drawn out, I can get
cutting on the band saw.

Will must carefully glue together
the five pieces

inside the tea caddy to ensure
the box is a perfect fit

and, therefore, easy to remove.

Well, this is the moment of
truth now.

And there we have one complete tray.

At the moment, it sort of stands out
like a sore thumb.

I want to tone it down, so it
matches in and is a bit more

of a sympathetic addition.

I'm going to use some stain and
some polish, mix it up

and try to colour match this to
match the rest of the box.

That looks really smart and I really
like the cut of the wood.

It's really nice and smooth, so that
should slide in and out

of the tea caddy really well.

Going to put that to one side
for now,

and then have a look at this handle.

The handle on the side of the tea
caddy's broken.

That was glued really firmly on
the side of the tea caddy.

I don't want to try to take it off,
in case it causes any more damage,

so what I'll do is I'm going to turn
up a blank piece of wood.

Turning is the centuries-old art
of shaping wood

while it is being rotated.

And before the advent of machinery,

the lathe would have been operated
by hand,

courtesy of a craftsman known
as a turner.

Well, that should be the right size.

Will can now start the precision
task of mirroring

the detail on his new half handle.

I'm trying to find the best shape
carving gouge for the job...

..much like a surgeon picking his
favourite scalpel, I suppose.

There are different shapes in
the profile here,

so no one singular carving gouge
is going to do all the work.

This is carving like a hot knife
through butter.

When this is finished, it's going
to be a nice symmetrical circle.

Across the barn, Will's other
handiwork is taking centre stage,

as Pete attaches all his own
handcrafted metalwork

to the banjolele.

Seems like they're never-ending,
these rods, at times.

There's only 12 of them, but seems
like they're never-ending.

Before it can make its
musical comeback,

he needs to fit its cowhide skin.

The skin is actually only about
a 12,000th of an inch thick.

If you handle it in the wrong way,
you will go through it.

It's quite simple.

Right, that's the last one on
at last.

Now I'm just going to just trim
the head off...all the way round.

Right. That's it. All cut.
Now we've just got to put

the strings and the bridge on.

All right. Here we have gut strings,

which are what would have been on it
when it was new -

not like the nylon that they
put on nowadays.

So we'll start threading
these through.

Now, most important thing -
the bridge.

Without it, doesn't work.

OUT-OF-TUNE NOTE PLAYS

Not very in-tune banjo.

HE TUNES BANJOLELE
Right, well, that's almost done now.

So, a little bit of finer tuning
and it's all ready to go back

to Wendy and Fred.

The well-travelled banjolele that
once lit up the music halls

of the roaring '20s had lain in
silence for decades.

Now, owner Wendy and husband Fred
have returned to see if Pete

has managed to give it back
its voice.

It's a memory of my mother who,
unfortunately, isn't with us

any more and a memory of the
interesting life she led.

Hello, Wendy. Lovely to see you
again, Pete.

Fred. Nice to meet you again, yes.
Nice to see you.

Hi, there, I'm Will. Hello, Will.
Hi, Will, nice to meet you.

Well... We enjoyed doing it.

It was a nice job. What did it
look like when it first came in?

It was very sad, I must admit.
Sad. We've never heard it played.

Never? It was just in a cupboard
and had probably been there

for an awful long time.

It was what your mother used when
she was performing.

Yes.

Well, I just hope she's looking
down on us now.

I hope she'll happy!

FRED: I'm looking forward to this.

Right, shall we have a look?

I think we ought to have a look,
mate, yeah.

THEY GASP

Oh, this is... That is fantastic.

Is it the same? Geez!

Oh, that is gorgeous.

Oh, Pete, thank you so much.
PETE: That's all right.

Well, it was a joint effort.
Will done the wood,

I done the metal.

That's a Will job for you. Proper
job. Oh, that's so much better.

It's really gorgeous. We should...
I mean, the family's going to

treasure this forever.
Absolutely, yes.

Are any of you able to play?

He's going to give it a go.

I'll give it...

Do you want me to...?
Yes, please.

Yes. We want to hear it.

Would I?

HE PLAYS BANJOLELE

Hey! Amazing! That's great!

It sounds lovely, doesn't it?

I'll tell what, it sounds fantastic.

Well, thank you for playing it.

It gives me great...us great
pleasure, hearing you playing it.

Thank you so much, Pete.

Thanks, Will. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

It's fantastic. It is, isn't it?
Look at that. Wow. It's lovely.

We've got the banjolele back.
It's absolutely wonderful.

And, just think, your mother's
played it. Yes.

And I've had the privilege to knock
out a bit of a tune on it as well.

She'd have been really pleased that
Fred played the banjolele

the first time we had the
chance to do that.

There's no words,

no words at all.

With one 1920s treasure
off to live a new life,

Will can return to completing his
work on the other -

the tea caddy.

It can be safely handled
as a keepsake box again,

but there's still an important
cosmetic repair.

The last thing that I need to do
is replace the damaged veneer

on the top of this box.

That missing patch is very specific
to that piece of wood,

and that tree, and I'm never going
to get that exactly right.

So what I'm using is some
walnut veneer,

which has a really good base
colour and a base figure to it.

I can blend them in with some
pigments and some polish

to marry up both pieces together.

That's really a nice match.

The join line between the old and
the new veneer's almost seamless.

I'm really happy with that.

Woodwork's finished.

The caddy is ready for
it's polishing.

This is my favourite part.

Even with just a really thin
coat of polish on there now,

that wood looks absolutely
wonderful.

All that grain and the colour
in the wood is coming out.

Really hope that Valerie and Anna
love this finish

as much as I'm loving it right now!

This once-stunning tea caddy came
into the Thame family

almost 100 years ago,

becoming a much-loved trove for
their family's treasures.

Valerie and Anna are hoping Will's
managed to rebuild it

so it can help stir some happy
childhood memories

for Valerie's husband - Alan.

Hello again. Thanks for coming back.
Hello.

So... Yes. Coming to pick something
very special back up. Mm. Yes.

Do you remember the condition
of the tea caddy

when you brought it in?

Down to every last little scrape
and scratch.

Right. Here goes, here goes.

Shall we have a look? Yes.

Oh! Oh, that's sharp!

Oh, look. Gorgeous.

GASPS
Look!

How did you do that?
How DID you do that?

Should have a look. Can we
look inside? Yeah, please do.

Oh, look! Oh, I say.

Oh, I say.

Look at that, Mummy. Careful.

Oh, look! Lovely. Put that on the
side as well.

It's a whole box, so everything can
go back in there... Yeah.

Beautiful. ..where they came from.

It's absolutely stunningly
beautiful.

I mean, it actually is
beautiful, isn't it? Yes.

It's a beautiful thing.

Oh, come on. Thank you very,
very much.

Oh, dear.

Ee, I know. I can't wait for Daddy
to see it.

No.

Alan will be absolutely thrilled.

Don't quite know what we're doing.

When we come home with this,

he'll hopefully have all
those lovely memories.

You've done a truly beautiful job.
Yes, it really is.

It's the most lovely, lovely piece
of craftsmanship.

The original makers of this put
their heart and soul

into these things, didn't they?

Well, I put my heart and soul into
restoring it for you.

Aw! Thank you, Will.
But now it's time to hand it back.

And I hope that you'll
cherish it... We will.

..and Alan really likes it as well.

We feel very lucky.
Thank you very much.

We feel very privileged
to have this.

Thank you. OK.

Bye-bye, Will. Bye-bye.

Will's just done the most
stunning job. Yeah.

Isn't it? It's lovely.
And thoughtful.

The extra box is thoughtful.

I can't wait for my dad to see
to see it,

and seeing it's so beautiful

and knowing how much it will bring
back for my dad.

Yes. It's emotional, that's it.

That's it, that's it.

Join us again, as our gifted
craftspeople...

What I'm seeing is she's got
rosy cheeks.

..restore some precious
belongings...

I really don't know what to say.

..in The Repair Shop.