05x17 - Iraqi Samovar

[bunniefuu]

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

It's 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.

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...

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...

I'm really happy with that.

..an incredible Edwardian
archive is preserved

for the future by bookbinder Chris.

You don't want to take it all away,
the scuff marks, it's just

knowing at what point to stop.

So, while that's drying, I can
pop off and have a cup of tea.

I've put enough for a couple
of cups of tea in there.

And it's cuppas all round as Brenton

restores a priceless Iraqi samovar.

Got steam, man. It's working,
you've done a good job. Thank you.

Look at that. That is hot as,
isn't it? Look at it.

To go with that tea,
perhaps some sausages,

if metal expert Dominic Chinea
has anything to do with it.

Hey, I'm Dom. Hi. Marcus.
Lovely to meet you.

What have you brought along?
Let's have a look.

From the Midlands,
former butcher Marcus Harding.

Cor, that's heavy! There's some
weight in it. Certainly.

He's hoping Dom can help restore
an important part

of a once-flourishing
family business.

Goodness. OK, I've got to start
with, what on Earth is this?

Now, this is a sausage filling
machine. Right!

It's come from our family
butcher shop.

When I first left school,
I went to work for my stepfather

in the family shop and, while there,
I used to make sausages

with this all the time.
This was your job.

It certainly was a good part of it.
Yes. Yeah.

This is obviously the key part,
which is the barrel.

So, you fill up with sausage meat...
Special family recipe

goes in there, is it?
Yes. Yes, absolutely.

And, then, the skill in it is
you have to turn the plunger,

which pushes the sausage meat
out here.

LEVER SQUEAKS

Yeah, it's a little bit squeaky.

The handle has come off. I've got
half of what it used to be but...

I don't know what date this
comes from, but it's certainly

been there many, many years
before I started.

So, what was it like?
The butcher shop.

It was a traditional,
old-type butcher shop.

We were based in a village
called Holymoorside,

which is near Chesterfield.
Right. OK. Yeah. OK.

My mum was a home-ec teacher.
Makes really good pastry.

So she used to... Nice pies.
..some things in the shop, yes.

So, that was all good.
Proper family business.

Yeah, definitely.
That's really nice.

Do you remember the last time
you actually used it?

It must be 15 years. Uh, yeah.

It's been kept in the shed.
Hence the decay.

What do you want me to do?
What are you hoping we can do?

Just be nice to have the old girl
working again.

I'm now retired.

So, I've got some time on my hands.

It'd be great for me to share
this with my children

and grandchildren now.
I hope I can get it working for you.

Yes, I hope so. Hope so. Look
forward to having lesson from you.

Yeah, absolutely. No problem.
That's a deal. I'd love to.

Go on, I'll shake your head.
Deal. Lovely to meet you.

OK, thanks. Bye now. Thanks so much.

I think my stepfather
would be really pleased

that I've taken steps to try and get
the sausage machine back

into working order.

If Dom can fix it, I'll be able
to bring my children down to see

the finished result and maybe show
them at the same time as Dom

how to make some good sausage.

This is definitely the first
sausage machine I've ever worked on,

but I really enjoy working
on things like this. I really do.

It's got a few obvious problems.

It's rusted up and solid.

So I'm going to have to disassemble
the whole thing, get all those gears

apart, give them a really good clean
before putting it back together.

Whilst it's apart, I think I'll
give it a nice, shiny, new repaint.

One other issue, actually -
the little remain of the handle.

This should have been on there.
I think I'll have to

speak to Will, see if he can make
me a new one of these.

First part of taking this apart,
I'm kind of picking an easy bit.

These two bolts on top,
they're easily accessible.

Whichever family member
of Mark's has bought this new

all those years ago, it would have
been a huge investment,

and it's been handed down
and passed down for so long.

It's well worth saving.

Things like this are just
absolutely beautiful.

OK. That was supposed to be
the easy bit.

That's the first piece off,
and even that was a fight.

As Dom wrestles with the heavy metal

of the sausage machine,
the next visitor brings

an altogether
more delicate proposition.

Mary Murphy from Stafford
is carrying a unique

and fragile historical archive
in desperate need of

the expert intervention
of bookbinder Chris Shaw.

All right?

Wow. I'm Jay. Greetings, I'm Mary.

Hello. Chris. Hello, Chris.

So, what have we got in the blanket?

You've got my grandma's
postcard album.

OK. Let's have a look.

It's in a tablecloth
because you will see

that it's in a bit of a state.
Oh, wow.

It's coming apart. Look, it's all...

I think that's such
a modest way of putting it.

Yeah. It has come apart.

If you look at this as binding,
it's not bound.

And it's flaky. This is why I've put
it in this tablecloth,

because every time you open it
or move it at all, it does this.

Yeah. All of that, it's just
perishing. It is, yeah.

So these are the postcards
collected by...?

By my grandma. Your grandma.
Yes. It was my mum's mum.

Right. Born in Battersea,
married and went to Balham.

We called her Grum because
that's what we called her

when we were little. Yeah. Grum.
So, she remained Grum

all my life.
JAY CHUCKLES

And she virtually brought us up.

So, she started this
as a little girl. Yeah.

I think that she left school
when she was 13, but, by 14,

she was in service,
a domestic servant in a house.

So, she collected postcards?
Yeah. She did. She did.

And she... Wow. This goes from
1903 to the mid '30s.

Wow. A lot of these are
about her...

..are to and from her sisters.
They're about everything.

I mean, a lot of it's about,

"Can you come to the music hall
tomorrow night?"

Right. Or, "I'm feeling poorly.
Bring me up a pie." OK.

It's like hearing them talk.
And I only ever knew Grandma

when she was old, or she seemed
old because we were kids

and everybody's old. Yes.
And, so, this is all them

being young and speaking.
And chatting between each other.

And it's chat! I mean, this is...
It's a conversation.

They would never have had
the telephone even when

it was invented because they were
far too poor for that.

Yes. OK. This is their texting.

Right. Absolutely. Really.

Really unusual. You've just got
your whole family history

in postcards, of all things.
Mm-hm. It's just amazing.

I'm scared to touch it. But there's
things like my grandma,

her brother-in-law being sent off
to the front in the First w*r,

and there's... It's from her mum.

So, this is at the very beginning
of the First World w*r.

"Dear Emily, I line to let you know
Will has gone away

"this morning from Paddington.
Katie was crying

"when they all called to Balham
for Will to say goodbye." Right.

You know. Yeah. And did he survive?

He did. He became a milkman.

Oh, wow. Oh, cool.

Oh, it's a lovely object.

And, uh, yeah,
it's a real challenge.

But it's trying to make it really
user-friendly for you.

Yes. I don't know how to
display them

so that you can see the backs

because the backs tell us our story.

Yeah. I mean, we've discovered
relationships

and family history just by
looking at them.

Mm-hm. Yes. They're so lovely.
So, I don't know.

The outside is still beautiful.

I'd like the covers to be left...
Yep. ..like that... Like that.

..because that's what Grandma
handled. Yes, yep.

It's never been anywhere, you know?
Never been left anywhere.

It's never been outside us.

But I think that it would be
really, really lovely

if you could bring it back
to life for us.

And so I...

Take care of it. We will.

Thank you. It's part of our family
now, OK?

All right. Thank you.
You take care now.

Oh. Ah, bless you. All right.

Thanks.

I feel a bit nervous about handing
it over, if I'm completely honest,

but it's because you can hear them.

You can just hear these people.

And...

And I just love it.
I feel really quite teary.

Now, this is precious,
isn't it? Yes.

Cos it is, it's falling
to bits already. Yeah.

Just totally shattered.

So, what Mary wants is to have
the postcards' backs showing,

which I can totally understand
cos there's so much history

on the back there. How are you going
to do that?

Well, I have come up with
a sneaky idea. Yeah?

So, can we get it over to
your bench? Yes.

Yeah? Yeah, I'm looking forward
to it. OK. Right.

Chris has been a traditional
bookbinder for over 35 years,

but customising this album
will present a unique challenge,

beginning with the pages.

So, the paper's arrived. I'm
really pleased with the colour.

I think it's going to look the same,
which I'm really pleased for Mary,

because obviously it's really
precious to her.

But I've also been thinking about,
"How am I going to hold them

"in the album for her?" because she
was very specific about

the fact that she wanted to read
them on both sides,

which was completely different to,
obviously, how they were

in the album themselves.

So I've been fiddling around
and came up with a plan

and I've got my lovely template.

It's going to clip it in there
and then you'll be able to see

at the back.

So I can now cut paper to size.

To display the 261 postcards
and window pages

this way, the album
would double in size.

So Chris has decided
to construct two albums.

When you're doing this,

it is really satisfying.

But it's like starting anything.

You've got a mountain to climb.

In the outdoor workshop,
Dom is facing a similar grind

as he surveys the decades
of dirt and rust adorning the parts

of the sausage maker,

once the pride and joy
of a family butcher's shop.

Hey, J. How are you doing?
Are you OK? Yeah. Just wanted

to see how you're getting on
with Marcus's sausage machine.

I know. Big issue is I need
to get all this red stripped off.

It's all really filthy.
Everything needs to be spotless.

Oh, I see. You want
all of this shot-blasted?

Exactly. Yep. Everything red you can
take away, if that's OK.

I've got a box. You've got a box?
Don't worry. That is heavy.

I know, it's a solid old machine.

Perfect. Thank you.

Oh! Here we go,

It's all really filthy, so that...

Yeah. ..needs stripping all that
off. And that one as well, yeah?

All right, let me take these off
you. Leave this with me,

I'll call you when I'm all set.
OK. No problem.

Thanks, Jay. All right.

As Dom continues his w*r
on rust, he's enlisted

Will to tackle the woodwork.

Dom has given me the remains
of a wooden handle

for the sausage machine.

It's not in great shape,

so I'm going to make up a new handle
out of a piece of oak here.

Dom needs to de-rust the internal
components of the machine.

They're too delicate
for sandblasting,

so he's turned to chemistry.

How are we doing, Dom?
Jay, are you OK?

You look like
a mad scientist. I know.

This is electrolysis.

An electrical current passes
from the positive through

to the negative
through the solution.

This washing soda, by dissolving
that in the water, that will make

it conduct electricity better.

And, as the current passes through,
it forces the rust off the part

and it will all end up floating
around in the water.

It's cool. Wow.

It's a really cool process.

This is a bit of a sort of
DIY set-up, but it's fine.

It's a really cool process,
but it looks quite dangerous to me.

It's not, it's not.
It's a very low current. OK.

I'd love to see this working.

So, what do I do, just sprinkle?

Yeah, sprinkle it around.

All right, you got me excited now.
Let's turn it on. Let's have a look.

That's it, OK, are you ready?
Mind yourself, then. So...

..look, look, look.

Oh, wow! Can you see? Yeah!

Isn't it cool? That is really cool.

I'm really impressed with that.
It works really well.

Look at that, it's quite ferocious.

So, there's the rust coming
off there as well.

See those little flakes? Yeah.
They've been pushed off.

And the most important thing is
this won't remove any metal.

So, we should be left with
a really nice, clean surface.

No rust. No rust.

So, Marcus will be making sausages
in no time, then, won't he?

Exactly. Fingers crossed.

I'll leave you to it, mate.
Take care. All right.

I've got all of the steel internal
gubbins for Marcus's sausage

machine. They've all had a bath
in the electrolysis machine,

which has taken off all
of the surface rust.

So, I'm just going to run the
blowtorch over them just to remove

all the last remaining bits
of paint clinging on.

Then I'll give it all a really
good sand, a really good clean,

and just prepare it
for the new paint.

Next into the repair shop,
a precious heirloom

that has travelled across
continents.

Nawzad and Karen have been married
for half a century

and they are hoping silversmith
Brenton West... Hello there.

..can help restore
their wedding present.

I'm Nawzad. Nice to meet you,
Nawzad.

I'm Karen. Hi, Karen,
nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.
What have we got?

Well, we've got an old samovar.

OK, what is a samovar?

Well, this is used to boil
the water to make tea.

OK.

It reminds me of the good
old days in the north of Iraq.

My siblings and I,
we used to sit around it,

and my mother, she used to tell us

all the stories about
my family members...

That was always at teatime.
It was at teatime, yes.

Wow, that's amazing.

So, this brings back those memories.

Oh, it does. It does.

It's so precious to me, you know?

Tell me why you've got it.

Well, my mother bought it in 1928
upon her wedding to my father.

And, as a tradition, my mother gave
us the samovar as a wedding gift.

So, you had the right additional
item for the cooker.

Keep it in the family.
Keep it in the family. Yes.

That's really nice, isn't it? Yes.

Things got really tough
in the late '70s.

So, I had to leave Iraq
and I left...

Well, we left, and three boys.

We left everything in the house.

And we left in a hurry.
Because there was going to be a w*r.

I mean, we left all the furniture
and I left my car behind.

But the samovar was so precious
for us, you know?

So, the samovar came out.

Came with you. I sneaked it out.

Oh, right!

It was in a plastic bag
and carried with me on the plane.

So, how did it get into
this condition?

Well, a lot of use and love.

Age, of course.

And age, of course, yes.

What would you like me to do to it?

Oh, I wouldn't worry too much
about this dent. OK.

How did it happen?

Well, we moved house and my mother
trusted my older brother

to carry this, and he tripped,

poor guy, and he fell
and created this dent.

The samovar symbolises
my family, you know,

my siblings,
my father and my mother.

And the times we've...

Sorry. It's OK.

Yeah, and the good memories
that we used to have.

And it's the only thing...

HE SNIFFS

I'm sorry.

That's OK.

It's the only thing
we brought out of Iraq.

OK, OK, so this is...

Yeah.

The only family heirloom, actually.

But, of course, I want the samovar
to be refurbished so that I can give

it to my grandchildren. OK.

And then invite them over and make
tea for them and tell them

the story. That would be lovely!

Yeah. Well, I will do my best
to do your repairs for you.

It's really nice to meet you.

And I'll be in touch as soon as...

Thank you very much.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

So, the samovar is very important
to us because it is the only link

that I have, or we have, with my
family and brings back a lot

of wonderful memories
of my childhood.

It would be nice to have it
looking as it used to be.

I must admit, I'd never heard
of a samovar before, but I know

how precious this is to Nawzad.

And I'm eager to do
a really good job for him.

So, the ash-releasing door
is intact and the hinge works fine.

It's just the mechanism
or the catch that keeps it closed,

so, I certainly will be making
a new catch for it.

On the chimney we need a handle.

So I'll ask Will if he could kindly
turn me something up

on the wood lathe.

Finally, the bit that I'm really
looking forward to

is polishing this by hand
with some elbow grease.

I believe I can make it as shiny

as this bit all over.

Also working meticulously
by hand, bookbinder Chris

is rejuvenating a crumbling
Edwardian album full of treasured

family postcards.

After hours of careful toil,

he now has 130 windowed pages
and can begin to build them

into a book.

Next, I'm going to mark the book up

for sewing. This is the sewing tape,
it's a linen sewing tape.

And this is what actually
is going to hold the book

into its case, instead of just
being individual pages.

That's when the book
all comes together.

Right.

On this, I'm using a sewing called
French catch stitch.

So, when you come out of this hole,
you catch up

your last loop, and that creates
this bond between each section.

So, as you go through,
each section's holding each other.

So, you can see all of that
has just joined together.

That's just nice.

So it's now just a matter of
ploughing on

and just time to contemplate.

So, this is the final section
with the endpaper,

which is always a bit of a fiddle.

So, you can see all of that
is just joined together.

It's just nice.

With the interior built,
Chris can turn his attention

to the battered covers
that will encase the pages.

Before pulling it to pieces,

I've just been looking at it.

They are crumbling where
the book's actually attached to,

so, I'm just going to cut
straight down the middle.

It's fallen to pieces,
so it's exposed

the board. Makes an easy cut for me.

So that's one board free.

Really pleased with that.

So, all these corners,
they're not that bad.

But what I'm going to do
is I'm going to actually repair them

with some more embossed
sort of paper.

But anything that's loose,
I'll just stick down.

Got to be really careful lifting
this because it's been

stuck down since 1910.

So, it's got its own mind
at the moment.

So, it's just gentle encouragement.

I suppose it's being almost like
a dentist, isn't it?

All the tools.

I can glue all the edges down.

Yeah, I'm really happy with that.

With the cover boards repaired,
Chris must connect them

with a sturdy, new spine.

And, for that, he requires a fabric
that will blend seamlessly

into the Edwardian original.

So, this is the original cloth.

But, luckily, in my hoard at home,
I've got almost exactly...

..the same cloth.

The only difference is that's got,
however many, over 100 years

of dirt on it.

Just give that a squash.

Just give it a gentle shock.

So, while that's drying, I can
pop off and have a cup of tea.

Now that it's all dry, I'm going
to actually attach the album

into the covers.

Make sure it's all married up

and then rub it down.

Just make sure
it's in the correct place.

Makes it nice and strong.

So finally, I'm going to just
paint it all up

and start making it look nice.

There's a few sort of scuff marks,
so just protect the inside.

I'm going to use watercolour.

It's just going to blend
and not be so in your face.

You don't want to take it all away,

the scuff marks, it's just knowing
at what point to stop.

It's just the final bit now.

I'm just going to start
putting the postcards in.

Outside, Dom has also reached
the final stages of his repair,

the vintage sausage machine.
The exterior parts are back

from the sandblasters
and the contraption is ready

to be reassembled.

I've got everything laid out now
on my bench for the sausage machine.

Every piece has been cleaned,
painted, greased.

Fingers crossed, it all goes back
together again.

Former butcher Marcus used
the machine as a 16-year-old

apprentice, but the contraption
was showing its age,

caked in rust
with missing components.

But he's eager to see if Dom's tasty
repair job has brought it back

to life so that he can relive
his youth making sausages

in the family shop.

I brought daughter number one,

Hannah, and daughter number four,
Harriet,

who are also really excited for me
to get the sausage machine back.

I know it means a lot to Dad,

so it'll be really nice to see
it all working again.

Yeah. Yeah.
It'll be really nice.

Hello.

You brought the g*ng.

Good to see you both.

Nice to see you again.

Hi, I'm Jay. I'm Hannah.
All right, Hannah?

Hi, I'm Harriet.
All right, Harriet?

Nice to meet you both.

So, I guess you only know this
as rusting away in the shed.

Yeah, I've never seen it,
like, working.

I've never kind of seen,
you know, Dad with it,

or anybody else, so, yeah,
it'll be really good to see it.

Should we...? Go on, let's do it.
You want to see it?

I'd love to see it, yeah.
Can't wait.

THEY GASP

Wow! No way!

Amazing!

It looks brand-new, doesn't it?

That is absolutely fantastic.
It does look brand-new. It does.

Even the brass bolts on the side.

This is all...

That's absolutely fantastic.

In fact, even when we were using it,
I don't think

it was that shiny, this thing.

THEY LAUGH

In here was always all good,
but this has never been.

Oh, and the handle. Yeah.

Yeah, new handle. New handle.

So, you did promise that
you'd show me how to use it

and how to make those sausages.

Absolutely.
That's the least I can do.

We've got some ingredients here
anyway. Fantastic.

Right, it's good to go.

So this is your basic sausage meat.

OK. OK, so in we go,

So that's nicely compacted
now in there.

Now, just start to...

That's a sight better
than before. Wow!

I was waiting for that
reaction, yeah.

And, then, we load the sausage
skins onto the nozzle.

Here we go.

JAY CHUCKLES

That's all right, actually.

You're concentrating there,
aren't you? He is, yeah!

So you've got to get the right fill,

and you have got to get the knack of
it.

Feels like you're back in your
element there a bit.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

So, how does it go into, like,
individuals, then?

What do you do now?
We squeeze the skins together,

twist it round, and then we'll hook
that one through.

Look at that!

And it's just a bit
like knitting... Wow!

..when you get to the end.

Making balloon animals, I'm just
expecting a giraffe...

THEY LAUGH

Wow. Well done.

Give him a round of applause, man.

Was it nice doing that again?
Yeah, yeah.

It's quite therapeutic,
doing the tying. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll tell you what, let's help
you get this out to the car.

Fantastic. Thanks very much, again.
Really appreciate it.

Thanks again, Dom.

I'll take the light part.

Yeah, that's fine. Thank you.

It's fantastic to be reunited
with the sausage machine.

I can't believe the craftsmanship
that's been put

into making it alive again.

Took me back to being 16 again,

and I'm so thrilled.

It's something he loves doing,
so it's really nice to see him.

THEY LAUGH

Hey, look at you guys.

I smell something going on.

Someone's burning some food.

I'm cooking some sausages,
I'm not burning anything.

Well done, Dom.

Thank you very much.

He did a good job, didn't he?
See you later. See you later.

Lunch break over,

it's back to work for Brenton
on his overhaul

of the century-old samovar.

And having done such a good job
on the sausage machine handle,

it seems Will's talents
are very much in demand.

Will. Hello. I need your woodworking
skills, please.

OK. This is a samovar.

A samovar?

This heats hot water
for making tea.

And it's got some wooden
bits missing. Right.

So this is the chimney.

And, obviously, when you take the
chimney off, it's hot. OK.

So you don't want to be touching it

with your hands there, then.
Correct.

And there's a wooden handle
that would match that.

OK. The other thing is there's...
This is the tap.

Again, that will be hot.

And there's a missing wooden
knob from that.

Yeah. OK?

I'll give it a go. Yeah.
Thank you very much. OK.

I'll get on with it. Thanks.
No worries.

With the wooden elements safely
in Will's hands, Brenton

can turn his attention to creating
a closer for the ash-releasing door.

I took the trap door off
and I designed on paper

how I wanted the catch to be.
I'm now making the catch.

OK, so that pushes all the way
on now there now.

I just need to solder a piece
onto here...

..to keep that in place.

I'm just going to let this
cool down now.

Great.

Brenton has asked me to turn a new
handle for the top of the samovar.

So I'm going to work out exactly
where my rib's going to go.

Ideally, I'd quite like to have them
where the hand's going to sit.

I think it's roughly
between there and there.

Lovely.

So now all I need to do is
saw this off...

..pop that in there and hopefully...

Lovely. It fits like a glove.

So then you can use the handle

and your hands are nicely
protected now.

So now all I need to do is turn up
the new knob for the front

and then colour match them both
to match the existing handles.

Wow, that looks great.

Yeah? Pleased? That's lovely.

Matches that well, doesn't it?
It does indeed. Thank you. Oh!

And the little knob on the front.

Thank you.

Looks like it was made for the job.

Over to you. Well done, thank you.

OK, so I've got the nice wooden
parts that Will's turned for me

and I'm going to set about
polishing it,

which is going to take quite a while

because it's really, really dirty.

So, first, this doesn't seem
like it's doing much,

but when I started,
it felt sort of rough

and now I can feel it's smooth.

If I get my soft gloss on there,

you'll see.

So that now has got
quite a nice lustre to it.

That's that nicely polished now.

This is, um, looking really good.

Lots and lots of elbow grease
required for that.

And, normally, when you repair
something like this,

you wouldn't leave a dent in
but Nawzad has asked me

to leave the dent, where his brother
took the tumble with this samovar

and I can see why he wants it
to stay there -

it's part of its life.

With a magnificent shine restored
to the samovar,

Brenton can reattach
the ash release door

with its nifty new catch.

Go on, in you go.

Go on!

Then push the door shut.

Turn the catch.

Hopefully, that...

Perfect.

That's absolutely perfect. So,
that's stopping the ash coming out.

That's great.

Bookbinder Chris Shaw
has been using his expertise

to recreate an Edwardian album
recording intimate details of family

life in the early 1900s.

Postcard album's all finished.

It looks fantastic.
I'm really pleased with it.

So now I've just got the joy
of going through and putting

all the postcards in,
so I'm looking forward to that.

All the postcards have been numbered
and collated, so I put them back

into the correct position.

I am, yeah, really pleased.

It took a lot of thought to actually
work out how this could, you know,

the postcards could go in,

and considering what it looked
like to start with,

I think Mary will be pleased
and I'm certainly pleased

with the work I've done.

Eager to see if Chris has managed to
rescue the precious family archive

chronicling the life
of her grandmother, Mary is back

at the Repair Shop - and she's
brought along her sister, Sue.

We're hoping that Chris
has been able to put the postcard

album together, so that it will
survive - and survive us -

and so that everybody can
enjoy reading about these

little lives that are so long gone.

Keep it going for more generation.
Yes.

Hello. Hello. Hello. How are you?
Greetings, greetings, greetings.

Nice to see you. Likewise.

I'm Susan, the younger one.

So you brought your sister
along this time?

Yes. Absolutely.
This is my baby sister. Mary,

do you remember what you brought in?
Oh, I do.

It was dreadful. I mean, if there
was any way that we wanted to pass

it down in the family,
it wouldn't have survived.

OK.

Shall we show them? Yes.
I think so.

Are you ready? Yeah. Deep breath.

MARY GASPS
Oh, look, Grandma.

Little Grandma.

Look at this!

Isn't that lovely?

What you have to do
is you have to lie it down.

Oh, she did love this.

Yes. Can I open it?
Of course you can.

Ah-eeeeeeeee! Oh, gosh.

Eeeeeeeee!

Oh, look at it.

Look at that.

Go on, go mad, open it.

Go on. Look at the green!

Oh, yeah. Well...

Oh, look.

Yes!

Yes!

That's what she wanted...
Oh, look, look.

..to be able to read... Oh, look.
Look at it!

Oh! Oh!

Oh, yes.

Oh. Oh, thank you.

Excellent. Look at that. Let's see.
Oh, God, God, God, God.

Don't squash.

OK, but look at the cleverness of
it. Oh, look at that. Yeah.

That is so...
Look at the cleverness of it!

What Chris has done here...

There's two books, because you
had so many and you wanted to see

the back. Yeah.
I think you've done amazing.

It's just been a dream.

It's been absolutely fantastic.

It's just excellent. Glorious.

I'm going to have to give you a hug.

Oh, bless you. I'm awfully sorry...

THEY LAUGH

..but you'll just have to lump it.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Ah, thank you.

Thank you, thank you. Thank you.

Well, this is yours.
Absolutely. There you are.

Thank you very much indeed.
Take care now. Thank you.

And keep smiling. It is lovely!

I mean, it really is,
really is fabulous.

I'm just astonished and
can't stop grinning, really.

It's the most beautiful...
Yeah. ..beautiful thing.

I think a party for the album
would be absolutely lovely.

I think a party for Grandma.
Oh, I think so.

It's taken some clever designing
and a lot of elbow grease,

but Brenton has returned
the samovar to sparkling form.

Oh, that looks good. Oh, well done.

It's a bit different, isn't it?
It's a lot different, yeah.

Well, I'll tell you what,
we cannot give it back to
them without... Absolutely.

I've got an idea. OK. Follow me. OK.

That's quite cool. So I've put in
enough for a couple of cups

of tea in there,
something like that.

Once that gets going,

you will see the steam coming out
of this pressure relief valve here.

So we've just got to wait
for the kettle to boil. Yeah.

And they always say never
watch a boiling kettle,

cos it doesn't work.

Let's turn our backs.

I reckon that's boiling now,
don't you?

It must be boiling.

Look at the steam, man,
it's working.

Look at that. That is hot as,
isn't it? Look at it.

Boiling water.

Now that is amazing.

I didn't expect it to work
that quickly. Wow.

It's incredible.

It's fantastic. Cool.

All right. And what we need to do
is get it cooled down, cleaned up,

for Nawzad and Karen. Yeah. Cos they
are coming in soon. Are they? OK.

Nawzad and Karen fled Iraq
in the late '70s,

for the sake of their family,
and this is the only heirloom

they managed to salvage.

But they needed the Repair Shop's
help after the years

had left it dull, with missing
pieces, unfit for use.

Oh, we're here to collect
my mother's wedding samovar.

We hope that it's been repaired
and we'd like to be able to

pass it on to the next generations.

How we doing? Hello.

How are you doing, Karen? Nawzad.

Hi.

I loved how you guys were
holding hands as you walked in.

Well, we always do that.
How long have you been together?

50 years plus. Wow.

You've got a good woman.
That's what it is, sir.

That's what it is.

So, how have you been without this,
then? Wondering what you've

managed to do... Brenton's managed
to do. ..managed to do, really. OK.

Because it's an old thing
and has been used,

well used. Yes.

And it shows its age.
As we all do.

Well... OK.

So, I think it's about time
we showed them.

Ready to be reunited? Yes.

OK.

WHISPERS: There we go.

Oof! That's lovely.
NAWZAD GASPS

It is lovely.

It has its thing here.

I didn't expect it to look so good.

Mm.

It's wonderful.

This is a miracle.

I never expected it to be this good.

Really.

Takes me back many years.

Many decades.

Now I'm glad you kept the dent.
Yeah.

Because it's a very
important family event.

So when's the first time
you're going to use it?

Well, in about a couple
of weeks' time, I have to bring

all the grandchildren and
make them tea and tell them

all about it. And have
this connection going back

through the family. That's right.
Not just any old samovar, is it?

It is the family samovar.
Your samovar.

We are so glad to be part
of your family's history.

Thank you very much.
You take care now.

Both of you. Take care. Bye-bye.
Bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

A nice man. Well done. That's nice.

The samovar looks really superb.

Brenton did such a great job on it.

And my mother is looking
down on us now,

I'm sure she's happy to
see it in such good condition

once again.

Join us again

as our extraordinary craftsman...

It's all about measuring twice
and cutting once.

..transform Britain's
beloved treasures...

Oh-h*-h*, that looks beautiful.

..in The Repair Shop.