11x04 - Miniature Sewing Machine

[bunniefuu]

BIRDSONG

In The Repair Shop today...

I'm hoping that the thread
will be on there, but it's not.

There's head-scratching
from Steve...

Guess I'm just going to have
to sit down for a little while

and work it out. Yeah.

..and head-banging...

HE IMITATES GUITAR

..from Mark.

What is it they say - if you can
remember it, you weren't there?

THEY LAUGH

I think you're probably right.

BIRDSONG

Awaiting today's first arrival
is bookbinder Chris Shaw.

Tara Silvester
has two weighty tomes,

telling a story from
TV's light-entertainment heyday.

Hello! Hello.

How you doing? Very good, thank you.

So, what have you got for us, Tara?

Well, here are two books

that are very, very important to me
and my family. And this is...

No way!
You ain't got to explain that.

That is This Is Your Life, innit?
It is.

It was given to my grandfather,
Victor Silvester,

when he was surprised on
the This Is Your Life programme...

He went on that? ..in 1957.

Wow! Wow!

And the other... Right.

..is the script that was held
by Eamonn Andrews

during the programme.

Hold on a minute!
So, there's a script that he reads,

and then you get the book to go...?
Correct.

Because it was in black and white,
the big red book,

this script didn't need to be
big and red.

Right. Yeah, I'm with you.

So this was, yeah, sent to my father
after the programme,

with photographs
of the entire programme.

Whereas in later years,
the big red book would be

the script and everything, and you
would receive it there any then.

Everything in there. I remember
watching when I was a little kid.

It's only for important people.
Yes.

So, who is your grandfather?

So my grandfather was a world
championship ballroom dancer. Yeah?

And was a TV presenter
with a programme called

Television Dancing Club,
which was on the BBC for 17 years.

Wow!

And when he set up his orchestra
in 1935,

he created a sound called
strict tempo ballroom dancing music,

and had a strapline as such,

called,
Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow.

Oh!

He sold 75 million records... No!

..during his time.

Hence why he gets this book.
Hence why he gets this book.

How did your grandfather
get into dancing?

He was recuperating,
having been shot in the leg

during World w*r I... Right.

..and he needed some exercise.

So he went with a cousin
to a tea dance. OK.

And he was spotted
by a dance teacher,

and she needed a man.

THEY LAUGH

To do dancing? To do dancing.

And he trained,

and then got a dance partner
called Phyllis Clarke.

And in 1922, they entered the World
Ballroom Dancing Championships,

and they won it.

Wow! Yeah, he was very important
to dance.

And what's amazing about this book

is not only is my grandfather
featured in the book,

but my father is in there,

my grandmother is...
So, that's proper family history?

It's real family history.

You know, my family
and my grandparents

lived practically next door
to each other, so we were close.

When I was very little,
my grandfather taught me to dance

by putting my feet on his feet
and teaching me the waltz.

Yeah, yeah.
So, this is steeped in history?

Yes. What would you like Chris
to do to these?

I would be so proud to be able
to show those to people.

And right now, I can't... No.

Because every time I lift it up,
it disintegrates!

And there was a beautiful
gold embossed section

at the back here, as well, with,
"This Is Your Life".

Wow! So, you want these two looking

the way that your grandfather
received them?

Or even close.

What do you reckon, then, Chris?

To bring this back to life,
there's a lot of work.

I'll give it my best shot. OK. Yeah.

Thank you so much
for bringing these in.

I can't wait to see them.

THEY CHUCKLE

You take care now. Thank you.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

What an opportunity for me,
to be able to hold

this bit of TV history in my hand,

and then also, to have the script.

It's just phenomenal.

It's a basic folder
covered in a dust jacket.

A new dust jacket might be
the way ahead on this,

but my biggest challenge
is the red book.

So the board is slightly bowed,

so I'm going to straighten that out.

Ooh! Ah!

Ooh! Little bits of hidden treasure.

This is going to be really useful
for me,

because what I'll have to do

is recreate a new spine
in the same style.

And this gives me the layout
of how this spine would have looked.

But the first port of call is,

I'm going to condition the leather,
because it is very, very dry.

And that will give some sort
of substance back into the leather,

but also it will clean it.

When you do this,
before all the rock and roll

of the repair's going to happen
and it's fast and furious,

this is a nice, quiet,
tranquil moment for me.

PIGEON COOS

BIRDSONG

Sarah Scott from Somerset
is next to arrive at the barn,

with an heirloom that's set to test

the mechanical mind
of Steve Fletcher.

Hi! Hi!

Hello!
Hello! Nice to meet you both.

Lovely to meet you, Sarah.

What's in the bag?
Can we have a look? You can, yes.

I've got a very dinky
pocket sewing machine.

Sewing machine?
That's not a sewing machine!

I think it was one of the smallest

lockstitch sewing machines
ever made.

It clamps to the table...

and then, the foot
for this sewing machine is here,

and the cotton reel
would be on the top. Right.

Yeah, I think they were made
around the 1880s.

So, how did it come
into your hands, then?

I was given it by my grandma
back in the late 1990s.

And she showed me it,
and I was completely blown away,

because I'd never seen
anything like it. And...

So she...she gifted it to me.
Amazing.

And it had originally belonged
to her step-grandma...

Oh, wow!
..who she was very close to.

She had a bric-a-brac stall
in the market

in Keighley, back up in Yorkshire.

And so, she had clothes and books

and all sorts of household
bric-a-brac,

and she used this on her stall.

My grandma used to tell me
stories about, um...

..how she would go and help her
pack up the stall after school

when she was a young girl.

That's amazing.
So, why were they so close?

My gran called her Mam, actually.

She grew up believing
that she was her mum.

When in fact, the person she thought
was her sister was actually her mum.

OK. So her step-grandma
brought her up and raised her.

This is the only thing I have,
really, that links

to my gran's childhood.

And I think it evokes
strong memories

of the time that she spent
with her mam. Yeah.

This was really special to her,
and therefore special to me.

We were really close,
so it means a lot to me.

Is she still around now?

No, sadly. I lost her in 2003.

I'm sorry. So...so, yeah.

But it's good that this has now
made it into your hands,

so it's been saved. Yes.

Sewing is something that goes
through the family.

So my gran was a sewer,
and she knitted.

My dad actually designed
and made my bridesmaid dresses

when I got married in 2000.

Wow! Goodness! Yeah.

And then, I've tried to turn
my hand to sewing as well.

I'm clearly not as established
as the lovely ladies over here,

but I've made a couple of dresses
for my daughter and myself.

It looks very well-made.
Have you ever tried using it?

No. Because parts of it are seized
up and it's very rusty, and...

My original idea had been just to
try and clean it up and display it.

This is something that goes back
generations for my family,

so it's really, really special.

Got to have a look. Crikey!

THEY LAUGH

Wow! I've never seen
anything like that before.

It's fascinating, isn't it? Yeah.

Do you know what? I'm going
to really enjoy cleaning this up.

I-I-I don't know about
the getting it working...

Yeah. ..but cleaned up, that's going
to look absolutely spectacular.

I think that's beautiful.

If I could use it,
then I absolutely would.

Regardless, it'll take pride
of place in my home,

be displayed,
become a real talking point,

and be something that can be
passed down to my children.

I've worked on a couple of
sewing machines before.

This is a different
kettle of fish altogether, so...

You look a bit nervous, Steve.
You OK?

SHE LAUGHS

I am nervous. You all right?

I am nervous.

But, um...I'm also excited.

And this is a real challenge,

but I'm hoping and praying
I can do something for you.

Oh, thank you so much, Steve.

I can't wait to see
what you manage to do. OK.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

See you later. Bye for now.
Bye-bye now.

Cor, Steve, I'm nervous for you!

This is a really lovely machine,

and I'm just hoping
that I can get it working.

It's incredibly rusted.

The first thing I'm going to have
to do is just to see

what I can take apart.

I'm just being very careful.

Just... Oh, there we go!

I'm really pleased to get the first
screw out without breaking it.

Looking at it, I think that that's
going to polish up absolutely fine.

Ah!

So you've even got the remnants
of the old spring here,

which is all in bits.

But it gives me an idea
of how strong the spring was.

I can find out what the diameter
of the steel is

and then replicate
the same sort of spring.

Once I've got it all apart, I can
then clean up all the verdigris,

which is the equivalent
of rust for brass,

and, er...polish it all up.

Then I can set to and make some
of the parts that are missing.

BIRDSONG

Chris! Dom.

This is your...dust jacket!

This is from the TV show?

It is. No way!

But it's obviously seen better days.

Look at...! Yeah!
I'm going to keep that,

but it needs a new one.

Even with your skills,
this is beyond repair. It's...

Yes. Yeah. I think it is.

To serve its purpose
as a dust jacket. Yes.

And I know you've got
graphic design experience.

I need you to find
the right typeface,

and then I can fold it
into a new dust jacket.

OK. I reckon we can do that, yeah.

Brilliant! Thanks. Leave it with me.

Ooh!

So this is the front board.

As soon as it came off,
I did put it in the press.

So it's been pressing,
and it is nice and flat.

So the board's now all ready
to be rejoined onto the book.

As I've been working on
this incredibly iconic book,

everything screams quality.

The calligraphy, the paper,

and the sewing, all hand done.

Where they've let themselves down
is the binding.

The binding has disintegrated,
because it's...

..not particularly strong.

So I'll just leave that to one side
under a weight...

..while I sort out
the new leather spine.

So the new leather hasn't been
pared down or shaved.

So if I just stuck that down, there
would be a dirty, great big lump.

So the idea is
to pare this leather down,

but not pare it too much
that you're weakening the leather.

It's one of these processes
that is quite nerve-racking.

You can...cut the leather,

and you basically,
you have to start again.

Now I'm going to start glueing
the spine up.

This is going underneath
the original.

This is going to be, obviously,
the main strength in the book.

It's a lovely bit of leather.

And this is me stretching.

So when this leather dries,
it's going to shrink

and build in strength.

So the whole book
becomes immensely tight.

And then, right at the top...

..along here...

..I'm going to add
a little bit of this hemp.

The hemp gives it
this lovely chunky top.

If that was just like
a thin piece of leather,

it wouldn't be so aesthetically,
er...pleasing to the eye.

It also strengthens it there.

That looks great. I'm happy.

So I'm going to do
exactly the same...

..now at the top.

And I'm almost there.

Chris has asked me to recreate
this dust cover for the script.

I need to try and match this font
as best I can with an existing font.

This is a serif font,
and it's really close.

And I can definitely work with it,
make some tweaks,

and I can get it all
exactly as the original.

I do spend a lot of my time now

lying underneath rusty cars,

painting things covered in dirt

and struggling to take things apart.

So I really do enjoy...

getting any chance
I can get to be designing.

Well, the spines are all dry now,

and the little bits that
I've discovered in the album

has led me to be able to work out

where the letters
were originally on the spine.

And I've transferred it,
and in that impression,

I'm going to just paint in this
adhesive for the gold to stick to.

It's ready now for the gold leaf.

So the next stage is, I'm going
to tool through, with a hot tool,

through the gold,
and hopefully it'll stick.

I'm using my thumb
to sort of guide it in.

And if the tool's too hot,

obviously, I can feel it
in my thumb.

I do love this bit.
The gold tooling makes a book.

It's the first thing people see.

It's just...the shop window
of the book.

I've got the exact same size
lettering as the original,

and I'm using
a 23-carat red gold leaf,

so it'll blend in
with the front of the book,

and it'll look exactly like
Victor had it back in 1957.

Next, Brian Paul from Somerset.

He's hoping the Repair team
can revive an item

from the halcyon days of his youth.

Hi! Hello! Come in. Welcome.

Thank you.

What's in the box?
What have you brought in?

It's my Copicat echo chamber.

I plug a guitar in.
It's a tape recorder.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! OK, hang on
a second. Mark? This sounds like...

Help!

THEY LAUGH

What have we got? This sounds
like it's right up your street.

Yes. It's basically a tape system.

A circular tape inside
that has four heads.

My guitar, which I plug in... Mm-hm.

..records on the first head,
and the other three will play back.

And so, you get a repeat
of the sound.

It immediately goes,
"Wang, wang, wang". Oh, I see!

Do you remember listening to
some of the songs of the '60s?

HE IMITATES GUITAR

So, they...? It's all that.

So, that kind of wobbly bit
at the end... Yes.

..is repeating what they're playing?

And it become a phenomenon,
didn't it? Yeah, it did.

This became the thing to buy.

So, where did you get...?

Well, it was...it was
in the late '50s.

Um...'58, '59-ish,

when it was three of us in the band.

And that would have been,
in the early days,

one or two gigs on the weekends.

But later, we used to do
much more than that.

Maybe it'd be four or five gigs
a week, if we were lucky.

Amazing! We didn't have audiences
that were thousands.

We had 30 or 40 in an upstairs room
in a pub.

And the punters loved it,
went home happy. I bet.

And so did we, cos we got paid.

Hmm! Hee-hee-hee!

Sometimes. Ha-ha-ha!

I bet. You must have some stories.
Yes.

Yes. It must have been a good time.
Oh, yes, yes.

Don't they say if you can remember
it, you weren't there?

THEY LAUGH

I think you're probably right.

THEY LAUGH

Yes, good times, good times.

So, did you use this machine a lot?
A lot.

I probably used it from 1959

through to 1972, '74. Right.

So, it's been asleep
for a long time? Yes. Hmm.

It's time to wake it up.
It is, yeah.

Do you know what's actually wrong
with it? Does it work now?

It doesn't work now.

The cables and connections
are quite old. Yeah.

And the telltale sign for me
is that red light.

Which if you plug it in
and turn the power on

and the red light doesn't go,
you know it's not working.

Bad news. Yes.

After this being hidden away
in the cupboard for so many years,

what's made you want
to get it fixed now?

I think seeing it stood idle,

the excitement of...of
seeing it as one,

and to do a performance as before,

would really inspire me.

I still do a little entertaining.
Yep.

In sheltered housing
and at my bowls club.

I'd love them to hear the sound that
that creates. It would be magic.

Please, just leave it with us.
It's in safe hands, I promise.

Lovely. Thanks so much, Brian.

You take care. Thank you.
See you later. Bye-bye.

Even though I've not actually worked
on one of these before,

generally, electronics,
there's a certain way

these things all combine
and work together.

So what I'm going to do first of all
is just get it out of the case

so I can have
an initial visual inspection.

I know that they are famous, really,
for creating the sound

which is now associated,
particularly in the '60s,

with The Shadows.

So this is quite exciting for me,
as well,

to actually get in and have a look.

Let's see what happens now.

Oh, here we go!

Oh, it's exciting.
It's like opening a present.

Brian mentioned that one thing
particularly,

that when he turned it on,
nothing came on.

The light didn't work, etc.

And the heart of that
really is this little rectifier,

which drives the supply
to power all this up.

Without this,
nothing's going to work.

So I really need to check that.

That is a connected circuit.
One point to another.

To allow current and voltage
to pass.

An open circuit, nothing can pass.

I am going to disconnect one side.

Um...just undo that a little bit.

So I'll go on here.

Nothing. And go that way.

Yeah, the rectifier has definitely
got an open circuit,

so we have found the smoking g*n.

After soaking
in clock-cleaning fluid,

the brass parts
of the tiny sewing machine

are ready for a gentle scrub.

I'm just going to use
some fine wire wool now

to see how well it cleans up.

That is amazing!

I'm so, so pleased with that.

The clock-cleaning fluid is
a specialist fluid for clockmakers.

It's a water-based ammonia solution,

and it's just great stuff
for doing this sort of work.

The difference before and after
is just amazing.

I've just got about a dozen more
parts to clean up.

I've been a bit flummoxed about
how this is supposed to work.

And fortunately, I've come
across some...some diagrams

of the sewing machine,
which is so helpful.

The first thing I'm going to have
to do is make the helical spring

for the...for the actual
pusher piece.

And this is going to be tricky,
as well.

Because not only has it got to fit
over this bar here,

which is the plunger, but it's also
got to go into this tube here,

and it's got to be strong enough
to push it down.

It's got to return the plunger
and everything with it.

So I've got to get the tolerances
just right.

Now, I've got
some...some spring steel,

and I hope that this is going to be
the right size.

There we have a helical spring.

So just stretch that out.

And actually, that is a perfect fit.

I'm just going to snip enough off,

and then I can pop it
into the...to the tube,

just to check that that's working.

So that fits into that tube
really well.

And actually, it's returning
the plunger up.

Good! I'm pleased with that.

Just keeping my fingers crossed
that, once I get it together,
it will work.

I can see on the diagram that
there's a missing cotton guide.

And what it does is guide
the cotton around, into the needle.

So I need to bend this piece
of metal to make this guide.

So that goes like that.

The cotton's got come off
of the reel,

through this, then it's got
to come down to here.

And then, this...this curl
has got to now hold it

before it goes on further.

This looks like just a jumble
of random bends.

Um...and, er...

Well, it is. Huh!

Er...it's going to do what I think
it's supposed to do.

So I'm ready now to...reassemble.

And I'm keeping my fingers crossed
that it's going to work.

Amanda? Yes?

Can you help me with this?
Because I've not a clue

how to thread the bobbin.

I'll have a look.
I can't promise anything.

So what's happening,
as the needle comes down... Yeah.

..the bobbin comes out.

So each time I pull like that...
Yeah.

..I'm hoping that the thread
will be on there.

But it's not. Right.

Because it's trying so hard, look.
It's looping.

Can you see there? Yeah.

Yeah. So when you go like that,
this...this should be my loop.

This should be...
So it's trying really hard to do it.

But I would think
if this was threaded wrong,

it would have jammed by now. OK.

When it came back up, I think
it would have got itself in a mess.

So I think it's something to do
with this action coming up here.

OK. I guess
I'm just going to sit down

for a little while and work it out.
Yeah.

And just see if I can get it right.
Yeah.

I'll see you later.

Well, I'm dying to see...

Oh! ..what you think of this.

Have a look, have a look!

Oh, wow! Oh!

And green...because it is. Yeah!

I thought this was black. Yes.

But it's actually just discoloured.

Actually, if you look
on the inside... Oh, yeah!

..it's the perfect match.

I will keep those, though,

and I'll put it in an archival
sleeve, in with the file. Yeah.

Thank you, Dom!
Hey, no problem at all.

Well, I've just got to fold it up,

get it on the file,
and then I can get it back to Tara.

Good. I'm glad you're happy.
Thanks, Chris. Thanks.

When they arrived at the barn,

these tattered and torn tomes

needed a storybook ending.

Today, Tara has returned,

hopeful the books are once again
a fitting tribute

to her grandfather

Victor Silvester's
glittering career.

There she is! Hello!

Hello, Tara. How you doing?
Very, very excited.

I just can't wait to see
what's under here! Oh, bless ya.

They had just been left in a box
in a very sorry state.

So I'm really, really hoping

that they have just been
brought back to life.

CHRIS LAUGHS
So, are you ready to see them?

Yes! Yes!

Come on, then.

Oh, my goodness!

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, my goodness!

The spine!

The spine had gone!

How did you do that?!

It's just amazing!

And it's exactly what my grandfather
would have received.

And he was so proud of this.

I'm so grateful to you.
This is absolutely fantastic!

And this...amazing script

just looks so fantastic!

I'm truly overjoyed.

Brilliant. It's just amazing!

Oh, and you've got the original
in here, as well! Yeah.

Thank you so, so much!

It's been a real honour for me

to be working on such an iconic
piece of television history.

I did have some help with Dom,

who did all the lettering
for the script.

That's absolutely amazing!
Thank you.

I'm really just amazed
how brilliant they look.

My grandfather would have been
so proud.

He was an amazing man.

This is just so brilliant, to be
able to remember him in this way.

I'm really, really delighted.

So, you ready to take them home?
I am more than ready!

I'm so excited! Bless you.
Thank you so, so much!

Thank you for bringing them in.

I'm just going to have to cuddle it
again.

Oh, bless!

SHE LAUGHS

Thank you! Enjoy.

Yeah. Bye-bye! Take care. Bye-bye!

I'm feeling absolutely thrilled!

I can't believe
what a fantastic job Chris has done.

I have books that look brand-new

that were given to my grandfather
in 1957.

It's a wonderful piece
of my family heritage.

I just can't wait to show them
to people now.

BIRDSONG

BUZZING

With progress made
on the Copicat's inner workings,

Mark needs Suzie's help
with its outer case.

Suzie? Mm-hm?

I wonder if you're free
for a minute?

Yeah. What can I help you with?

Right, little interesting dilemma.
Lack of.

Ah!

MARK CHUCKLES

Missing a handle, are we?
Missing a handle, yeah.

Right. So, this is the...sort
of like the...the...the slidey bar?

It lays flat, and then you...
You've got it, yeah.

If you could, that would
be brilliant. All right.

Thanks so much. OK. You're welcome.

BIRDSONG

WHIRRING

I'm going to flip this over

and start to work on the actual tape
and record heads.

One's the record,
the other three are the playback.

Even our tape recorders
we use at home,

you regularly need to clean
the oxide coating

which builds up on to the heads.

That improves the frequency
response, the higher level.

I like to really polish them up,

and a metal polish is ideal
for that.

It's like cleaning their teeth.

So you give them a good old clean,
like this,

and we'll see how much muck
comes off.

Look at that! So it just shows you
how dirty these can get.

The challenge I've got here is

that it needs to be a strong handle,

but it's not going to be
a very wide handle.

And this steel

is going to be sandwiched
in the middle there,

so I've only got three sixteenths
either side

of where the metalwork is

to put a stitch line in.

This only needs to be
lightly tapped.

I'm going to use two needles.

I'll be crossing the needles
as I go along the line.

And that, in turn, gives me
a really, really strong stitch.

With this Copicat,

it has an oscillator circuit.

Without that, it would sound awful.

My issue at the moment is
the oscillator doesn't seem

to be functioning.

So, this is the oscillator core.

You've got two parts of
the oscillator coil,

and they physically should be quite
close together, but not touching.

So, what I'm going to do
now is just push

this coil back carefully.

Don't want it to totally touch.

Turn it on - it is a valve,
takes time to warm up,

and we should expect to get a really
nice, large sinusoidal waveform.

Here we go, up it comes, power up.

Look at that, rising beautifully.

The next part of the task
is like a live test.

I've plugged on a lead, which
effectively is the input to this.

So, that's your guitar, whatever.

If I touch that...

ELECTRONIC BUZZING

By doing this,
this tells me that the input of

the circuitry is functioning,
it is amplifying. Like...

BUZZING CONTINUES

That's just picking up mains hum.

And that tells me it's coming in,
and it's going out.

So, that part of
the circuitry is fine.

All the associated wire and the
circuits themselves are functional.

So, it's a good way of proving if
everything's in balance, really.

Maiden voyage. Here we go.

Ta-da!

Works - and it feels
very comfortable in my hand.

All right, that's ready.

Let's give back to Mark.

I absolutely love
this little sewing machine.

I've been speaking to the big
expert on old sewing machines.

Apparently, the company made
thousands and thousands of them,

but only sold a few of them.

The problem was they hadn't
got the design quite right,

and therefore, the performance
wasn't that great at all.

I'm absolutely sure
I've got this together correctly,

and I've tried and tried
to get it working,

but I haven't been able
to get a stitch out of it.

As a stand-alone piece,
just as an ornament,

I think it looks beautiful.

I hope that if I can pop this
on a stand,

Sarah and her family can put this
in pride of place somewhere where

they can just see it all the time,
and enjoy it for what it is.

I think it's a fabulous piece,
even though it doesn't work.

For Sarah, the miniature machine
evokes memories of her grandmother,

and the strong needle-working
thread that runs through

generations of her family.

Hello, Sarah. Hello.

How are you doing?
I'm buzzing with excitement.

Oh, are you? I can't tell you. Yeah.

If you've been able to clean up what
I brought so I could display it,

that would be amazing.

But if you've been able
to put it back to a position

where I could actually use it,

that would just be
beyond incredible, honestly.

OK, would you like
to have a look at it?

I would absolutely love to. OK.

Oh, my word!

I can't even believe that
it's the same thing I brought in.

I can see there's definitely
some things that you've added

that weren't here before. Yeah.

LAUGHING: And the colour is
unrecognisable, isn't it? Yeah.

Honestly, it's incredible, it's...

It's stunning.

And does it actually work, Steve?

The whole history of these sewing
machines is really interesting.

And I did take some advice
from an expert in this field.

Oh, really?
And it is a first for me, because...

..I haven't got it working.

But I've enjoyed trying
to get it to work.

No, no, that's fine.

It's just beautiful, isn't it?

It's a real work of art.

It's going to take absolute pride
of place in the home.

And at least I won't have
to worry about breaking it,

if I'm not able to use it!
Absolutely.

Just to have something look like
it would've done to my family

generations ago is incredible.

Yeah, it's just fantastic.

Thank you so much
for bringing this in.

I've really enjoyed doing it.

Oh, thank you,
it's so much appreciated, Steve.

You're welcome. Thanks.

Bye-bye now. Bye.

I think my gran would be
absolutely astonished with

the gleam and the shine.

It really does symbolise
the love that we've had for sewing

through the generations.

I think it will still be fascinating
for us and our visitors to see.

And the restoration that
Steve's done is just amazing.

In the outdoor workshop,

Mark is ready to test
the Copicat echo machine.

It'll be quite interesting,
because it's been a long time...

..using one of these.

HE STRUMS GUITAR

HE STRIKES BUM CHORD

So, that's without any effects.

And if I now...

HEAVILY REVERBED STRUMMING

That's a winner.

I know Brian's going
to absolutely love this,

and bring back all those memories
which he used to have.

This 1950s technology produced
a sound that enriched

the music of Brian's youth.

Today, he's back, hopeful
that his cherished Copicat

can take centre stage once more.

All finished? Of course.
Oh, good. Already.

Brian's outside, so we better
get it covered up. Excellent.

Yeah, that's a really good.
He's got a guitar with him, as well.

HE IMITATES CHORD STRIKE

Hey, look who it is. There he is.
Hello. Good morning, Brian.

What's all this?
Assuming it's been fixed, then?

Well, I'm hoping so, Dom.

I hope this is going to
take you back. I'm sure it will.

Are you excited to see it?
I'd like to have a look, yes.

There we are.
And I can see there's a strap.

Yep. Which wasn't there before.

Wow.

HE WHISPERS: Magic.

Nice, shiny heads, as well.
Gorgeous.

Even the twirlers look good,
as well. Yeah.

I know it looks great, but it wants
to make some noise, doesn't it?

'Course it does! It really does
need to be plugged in.

That's the one.
The lights are on, look at that.

And then we'll turn the motor on.
Yep.

Ooh, it's spinning. It's going.

HE STRUMS GUITAR

COPICAT KICKS IN

Oh, that sounds nice.

Will you play us a tune? OK. Yeah.

I'd love to play you a short tune.

Patsy Cline's
Someday You'll Want Me To Want You.

THEY LAUGH

Or something like that.
Take it away. I can't remember it.

HE PLAYS PLUNKY TUNE

Brilliant. Well done. Brilliant.

Short and sweet.

Where's that taking you back to?

It takes me back to those biggest
days of my performing, back at

the Top Rank suite, in Bristol.

Aw. Cor. Yes.

Now the Copicat is working again,
what's the plan?

What are you going to do?

Well, I live in sheltered housing,
and we've got a lovely little lounge

and we have get-togethers
and sing songs.

But I also play at the bowls club,

and that's another great joy
that I have.

I will certainly be using
the Copicat. Good!

I'm glad to hear it.
Yeah, and it's ready for the task.

Which is great. Yes, yes.

Well, I can see already, Brian,
that you're going to enjoy this.

Very much. Thank you so much.
Thank you both.

Let me get the door for you.
Yeah. Thank you.

Hearing the Copicat working
again was really great fun.

It really gives you a feeling
that there's more to

the sound than you had before.

Of course, the memories
that I have are cemented with

moments onstage performing,

and I'm really thinking that
there will be more to come.

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

and you think the team can help,
please get in touch at...

..and join us in The Repair Shop.