01x11 - Victorian Cuckoo Clock

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop,

where cherished family
heirlooms are brought back to life.

Anything can happen.
This is the workshop of dreams.

Home to furniture
restorer Jay Blades.

Nowadays, things are
not built to last,

so we've become part of this
throwaway culture.

It's all about preserving
and restoring.

We bring the old back to new.

Working alongside Jay will be some

of the country's leading
craftspeople...

I like making things with my hands.

I love to see how things work and
want to know how things work.

Whether it's a Rembrandt or
somebody's family piece,

every painting deserves the same.

..each bringing their own
unique set of skills.

You're about to witness some magic.

They will resurrect...

revive... Oh, yes.

..and rejuvenate

treasured possessions

and irreplaceable pieces
of family history.

Oh, my goodness me. It looks like
it's new!

Bringing both the objects...

Oh, wow!

..and the memories that they hold
back to life.

Thank you.

In the Repair Shop today,

furniture restorer Will Kirk shivers
the timbers of a seafaring chest.

I'm actually worried, feeling the
surface -

you feel that there's a bit of
lipping there,

where the wood has moved and warped
and changed.

There seems to be a lot more work
than I first thought.

And ceramics conservator
Kirsten Ramsay

attempts a seamless
repair on a '70s bowl.

My oldest son pushed it against the
wall, and did that to it.

I mean, it's really rather spoilt,
unless you've got a banana hanging

over the edge or something, it
spoils the appearance of it.

Yeah, I know. Absolutely.

But first,
seeking some essential first aid
for a cherished possession,

Ian McFadyen is hoping clockmaker
Steve Fletcher can breathe new life

into a century-old family heirloom.

What have we got there, then?

Here we have my grandfather's old
cuckoo clock,

which is in dire need of love and
attention, I think.

OK.

Wow! That's nice. It's a beautiful
old clock. It's really nice.

I mean, it is Victorian.

And there's a bird...
Is there a bird in there?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah?
Yeah, but it only goes "cuck".

It only goes "cuck"?
It's lost its "oo"?

It doesn't go "oo", or it
could be the other way round.

I can't remember. Right, OK.
It doesn't do the whole "cuckoo".

You said this was your father's.
How long did your father have it?
It was my grandfather's.

Your grandfather.
My grandfather's, so it was my
mother's cherished possession.

You know, I mean, you replace
furniture, you replace carpets.

Yeah, yeah. Cars come and go.

Yeah. Everything. But that's
something that's consistent

and my mother died in 2000,

and I want to be able to hand that
down to my son or my daughter.

Whoever wants it in my family.

Yeah. It's a family heirloom, so I
would just love to get it fully

restored, back to how it should be.

The tone of the cuckoo, when it
works, is gorgeous.

It's that deep, rich sound.
It's got a really, really deep,

rich cuckoo sound. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely beautiful.

There's a bit of woodwork, as well.

There's the top of a leaf missing
there and another top of a leaf

missing there. So, basically, what
you'd like us to do with this

is repair it, get
it cuckooing again.

And then do something with the
woodwork, as well.

Yeah. Cosmetically, I'm hoping that
the whole thing can actually be made

solid and look as it would have
done, you know,

when it was pride of place. Thank
you. Thank you very much indeed.

Yes, nice to meet you. Look forward
to seeing the finished results.

Yeah. Thank you. Bye-bye, now.

Every time I think of that clock,
I think of my mum and dad.

My mother died of cancer in 2000,
my father died seven years later.

I've got a feeling Mum and Dad
will be looking down, you know,

seeing that I've...

Sorry.

It's a lot of history in that.

It is a lot of history and when we
get it up ticking and working

and cuckooing, it will mean
a lot to him.

Yeah, it does mean so much to him.

It will mean a lot.
Yeah. I'm on a quest.

I've got to get it working
and I've got to get it
in pride of place back in

the home, where I feel it belongs
rightly in the family.

The exact origins of cuckoo clocks
are shrouded in the mists of time,

but the cuckoo clock as we know
it today began being produced
by the "Uhrmacher" of

the Black Forest area of Germany
from the mid-18th century.

The cuckoo noise is made by
a set of small bellows,

powered by the clock
mechanism inside.

The actual leather on the bellows is

rotten and absolutely shot away, so
I've got to renew that completely.

Some Sellotape over there,

just to cover up the holes in the
fabric there.

And this one's split open
completely, as well.

Absolutely rotten.

There we are.

So the cuckoo here, it looks intact
and that should work perfectly.

So under its wings,

we've got some stripes which shows
that there are some paintings and

markings on the bird.

Can you see the beak opening?

Usually the beak gets broken off.

That's all intact.

So the case, actually, is

a much bigger job than at first
glance, actually.

To help get the clock really
singing,

Steve is recruiting furniture
restorer Will to work his magic on

the carved case.

Steve, I hear you
have something for me.

I do. It's a bit of a challenge, I'm
afraid.

It's missing the leaf there, there,
and there.

So we need some new bits carved up
for it.

Lovely. I'll be sleeping in the
workshop tonight.

I'll get on with that.
OK. Good, good.

The Repair Shop has tools and the
talent

to deal with any restoration
challenge.

No matter how big, how small, how
old, or how new.

Kirsten's the young lady
you need to see.

Thank you very much.
Right, thank you.

Up next for ceramics conservator
Kirsten,

a piece from the late-20th
century belonging to David Ash.

Look at that.
It's a lovely bowl.

It's nice, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah. Really lovely.

It looks very of its period.

Yeah. And very much sort of back in
fashion, I would say.

Is it? Yeah. This is a bowl that my
wife and I purchased in a place in

Devon called Chagford.

And I'm not sure who made this, but
the initials are on the bottom.

Right. Yeah.

And we bought it in about 1973.

Yeah. And we had it for a number of
years before my eldest son pushed it

against the wall, and did that to
it. I mean, it really
rather spoilt it,

unless you've got a banana hanging
over the edge or something,

it spoils the appearance of it.

Yeah, I know. Absolutely. It looks
to me like someone's had a go at

restoring that. Could I be right?

Yes, I had a go myself,

with some putty and it looked like
Plasticine that you could mix up.

You could mix them up and try and
match the colour.

Oh. Which I did not a bad job of.

OK. But the problem was that after I
had fired it at low temperature in

the oven... Yes.

..it fell off. Yeah, if you're
happy to leave this with me...?

Yeah. OK. I'll come back. All right.
That's lovely. Thank you very much.

I'm going to clean that off,

just to make a really nice
surface to fill onto.

I can't throw this away,

because I can remember what it felt
like to buy it on the day that we

bought it and throwing it away would
be like throwing that memory away.

First, to fill the gaping
gap in David's bowl,

Kirsten is bringing out
her secret weapon,

one you can pick up in
any well-stocked garage.

I'm actually just going to use a car
body filler, which is what I use on

ceramics like this.

It's like a polyester resin.

It will be great on this because,
actually, it cures very quickly,

so it means I can pop it in there
and be sanding it back within sort

of ten, 15 minutes.

It's quite difficult to get white
fillers that are reversible and that

also don't react with the paint.

I think, quite often,

practical people will actually often
have a go themselves but, more often

than not, they're actually just not
very happy with the result that

they achieve, so they end up
bringing it to me anyway.

So I'm just going to leave this
to harden now and then come back to

it and apply another coat.

The rest of The Repair Shop team are
bringing their skills to bear on the

clock that hasn't
cuckooed for 17 years

and Steve's eagle eye has
spied another member

of the animal kingdom
hitching a ride inside.

Look at this.

That's a hare. This was the
trademark of

Philipp Haas & Sohne
of St Georgen,

in the Black Forest.

OK. That his, like, trademark?

That's his brand. Yeah, the hare was
the trademark of the company.

Which means it's going to be in the


because this wasn't registered until


Meanwhile, Will is beavering away at
restoring the carvings on the case.

This mahogany's quite soft.

It's quite easy to carve. If
you're carving with the grain, then
you're all right, but sometimes,

if you sort of catch it going across
the grain of the wood,

it can always catch and split out

and then you've got more work on
your hands.

You've got to glue it back
and start again.

So you always have to be mindful of

the grain direction when you're
chiselling.

I'm just cutting off the old bellow
material.

I'm going to try and cut it back up
to the paper.

I'll then cut some new fabric.

Jay, that glue I gave you. Did it
come with a blue clip, by the way?

Actually, this is all right, mate.

Sure. I went to all that trouble.

Actually, I might need that.
Yeah, you do need it now, don't you?

You have to make sure that

everything is absolutely perfectly
true.

This work is critical to
the going of a clock -

or the good going of a clock.

Come for a little bit of a nosey.

Yeah. We are doing really well on
it, actually.

Got the... Oh, wow!
..the movement all up together.

I'm just testing it
on this test rig.

Yeah. Strike coming up.

And then we've got the
"cuck," and then the "oo".

Ooh! Do that again!

OK, I'm just going to cover these
screw holes there,

because once it's in the case,
they'll be covered, so you've
got a...

CUCKOOING

Wow! That's the "cuck," or the
"oo," and then the other one.

HOOTING

Wow! This is basically just like
blowing over the top of a bottle and

making a noise.
You hold on to that one.

All right. Lift with that little
ring there and just drop it quickly.

That's it, that one.

CUCKOOING

We're not in time now, are we?
You go first. That's fine.

That's absolutely fine.
Let me have a listen.

You go. That's a new "cuck".

New "cuck". There you go.

A new cuckoo clock. Yeah!

THEY LAUGH

The Repair Shop team is always on
call to answer customer Maydays.

A new arrival has just dropped
anchor in the workshop

and has caught the eye of Jay...

Here, Will. I think this
is one for you, mate.

Have a look at this.

..and fellow
furniture restorer Will.

Oh, yes. Very nice.

That's mine. It's got my name all
over it.

Hello. Hello, there.

The piece that's piqued their
interest has been in

Chrissie Thornhill's
family for two centuries.

It's come down the Thornhill family
from my five-times grandfather...

Wow! ..who was born in 1752 and he
was a sea captain.

He was a master mariner.

Right. And he had ten sons,

about five of whom all became
sailors, as well.

Really? So, there's a lot of salty
sea dogs in there.

So it's been on its travels,
then?

This has had a lot of... It's
certainly been all over the place
and heaven knows where.

I mean, you can sort of
see from the marks on the top,

I think it would have been
carried onto the ship,
because of the handles.

You probably had to keep it in the
centre of the ship,

just to sort of keep the balance.

If the balance goes!

So, Chrissie, what work
needs doing to this?

It has got rather a nasty crack
right across the front.

Also, the front drawer comes down
into a desk which, as you can see,

is in need of a little bit of
attention, I think.

Then the top? The top has got so
much history - I mean,

all those scratches and marks and
everything,

to sort of have all of those
go,

I think it would lose some
of the history, so

I don't know what you can do, but
I'm sure you can do something -

that some of that
will still be there.

It is really nice to keep a lot of
these old scratches and marks and

everything, rather than it
looking too brand-new.

However, I do think, at the front,
it's pretty bleached out by the sun.

And it would be quite nice to have
it looking like mahogany,

rather than a bit of beech.
That would be wonderful, yes.

So, I would say, would you be happy
with sort of maybe, sort of,

one of the mid-tone colours here,

something around this kind
of chestnutty-brown?

That would be smashing, yeah.

Once this is repaired, where would
this be?

It's not going to be going on any
more ships, is it? I don't think so.

OK. It's going back to...
I live with my mum...

Right. ..who I care for,

and it's been in our living room for
the last 30-odd years.

OK. And one of the reasons I would
really like it back to sort of full

working order is because I write,

and I would really love to sit at
this desk and write,

which I've never been able to do...

Yeah. ..and get all that inspiration
from all these sea stories...

Yeah. ..maybe to write my
bestseller. No pressure!

You take care now, OK?
Thanks a lot, Will.

Thank you. Wow!



I know. Exciting. It is.

As a writer, to be able to sit at
something that has so much

connection with the past and my
family down through the generations,

I'm sure it's just going to be so
hugely inspirational.

It's a shame these marks
can't talk... Yeah.

..and tell us where it
has been and stuff.

I'm really excited to get stuck in.

Well, I'm going to leave this one
with you. To drag back to my bench?

I've got work to do.
See you later, mate.

See you in a bit.

With 200 years of seafaring
history in his hands,

Will needs to navigate a way of
repairing the chest without losing

any of its character.

I'm going to start with
the structural work,

lose that crack completely,

but there's a reason why there's a
crack and that's because, with all

the weight on the inside, with all
the drawers and the extra pieces

of wood, the constant pulling and
pushing and pulling, pushing,

her drawer has
actually dropped down.

You push it back in and the
inevitable is going to happen.

It's got to split off on the front.

Then it's just getting stuck into
the polishing, which is, I think,

the trickiest job, because it's
getting that colour right,

the finish right, not wanting to
remove any of the history.

That's where the pressure is really
on.

I found something interesting, Jay.

I've taken out the drawer, turned it
around,

and you can see, this actually fits
in like a puzzle piece.

Is that the reason why it
wouldn't shut, as well?

That's the reason it wouldn't shut
because, on this side,

you can see that it's
nice and flush.

Yeah. But on this side, it's a bit
on the ropey side and poking out,

so I think, if we knock
that back into place,

the drawer should go back in.

Over in clock corner, Steve has got
his project mechanism running

like... well, clockwork.

He is now giving the battered
old bird its first bath for

over 100 years.

Cor, blimey!
Come out well, hasn't it?

Yeah. That's quite exciting, isn't
it? Yeah, it is very exciting.

And amazing the amount of dirt!
You've got oil on there,

you've got glue on there,
you've got polish on there.

You've got everything. It's just a
build-up of layers and layers of

stuff, so that's why I've had to use
some acetone to clean it up.

That is amazing.

Steve has one other last-minute fix
to perform by repairing the bone

hands of the clock.

So I've cleaned
up the minute hand.

You can see, I haven't cleaned
up the hour hand yet.

You can see, it's got a bit missing.

Yeah. Well, I've got a piece to make
for that.

Is that dinner?

What's that? So it's some bone that
I got from the pet shop.

That's real...
That's meat, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. It's real bone, so I'm
going to cut a sliver off of that,

and I'm going to carve it up
and attach it to the hand.

Your talents are endless, aren't
they?

Animal bone is a common material
used by the Black Forest clockmakers

for hands, numerals, and
other decorative features.

With the final touches completed,

Ian is back to be reunited
with his cherished timepiece.

How are you doing, Ian?
Hello, there. You all right?

Good afternoon. How are you?
Very good, very good.

Come and have a look... OK!

..at what we've done.
Really looking forward to it.

Can't wait.

There. Oh!

Oh, wow!

Yeah, that does
look good, doesn't it?

That's a treat. It really is.

Looks gorgeous. I can tell by the
smile on your face you like it.

I'm thrilled with it. I can see, you
know, it looks beautiful.

Now, the big test...

is the sound. Yeah?

CUCKOOING

That's it.

Isn't that lovely?

Now I'm getting emotional.
Bless you.

The whole thing just makes
me think of my mum...

Which...

..is pretty sentimental.

Do you know what, Ian?

This gives me the greatest of
pleasure,

to do a clock up that means so much
to somebody

and to see your reaction,
it is just wonderful.

It makes me feel really proud
of what I do, actually.

It was unfinished business.

It was something that...

..played on my conscience,

the fact that the clock didn't
work and it's now resolved.

So now that it's done, it's quite a
weight off of my shoulders,

because it's absolutely perfect.

Thank you very much for repairing
it and making it look good again.

CUCKOOING

Meanwhile, Will is hoping for his
own perfect restoration result.

His challenge is repairing the


preserving its characterful
ocean-going patina.

Now I've had a chance to look at
the inside,

there seems to be a lot more work
than I first thought.

For one, I'm actually worried,
feeling the surface here,

you can feel that there's a bit of
lipping there, where the wood

has moved and warped and changed.

So that's even more time, more work
and everything else.

With so much to do, Will's
press-ganged Steve into action...

We don't have a master key,
unfortunately.

..to help unlock the
chest's full potential

by finding a replacement
for the missing key.

We're trying to find out the
size of what it would be.

Oh, there you go.

That's absolutely bang on
the right size.

So it would be 50 mil.

Thanks for that, Steve.

And we've done a bit more ageing
to the top of this chest,

which is brilliant.

Thanks, Steve.

With Steve on key duty,

Will can get on with preparing the
desk for active service by restoring

the writing area.

To replace the old green baize on
the surface, well, actually,

that's another thing I need to do -
I actually have to flatten this off,

so it's all nice and smooth.

One of the problems with laying the
leather

is even a tiny bit of dirt will show
up on the surface.

It's really unforgiving.

As more problems emerge,
it's all hands on deck as the team

try to get it shipshape in time
for collection.

That's great. Hold on, he's got
all of us working on this.

Well done.

I know. I found an old key.

Yeah. But the bit was not quite long
enough.

The wards are in the right place.
The wards are...

The wards are the cut-outs.
Cut-outs.

Yeah. What I did, I hard-soldered
another bit on the end there to

extend it, and it works perfectly.

There you go, sir. Magician!

Thanks very much, Steve.
Thanks, mate.

See? So when are you getting back to
work? No, no!

THEY LAUGH

What? You've got Steve
working on the lock.

You've got me doing...
What are you actually doing?

Gosh! I'm having a cup of tea.

Thanks, Steve.
It's probably cold now.

So just now, you can see I'm
checking the bottom of the leather

to make sure there's
nothing on there.

It's always tricky, scoring
the edge with a blade.

One sneeze, and you've got
yourself a hole in the leather.

And talking of holes to fix,

ceramicist Kirstin has finished the
first stage of the repair to

the damaged bowl.

But filling the gap
was the easy part.

Now Kirsten must paint her repair
to blend in seamlessly with

the original artist's work.

Obviously, the painting is the
kind of more difficult bit.

I'm sort of getting my
pallet together,

cos it's quite a lot of different
colours that are in here,

so I'm just going to start
getting rid of the white,

blocking up the white.

That's starting to blend in now.

I used a matt glaze to get the
background colour and then,

you can see here, there is some sort
of glossy glaze, as well,

so I've gone over with the gloss in
places to mimic that glossy finish.

The eye just doesn't really notice
it, I don't think.

I just hope that David
will be happy.

So now, I just leave it
to dry and then

it's ready for David to
come and collect.

Hi, David. Hi.
How are you? I'm fine.

How are you? Good.
Yeah, fine, thank you.

I've done your bowl for you.

Oh, good. I hope you'll be happy.

Oh, wow! That's amazing.

I can't even see where it was.

So where is it? Well, I was hoping
you would say that.

I can't see it at all.
See if you can spot it.

No, I can't spot it.

I cannot spot it. Good.

Phew! That's amazing.

Let's have a look and see.

Yeah, I can see, actually.

It's just across there.

It's fantastic and it's
very, very smooth, as well.

It's beautiful. Don't rub it too
hard after I've just finished it!

No, it's quite beautiful.

That is a really impressive job.
Terrific.

So, hopefully, you won't have to
drape a banana over that corner.

No, no, and I'll have to keep it
away from teenagers and walls.

Oh, yes. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you very much.
It's just a fantastic job.

Oh, thank you. We've had this bowl
now for about 45 years and it's been

hidden in a cupboard for about 30 of
those and subsequently repaired in

four hours, which is
fantastically impressive.

And it's just so nice to see it
looking like this again.

I would never have thrown it away.
That's been the problem with it,

because we have this attitude that
either it gets fixed or it has

to go, because it's not being used.

But you can't throw something
like this away, I don't think.

After restoring everything below
deck on the sea captain's chest,

Will now faces his biggest
challenge -

cleaning and varnishing the
exterior,

restoring some of the original
colour, while retaining the
telltale

signs of the desk's 200-year-old
history.

Wow!

So you can already see how dirty the
surface is.

There's something quite rewarding
about doing this.

I'm just doing the finishing touches
now.

I'm so happy with the colour.

I think I was quite nervous
about the colour in the beginning.

I mean, it looks like an even kind
of colour job,

so after buffing this up,
it's going to be good to go.

I'll make this good for Chrissie.
Yeah. Lovely.



Jay, have a look at this.

Are you finished? Yes.

Wow!

Nice? It's nice. That is nice. Guys,
you've got to have a look at this.

Will's done some work.
Jay, don't embarrass me.

No, it looks good, mate.
It does look good. Wow!

Looks amazing, doesn't it?
It's beautiful.

Are you going to open the
drawers for us?

Just soak in the
atmosphere for a second.

I need to see the drawer. First of
all, nice and smooth movement.

Nice action there.

The split along the bottom of the
top drawer.

What split? Exactly!
What split? And then, that...

Oh! Oh, wow! Well done.
Nice bit of leather there.

Fantastic. You've done good.
Fantastic.

Jay, Kirsten and painting
conservator Lucia

are suitably impressed.

But Jay has one last finishing touch

for its owner and
budding author Chrissie.

So if you guys are cool
with this, I'd like to

do a little bit of a whip-round and
we get Chrissie a pen

and a pad for writing her
bestseller.

Cos there's bits in there, but it's
empty.



Chrissie and her mother Margaret are
eagerly awaiting the return of their

family treasure from
its latest voyage.

Are you looking forward to it
arriving, Mum?

Of course I am. Mum and I have
missed it enormously.

I mean, it's really been like
a big hole in the room.

For her to see it in its new state,

I think will be wonderful for her.

Would you like to bring it
in round the back?

It's probably easiest if
we take it in this way.

Oh, Mum, look at that.

How lovely. Isn't it beautiful?

And a key in it!

Yeah. It's super and they've just
kept so much of everything.

That crack at the front, I mean,
you can't spot it at all.

I mean, it's like magic.

Oh, yes, and there's a lovely green.

Isn't it? Oh, how lovely!

Well, I'm looking forward to sitting
and writing on that.

You'll be inspired.

Are you pleased?
Oh, I'm delighted, my love.

Oh, that's it. What's that?

Oh! A pen.

Oh! A notebook.

"To Chrissy. Something to inspire
your writing.

"With love, The Repair Shop."

Isn't that wonderful? So kind.

This is where I'm going to write my
bestseller and I'll probably start

it on the pages of
this wonderful book.

It's absolutely wonderful to have
the chest back and seeing it looking

the way that it does,

oh, it's just tremendous.

It really is a showpiece.

My husband would have thought, you
know,

"How wonderful."

And to see it restored to a time
when his ancestor first had it,

he'd be very pleased.

Join us next time as more precious
pieces are rescued and their

cherished memories restored
in The Repair Shop.