02x04 - Stuffed Toy Lamb

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop,

where cherished family heirlooms are
brought back to life.

This is the workshop of dreams.

Home to furniture restorer Jay
Blades.

Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune
on stuff that, once it's broken,

they just bin it. But everybody has
something that means too much to be

thrown away and that's where we come
in.

Working alongside Jay will be some
of the country's leading
craftspeople...

Every piece has its own story.

It's amazing to think that some of
my work becomes part of that story.

I've always played with things, I've
always repaired things,

and I just love it. There is a real
pleasure in bringing people's pieces

back to life again.

..each with their own unique set of
skills.

The right tool for the right job.

They will resurrect,

revive... I'm warm, man!
..and rejuvenate

treasured possessions and
irreplaceable pieces of family
history...

Wow. She's fantastic!

..bringing both the objects...

Oh! This is what I remember.

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

Oh, my God!

In The Repair Shop today, a
much-loved toy lies in tatters.

That is quite serious, isn't it?

Yeah. So how are you going to fix
this?

You've got no reference -
there's nothing there.

And Brenton's search for some
precious metal leads him to a fellow

expert's stash.

Have you got any bigger diameter
brass bar?

That might be the piece.

Failing that, THAT might be the
piece.

That IS the piece! I can turn it
down from there!

First to arrive at The Repair Shop
clutching a cherished possession are

Roger and Frances Livet.

Hello, how are we doing? Very well,
how about yourself?

I'm very good, actually. Good.
I'm Roger.

I'm Jay. Jay, nice to see you.

They've brought with them a piece of
wartime history that survived

against the odds. A music box, a
rather battered music box.

OK, I know just... Steve!
We've got a music box here, mate.

This job calls for the skills of
music box maestro Steve Kember.

Steve's the man. Yeah, Steve is the
man.

Steve, nice to see you. Nice to see
you.

Hello.

This poor fella was involved in a
b*mb in September 1940.

Hold on, let's rewind it a minute.
What do you mean, involved in a
b*mb?

It was in a house near Beckenham and
in 1940, a b*mb landed on the house.

This was in there as well,
hence this damage.

Like all things in the Second World
w*r, you were either lucky or
unlucky.

My grandmother, her two sons and an
aunt were in the house at the time.

The b*mb destroyed the family home,
k*lling everyone inside.

Fortunately, Roger's mum Charlotte
wasn't in the house at the time.

She had moved out a few years
earlier after getting married.

The family she grew up with,

the family she expected to see for
years and years,

had been taken away from her in just
one afternoon.

It was something that hurt Mum all
her life.

The family music box was one of the
only possessions to survive the
fatal blast.

There, in that music box, I have
something that they have touched,

they have listened to.

It does bring a connection to the
family which I wish I had known,

but I'm afraid I never did.

So this means a hell of a lot to me.

I can understand just the history to
it.

What would you like us to do to
this?

If possible, I'd like you to make
sure that's safe to play.

Obviously the glass bit.

Yeah. I haven't got the other bit of
that.

If possible, if you can make the lid
fit again,

that would be absolutely fantastic.

OK. One thing I do ask,

can we leave as much of the scars
and bruises as possible?

Because I think that's part of it.

Yeah. To me. That's part of your
family history right there.

That's the history of it. I'm so
pleased you said that, because

it's sort of a monument to what
happened. Yes.

And you don't want to sort of remove
its history.

Well, it's things that they would
have touched. Yeah.

If you make it too clean, they
wouldn't have touched it. Yeah.

And it won't be there any more.

No. The approach I would take if it
were mine,

was I would do the best job possible
on the mechanism and the outside,

the approach is more one of
conservation.

Yes. Rather than. I certainly don't
want...

..restoration. Yes. If that's
possible, that would be fantastic.

It's very possible. It's in safe
hands.

Jay, thank you very much indeed.
Thank you for bringing it along.

Thank you both. Thank you.

Steve, thank you very much.

In order to determine the extent of
the damage and which bits are
missing,

Steve will have to first dismantle
the entire mechanism.

It looks pretty dreadful, to be
honest.

But don't worry - a lot of that is
just dirt and grime.

Yeah, but you've taken all of that
out of there, yeah?

No, no, no. I've just taken that out
of there.

And these parts here... You're
showing off again, aren't you?

Yeah! All right.
..are from my graveyard.

All of these parts came from the
same village that this was made in.

If we have a quick look at the cone.

Cor blimey! There's a bit of fluff
in between them two.

There's a bit of fluff, we'll deal
with the fluff. Oh, my God!

We've got the equipment, we have the
technology to deal with the fluff!

I like your thinking!

Some of the items that enter The
Repair Shop haven't just been handed
down through generations.

They've been lovingly crafted by a
family member.

Jonathan Dukes has a handmade
heirloom for the attention

of silversmith and metals expert
Brenton.

Hello there. Hello.
I'm Brenton. I'm Jonathan.

Nice to meet you. What have you
brought me?

I've brought you some tongs from a
set of fire irons that were made by

my great-grandfather in his foundry
in the Black Country.

Wow. Yes. These are fabulous.

But unfortunately, the hinge has
come apart.

And are these all the parts?

These are all the parts of the
tongs. Because it's brass,

it's quite soft and it will wear out
in time, unfortunately. Yes, and
that's what's happened.

I'm sure when these were made, they
weren't expecting them to last that

long, so they've done really, really
well. Yes.

And the fact that you've still got
this is brilliant.

These fire tongs mean a lot to me,
because they were made by my

great-grandfather but our family's
manufacturing history goes back

to at least 1829.

It would be nice to have them in
their proper state.

Outside in the metal workshop,
Brenton sets about his task.

So what I've got to do with these is
replace the thread

in here.

Brenton's got a stash of threaded
brass rods in his toolkit, so he

tries them for size.

That's going to be too small.
I've got a bigger bit here.

That should do it.
No, that's too small as well.

So these two bits I've got
are no use.

So I'm going to need to get some
brass from somewhere.

First port of call is clock maker
Steve with his collection

of odds, ends and offcuts.

Steve, you know the fire tongs
that I'm repairing?

Yes. I've brought some brass from my
tool box but they're too small.

Have you got any bigger diameter
brass?

Do you want a thread?

I can make the thread. You don't
want a big thread?

Have you got a big thread?

Actually, no, I haven't.
All right, I'll make my own, then!

Here we go.

How big?

That might be the piece.

That might be the piece.

Failing that, THAT might be the
piece.

That IS the piece, I can turn it
down from that!

THEY LAUGH

If I could borrow those two.

Yeah, of course you can. And I'll
probably have about an inch of one
of them.

That would be brilliant, thank you
very much. Okey doke. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Kember is rescuing a music box
that miraculously survived

a World w*r II b*mb during the
Blitz.

Having never actually restored a
music box that's been bombed before,

I'm quite happy with that.

Meanwhile, Jay assigns the task of
repairing the music box case

to furniture restorer Will.

How you doing, Will? I've got a
little present for you.

An actual present? Of course not,
it's a job!

So it's a music box.

Steve's working on the actual
mechanism in there.

OK. What we need you to do is fix
that.

So it's missing a piece and you
don't have the missing piece?

Don't have the missing piece. OK.

What Roger wants is - not to be
fully restored.

There's a lot of history in there
and he doesn't want to lose it.

Doesn't want to lose it. So it is
sympathetic restoration.

But it's even more sympathetic in
the sense that... Yeah. ..we don't
want any if this to go.

OK. No damage to be hidden.

OK. Yeah, that makes sense.
All right, I'll leave it with you.

Next to arrive, Anne Bailey and her
grandson Elliot.

They have brought in an old friend
who met with an unfortunate
accident.

They're hoping he can be revived by
soft-toy restorers Amanda and Julie.

Oh! What have you got for us?
We have something from my childhood.

Right.

And he's seen... Oh, look.
..better days. Bless him!

Oh, dear. A bit of stuffing there.

I'm fairly sure that she was damaged
by my Irish setters.

Yeah. It's what they do. So can you
tell us a little bit more about him?

Yes, of course. I was given him by a
person called Arthur Askey who was a

comedian... Gosh, yeah. ..who lived
in our village. Right.

And he went, "Goo goo goo goo
goo goo!" into my pram and I went...

"Argh!" Yeah, as you would!

As you would. And I screamed and
screamed and screamed,

because I was only about one.

And he said, "I don't think she
likes me."

So he went away, and a couple of
days, weeks later,

he came back with this, and gave it
to me...

Fantastic. Oh, wow!

..with the hope that I wouldn't
scream at him again!

And did you? No, I don't think I
did!

SHE LAUGHS

That's nice.

Yeah, we should be able to sort him
out for you.

That would be wonderful.
You're welcome.

And can you put a buttercup...? Of
course he can have a buttercup.

Yes, that's not a problem.
I remember him having a yellow
buttercup in his mouth.

But the main thing you want is to
see him with a body.

Absolutely. He needs to be cuddled
again.

Absolutely. Thanks for bringing him
in. Nice to meet you.
Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Amanda and Julie are going
to need all of their wealth of

experience to get this poor little
lamb back on its feet again.

What do you think? That's quite
serious, isn't it?

Hello, Jay. Yeah. So how are you
going to fix this?

You've got no reference -
there's nothing there.

We have got a bit of a clue,

in that we've got - if we turn him
this way...

..so there's a tummy panel here.

Right. OK? That's still intact.

From here, we can kind of see how
fat the body was. OK.

If we just hold him up.
That would have dropped down a bit.

This sort of era, the style of this
era, his head would have been up
here... Right.

..and he would have been quite short
in the body and very long in the
leg.

You know you can rebuild that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of work here because
it isn't just about doing that.

We've got to completely dismantle
him.

This seam, we will undo all of this.

And the tail and the head will come
off.

Right. And also, I don't know if you
can see here, Jay... Yeah.

..there's a little piece of wire
here.

It's suggesting to us that he had a
wire frame.

OK. Certainly these sort of toys
from this era were very often wired.

So this is going to take quite a
while to do, isn't it?

Yes. It's very intricate, this one.

I'm going to be off to do some
painting. Thanks, Jay. Cheers,
Jay. See you later. Bye.

Outside, Brenton's made his brass
screw for the 140-year-old fire
tongs.

He now needs to create a new thread,
so that he can attach them together
again.

It will make my life a lot easier if
I can get the back plate off

here. It means I can drill all the
way through and then it'll be easier

for me to cut the thread. So I'm
just going to try and lever that
off.

Brilliant, OK, that's got that off
there.

So I'm really pleased I managed to
get this plate off here.

I'm going to start cutting the
larger thread in this piece.

And this brass cuts really nicely.
It's nice and soft.

You go half a turn forward and then
you go half a turn back.

So I'm just going to solder this
plate that we took off earlier back

on now that I've cut the thread.

I'm really happy. That's soldered
really, really nicely.

That plate is now stuck back onto
the handle of the tongs -

how it originally was.

We've got to polish this up and this
bit is now finished.

Back inside the workshop,

Steve has reached a critical point
in the repair of the b*mb-damaged

music box. He's given all the
components a thorough clean.

Now he needs to get it singing
again.

We're getting serious now.

This is the cylinder. It's had all
the oil removed.

Now, we've prepared the clockwork
mechanism, and that's all good.

If we have a look along the pins on
the cylinder,

there are a significant number of
them that are bent.

That one's bent forward, and so the
timing of the note will be wrong -

it will be late. If they're either
bent to the right or to the left,

we'll end up with some gibberish,
and these deficiencies can be heard.

While Steve continues the
painstaking process of straightening

the 8,000 pins, Will is tackling the
section of the box's lid lost in the
b*mb blast.

I've actually salvaged this
drawer front,

which was going in a skip, and I
think that this'll be perfect,

if I can cut a section out of there

and splice it onto the front of
this.

However, when you look at it like
that,

you can actually see that the top is
actually slightly domed.

You can actually see the gap on the
outside,

which is going to be a bit of a
problem for me,

because the only bit that I have to
replace is flat.

It might look like I'm being quite
forceful with this plane -

however, there's a lot of excess
wood that needs to be shaved down,

and if I just used a file or
sandpaper, I'd be there for days.

So the pressure is really on.

I don't want to do any more damage
to the original top,

but I need to almost shave so close
that I get a nice,

even surface for the new piece of
wood.

That's pretty well finished for the
pin-straightening part of the
procedure.

Now we're going to produce some
music.

We'll give it a go, and we'll see
what we've got. Give it a wind.

TWO TUNES PLAY SIMULTANEOUSLY

TWO TUNES PLAY SIMULTANEOUSLY

Well, as you can hear, it's not that
great.

We're playing a bit of one tune and
a bit of another.

The cylinder is clearly not aligned
properly with the tips of the
comb.

The cylinder's pins play the notes
of ten different tunes,

but if they're not perfectly in line
with the teeth of the comb they

strike, the chosen tune will be
either incomplete or jumbled up with
another.

Let's have another go.

DISCORDANT SOUND

That's lovely!

We've got gibberish now!

Imagine somebody playing the piano
and somebody sneaks up and shifts

the piano one key-width to the left
or the right,

so you're playing all the wrong
notes, in all the right places,

and that's what we've got here.

Soft toy restorers Julie and Amanda
are trying to rescue a childhood
treasure.

With a large portion of
the lamb missing,

the duo must rely on their years of
experience to fill in the gaps.

At the moment,

I am making the pieces that I need
for the body out of felt.

I've made myself a pattern, so I've
now got the body filled in,

so I know now, you know, what shape
his body was.

Making them out of felt initially
for two reasons -

one, because I want to sort of do a
dummy run,

just to make sure that I've got
everything in proportion.

And two, because I'm going to use
this felt to line the pieces,

because we have sourced some
fabulous fabric,

but it is a little bit...
just a tad stretchy,

so the felt is going to support it
and give it a bit of stability.

Now it's a case of completing the
jigsaw puzzle,

as all of the lamb's existing pieces
are stitched back together and

assembled with a new wire frame.

Hold on. Look, I can see sewing
going on, and I said I'd been
practising my buttons.

That's fine, we've got a
job for you.

Oh, is it? We've been saving a job
for you.

Yep. You can turn this leg, OK?

What do you mean, turn it inside
out?

It already is. Pull this through so
it looks like this.

Like that? So like pulling my socks
on? Yeah. Yeah.

There you go. So now, the frame goes
into...

Yeah. The legs. That'll go down
inside there.

Now it looks like a proper lamb.

It's going to look like a lamb,
isn't it? I think that's quite cool.

We're getting there.
That's kind of where we're at.

So you know what?
I did have my doubts.

Yeah, we know you did. But, yeah,
you've got it all under control now,
look. Yeah, it's getting there.

Oh, but this... You've missed a bit!

What about the leg? Yeah.
Are you going to put that on?

There's a bit of a problem going on
round here. Oh, OK, all right,
that's cool. You're welcome.

Back outside in the metalwork area,

Brenton wants to get the components
of the antique fire tools gleaming

before he puts the pieces back
together.

As you can see, that comes up really
nicely,

so I've just got to work on the rest
of this handle,

get all of these marks off here that
are a result of me heating it up,

and then it'll be fine to give back
to Jonathan.

It's the moment of truth.
Let's see if it goes together.

And, more importantly,
stays together.

The tongs have been in Jonathan's
family for 140 years,

but they haven't been working for
the last 40.

Now he's back to reclaim a piece of
his family's manufacturing past.

Jonathan. Yeah, hello again,
Brenton.

Nice to see you. I'm hoping you've
got something nice to show me.

Do you remember what you gave me?

I certainly remember what I gave
you, which was a pair of fire tongs.

It was a pair, wasn't it?

Well, it was a pair,
because it was two bits.

I'm really interested know whether
you've been able to fix them for me.

Well, would you like to see them?
I'd love to see.

Let's reveal what we've got under
here.

My goodness! They're a lot more
shiny than they were before,

and they look to be in one piece.

They haven't fallen apart, which is
lovely.

They open and shut -
that's really good.

I'm really keen to know how you've
actually done the fixing.

OK, well, if you want to take it
apart for me.

If I take it apart, right.

This is the knob that unscrews.

Correct. And you've somehow put a
lovely new brass thread on that.

I've drilled the old thread out.

Yes. And cut a new thread into it,
and then...

It all screws together again.

Polished it all up. And polished it
all up. And, yeah.

That's exactly what I was hoping
you'd be able to do, something like
that.

OK, well, they're back to new again
for you.

That's really good, I'm really
pleased.

Good. I really am.

It's so nice to have it working,
rather than just something that
clatters

to the floor every time you
touch it.

I'm glad you're really pleased with
them.

Yeah, thank you ever so much
Brenton, thank you. OK. Bye-bye.

Over on Julie and Amanda's
workbench,

the once-disembodied toy lamb is
being brought back to life.

We need to get on and get the
stuffing in,

because he's looking a bit starved
at the moment.

We have to kind of build it up. It's
a bit like a brick wall, really.

You can't start at the top and work
down.

That's better. There we go.

Really pleased with how he's turning
out -

finishing touch will be his
buttercup,

which we'll put back in his mouth,
and we might even put a bow on him!

It's been decades since Anne saw her
childhood playmate in fine fettle.

Hello! How lovely to see you.
Come on over. Thank you.

This must be it, is it? Yeah.
Wonderful. Ready to go for it?

Yeah.

Oh, wow! He's fantastic!

Even with the blue ribbon!
Absolutely.

Wonderful. He looks almost real,
doesn't he?

Yes, he does, yeah.

That is absolutely amazing.

I just can't believe you've managed
to match that.

You are an absolute poppet!
Give him a cuddle.

There you go. That's nice.

You are an absolute love!

Even with your buttercup.

Wow! Oh, yeah, he's got his new
buttercup. New buttercup.

He has got a wire frame in him now.

Has he? He would have had,

with the research that we did of
that style and that era.

Right. But the frame that's in him
is not so rigid

that you won't be able to pose him a
little bit, and obviously with care.

I will, I will. Yes, I shall look
after him lovingly this time.

There you go. He's all yours.

Wonderful. Do enjoy him. He's got a
good few more years in him now.

He has. He's lasted 74 years.

Probably do another 74.
Yeah, another 74.

Absolutely. Wonderful.
Thank you so much. You're welcome.

It's a pleasure.

Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

Music box fanatic Steve is lovingly
restoring a precious piece of family
history.

Grafting alongside him on
the woodwork is Will,

whose remit was to restore the case
while retaining traces of its
turbulent past.

Stevie. Ah! For you. Lovely.

I think this is as they specified.

So we've got some of its original...
Some of its original...

..character, and he's got a link
with the event that...

That has taken place, yeah. Yeah,
excellent. Exactly. I'll leave you
to put that in.

Thank you very much. All right,
matey. Cheers. Bye.

Right, let's see.

That's it. Rather splendid, I think.

This music box is the only link
Roger has to the part of his family
he never knew.

But will it look and sound just as
he remembers it when he was a child?

Hello. Nice to see you again.
Good to see you.

Great to see you. And you.

Hi, Steve. Are you as nervous as me?

Yes. Probably. Probably more.

OK. Anyway, are you ready?

Yeah. Yeah.

SHE GASPS

HE LAUGHS

Look at that!

It's reborn.

That is absolutely fantastic.

That is gorgeous.

Am I allowed to have a quick peek
inside?

Yes, carry on. It's yours.

I can't believe it's the same thing.

Look how clean that is.
It looks beautiful.

Well, it has to be clean and
sparkly, so it performs

as it was originally intended, and
as your relatives once enjoyed it.

Yeah. Now then, is it going to...?
You know what to do, don't you?

Can I just...? Yeah. Here we go.

MUSIC PLAYS

That is brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.

This is a brilliant job, Steve.

You really have done a fantastic
job. Thank you very much.

Can you imagine, 1905,

people sitting around the fireplace
with this playing in the background?

That sort of brings a connection
with your family, does it?

Yes, very much so. The fact they had
this, and you have it.

Because of what we've done here,

your family now will be hearing the
same music as your family then.

So it's quite an interesting
thought, isn't it?
That is a very good thought.

I'll tell you what, Steve,

one of the things I wanted more than
anything else was not to change it

too much, because the scars, the
damage, the bits and pieces -

that's part of its history to me.

I had hoped that it would look like
this,

but this is actually way beyond my
expectations.

It is fabulous.

I'm pleased you're happy
with the finish and the result.

More than happy.
It's brilliant. Thank you.

Thank you, too. All right, then.

Thank you very much. Thanks very
much. Thanks for the privilege of
working on it. Thank you.

This is something I've anticipated
a long, long time.

I don't think anything prepared me
quite for what I saw.

It was an emotional moment.

It's something that binds you to the
people who have gone before.

If Mum was here now,

knowing that we're all listening to
something she listened to

when she was a little one of five or
six years of age,

that would just bring a big smile to
her face.

As indeed it's going to bring a big
smile to my face, too.

Join us in The Repair Shop next
time,

as the team gets to grips with more
precious pieces in need of some TLC,

and breathes new life back into
them.

Oh, my goodness! Beautiful!