12x13 - Portable record player, 1970s boots, a teddy & a painting by Hekene de Beauvoir

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop...
- Oh, my goodness!

- ..where precious but faded
keepsakes...

- That is proper crushed.

- ..are restored to their former
glory.

- Zhuzhing.
- Zhuzhing!

- Could I get finished now, please?

- Yes!

- A dream team of expert
craftspeople...

- I'm absolutely chuffed to bits!

- Fantastic!
- Brilliant!

- Yes, look at that!

- ..using traditional techniques
passed down the generations...

- Perfecto.

- It's almost magic.

- Nothing better than a plan that
works.

- ..restore irreplaceable treasures...

- Oh, my God! Look at that!

- It's perfect.

- ..and unlock the stories they hold.

BELL DINGS

- Happy tears!

- It feels more magical.

- I just want to hug everybody!
- LAUGHTER

First into the barn is music lover
Poppy LeMar.

She's hoping bright spark Mark Stuckey

can put the phonic funk back into her
treasured possession.

- Here she is. Hello.
- Hello!
- Hello there!

- How you doing?
- I'm all right. You?
- Yeah, I'm very good.

- Wow!

- This is...
- And a lovely item.
- It is, isn't it?

- This is my portable record player.

That was my nan's.

- It was your nan's?
- It was my nan's.
- What's her name?

- Nan was Catherine.
- OK.
- Um...

And, yeah, I lost her when I was
seven.

- Aw.
- So I don't remember this, but I know
that the music I could hear

was coming from it.

- So do you know where your nan got
this from?

- I know it was hers from new, and she
did save up for it, big time.

- Right.
- And she got it around 1966.

From what I've heard, she's the sort
of person that she had to be

the first one out of her friends to
have this sort of thing.
- Really?

- So it had been her that was taking
it to everyone else's house.

She was a real party person.
- Right.

- Definitely wasn't her that carried
it about. It was definitely

my grandad that did that.

But, yeah, she liked to take the party
with her.

- THEY LAUGH

- OK. Well, this is like a mobile
party, isn't it?
- It is.

- You'd take this... As long as you've
got a plug.

- Yeah, that's why she had it.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- It made everybody a DJ, really,
didn't it?
- It did.

- You just plug it in and that's it.
- That's it.
- Yeah.

- So, what was she like?
- She'd feed us up when we went there.

It was always strawberries, it was
sweets, until my mum had to say,

"Stop, they need to get in a car."

Like, "I'm not dealing with that once
they're in the car."

- Yeah.
- But, yeah, she was in charge.

She was the sort of person that I wish
I'd known as an older person

because I think we'd have really,
probably, got in a bit of trouble.

- THEY LAUGH

- So, yeah.
- But at the same time, this
connection

with her to you, then, is because of
that.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- And I'm... I love music.

- You can tell, the way you're talking
about it,

it does actually mean a lot to you.
- Yeah.

- And the sort of music she would play
on this?

- Nothing too poppy. It was kind of
jazz. It was Frank Sinatra.

- Oh...
- It was...
- Up your street.
- Yeah, that is up my street.

- I love this sort of era. Like, I
shouldn't have been born

when I was born. I should have been
born...

I should have been born, like, so I
could have been a teen

in the '60s.
- Yeah.

- This would've been something I'd
have needed to save up for.

Like, this would have been on my
shopping list.
- Yeah.

- I've been buying LPs since it's not
been working, even though I've got

nothing to play them on.
- Got a great collector of vinyl here.

- I love vinyl. Yeah.
- Yes.
- And I was doing it the same.

I was collecting vinyl before I had
something to play it.
- Yeah.

- It's just like...
- Yeah.
- It's addictive, isn't it?
- Yes.

- And it sounds beautiful.
- It does.

- And how long ago did it last work?

- Definitely working, I was 18. So
that's, what, 12 years ago.
- Right.

- Wow.
- OK.
- And then I've moved into my own
first home and

I took it with me, was like, "Yes,
I've finally got it with me,

"I can play music!"
- Yeah.

- Plugged it in and it didn't go.
- THEY LAUGH

- Right.

- It lights up, it makes a whirring
noise.

Sometimes it turns, sometimes it
doesn't.
- Right.

- But the music doesn't come out.
- OK.

- So what you want to do is have this
working and play it

in your new house.
- Yeah.
- That's what you want to do. OK.

And why have you kept this?

- I feel that there's a bit of an
affinity with what a

sort of partier she was.
- Yeah.

- Loved to dance...
- Yeah.
- ..all of that sort of thing,

and that's kind of me.

- Poppy, I can't thank you enough for
bringing this in.

Hopefully Mark gets this working.
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- Nice to see you.
- And you.
- Thanks very much.

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

Yeah. It's cool, innit?

- It's going to be good, yeah.

- Over to your bench...
- OK.

- ..then we'll go and find some vinyl,
all right?
- All right. Thanks.

The thing is, we do take things for
granted these days, particularly

the fact that we've got small, you
know, portable items like

MP3 players, your mobile phones. Well,
before them, we had this.

This is the way you had your
entertainment, effectively.

Looking at it initially, I can see
there's a few cosmetic issues

which need to be resolved.

The other thing is I've got to
actually take it apart.

So we've got to remove the turntable,
disconnect that,

then we can get to the electronics.

Here we go.

That's it.

And now I can get all the electronics
out.

- As Mark dismantles the '60s sound
system,

Colin Bourne is hot-footing it to the
barn with a '70s souvenir

for cobbler Dean Westmoreland.

- Hi there.
- Hello.
- Hello.

- Nice to see you.
- And you.

- What have you got?

- CHUCKLING

- Wow!

- They are...
- Are they real?
- They're awesome!

They're so... Look!

- LAUGHTER

- Where did you find these?

- I got them in a shop called Mr
Freedom

in Kensington Church Street in 1970,
'71.

- Goodness me! OK.
- Definitely '70s, them, aren't they?

- I can't remember where I'd heard
about them,

but I had heard about them

and I went along and I produced my
entire grant.

I was at art school, and a term's
grant just about paid for them.

- What made you spend all that money
on this...?!

- Well, just because I thought they
were so fantastic,

and I've never regretted it.

It was as if I'd grown a foot when I
left the shop.

I just felt so good about it.

- You walk differently, don't you...
- Yeah.

- ..when you've got good shoes on?
- Sir Elton John had a pair.
- Really?

- Yeah. I didn't know he had them when
I bought them.
- You got them first?

- I found out about a year or two
afterwards that he had them

and he'd worn them onstage.

- Amazing.
- Wow.
- Not the same colour. Mine were much
more tasteful.

- Of course. Of course!

- I remember when...the first time I
went home, my little sister

was in the house, and when she saw my
boots, she just screamed

and said, "Mum, look at his shoes!"

And my dad just sat there, impassive,
reading his paper,

and then after about five minutes, he
lowered his paper, looked

at my feet, and he said, "You want
your head examined."

- THEY LAUGH

- Brilliant.
- The smile on your face,

obviously it was a happy time for you.
- Yeah, it was.

It was. I loved it.

- What was it like?

- Well, it was art school.

- COLIN LAUGHS

- It was anarchic, it was very busy.

I mean, there were some fantastically
talented people there.

I wasn't one of them.

I was... I was never really a great
designer.

I just loved doing it, and I was OK.

But we had some really good people,

and one of my lecturers was Ian Dury.

- He was your lecturer?
- Yes.
- Wow!

- And, in fact, I wore them most days.

I used to get calls in the street as I
walked from my digs

to art school.

But I just loved it, cos it was...

Where I grew up, your future was kind
of mapped out for you.

I was going to go and work in a
factory.

You do what was expected of you.

And this, for me, was the turning
point.

They symbolise the point in my life

where I realised that I could

make decisions for myself,

I can go off and do my own thing,

and I've been doing that ever since.

- And did that lead to a career in
art?

- I was an art editor in magazine
publishing.

- Amazing.

- Then I became a barrister,

and I'm just about to retire from the
bar.
- A barrister?

- Yeah.
- Goodness me!

It's quite a...
- Quite a change.
- ..roundabout journey!
- Yes.
- Yeah.

- Are you wanting to wear them again
in your retirement, then?

Be quite the talking point, won't
they?

- They will be, because there aren't
that many people...

My family know I've got them,

but there aren't many of my friends,

and certainly none of my colleagues at
the bar know I have them!

- Do they not? No, I wonder what they
would say!

Just feel like the kind of pair of
boots that you'd wear

at special occasions.

- Well, yes, I did get married in
them.

- Really?!
- Yes.

That created quite a stir at the
registry office,

as you will imagine!
- Yeah, I bet!

- What do you think, Dean? Ever seen
anything like these before?

- Never in my life.
- I thought so!

- It's the way of the shoe game, is
you're always surprised.

That's the obvious damage, innit, with
the soles?
- Yeah.

- They're both gone as well. Look.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- If you can do something with them, I
shall be so pleased.

- They're just a happy pair of boots.
- Yeah.
- They obviously symbolise

a happy point in your life.

- That's why I could never bear to get
rid of them.

- Thank you so much. It's been a
pleasure meeting you.

- Well, thank you.
- Leave them with us. Thank you.
- Thanks very much.

- Lovely to meet you.
- Thanks a lot.
- See you later.
- Take care.

Shame they don't fit you, mate. They'd
suit you, these.

- I'm not sure I could pull these off
in my life.
- No, me neither!

- THEY LAUGH

- I'd best get on with them, hadn't I?
- Absolutely, yeah.
- Yeah.

- I'll get my sunglasses ready.
- Yeah!

These shoes are wild.

I've never seen anything so unique.

I used to wear purple winkle pickers
and I thought they were out there,

but these are really something
special.

It takes a...

It takes a certain amount of guts to
be able to walk

in these outside, I think.

I think they're great fun.

In terms of damage,

the obvious damage to me is the sole,

which is split right across and right
through.

In my normal work, I would be taking
that off and putting

a new sole unit on.

But I think it's really important to
Colin that I don't do that

and erase all that lovely history that
is created with these boots.

I'm going to have to really think
about that and come up with a plan.

The leather is really faded

and there's a little bit of checking
or kind of cracking on there.

So I'm quite looking forward to
colour-matching this yellow

and getting these as vibrant as Colin
would like again.

And this one, we can see where the
stitching has come away

from the vamp.

But the leather isn't damaged, so I
can restitch that,

and some new laces will finish the job
nicely.

First, I think I need to give all the
leather a clean

and really see what I'm working with.

This cleaner will open the pores of
the leather so that any treatment

I do further down the line will really
bond to that leather nicely.

- As Dean sets about restoring the
boots' eye-popping colours

back to their bold best,

Mark is on his own musical quest to
get the portable record player

swinging again.

- So the heart of the turntable is, in
fact, this little wheel here.

This is called the idler-wheel.

It connects from the motor, which is
constantly rotating,

to the platter,

the turntable part, which actually
rotates the record.

Often they will, due to age, go hard.

Then what happens,

they can't grip and they slip,

and that causes variation in sound or
even slow speed.

Fortunately, this has not lost that
flexibility,

but generally they become a little bit
greasy.

So, to clean, we use some methylated
spirits

to remove any residual sort of grease.

Put this back on.

And I'll turn this on.

Now we've got that swinging as it
should do,

so that's quite good.

The next task, and the important one,
is the electronics

and the audio valve itself.

They get quite hot.

They use a lot more current,

they create heat, and therefore
components around that area,

particularly resistors, can age more
rapidly.

Actually, if you put yourself out in
the sun too often, we age more.

We know that. These components suffer
the same problem.

Now, resistors, they're used in a
circuit to make the circuit

perform in a certain functional way.

And I'm going to do a quick test on
those.

So if I put the meter on there and
down here...

Now, this should be 47,000 ohms.

That one's reading 65,000,

so it's quite appreciably higher.

And this one...

..is reading...

..just over 60,000 ohms.

So, though it could still technically
work,

by changing those, it will improve the
performance.

So I'm going to cut those out, like a
surgeon -

snip, snip -

and replace them.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Always makes you feel good.

So we've now changed two little
culprits.

I'm ready, really, to turn it on.

You could say that this is the moment
of truth.

Won't see a great deal,

but what I'm hoping to do, when I put
my finger

on the cartridge, I should get...
- QUIET CRACKLING

- Yeah, that. Yes, that's good.

It's doing exactly as it should do.

Bing!

Before I reassemble the record player

and putting it back into the case for
Poppy,

what I want to do is give this a good
old spruce up.

So, at the moment, I can see there's
some sort of flecks of paint

which I'm trying to slowly remove.

In the past I've used nail varnish
remover, which does work

but it leaves a white residue, which
is then difficult to go.

So I'm going to try an alternative
way, which is just soapy water

and a little toothpick, which will
eventually get to it.

When that's done, I've then got to
clean all the Rexine.

At the same time, take all the hinges
off,

because they are pretty tarnished,

and I'm going to burnish them up.

Lots of people are beginning to go
into this older technology,

big-style now, and I always find that
amazing,

the fact that the same sounds which
Poppy will hear today

is exactly the same way her nan

would have heard it in the past.

They've linked.

- Preparing for the next arrival,

those connoisseurs of all things
cuddly,

Amanda and Julie.

- Are you ready?
- Oh, yes!

- Oh! It's so exciting, isn't it?
- Always.

- They're welcoming Rachel James,

who's brought a much-loved bear in
need of repair.

- Hello!
- Hello!
- Hi!

- Welcome to the barn.
- Thank you!

- Who've we got here?

- This is Freddy.
- Freddy.

- Oh, my goodness! Tell us about
Freddy.

- I've had him for over 30 years now.

- Right.

- My mum took me to the zoo when I was
about five,

and a moose came out and frightened
me.
- A moose?!

- So I dropped my teddy and left my
teddy behind.
- Oh!

- So my mum had to find an
alternative.

So I remember opening this hamper and
Freddy was inside.

He looked so cool.

Instantly just fell in love with him.

- What did he look like?

- I think the thing that hit me the
most is the excitement

of a bear that I could change and
dress up.

And he almost looked like a whole
bear,

and then you took him off...
- And then he became a bare bear?

- And then he became a bare bear,
yeah.
- In his underwear?

- In his underwear!
- I love that!
- THEY LAUGH

- He had a lovely jacket that matched,

the same fur as his face.

- Yes.

- And he had bottoms that was held up
by braces.
- Mm-hm.

- And these are all bumblebees.

- Can you tell us a bit more about
your mum?
- Yeah.
- What's her name?

- Angela.

She's a single mum.
- Right.

- Two of us running around, so she did
everything.

I remember her pulling us up hills in
our rollerblades...

- THEY LAUGH

- ..taking us to the park, teaching us
to ride.

She brought us up. It was hard.
- Mm.

- She did everything. Not buying
clothes for herself to put clothes

on us, and ensuring we went to uni,
and...
- Wow.

- She's strong but very gentle and
very quiet.

But when it comes to us, she's like a
lioness.

- Wow!
- Yeah, she's my heroine.

- And what does she think about Fred
coming here today?

- Oh, she's ecstatic because she knows
how much I love that bear.
- Really?

- He's always on my bed and she goes,

"Rachel, you're in your 30s!"

- THEY LAUGH

- Yeah.

- This really sort of highlights that
beautiful relationship

that children have with their bear.

And then it grows, doesn't it?

- Yeah.
- It goes forward with you into being
an adult.
- Yeah.

- It's quite magical, really.
- It's like a piece of you.

He's like a piece of you. Yeah.
- Yeah.

I know there is obviously damage here
to his inner body,

but what is it that you're
particularly concerned about?

- I just want him to be nice and
sturdy, and his eyes...

- His eyes.
- His eyes. I miss his eyes.

They looked... You know when a dog
looks up at you...?

- Like a doleful look.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- And you can tell how I used to get
to sleep.

I used to wrap him around my finger...
- Oh, look!

- ..rub him across my nose,

and there is his missing fur.
- A bald bit!

- What made you decide that now's the
time to get something done

for him?

- To pass him on to Raya, my daughter.

She's eight months now.
- Eight months?
- Yeah.

Just for Raya to be able to hold him
and play with him...

- Aw!
- That's really lovely. Really lovely.

- So will this be the first time that
you've ever actually

been apart from him?

- Yeah! I've never been apart from
him, no!

- OK. We will look after him...

- Thank you.

- ..and keep him safe for you.

Lovely to meet you.
- Thank you.
- You take care. We'll see you soon.

- Bye-bye!
- Bye!

- Oh, Fred.

Oh, dear, he's in a bit of a bad way.
- He is, isn't he?

- How do you want to do it? Do you
want to do furry bits

and I'll do body? How about that?
- Yeah.

Good luck!

- It's definitely going to take some
work!

I think one of the important things
we've got to address here is

this is going to be loved by a child.
- Mm.

- So we have to make sure that we kind
of upgrade him a little bit,

to give him the strength that he needs
to go

through all that loving and playing
again.

- I'm glad Rachel pointed out these
bumblebees,

because they're so faded now.

- I think he's going to need new
bumblebees, don't you?
- Well, yeah.

Well done.
- There you are.

- Thank you.
- Just for you.

- Oh, Fred!

- Not so mellow yellow as Dean
prepares to get

the flamboyant footwear popping again.

- I've now gone on to tape in all the
areas that I don't want

to get yellow dye on.

Just trying to create a tidy job,
really.

As little mess as possible.

I'm really looking forward to getting
the yellow on this

and seeing that vibrancy come back.

The advancement in leather paints and
acrylics now means

that you can get almost any colour,

you can mix any colour and get any
shade,

which is really good for me.

So I think the yellow that I've found
here

is going to be a good match.

This stuff has been developed
specifically for shoes.

Shoes have a lot of movement in them,

so the paint that you put on needs to
be very,

very flexible without cracking.

And that is what this was designed
for.

Now, the first coat always looks a
little bit patchy

and not particularly good, really.

But that's OK. It's just a base coat,

and I can go over with a second or
even third coat if necessary.

When I'm happy with the yellow and
I've got enough coats on,

and the colour is pleasing to the eye,

I'll then stitch these quarters back

before tackling the colour of the red.

So now I'm on to structural repairs,

which is the stair stitches, that I
call them,

which is where these lovely red wings

are kind of attached to the yellow.

So I want to go over, try and go
through the same holes in red thread

and secure all that back together.

I'm using my trusty vintage sewing
machine.

It is well over a century old.

And although there are modern versions
of these,

there's something quite beautiful
about the fact there is no motor,

it's belt-driven.

You can feel the stitches and you kind
of almost become at one

with your machine, really.

The major fix for me really is this
sole that is cracked

on both shoes.

Now, my idea is to use a very strong
black glue...

..and build it up in layers in that
very deep crack...

..and that will close all that up and
close

this up around the side as well.

Once I have built up the layers of
glue and I'm happy

that it's reasonably level,

I'm going to use a very thin rubber
sole,

and that will go over the top of the
crack

and hold everything together.

When Colin does wear them and it
flexes there,

it isn't going to split again, all
being well.

I will let that set now before I trim
it round with my knife,

and then I will refine the edge on the
sanding machine.

Just trying to imagine what Colin
would look like,

stomping around in these in the '70s.

I think they're brilliant, brilliant
boots.

- From the '70s, back to the '60s.

Mark's been working hard to get the
vintage record player ready

for its new millennial owner.

- This is a little bit tricky because
I've got three cables to fit.

Right, now what we've got to do is
make sure

everything's there, gently...

..put this in position.

Yeah. Like that.

And then we've got a cover to put on.

And this... So that's now back in
place.

I'm sure when I present this to Poppy,
she's going to be overjoyed.

Well, I hope she's going to be
overjoyed! I am!

- For Poppy, this record player is
symbolic of the love of music

she shares with its original owner,
her beloved nan.

- Hello, Poppy.
- Hello!

- How are you?
- I'm all right.

- Yeah?
- Yeah, I'm excited.

- So am I.

- THEY LAUGH

- So, what are you hoping for?
- I just...

I really just want music out of it, so
everything else will be a bonus.

But as long as there's music, that's
the main thing for me.
- Mm.

- I love vinyl, so playing vinyl is
me, all day, every day.
- Yeah.

- Are you ready to see it, yeah?
- Yeah!

Oh!

She looks beautiful!

Can I open her?
- Course you can, it's yours!
- Yeah, exactly.

- And there's no rust on the latches.

- SHE GASPS, CASE CREAKS

- Oh, she still creaks, though. I like
that!

- THEY LAUGH

- Yay! Thank you!

- It's been a great deal of fun and a
pleasure.

- Now, there's something else she
wants to try.
- Yes.
- Yeah.

You want to put something on it?
- Yes!
- Mark?

- Well, I suppose we could do
something like that.
- Yeah.

- I believe that Frank Sinatra is
quite a favourite of your nan.

- Yeah.

- Turn on.

Would you like to do the auto?

And it drops down.

- MARK CHUCKLES

MUSIC PLAYS

# My eyes are dry, my love... #

- Mm!

- # Since you've been gone

# I haven't shed a tear

# But when I'm alone

# I can hear the sound of rain in my
heart

# I can't get away

# From the sound of the rain in my
heart. #

- So, is it as you hoped?

- Yeah. Yes. It's playing music!

- THEY LAUGH

- What would your grandmother think of
you getting this repaired?

- I think she'd be really happy with
it. She loved her music.

Like, it was turned on full blast,
like, this probably doesn't know how

to do it quietly, so...

- THEY LAUGH

- We better pack it up.

Have many years of fun.

- Oh, I will!

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

- MARK CHUCKLES

- Bless her. You've made her happy.
Well done. Good on you.
- That's it.

- When I play digital music now,

it's great that it's absolutely
perfect

and there's no interruptions,

but when you hear the crackles and
the...possible the skip,

if there's a scratch on them,
it's...it tells you something about

where the record has been,

and it kind of gives you an idea of
how loved it's been.

My nieces and nephews will have never
seen it,

never heard it.

So, yeah, it's something I can share
with the younger ones as well

and, yeah.

- Next in the frame, art conservator
Lucia Scalisi.

- Lucia, do you want to join me,
please?
- Oh, yeah.
- Come on.

You all right?
- Yeah. Excited.

- Jean-Robert de Bisschop has made the
long trip from southwest France,

and along with his daughter Natasha is
seeking help

on a very tattered treasure.

- Hello.
- Hello.

- How are you doing?
- Hello, hi. Lovely to meet you.

- What have you brought us in?

- This is a painting of my grandad,
Alain.
- OK.

- So my dad's dad.

- A lot of work for you!

- OK!

- THEY LAUGH

- OK.

- So, when was this painted?

- We think 1939 or 1938.
- OK.

- My grandad would have been about
three.
- Right.

- By that time, my grandparents were
divorced and my dad was living

partly in Avignon and partly in
Limousin,

in this little house.

I would spend my holiday there when I
was little, and the painting

was there with him.

But the house had no heating,

was left for 40 or 50 years.
- OK.

- There was nobody living in there.

- OK.
- Only in the summer. It kind of
deteriorated over time.

- Yeah, it does. Damp, particularly.

- So, who painted this?

- My... Would it be great-great-aunt?

Helene de Beauvoir painted this.
- OK.

- So it would have been his aunt.
- Yes.

- His aunt painted...
- Quite a famous painter.

I didn't know much about her.

I knew more about her sister, Simone
de Beauvoir...
- OK.
- Ah!

- ..famous French feminist.
- Yeah, yeah.

- I learned about her in school.

I didn't know she was part of the
family until I was about 16.

- Wow!
- Because he didn't tell me anything
about it.
- Oh!

You see that, Dad?!
- Well, that's exciting!

- It is, it was, yeah, writing all
these books.
- Yeah, yeah.

- Amazing.

- They both lived in Paris, and the
connection was

in that Limousin place.
- Yeah.

- They would come for holiday, and

my dad was there as well.
- That is fantastic,

that family connection.
- Yeah.
- I know a little bit about

Helene de Beauvoir, the artist, but
she was, like, subsumed

by her fabulous sister.

But she was a great artist in her own
right,

but she suffered from being a woman,
really.
- OK.

- I mean, she's a colourist, and that
is actually really beautiful.

So those peachy colours and that
lovely Eau-de-Nil green.

Yeah, he's a beautiful little boy.

- It's the only picture of my dad

as a lad that I have.

I've got pictures of my mum...
- Yeah.
- ..when she was a little girl,

but I don't think I have anything...
- Is there no photographs?
- Yeah.

- And what was he like as a dad?

- Oh, he was the best dad I ever had.
- Yeah, the only one!

- THEY LAUGH

He was also very funny.
- Yeah.
- OK.

- Yeah, I had a lot of good laugh with
him, which is fantastic.
- Yeah.

- He was so caring. He really...

He was always trying to get to know us
kids.

And he'd just spend time with us and
he was so lovely.

- Special times, yeah?
- Yeah.

It was so shocking when he went

because I was only, like, eight, I
think?

- What does this painting mean to you
now,

in terms of your family history and
everything?

- It's one of these links to my
grandad.

I didn't get to know him very well.

- But you've got that link, and to the
fantastic de Beauvoir...

- Absolutely, yeah.
- ..women.

- What do you think, Lucia?

- Well, to be honest, I mean, I know
it sounds crazy, but structurally

it's in quite good condition.

Where it actually is threadbare,

I mean, it's a balance.

Do we keep it like that or do I
actually do fillings, which means

I've got to patch the back?

- And what would you like to happen?

See these holes, where I can see the
table from there?

- THEY LAUGH
- What would you like done with those?

- Whatever you can do, it's just a
bonus, you know?

I mean, whatever can be done.
- OK.

- Saving it, for us, is the thing.

- Yeah.

Well, thank you for bringing it in.
- Thank you.

- I think all three of us can't wait
to see what Lucia does to this.

- THEY LAUGH

- So, we'll see you soon.
- Yes.
- OK? You guys take care now.

- OK, lovely to meet you.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.

- It's obviously got a few problems.

Where we've got sort of holes in it,

amazingly, I can see

the warp thread, which are the
vertical threads on a loom.

They're all still intact,

and it's the horizontal weft threads
that are snapped.

On this bottom edge...

..there's some of the original canvas,

so I'm actually going to cut some of
that off

and use those threads and actually
reintroduce them

into these losses.

All the dust and dirt over these

intervening decades has literally

sat on the paint, and some

of it will have been imbibed into the
paint layer.

But I've got a couple of cleaning
agents that I can try with that.

Then, once I've finished cleaning it
and varnished it and

done the retouching, it should all
look really quite good.

For now, I'm going to just wet it out
with

one of my solvents here,

and it should give an indication of
the actual colours

that we've got left.

See that colour change?

That's just a little preview of what
we can expect,

so I'm very pleased with that.

- As Lucia begins to reveal the
features on the painting,

Julie is all ears with Freddy the
bear.

- This is the one that Rachel used to
wrap around her finger

and rub on her nose.

Her little girl may do the very same
thing, so we need to be sure

that it can withstand that.

Rachel was quite adamant that the ear
was to remain

and that we weren't to replace it,

and I don't think she need have feared
because I don't think

we would have replaced it anyway.

But having said that, it really is
important to make good

the repairs that are on it because it
would be terrible for him

to lose his ear.

It is very sweet to see, actually,
that this one was obviously

the unfavoured ear and still has all
of its lovely fluff on it.

But this one is really quite bald,

so we can very often tell which arm or
leg

a teddy bear has been carried with by
a child.

So that's now firmly attached, back
where it was meant to be.

All I'm going to do now is pop some
stuffing into Fred's head

before I recreate his eyes.

- My job is to make Fred the new front
half of his body.

It literally is in shreds at the
moment,

and all his stuffing was bursting out.

Fred's quite unusual in his design in
that his fur came off,

and underneath his fur he had little
pants and vest on.

And this is what I'm actually
replicating.

When I've finished making

Fred's body and he's ready to be
stuffed,

little things like this are so
precious.

So what I'm going to do is wrap them
all up in a little parcel

and I'll put them all in his tummy.

Then she'll know that every single bit
of him is still there.

Rachel is so attached to Fred,

but it doesn't come as a surprise to
me.

It's something that we see every day
in this job.

People create this bond with their
toys, with their bears.

So I'm not surprised.

I think teddy bears are the one toy
that has stood the test of time.

They're so important. So important.

- I'm really looking forward to
painting Fred's eyes for Rachel.

There is a slight indication of where
the paint used to be,

but I have also managed to find a
picture on the internet

of what he would have looked like.

She remembers that lovely sort of
puppy-dog look, she said,

and I'm going to try as hard as I can
to recreate that for her.

Eyes on any of the teddy bears, soft
toys, dolls

that we repair are always the bit that
just brings it all together.

Getting it right is so important.

- I've been very busy making all the
body parts.

The very last thing I need to do is
make some fronts for his pants.

So we've picked this gorgeous
material.

This is just a little nod to the fact
that he had bumblebees

on his pants, originally.

Once I've got this underwear sorted,

he'll be all back together

and I'll be able to hand him over to
Julie, who's making him

a fabulous fur suit.

- I have managed to source this
lovely, lovely,

soft teddy-bear plush material.

I love the way that Fred sort of takes
off his fur skin,

and for a child, that must be such fun
to think that they've taken off

his little bear coat and his bear
trousers

and he's naked underneath before he
goes to bed. It's adorable.

I've just got this last piece to draw
around before I cut it out,

and once I've made his trousers, I'll
then be able to start

on his jacket.

- As Julie masters Freddy's wardrobe,

Dean's almost finished on footwear.

- All I need to do is get some laces
in these boots

and they are ready to rock.

I'm kind of sad to be at the end,
really.

I've enjoyed working on these so much.

- Colin's colourful life has trodden a
path from anarchic art student

through publishing to eminent
barrister,

and these boots were there to kick it
all off in style.

- Hello.
- Hello.

- How have you been?
- I'm very well, thank you.
- Welcome back to the barn.

- Good to see you again.
- Lovely to see you again.

- Nice to see you, Colin.
- Great to see you.

I've been anxious. I've got
butterflies in my stomach!

- What are you hoping to see?

- I am hoping to see what I first saw
when I sat down in the shop

to try them on in 1971.

- So that's the goal? Take you back to


- Yeah, absolutely.

I'm a bit trembly, actually!

- Go on, then, Dean.

- I'll do the honours.

- Oh, my God!

That is just fantastic!

I just never thought you would be able
to achieve that.

That is unbelievable!

I just don't know how you've done it.

That is...really amazing.

Just brilliant!

I think I'm going to have to try them
on.
- Of course you can!

Yeah, absolutely.

- They are fabulous.

They were just so important to me,

and they're now even more important
because they look so fabulous.

It really felt like I was leaving the
shop again.

I was back at art school for a minute
there

until I remembered how old I was!

Such a transformation. It was...

It sounds stupid, but it's almost like
I became a different person

when I put them on.

- Having previously restored artworks
dating from medieval times,

removing eight decades of dust from
the little French portrait

should be a clean sweep for Lucia.

- The solution I'm going to use is
basically water

with a drop of ammonia.

It can be quite difficult to remove a
dirt layer from a painting

that hasn't been varnished because the
varnish does act

as an isolating layer.

But this is coming off really nicely.

I did know of Helene de Beauvoir as a
painter.

She was an abstract artist

and she went into the expressionist
style of painting, just using

lots of bold colours, this sort of
looseness and spontaneity

of applying the paint.

She's painted this in oil, and I know
it's oil...

Well, partly because of the way that
she's handled it, but also

at that time that she painted it, in
the late '30s,

acrylic paints weren't invented,

so she wouldn't have had access to any
of that.

I will go into the face of Alain, the
little boy.

I have to be a bit more careful here
just because there's a lot

of ravines and crevasses with the
paint loss,

but look at that lovely little curl

he's got on his forehead.

It's got reds and oranges and browns
in there as well.

She's trying to capture the

character of a much-loved child,

so she really imparts that

into this piece of work.

I've got a lot more cleaning to do.

After that, I'm going to start working
on these areas of loss

and reintroduce some of the fibres
that I'm going to take

from the edges of the canvas.

I'm going to sort of graph those into
those losses,

then I'll fill and then I'll start to
retouch,

and then that's when you start to see
it all coming together.

That's the plan. That is the plan!
- SHE CHUCKLES

- Julie?
- Yes?

- Do you or Amanda have one of those
old-fashioned, like,

little needle threads?

- Oh, yes!
- I'm using this tiny needle,

but the thread I'm threading is a
little bit thick.

That's exactly what my gran had! Thank
you! Perfect.

One threaded needle.

With the actual fibre,

or the thread from the weave of this
canvas,

it's basically the weft of a loom that
I'm putting back.

So I'm using the vertical threads,

the warp threads, to weave in and out
of.

It's going to be quite a bit of more
work to do, this,

but it'll be well worth it.

And then, once I've put the patches on
the back, I can then turn

the whole picture over and start to
fill and then retouch.

I'm very pleased with the way this is
going so far.

That little bit of darning does help
to bring the whole thing together

much more naturally, using the same
materials that are already

in the painting.

The next stage is going to be filling

all this multitude of losses.

It's a bit of a faux paint layer, a
ground layer, and then I can paint

on top of it and it will match
everything else.

The filling I'm going to use is an
acrylic filler.

So, here we go.

I'm not going to be looking for a fill
that is completely smooth,

because when I look at the surface of
the painting, the canvas weave

is showing through the paint layer,
and I want to sort of

have that as a textural part of the
surface.

Once these fillings are all in place,
the painting will already

start to look a bit more whole

and then it'll be ready for
retouching.

I've finished the filling, so I'm
going to actually start

putting the base-coat colours in with
watercolour,

just to knock out all the white
islands of filling that I've done.

The watercolours I'm using, they're
really easy to use,

and they provide a little bit more of
an opaque coating.

I can't go straight into retouching

with my dry pigments and synthetic
resins because they are,

for the most part, transparent

and the under colour will shine
through.

So I've got quite a bit of work to do
with the watercolours,

just to get rid of all this whiteness.

Even though it looks very sort of
scratchy and patchy...

..it really starts knitting everything
together.

- Julie and Amanda have restored every
element of the beloved Freddy bear,

from paws to pants.

- Its his head all finished?
- Yes.
- Can I have that?

- Here it comes!
- Oh, look at him!

Hello!

Oh, mate, have I got something nice
for you!

Look at this.

He's going to look so gorgeous.

So, a bit more stuffing...
- Yeah.

- ..and I'll get his head on and then
you can dress him.

- I can't wait to see him in his furry
outfit!

- Freddy has been by Rachel's side for
nearly 30 years

and will be passed on to her own baby,

now that he's strong enough.

- Hello.
- Hello, Rachel. Welcome back.

How are you?
- I'm well.

- How are you feeling?
- Nervous.

- Are you worried-nervous or
excited-nervous?

- No, excited-nervous!
- Oh, that's OK!

- I trust you.

- And how have you been without him?

- It's been weird because he's usually
at the end of the bed,

so his presence is missing.

- Well, he's missed you as well.

He has, definitely.
- Definitely.

Are you ready to see him?

- I am.

- Shall we?

- Oh, he's got his eyes.

His head's not falling off!

I can't believe it.

He's nice and bouncy.
- He is, yeah.

- OK, got to undress him.
- Yeah, you've got to undress him.

- Sorry, Mister.

- RACHEL GASPS

- He's got braces!

Oh, my... And they're red!

He's...

The pants, honestly!

Ah.

Oh, thank you so much.

I love him.

I loved him anyway, but I love him
more.

- Good, good.
- Good.

- I can't stop smiling.

- That is perfect.

- What's going to happen to him now?

- He's going to be my bear for a
little bit longer.
- OK.

- And then I'll introduce him properly
to Raya.
- Yeah.

- She's going to love him.

- Rachel, thank you for bringing him
to us.
- Thank you.

- We've really enjoyed working on him.

- We have.

- Bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye.
- Bye.

Oh, that's lovely.

- It was really lovely.

Well done, you.

- He encapsulates 30 years of my life,
from strength in my mum.

Now to my daughter.

You say you have your life in a bottle
or in a jar.

My life is in a teddy and I'm just,
yeah, glad he's back.

Many more years of love to come.

- Lucia's plan to restore the joie de
vivre

to the colours of the French portrait
is in full swing.

- I'm at the retouching stage,

where I use my dry pigments in the
synthetic resins.

So I've mixed up two shades of green
here

and I've actually got a chrome yellow
in my pigments.

It's very bright and I'm mixing that
with a cobalt blue

and that's the shade of green I get.

It's a much more grassy green.

The challenge is to try and mimic the
techniques that Helene used

so that my work blends in and doesn't
jar against what she's done.

And particularly in this instance,
when it's painted by someone

like Helene, you learn with every
single painting,

even if I'd worked on ten of her
paintings,

would have just been learning the
techniques that she brought

into play to create the work, really.

But it's not a quick job

and it really helps, being
short-sighted!

I can see why this is important to
Natasha.

It was her grandfather, and to
Jean-Robert, his father.

So there's that emotional continuity
through the generations.

So I'm going to do this final
retouching

and then it'll be the final varnish
which will bring up the finish,

and then I'll be able to give it back
to Natasha and Jean-Robert.

- Having been painted over 80 years
ago,

this sweet little portrait was showing
its age.

- Perfect.
- Exciting.

- Exciting.

Oh, bless you.

You're made up.
- It thrills me, thrills me.

- It's the only picture Jean-Robert
has of his father as a child,

and it joins artist to ancestors
across four generations.

- Hello.
- Hello.

- Hi, Natasha.

- How you doing?
- Hello, Jean-Robert.

- They've both come in with smiles.
Look at that!

- Curious to see what you, what
miracle you've managed.

- Oh, OK.
- I think they're ready.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.
- I think so, yeah.

- Yeah, they're ready.

- I'm very excited to show you.

- Oh, wow.

- That's incredible. Oh, my word.

- Yeah.
- Wow.

The colours are so vibrant.

I can't even remember where the holes
were.

- Is that the same?!

You can definitely see my dad there.

- That's him, for sure.

- Yeah. Amazing.

Really, really...

What's amazing is that I actually
never really recognised him

in the painting, up to today.
- Yeah.

- It's the first time I really noticed
that

it is him, looking at me.

- I sort of see you in there, Dad,
because obviously we've got pictures

of you when you were really little

and you again were blonde, curly hair
as well.

- It's multi-generational painting, it
is!

- It is.

- So, do you think Helene did a good
job of capturing

a few generations so far?

- Well, I think she did a good job.

I can see the eyes and the painting,
it's, it is beautiful.

- It is stunning.

- And certainly what you've made of it
is beautiful.

- It's just been a fascinating project
to work on.

- My dad would be chuffed.

- Yeah?
- Because it's a painting he was very
proud of.

- Thank you for bringing it in, both
of you. It's all yours.

- OK, thank you.

- Great pleasure.

- Thank you very much.

- Bye.
- Bye-bye.

- It feels incredible, to have this
painting now.

Grandad's there all the time, because
he wasn't,

for unfortunately a long part of my
life.

So, it's so nice to know that he's
there, watching over us.

- Having that painting alive again,

it's a new lease of life that has been
given to the painting,

and hopefully it will be enjoyed
forever after now.

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that's seen better days

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