05x13 - Vintage Bottle Stopper

[bunniefuu]

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

It's in a bit of a sorry state.

..are restored to their former
glory.

I'm going to teach you how to do it
the old-fashioned way.

Furniture restorer Jay Blades...

Now the fun begins. I know!

So nice that we can be part of that
history to just keep things going.

..and a dream team of expert
craftspeople...

Looks absolutely amazing.

Wicked! You really start to see the
thought that went into making it..

..come together to work their
magic...

Teamwork! Absolutely!

Yes! Beautiful.

..employing heritage craft skills
passed down the generations...

Whoo!

It's my duty to make sure that this
all goes back in working order.

..preserving irreplaceable
heirlooms.

Oh! It's absolutely amazing,
it really is!

It's like keeping a bit
of our family history alive.

..the team will restore the items...

SHE GASPS

..the memories...

Yes! Yes!

..and unlock the stories

that they hold.

It's touched my heart.

It's amazing.

In The Repair Shop today,

Brenton's mettle is tested
as he repairs a tarnished keepsake

with a theatrical past...

Silver melts at quite a low
temperature, and once it's red-hot,

it's too late - it's gone.

..while Will sinks his teeth
into the Lilliputian mechanics

of an antique oddity.

If it's too short, the drawer won't
open, and if it's too slack,

then it's going to be wagging
all over the place.

But first, a cherished toy
that's been delighting generations

of children for over 80 years.

Brian Adams is hoping
master-of-all-things-two-wheeled

Tim Gunn can restore this rusty
relic to its former glory.

How we doing?

Hello. Very well, thank you. You all
right? I'm Jay.

Hello, Jay. Nice to see you.

Hello.

Good to see you.

We've got a little scooter!
Got a little scooter.

Tell us about this.

Well, I was fortunate enough
to inherit it from my father.

OK.

I think he acquired it, probably
as a birthday or a Christmas present

from his parents. Right.

In, I would say, round about 1936.

1936? 1936, yeah.

Wow, this is an old scooter.

His father was a serving officer
in the Metropolitan Police, serving

out of Bow Street Police Station.
OK.

He lived in a block of flats.

And all of those families that were
living in there

were police families. Right.

It was a quadrangle. And they all
used to come down and play.

But he had something a bit special,
which was this scooter.

And his sort of claim to fame was
racing it across Blackfriars Bridge

and then back across
Southwark Bridge.

He was driving it across the bridge?
He was, yeah! Really?

You wouldn't imagine kids doing that
nowadays, would you?

No, but it's a bit dangerous,
though, isn't it? It is, yeah.

But I don't think his mum knew
all about what was going on.

But this is what he told me... OK.
..in later life.

Anyway, he was one of 1.5 million
women, children

and vulnerable adults
that were evacuated at the start

of the Second World w*r.

And then his mother and father saved
enough money and bought a house

in Suffolk, which actually
backed onto an active aerodrome.

And the active aerodrome meant
that they probably saw

more action there than they would
have done had they stayed in London.

There was many occasions where
he used the scooter to get

from the house
to the bottom of the garden.

Oh, so he took the scooter with him?
Absolutely. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Wasn't going to leave that
behind. OK! Right.

He'd use the scooter to get to the
bottom of the garden,

because just over the fence
were these big sandbag bays,

and the runway was more or less
at the bottom of the garden.

So they saw the planes coming in and
coming out. Yeah.

So, Brian, what's your earliest
memories of this scooter, then?

I would say probably
when I was about five or six.

My sister Hilary, she's three
and a half years older than me.

She used to ride it.
We both had a lot of fun on it.

And then, as we grew up, the scooter
stayed with my father in his garage.

Oh, he wouldn't let go of it?
He wouldn't let go. Our children

were allowed to play on it
when they went there. Right.

But he didn't let it go.

So when he died two years ago,
it was in a state

like that in the garage.

I can see it's been painted
at some point.

Would you like it to be repainted
at all?

I'd love it to be repainted.

I think it was a sort of
a dark RAF blue, originally. OK.

So when's the last time this was
working or anybody's used it?

Oh, probably 40 years ago.
40 years ago?

So, what would you like Tim
to do to it, then?

Well, I'd like it brought back
to life so that it can be used.

What, are you going to use it,
are you?

I'm not going to use it,
but I want my grandchildren

to be able to use it. And then I can
tell them the story of their

grandfather,
their great-grandfather.

It is a family heirloom.
It's only a toy, really.

But nevertheless, for us,
it evokes memories of, you know,

the past and their childhood
as well.

That's absolutely brilliant, Brian.
Thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you. Diamond.

Nice to see you. Likewise.

Thanks, Brian. Thank you. OK.

See what we can do.

The scooter, in its current
condition, is rather sad, really.

There's not many toys that last
the test of time,

and that's one of them.

Seeing our own grandchildren
playing on it now will make us feel

quite nostalgic because every time
I see the scooter, it does

remind me of my father, and I think
it will give us the opportunity

to tell them the story
of his boyhood and his childhood

and what he went through.

And hopefully, that will make them
appreciate how fortunate

they are in their lives.

Got a lot of work to do on this one.
Yeah. Even though it's a little

scooter, there's a lot. Well,
the wheels need rebuilding.

We need new tyres.

I quite like the fact that it
may have been blue originally. Yeah.

And this board. Yeah, we might get
Will to have a look at that,

if possible. OK. And then the
paintwork,

hopefully, if we can get Dom to help
out with that, that'd be great.

All right. I'll start stripping it
and then... and then

we'll go from there. All right.
Nice one, Tim. Thank you.

Basically, we've just got to pull it
apart,

see what we're left with.

I've never worked on anything
like this before, actually.

I'm normally bicycles,
penny-farthings, racing bikes.

Erm, for me, this is actually quite
nice.

Just cleaning it up,

I can see reference to the blue
that Brian referred to.

So he was right, and it was painted
blue underneath it,

so, Dom, could you come over
and have a look? You all right?

Yeah.

Erm, what do you reckon to this?

You've got the original blue paint.
That's fantastic!

So obviously, before this gets
sandblasted, we should match

that blue for sure.
Yeah, if we can, that'd be great.

I do like this bit. It's like
an archaeological dig, isn't it?

Yeah. It's a lovely blue.

It's almost like a bit green,
isn't it? Not that one. That it?

No. No.

Oh, oh, oh!

Oh, yeah. That one.

Maybe. That's quite good, isn't it?

That's the one, 5009.
Yeah. I think...

I think that's good. I think
that's not far out.

Bearing in mind that's filthy
and has been there since 1935, so...

That'll look really smart. What
about the wheels? Are they going to

be blue?
If we can do them the same colour.

Sure. Well, thanks so much, Dom.
Hey, no problem. Ace.

What I'm going to do now is
I'm going to take these off.

Strip all that paint off. Can't wait
to see it. Nice one. Excellent.

But the scooter isn't the only
metal item requiring

Dom's attention today.

The next visitor brings a touch
of showbiz glamour to the barn.

Dee Ryans is hoping Dom, along
with silversmith Brenton West,

can restore some star quality.

Hello, there. Hello. Hiya!

I'm Brenton. Nice to meet you. Hi.
Dom. Nice to see you.

What have you brought along today?

An original powder compact.

I see this says, "To Lucy,

"as a token of appreciation from
Fred Karno."

It was my Aunt Lucy's... OK.

..for her pantomime of Cinderella
in 1911 to 1912.

And so this was a gift from...

Fred Karno to Aunt Lucy.

Fred Karno was a legendary comedy
impresario on the London musical

circuit in the 1890s.

Known as the Father of Slapstick,

his most notable proteges include
Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton

and Stan Laurel.

So she was involved
in one of his theatre...

Quite a lot of his... Really?

She was his leading lady
for a little while.

But Lucy was my Uncle Jack's
first wife. OK.

But she died very young. Oh, bless.

He went on to marry my grandmother.
OK.

And Uncle Jack was Charlie Chaplin's
stand-in. Really?

When he was in the UK.

That's amazing, isn't it? Isn't that
incredible? Yeah! That's very cool.

He was lovely.
He was a real gentleman. Yeah.

So what is your earliest memory
of this box?

When I was seven,

I was given it to play with.

But at the time
I didn't realise it was silver.

I didn't realise it would dent
so easily.

OK. So, I'm afraid that's mine.

And then one of my cats
knocked it off the shelf. Oh, no!

Yeah, I know. It's pretty battered.

Got a strong cat
cos this is really heavy!

It came from quite a height.
Oh, dear.

Yeah. Hence the dent.

What do you think, Brenton?

I think, how am I going to get into
the bottom of there? So let's...

I'm not sure whether the bottom
can come off at all.

Let's hope so. It's a bit of broken
mirror in there.

Yeah. That was in the top. The
mirror's the least of our worries.

Is it?

This must symbolise quite a lot
for you,

with so many memories attached
to it. Yeah. My childhood.

Is it? The best part of my
childhood. Ohh! Yeah, because Nan

and Jack were...wonderful.

It's just important we try
and sort it out for you, isn't it?

Yeah, it'll be on total display
once it's...once,

hopefully, it's fixed.

Well, thank you for bringing it in,
and I'll be in contact.

Thank you very much.
OK. Lovely to meet you.

Lovely to chat. Thank you.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Mixed feelings about leaving
the powder box.

It means such a lot to me that,
erm...

Yeah, it's difficult to leave it
behind.

This is far too delicate
for me to go anywhere near!

I mean, I don't know how
you're going to get those dents out

without, I mean, I would just use
a hammer and dolly and hit it.

But then, obviously,
with this engraving...

We'll have to be really careful
with the engraving, and the process

will be complicated. But I think
I can get the dents out.

The first thing I'm going to do is
to polish this. OK.

I can't see through this tarnish
because there could be a great big

crack in it that I can't see.
You've got your work cut out.

I really have got a lot to do.
Good luck! OK, thanks.

All right. OK.

So this is just a standard silver
polish. I'm being quite gentle

in the middle where the engraving
is, I'm just basically getting

the cleaning compound on there,
but I'm not really pushing hard.

This engraving actually
is in really good condition.

I can see the edges are quite
sharp on it.

I do like it when someone brings me
something to repair

and they haven't cleaned it.

And I have had things brought to me
before where they say it's so black,

it can't be silver.

And underneath that tarnish...

..is this!

It's just a...

Yeah, it's a little treat for me.

As Brenton sets about making the box
gleam again...

..Tim is hoping woodwork virtuoso
Will Kirk can lend a hand

with the scooter.

Hello, Will. Hiya, Tim.

Looking for some help with this.

This is the pedal for the foot board
off Brian's scooter.

Ah, the scooter!

And it's got a little bit
of a split here,

which is quite fragile, and that's
where the frame goes through it.

So if that can be strengthened
in some way,

that would be brilliant.

OK. Leave it with me.

Excellent! Brilliant. Thanks.
No worries.

As Will gets to work on the
foot board, Tim can take a spin

at the 80-year-old wheels.

We've got all the original spokes

which have got a few twists

and a few bends in them.
They're all covered in white paint.

So what I'm going to do is have a go
at starting to clean them.

Saves elbow grease.

And you can see that spoke adjuster

there is coming up brass.

It's going to look quite nice.

Two down. 30 to go!

This nasty split at the front
needs to be dealt with.

The wood is quite thin
and is susceptible in the future

to splitting out again.

I think what I'll do is, I'm going
to carve out that nasty split there,

splice in a new bit of wood
and shave it back in to match.

So I've got a piece of walnut.

The plan is to use my chisel
and a mallet

to chop down the lines

that I've just marked out here.

Lower the surface and then glue
and clamp on the new piece of wood.

Once that's dried,

I can shape it all in to match
the surrounding areas.

With the rusty frame stripped
and prepped, Dom's expert painting

skills are in demand.

Dom... Hey, Tim! Could you give me
a hand? If you could have a go at

painting it for me. Yeah, yeah.
Once the rims are painted,

I can build the wheels. If I can
leave that with you,

that'd be great. Yeah. No problem at
all. Nice one! Cheers!

This is what I'm going to be now

repainting the scooter in for Tim.

It's a really good match
to the original.

It's such a beautiful colour.

I think it's going to look
absolutely brilliant.

The hub flanges, where the spokes
go, actually fell off when I took

the wheels apart. So I've got all of
those prepped and basically what

I've got to do is solder these
hard flanges back on.

I've got this, which is basically
solder paste, and all you've got to

do is just put some heat over the
surface once you've assembled there.

And it'll just sweat the solder
into the joint and hopefully make

it into a proper, solid joint.
So that's the plan.

I don't want to get it too hot
because solder basically melts

at a very low point.

It starts to go from a grey colour,

more of a silver colour.

I think that's got it now.

We just need to let it cool off
and then I can clean them

up and then I can build the wheels.

Got this gorgeous gold,
metallic-gold enamel paint,

which I'm going

to use to put a really nice,
delicate, thin pinstripe

around, up this sort of head tube
on the scooter.

It's really nice to be doing some
pinstriping, especially

when it goes as well as this.

It really finishes off the scooter.

Can't wait to see it all together
now. Perfect.

Here you go, Tim.

Fantastic! Nice colour, isn't it?
Oh, that's beautiful!

Is that what you were hoping for?
That's come out really, really well.

Yeah. Excellent. No, it's going to
look great. Brilliant!

Well, over to you now.
Excellent! Thank you.

So the next stage now is
to rebuild the wheels.

Because it's such a small wheel,
it's really, really tricky

to actually get all the spokes in
at the same time.

But that's starting to come together
really well.

The wheel is now assembled
with all the spokes,

the rim, the hub.

Erm, the problem now is that,
as you can see,

it's all a bit wibbly wobbly.

So what I've got to do is I've got
to tighten all the spokes up.

I can then true the wheel
to make it nice and level.

Given the condition of the original
wheel when it first came in, that's

come out really well.
That's ready for some tyres now.

There we go. That's one wheel done.

Just need to do the other one.

Next to call upon The Repair
Shop's expertise,

Martin Day from Hertfordshire.

He's got a tiny assignment for
woodwork heavyweight, Will.

Hi, there. Hello, there.
How you doing?

Good to meet you. I'm Jay. Hello,
Jay. Pleased to meet you.

I'm Will. Will, you too.

So, what's in the box, then?

So, in the box is this little fella.

He's a bottle stopper in a few
pieces!

Right? A bottle stopper, yeah?
Yeah, yeah.

It was my grandfather's.

And this little chap, he used to sit
in the bottle of something called

grenadine, in the front room.

And when he was all in one piece,
he used to do something that I found

quite magical, really.

The mouth was shut, and when
you pulled his lever down... Yeah.

..up would go his arm,
the mouth would open,

he'd drink from it, then you put it
down, it would stop again.

It is quite something, isn't it?

I can see that, as a child...

Yeah. ..seeing that'd be quite fun.

It's not the prettiest of things,
but it's a really interesting thing

and it's got a lot of history in it.

So, where did your grandad
get this from, then?

We think Belgium. Right.

He went over to Belgium in the w*r.

He was 17 when w*r broke out.
First World w*r.

And was a Sergeant Major. Yeah.

Training the other soldiers.

He must have been a bit of a
character, though.

17? Training people. Absolutely.
Yeah.

He really took to the place and used
to go and visit with my grandma

quite a lot.
Brought back a few bits and pieces.

This was one of them. So where does
this stop take you back to?

My grandfather died quite young.

I was about four.

But this takes me back, my
grandfather more than anything.

And it's really the sort of main
memory that I have of him.

I can remember he used to sit
in the chair and smoke a pipe

and I used to sit there for hours
in the front room, just sort

of playing with him,
I was allowed to.

I just remember thinking that
this little chap had so much life.

I think that's what fascinated me,

the fact it seemed to be real.

THEY TALK OVER ONE ANOTHER

It just takes me back to his house
and to him.

When my grandma died, I was asked
if I wanted a keepsake

from the house,
and this is what I chose. Ahh!

So, he's stayed with me for,
I don't know, best part of 50

years or so. So when you got it,

was it all in one piece
or was it in three pieces?

It was all in one piece. Yeah. OK.

So did you continue to play with it?
I probably did, yeah.

Not probably - you must have!
It must have been me!

I don't really know when it broke.

The elastics probably
just perished over the years

and things have fallen off.

You can see that it's all faded.

He's looking...rouge round the nose
and the cheeks.

So, he's been on the bottle
for quite a while.

Yeah, that's a good point!

And all those little features
have gone missing

because, as the paint's
faded over the years. Yeah.

See what we could do.
Thank you for bringing it in.

Good. Well, thank you. No problem.
Can't wait. Yeah.

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

Although it's just a bottle stopper,

something small made out of wood,

to me, it's got all those memories
of my grandma and grandpa.

It was something that was animated
and had lots of life in it.

And that's just gone.

So hopefully Will will be able
to put that back into it.

So what's the problem with it?

Many things. OK.

Broken arm, broken bottle.

It's really dull and
should look quite bright.

The mouth doesn't move.

So I think that maybe that
elastic band there has perished.

There's lots of bits
to be doing. OK.

Lots of stuff to be doing.

I better get on with it. Yeah.

All right. Cheers.

At first glance,
you can't really see where

the elasticated thread
begins and ends.

But if you look underneath the jaw,
you can see a tiny hole there.

And on the top of the hat,

there's another hole there.

And I think that's where the thread
feeds through the head,

and there would be tension there.

So once that's glued in place,
the jaw appears shut.

Then there's the piece of thread
that goes there,

which you can go...

That thread there
will go from the chin,

through the neck, and out the back.
So when you pull the lever,

it pulls the string
and it opens and closes.

As well as doing that, the arm
would then move up in sync

with the jaw,

and it appears
that he's drinking from his bottle.

This elasticated thread
has lost its elasticity.

So I need to excavate
what's left and replace it

with some new thread.

Come to Papa.

With the silver powder box
cleaned up,

Brenton has been able
to assess the damage,

but getting access to the dents
is no easy task.

I'm going to have a look
at getting the base off

and getting the top off,
so that I can remove the dents.

So this space in here is possibly
wood, with some sort of paper

over the top of it.

I'm going to try and save it
if I can,

just for the integrity of the item.

It's actually a piece of lead.

And you can see that
when I scratch it, it goes shiny.

So the reason they've used lead
is it's nice and soft,

easy to poke into here.

It's compliant, it bends,
and it's heavy.

This is incredibly thin silver,

but with this lump of lead
in the bottom,

when you pick it up, you go,

"This is a good item.
Look, it's solid silver."

So it would appear to be
more valuable than it is.

And you could charge more money
for it.

And that's why the dents
have occurred so easily -

because this is so thin, and Dee is
not to blame for bending it

because anybody
who leant on it would bend it.

And this is just
ordinary plaster there.

I'm just going to take this
all out of here now, I think.

So now I've got this out of here,

I'm going to try
with my chasing punches

to knock this dent out.

So the dent is coming out slowly,

and I might get a bigger hammer.

Silversmiths have lots
of different hammers

for different processes.

This is a planishing hammer.

This is a chasing hammer.

You've got a big head on here

so you don't miss
this little tiny punch.

These tools I've had
for 40 years or so,

and they'll do another couple
of generations before they...

Well, they're not going to wear out.
You'll just carry on using them.

I had bought them brand-new,
and they're still working well.

The bottom edge dent is vanquished,

but the ones in the lid
need a gentler approach.

I can see in here that someone's
had a go at repairing it.

This metal is really, really hard.

If I push this dent out,
which is quite easy with my thumb,

you'll see that it just pops
straight back in again.

It's age-hardened

and it's been machine-hardened,
and it sort of bounces,

it's got no malleability to it.

So I need to anneal this,
which softens the metal and makes it

easier for me to work.

So I'm just painting a flux paste
on here, and this prevents

what's called fire stain.

Now, normally, you wouldn't worry
too much about heating this up once

to anneal it,

but in this stage, I don't want
to get any fire stain on this

because I don't want to have
to polish this aggressively

because I don't want to lose
any of this lovely engraving.

But that's not the only risk.

Silver melts at quite
a low temperature,

and it's very, very easy to melt it.

And once it's red-hot,
it's too late - it's gone.

So I have to be really careful.

I've annealed this silver lid.

Hopefully it will be malleable

and I'll be able to ease
these dents out of it.

I've got a little burnishing tool
here, which is highly polished,

and from the inside I'm going
to just try and push the dents out.

So I'm just going to have a look
at the other side and see

how that's looking.

And already it's looking
a lot better.

The dents are coming out nicely.

Quite pleased with this.

It's been a team effort
to restore the components

of the 1930s toy scooter.

We've now got everything painted,
the wheels are built,

brand-new tyres.
The paint has come out brilliantly.

Dom's done a fantastic job of that,

Will's done a fantastic job
of the woodwork.

He's kept a lovely sort of patina
to it,

but all it needs now
is putting back together.

I'm hoping that all the bits
actually go back together properly,

cos there's lots of people
that have helped out with this.

I'm really pleased with that.

The last thing to fit, really,
is the bell.

BELL RINGS

Right. That's it now finished.

It's come together beautifully.

It's ready to go back to Brian,
and hopefully he's going

to be really, really chuffed
with it.

The scooter originally belonged
to Brian's father,

who doggedly held on to it
when his family

were evacuated during the w*r.

Having provided many happy memories
for three generations

of the Adams family,

Brian has now returned
with the next lucky owner.

This is Freya, my granddaughter.

We're here today to collect
the scooter,

and we're very interested

to know what it's turned out like.

I'm hoping to see
the scooter repaired better.

I'm feeling slightly apprehensive
about being back here today,

but also very excited
about what we might see.

Hiya. Hello there.
I'm Dom. Good to see you.

Hello, Dom, I'm Brian.
Nice to see you. Hello, Brian.

Hi, Tim, lovely to see you again.
This is Freya.

Freya, nice to meet you. Hello.

Excited? Very excited.

What are you hoping that Tim's
been able to do? Well,

we're very much hoping that it's
now going to be able to be used.

So, you haven't been on it yet?

Uh-uh. No?

Shall we let them see?
Yeah, shall we do it? Yeah?

Yeah. Go on, then.

Cor! Look at that.
HE CHUCKLES

That is absolutely superb.

It really is.

And I think it's probably
back to the condition

it was in when my father had it.

That actually means a lot.

Because that was Father's
favourite toy as a youngster.

I think he'd be looking down
with a little bit of a smile

on his face. What do you think?

Very nice. And it was all red
and rusty here,

and now it's all coloured
back again.

Do you prefer the blue? Yeah.

And I think that's probably
the colour it was.

I mean, I don't know whether you
chipped down and found the colour,

did you? But... Underneath
one of the little clips here...

Yeah. ..I found the original colour.
Oh, did you? And the wheels...

I mean, they look like
they're new spokes in there.

Are they? They're not,
they're the original spokes

that were put in in 1935.

And I've managed to rebuild
both wheels with...

The original spokes? ..with
the original spokes, yeah. Good job.

You've made a magnificent job.

Thank you very much indeed.

Really grateful to you.
It's been a pleasure to work on.

Great. You look like you're itching
to get a hold of it,

have a go on it. Are you excited?
TIM: Yeah? Yeah.

Come on, then. Let's take it
outside. All right. Brilliant.

I've got your helmet.
Oh, there we are.

Right. Let's go.

Give it a go, then.

DOM LAUGHS
Brilliant.

I think she's done that before.
Yeah.

I was just going to say,
she's a natural, isn't she?

She's a natural. Here she comes.

Well done, yeah!

You take me right back,
right back to,

you know, when I was a child.

But I think more so,
a better connection with...

..with my dad as well.

To be able to get it restored
to that sort of standard is...

..for him, really,
as much as for us.

I think I might have a secret go
on it when they're not there,

but I'll have to go
very, very careful

and make sure I don't break it.

That'll bring back some wonderful
memories for me, too.

SHE RINGS BELL

She's off on it! Lovely.
Thank you. See you later.

SHE RINGS BELL
Bye!

SHE EXCLAIMS JOYFULLY
THEY CHUCKLE

As a very satisfied customer

journeys happily home, Will
is working on the little bottle stop

with the big personality.

Yeah. There we are.

Oh!

Oh, lovely.
HE CHUCKLES

That is so satisfying to pull out.

Now to take out this last piece.

Almost feel like a dentist here,
taking out rotten teeth.

Come on, mister...

HE GRUNTS
It doesn't want to move.

That plug on the top came out
relatively easily,

but this bottom one
is made of a softer timber.

I'm trying to pick that out.
It sort of just breaks away.

I don't want to give this cheeky
chappy a root canal...

..but I might have to get
the drill out.

Come on, mate, play ball.

There we are.

That...

I think he's going to make
a full recovery.

Will threads new elastic
through the holes...

..and seals it into place
with a fresh wooden plug

in the top of the head.

Now, this is the tricky part.

I need to plug the bottom jaw
at the right length,

because if it's too short, the jaw
won't open, and if it's too slack,

then it's going to be wagging
all over the place.

Push that back in.

Lovely.

Next, Will attaches
a second thread

so the bottle stopper's arm and
mouth will move simultaneously.

Now that that's through,
that should...

..open and close the mouth.

With the jaw now moving freely,

the bottle-stopper man
can now wet his whistle,

providing Will can repair
his broken arm.

You can see here where Martin
has tried to glue this wine bottle

back on before, and it's failed.

And that's because that is
the weakest point on the arm.

So I'm going to make a splint
and put it in the middle to keep

that from breaking again.

DRILL BUZZES

DRILL BUZZES

HE LAUGHS

That is how it's supposed to move.

Lovely.

Now he's back in drinking form,

I can finally spruce up
the paintwork.

I'm just repainting
the cheeky chappy's jacket.

It used to be blue,
and now it's faded so much

that you can actually see quite
a lot of the wood coming through.

Martin remembered seeing
this originally

as a vivid blue colour,

so I'm trying to get that colour
back onto its body, back

to how Martin remembered it
when he first saw it as a child.

On the opposite workbench,
Brenton is putting the sparkle back

into the century-old powder box
with the showbiz connections.

So I've got all of the dents
out of this now and I've polished

it up, and it's now ready
to have a mirror fitted in it.

With all the components of
the powder box now spick and span,

Brenton begins its re-assembly,
starting with refilling the base

with plaster of Paris.

So when that's set, I can put
this piece of lead back in,

and then I'm going to put
the original paper

back on there, rather
than putting a new base on it.

So this will be quite a nice thing
to put back on.

And that is just going to go back
on there, like it was before.

When the treasured powder box
arrived at The Repair Shop,

it was blighted with dents

and the surface hidden
beneath decades of tarnish.

But with gleaming silver now
restored, it's ready to take

centre stage for Dee once more.

Hello, Dee. Hi.

Hello. How you doing, Dee?
How are you? You all right?

I'm fine, thank you. All right?
Fine, thank you.

So what are you hoping to see
underneath the blanket?

Something resembling
what it should look like.

Shiny. OK. No dents.

Fingers crossed.

Shall we show her?
Yeah, let's do that.

SHE GASPS

Oh, my goodness!

Oh, I'm sorry.
I said I wasn't going to do this.

Oh!

That is beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you so much.

Oh!

May I look at it? Of course!

Oh, the mirror!

Oh, I didn't think you'd be able
to get that back into it.

Oh, I don't want to touch it now,

it's going to be... No.

THEY LAUGH
I don't want to make it dirty.

Oh. Is this how you remember it now?

No, it wasn't as good as that!

THEY LAUGH

You've done well.
He's done absolute marvels.

So what are you going to do
with it now?

Oh, that will go in pride of place
on top of the mantel.

It's beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

Well, let's let you get this home.

You got a box there?
Got a little box here. OK.

There you go.
Thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you very much
for what you've done.

I really enjoyed doing it.

Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Bye, Dee.

She's happy. Yeah! Yeah, I'm happy.
Well done, you.

It's not dented.

It's not black.

It's beautiful.

Miracles do happen.

And there's certainly been one
performed in there.

Almost ready to pop a celebratory
cork of his own, Will is putting

the finishing touches
on the cheeky wee bottle stopper.

Well, I really find this painting
therapeutic. In your mind's eye,

you've already got an idea
of how something is supposed to look

and how it will look.

And you almost sort of switch off,

then your subconscious mind
just takes over.

The more time I spend looking
at his cheeky little face...

I'm really worried that I don't
actually want to give this back

to Martin!
I'm really warming to him.

When the Belgian bottle stopper came
in to The Repair Shop, it was broken

into three pieces,
and the poor chap on top hadn't

had a tipple for years.

But Will's managed to get him back
on drinking form, ready for owner

Martin to collect him.

The bottle stopper's
really important to me

because it's the first memory
I really have of my grandfather

and kind of the last as well.

It was what I kept when he died.

So that was my memento of him.

How are we doing, Martin?
Hi, Jay. How are you?

I'm very good.
Good to see you again. Likewise.

Hi, Martin. Nice to see you again.
Hi, Will. You too.

You look excited and happy.
I am.

I'm wondering what's under here.
OK. Yeah.

What are you hoping to see
underneath here?

I'm hoping to see somebody
brought back to life.

He's been in a box in pieces
for quite a long time.

And seeing him move again, alive
again, would be quite exciting.

How did it go?

Well, shall we find out?
The proof is in the pudding, anyway.

We'll see. OK.

Wow! That is amazing.

That is incredible.

I'm...I'm amazed.

He looks quite dapper now,
doesn't it?

He does. The colour of his coat
and his tie.

He looks like he's ready for a night
out on the town, doesn't he?

Back to his normal tricks.

Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic.

And he still has
the rosy red nose and cheeks. Yeah.

You can see...you can see
his personality.

He's a cheeky chappy, isn't he?

The face is fantastic.

It's just absolutely there.

I'm not sure he looks like
my grandfather, but that's

who I'm seeing. Yeah, yeah.

Shall I go for it? Go for it.

Oh, man, look at that.

Yeah.

That's unbelievable.

He's got his mojo back. Yeah.

Oh, that is just...

That's incredible.

I can remember just doing this -

oh, man - it feels like for hours
and hours. You know, just it kind

of surprised me every time
it happened, that it just worked.

Oh, that's fantastic. So what are
you going to do with him now, then?

He's going to do
what he always used to do -

be in the lounge, on display,

in the favourite tipple -
not grenadine this time,

but a bottle of single malt.

Martin,
thank you for bringing him in.

Thank you, Jay. Fantastic.
It was a pleasure,

an absolute pleasure.
That's marvellous. Thank you.

You take care now.
See you around. Bye-bye.

It was just great being reunited
with the bottle stopper.

It took me right back to
my childhood, back there in my

grandparents' house, playing
with this little bottle stopper

that used to give me
such great entertainment.

It was a real special family memory.

Join us again, as the broken...

..and the bashed...

We are on our way!

..are brought back to life...

Well done, you!

..in The Repair Shop.