02x06 - Toy Panda

[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 spend 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...

Right tool for the right job.

..they will resurrect,

revive...
Come on, man.

..and rejuvenate

treasured possessions

and irreplaceable pieces
of family history.

Wow! She's fantastic!

Bringing both the objects...

This is what I remember.

..and the memories
that they hold...

Wow! ..back to life.

Oh, my God!

In The Repair Shop today,

Will has his work cut out
with an antique table.

There are some jobs that you think
are a really good idea

and then halfway through
you just think, "Oh, my gosh!"

While Julie and Amanda attempt to
breathe new life into a precious

50-year-old cuddly toy.

We've been waiting for this
for a long time.

But first, The Repair Shop is taking
delivery of a real collector's item,

belonging to Betty Raymond
and her son, Michael.

Hello. Hello.

I'm Steve, hi. Hello. I know you
can't shake my hand.

Pop it on the table here...
Thank you. ..whatever it is.

What have we got here? OK, this is
an antique steam gunboat

that my parents found some years
ago. Oh, my word.

This is fantastic.

Part of the rudder. That's good.

We've got a cannon
and another cannon.

I found it on the beach at
Goring-by-Sea in 1952.

Right. It was just that part,
protruding from the sand.

My husband said, "Don't touch it,
don't touch it, it will go bang."

But I stayed with it

and eventually that was what came
out from the sand.

It was absolutely buried.

Have you researched the history?
We tried.

My husband wrote to the address
that is on the stern of the boat

but we never got a reply.

And have you ever had it working?

Yes, in the boating lake
in Poole Park.

Michael was two at the time and we
took it down and had it going.

Would you like to see it running?

I'd love to see it running, yes.

After my husband died,
I'd had it for a few years

and I passed it over to
Michael to look after.

And then take it to his son,
to keep it in the family.

Yes. Because it's such
an unusual piece of history.

Absolutely. So I'm going to really
enjoy this project.

Wonderful. That would be great.

Thank you very much for coming in.
Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thanks very much.

Built by French toymakers
Radigue & Mathieu,

this steam-powered battleship
is at least 125 years old.

But the years of being buried under
a Sussex beach

have clearly taken their toll.

The first thing Steve needs to do
is strip off all the components

and find out if the boat
is seaworthy.

Steve. I heard you need a bucket?

I did. Full of water.

I do. Yeah. Why?

I just fill it with water to see if
it's watertight and basically

what I need you to do is put your
finger over that hole there. OK.

Have you got your finger in the
right... I've got it in the...

Look, I'm going to show you.

It's there, right?
That's the right one, yeah.

OK. Fill her up. Right, yeah.

Right, I think that's enough.
How's that looking?

That's all right, actually. There's
no water in the bucket, is there?

Lift that up.

Nothing.
That's absolutely brilliant.

If you can stay there for about half
an hour and just...

THEY LAUGH

The Repair Shop takes in
all manner of artefacts

steeped in family history.

But not many of them span
four generations.

Mark and Carol Bentley have brought
along a much-loved

200-year-old heirloom,

which they hope the team can restore
to its former glory.

Will, we've got a table.

Lovely table. Thank you.

Looks like it's standing up
on all three legs, so... Just about.

If we leave it too much longer,
I think we'd have pieces rather

than a complete table. I see.

Where did you get it from?
It came from my mother.

Before her, her grandmother

and, before her,
my great-great-grandmother.

So this looks like a triangular top
but I presume these...

Yeah, these come up.

Looks like rosewood to me.

The thing with the rosewood is
it's quite a dark wood,

but, as time goes on,
it really lightens

and it goes this really nice blonde
colour,

which looks lovely but it's really
tricky to then patch certain areas.

Oh.

And it looks like we're missing
a massive patch of veneer

from the inside.

That's the most serious problem.
If you leave that with us,

we will let you know when it's
ready to be picked up.

Great, lovely.
Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks, Will. Cheers, thanks.
Thank you.

To get a clear view of the
beautiful veneered top,

Will first deep cleans the table,
which reveals a challenging issue.

You can actually see where
everything is quite light

but there are
areas where it's quite dark,

and the only way to make that
light again is to bleach it out.

Bleaching isn't really
my favourite task.

It's something I've used
sort of as a last resort.

To get the table back to its best,

Will has to colour match
some rosewood veneer.

So right now, I'm putting on
the first bleach.

What that does is it soaks
into the wood

and actually makes it look
a lot darker.

And once that's dried in
about 20 minutes, half an hour,

then you put on bleach B
and then that turns it lighter.

So I'm really pleased with this.

I know that this looks really
bleached out and a lot lighter

than the table, for now.

However, once I neutralise this

with a bit of water
and white vinegar,

you'll see it's not actually
too far off, is it?

That looks pretty good. I've
actually surprised myself in a way.

But with a 200-year-old
wooden piece like this,

even a seemingly straightforward job
has hidden problems.

I'm not sure what to do.

Instead of patching it there...

Yeah. I am considering on

patching it there,

so taking it
right up to that line of inlay.

Really? Yeah.

Seems like quite a big, big job
to me. I don't know. Gosh.

There are some jobs that you think
are a really good idea

and then halfway through you just
think... "Why did I start this?"

.."Oh, my gosh!"

The possessions we treasure most

are often those that represent
a connection to loved ones.

Next to arrive at the repair shop
is Jill Padmore,

with an adored childhood friend
in need of some serious TLC

from soft toy restorers
Julie and Amanda.

This is Panda.

I had Panda when I was one.

My father bought me Panda.

As you can see,

he's been well-loved
and well-cherished over the years.

He's sweet. Sadly, my father died
when I was nine.

And...

He's very precious to you
for that reason.

Yeah, he's very precious because I
didn't really come to terms with my

father's death for probably
about 20 years.

But Panda, throughout that time,
when I couldn't talk about him,

he was always there.

We didn't have to have a
conversation. He was my connection.

I knew that my father, who loved me,
had bought me the panda.

So he knows everything?

He knows everything and there's
a lot of tears shed on him.

He's a very special panda. Deserves
to be looking beautiful again.

Did he have a little red tongue?
He had a little red tongue, yeah.

We had tea parties, you see,

so I think obviously during a tea
party he must have lost his tongue.

Enough that he can sit up? Well,
he never did sit up by himself.

Oh, right.
He always had to be propped up.

I just want to be able to, you know,
cuddle and love him again...

Absolutely, we understand.

..and pass him on to my son
as well.

I just want to reassure you that we
won't change his look

or his character.

He will still be
the panda that you remember.

Aww. We'll look after him.

He'll be fine. Don't worry, we will
look after him.

We will. Thank you.

Come on, Panda. You're with us now
for a little while.

Thank you very much. No, you're more
than welcome. You're welcome.

I feel as though I'm, sort of,
honouring Dad's memory, really.

And being able to pass him onto
my own son is...

..you know, is very special.

The first step for Julie and Amanda
is to carefully unpick this

distinguished old friend
and remove all of his stuffing.

No going back, as they say.

I know. It has to be done, though,
doesn't it? I know.

That's the thing. I always think
it's lovely when you first

undo seams that you see the
fur as it would have been... Yes!

..cos that's the bit tucked
inside.

How cute is that? Yeah!

Just that last little bit.

Yeah. There we go. OK.

There he is in two pieces.

Well, there you go.

You wouldn't believe that all came
out of him, would you? No.

Bear innards. Good job.
Back to the unpicking, then? Yeah.

Back at his bench,
Will has made a bold decision

about the rosewood table.

So, I'm going to take a giant leap

and remove the veneer on the inside.

Veneer of this age can be especially
stubborn to remove,

but Will's got a trick
up his sleeve.

So the iron is melting and softening
the glue underneath the veneer.

You can sort of just roll it up
like that.

But there's a risk of me damaging
the surrounding area,

which is what I don't want to do

because I might end up having to
replace the entire top.

HE EXHALES AND LAUGHS

Right, I am happy to see the back
of that process.

Now, Will can begin to apply
the rosewood veneers

he bleached earlier.

This is the point where,
almost the point of no return.

Measured 50 times and cut once.

It's going to pay off,
it's going to pay off.

It's really tricky because if I cut
everything symmetrically,

it definitely wouldn't fit.

So I'm actually having to partly
use my imagination

and partly just go
with the feel of the table top.

What I'll do now is put some glue on
the back and then clamp it down

because I don't want any air pockets
or pockets of loose glue.

Sweet.

Steve is painstakingly reviving the
19th-century toy battleship that was

discovered on a beach 65 years ago.

I've already cleaned up one cannon.

That's what it looked like before.

It's come up quite nice.

I've got to repair the propeller.

It doesn't feel smooth.

So I think the whole thing might
need stripping out and cleaning.

So how are you getting on
with the other bits, then?

Yeah, good.
This is the actual main burner.

So you put methylated spirits in
there and you've got three flames

coming up, which sits under here

and heats up the tank.

Come on! Yeah.

Really? This is the piston.

So the steam drives this piston,

which goes up and down like that
and actually turns this flywheel,

which is attached to the propeller.

This piston... Piston.

..is the really important piece.

That was full of sand,

but now I've cleaned it all out
and it's as smooth as anything.

So it's a matter of just putting
everything back on now

and firing it up.

As Jay overseas repairs
across the workshop,

he's keen to find out if Will's big
gamble on the rosewood table veneer

has paid off.

This is like Christmas. Come on.
You do that side, I'll do this side.

I'll let you do the last one. Yeah.

Oh, that looks nice. And it's flat.

The only thing is,
that goes in like that, doesn't it?

Yeah, roughly.

But we're still going to have that
bit missing in the middle.

I can patch that. Can you?

If I can do that, I can patch that.

All right, I'll leave you to it,
then. Yeah. All right.

Before the precious toy battleship
is relaunched,

Steve needs to be confident that
its steam engine still works.

After all, it's been out of action
for almost 70 years.

So you're going to wait for it
to get a pressure... Yeah.

..and then the steam should
go through?

I've got Dom's welding mask here,
so once it gets to a certain heat,

I'm going to put on the...

Actually, I'm going to do it now!
Yes, please.

Did you see that?
Yeah, yeah, I saw it.

Come on! You can see
it's got some energy there.

What's stopping it, do you reckon,
then, Steve? I'm not sure. No?

Because, obviously, it should go,
shouldn't it?

It's almost there,
it's almost going.

Right. Back to the drawing board?

What I'm going to do, I'm going to
loosen up the propeller end

because that might be causing
too much friction.

Right, come on, then. OK.

Over on Julie and Amanda's
workbench,

emergency surgery
is being carried out

on the threadbare
50-year-old panda.

We have now lined all the body
and the arms and legs.

I will put some stuffing
into this head.

Julie will get
his tummy panel into place

and finish putting his paw pads in.

We see pandas right back from
early, early bear-making.

I'd say as early as the '20s.

This one came from the 1960s

and I would say around the '60s, I
think they had pandas at London Zoo,

and, of course, all the children
wanted a panda.

So it's quite nice to see one
that's survived.

The fact that he's been played with
so much and, you know,

he's still in reasonable condition.

He is.

Now that I've got more stuffing
behind there,

there's a bit more substance
to his muzzle.

I'm going to be able to stitch
his little nose into place

and his tongue will be going there.

This is how he would
have originally looked,

so I'm really pleased with how
that's looking.

He'll be ready to pop it back onto
his body when Julie's finished.

That's if she catches up.
And stops faffing.

Yeah, she's good at faffing!

We've reached a tricky stage now.

We have this area here around
the edge of the fabric which,

quite delightfully,
is as his fur would have been.

However, if we don't match
this properly,

that's going to show and it's not
going to look right if it shows.

White fluffy armpits
are not a good look.

No, it won't be quite right.

Once I have stitched all the way
to the top here,

that will be, effectively,
the stitching complete.

And then I'll be able to
turn it through

and check that I did
actually get it lined up.

It's kind of a bit exciting.

She's got her smug-mode look on.

She's definitely confident.

I'm a bit scared to look now,
you're making such a thing. Oh!

Look at that!

Look, look. Well done.

Will has made good headway

on a much-loved 200-year-old
rosewood table,

handed down through four
generations.

But his work isn't done quite yet.

Whilst I was dismantling
this table top,

I realised that one of the panels

sat prouder
than the actual triangular surface.

I thought that it was actually
warped and curved,

but instead I realised some of these
hinges are actually bent.

So I thought, why not take them off,

get them into a clamp and see
if I can clamp them flat?

That's almost perfect.

If I compare that to a hinge I
haven't actually flattened out yet,

you can see
the massive difference there.

Hopefully, they should all be just
as easy to flatten out.

Once the hinges are back in place
and the table reassembled,

Will and Jay have just enough time
to add some finishing touches before

Mark and Carol return to collect it.

Hello, Will. Nice to see you.
OK, Will. Nice to see you.

All right. Would you like to have
a look? Yes, please. Yes.

Wow!

That's beautiful.
You have done a brilliant job, Will.

I just wish my mother was still
around to see that,

and my grandmother as well.

Like me, they'd be lost for words.

I just didn't believe it would be...

Well, look that good.

It's amazing.
It was a pleasure to work on.

I really, really owe you for that.

Thank you.

If you're ever down our way, you're
welcome for a coffee any time.

I might hold you to that!

I'm stunned by what Will's done
with the table.

When he took that blanket off
and we looked at the inlay...

..I got very emotional. It's just
brought it back to life.

It's as though it's just come out
of the showroom.

And it just brings back so many
memories of my mother and my
grandmother.

The story doesn't finish here.

It's four generations and counting.
Mmm. Yeah.

Clockwork expert Steve has been
engaged in an epic struggle

with a vintage toy battleship.

He's painstakingly cleaned up
all of the components,

and although the
boat's steam engine works,

it has so far refused to actually
turn the propeller.

So, it's going to work this time?

Do you know what?
I'm confident this time.

So do you know why it didn't work?

Yeah, the whole hull
was slightly bent,

which meant that the actual
propeller shaft

wasn't quite in line
and it was binding.

I do trust you.

You ready? There we go.

OK.

It's coming out. That's a good sign.

MOTOR WHIRS

Come on, man!

Wow, that's fast, isn't it?

Cor blimey! Feel the air.

Oh, wow.
So in the water, that would just go
like that, wouldn't it?

It would go like a rocket.
That's a point, yeah.

It might go really fast.
Go too fast! I like that.

I'm chuffed to bits. You should be,
man. Well done. That's a good job.

Michael's going to be well-chuffed
with that. Really? No, well done.

The conditions on the local duck
pond are perfect for a vintage toy

steamboat's relaunching ceremony.

Betty and Michael are back to see
how Steve has got on with the

restoration of their much-loved
family heirloom.

Hello, Betty.

Hello, Michael.

How are you doing, Michael?
Good to see you. You all right?

Hello. You all right?

I'm really excited to see this.

I don't know if you've been
as excited as Steve.

He was like a little boy in
a sweet shop and a toy shop.

I've never seen him this excited.

So we're going to show them?

Yeah, OK. Oh, wow!

Look at that.

I haven't polished it all up.
I didn't want it gleaming.

This is just how I'd like it
if it was mine.

It's amazing, it's brilliant.

It's really brought it back to life.

So what would your husband
think of it now?

He would be absolutely thrilled
to bits and beside himself.

He would have been absolutely
out of this world.

Well, I'm going to fire it up now.

Once it's heated up, I'll launch it.

You're going to launch it? You're
not going to let Michael launch it?

Oh, come on!
I don't want you to fall in.

Oh, you don't want him falling in?
All right.

Take the last bit of
pleasure away from you.

Yes, it would, actually!

There we go.

Right, I'm going to put it
in the water now.

Brilliant. Look.

That's great.

That's fantastic.
I was just blown away.

To see it just chug off from his
hands, it really was amazing.

Look at them, they're like two
little schoolboys, aren't they?

Proper made-up.

It took me back

to the time when it was first
put on the water

and I could see
my husband and Michael,

and that's one of the most precious
things there is, remembering.

Back in the workshop,

the repair of the old toy panda
is almost finished.

There's just one thing missing.

So it's my job now to marry up head
with said body.

This can be a little tricky
at times.

Vintage fabrics do stretch
over a period of time.

Now, we have stabilised this
by lining it,

but we still have to make sure that,
as we put it on,

we're not going to get any,
you know, head to one side

or not fitting him properly,

otherwise he's going to have a crick
in his neck forever.

How are you doing?
Just the last couple. Well done.

There he is, all ready for his bow.
Yeah, it's really good.

I love doing this.
Get the bow on him.

It's our finishing touch, isn't it?
Absolutely.

The final test to
see if he's done.

The one thing Jill said was he
never was able to sit up on his own.

We know we've got it right
if he falls over.

Right, OK. OK, are you ready?
Yep, yep. Ready, steady...

BOTH: Perfect!

THEY LAUGH

With her son, Edward,
Jill is back at the repair shop

ready to be reunited with the
precious bear

that her late father
gave her 50 years ago.

Hello. Hello.

Hello. How are you feeling?

Nervous, excited.

So you must be Edward, who's
going to eventually own panda bear?

Yes. So, are we ready?

You've been waiting for this
for a long time.

Go on, then. Ready?

There you go.

Oh, my goodness me.

He's perfect.

He looks just...

Bless you. Thank you so much.

You're more than welcome.
It's a pleasure.

He looks better than I remember.

He looks better than I remembered.

So now he looks like that,
does it take you back? It does.

Just lovely that the connection you
have with him and your father,

it's just like that link that
you're always going to have

all the time you've got Panda.

It is because you go through a
process when you're grieving and,

as I said, it feels like

he's the last jigsaw
in the healing process...

Yes. ..after all these years.
I'm so grateful to you.

You're welcome.

The Repair Shop of dreams.
Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Come on, you. Come on.

They've just given me a piece of my
childhood back

and a link to my dad that I've got,
hopefully, for the rest of my life.

It's the last piece of the jigsaw.
Yeah, last piece of the jigsaw!

I knew they were the people to do it
for me and I'm so very grateful.

Join us next time, as more treasured
possessions are revived,

and their precious memories
restored.