04x09 - Unique Timepiece

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop, where
much-loved but broken treasures...

This is amazing.
It is absolutely brilliant.

..are brought back to life.
Welcome to my universe.

It's pretty marvellous. Furniture
restorer Jay Blades...

It's so nice that we can be part of
that kind of history

to just keep things going.

..and a dream team of
some of the country's

most skilled craftspeople...

I'm having a lot of fun, and I'm
really liking the end result.

Sounds like teamwork.

..bring their talents to bear on
beloved pieces of family history...

Look at that. I'm liking what I see.

It's working. You beauty!
..utilising expertise

passed down the generations...
I'm going to teach you how to do it

the old-fashioned way. All right.

..transforming priceless pieces
of family history.

Oh, my goodness me!

The Repair Shop team will resurrect
the items... Oh, gosh!

..the memories...
I'm going to have to hug you.

..and the stories behind them.
Look at that!

Oh, thank you so much.

I can't see it because of the tears
in my eyes.

This is a very emotional job to do,
but incredibly worthwhile.

CHEERING

In The Repair Shop today,

Will uncovers the secrets
of a wooden writing case.

I almost feel like an archaeologist

lifting up sort of bits of earth
and mud and stuff,

and they sort of see
a mosaic tile underneath.

While Lucia treads new ground,

working on a painting by
an eminent 20th-century artist.

I'm just trying to think
if this is

the first African painting
I've ever worked on.

And I think it might be.

But first into The Repair Shop,
Caner from North London.

Hiya. Hello. Hello. I'm Dom.
Hi, I'm Caner. Nice to meet you.

Excellent. I've got a little
something for you.

Let's take a look.

He's brought a souvenir
from the family business

for the attention of
metal expert Dominic Chinea.

Right, then. So, what on earth
have you brought in for us?

It's my dad Harry's barber pole.

Oh, wow! He was a barber?
He was a barber, yes.

He learned his trade in Cyprus,
and his aspiration was actually

to have his own shop.
Have his own shop.

So he moved over to England
in the early '60s and he set up

the shop, and he had the shop
for 33 years. Oh, wow!

So this would have been outside
the shop with the red and white,

spinning... With the red and white,

the stripes spinning,
and it looked fabulous. Brilliant.

Harry's barbershop was opened
in London's Holborn in 1968,

and established Harry as a local
legend, with a loyal clientele

of people from every walk of life.
So it must have been a huge deal

for your dad to come over from
Cyprus, start up his own business.

I can't overemphasise how proud I am
of him of achieving what he did.

He was a one-man band.

He had a tremendous work ethic,
and what he achieved,

he did it by himself, which is
incredible. All by himself.

Did you used to go there
as a kid and help out?

Yes, I remember going to the shop
as a child on a Saturday morning.

Oh, brilliant. I had to get up early
and sweep the hair up off the floor

for him... Yeah.
..and help out as best as I can.

And, you know, one of the highlights
was for me to actually come in

and open the shop up with him
and flick the switch to get

the barber pole spinning and just,
you know, there was something

about it that really just...
Just magic. Magic, yes.

So, after 30 years of having
the shop, what made your father

close down eventually?

Well, he got to an age where
he had fulfilled his ambition,

and in 2003 the area was
being developed. Yeah.

So, when he retired, he locked
the shop up for the last time,

he took the barber pole down,

and for me, you know, that was,
like, the end of an era,

and what he had left was
the barber pole.

And as far as I'm aware,
it remained in his shed since.

Does your father actually
know it's here?

Did you sneak it out the shed?

I actually came across it when I was
helping him clear the shed out.

And I didn't even know he'd removed
it from the shop, actually...

Really? ..and had it with him.

So, for me, it was a bit like
finding a pot of gold at the bottom

of a rainbow. Oh, brilliant.

And there was a mixture of delight
in finding it

and a bit of my heart sinking,

because it wasn't as I remembered
it. Yeah. Aww!

And I'd like to see it
working again. Brilliant.

So, it obviously used to spin
inside. It used to spin.

It used to have the red and white
stripe inside.

There are some parts in here. That's
the lid, and that pops on there.

And there are some other parts
in here as well. OK.

But I don't see any
red and white part. No.

Unfortunately the red and white part
goes in here,

and it was like a plastic sheet...
Yeah. that he painted.

He painted it himself, did he? Yeah.

And over time what happens is it
deteriorates and crumbles. Right.

What a shame. So, if we can
get this working again

and spinning as it should
and lighting up...

For me, it would be fantastic to
see, and my youngest brother's

carried on the tradition
as a barber. As a barber?

So your brother learned from
your father. From my father,

and was inspired by my father,
actually. Oh, that's nice.

So he's got aspirations of having
his shop at some stage. Really?

So, hopefully he will remount
the barber pole in front of his shop

at some point. And for my dad,

it's the only piece of the shop
that he's got,

so it's got huge sentimental value.

You know, just to see that

that working again would be amazing.
Just flick that switch again. Yeah.

Well, we'll do the best we can.

Thank you very much. Thank you so
much for bringing it in. Thank you.

Thank you. See you later. Bye.

Leaving the barber pole behind is a
bit like leaving part of the family

behind, actually. The barber pole
means a lot to my dad.

Hopefully he'll have some fond
memories of his time as a barber,

and to see it working again
would be, would be emotional,

I think, for him.

So, before I even start
having a look through these boxes

of bits that I've got, I can already
tell this is going to be a big job.

My first major worry
is the crack in the glass.

I don't know if we're going to
be able to save it.

To be honest, I don't even know
how I'm going to get the glass

out of the frame at the moment.

It looks like I've got most of the
mechanism in the box,

a lot of electrical parts.

Obviously it lit up at one point,
a very long time ago, looking

at the state of all the wiring
and everything that's in there.

There's also a motor which
I'm assuming would be the part

of the bottom to make it spin,
but the big thing missing

is the iconic, red and white
stripy spinning part,

which is the whole point
of the barber's pole.

I really don't know where
that's going to come from.

And then I guess it's paint.

So there's a lot of processes
to this to get it working,

and I need to go through everything
piece by piece,

so I really need to
get started on it.

Dom's best hope of extracting
the cracked glass cylinder intact

is to drill away the putty

that is holding it
into the metal frame.

So I'm having to be super careful
whilst I'm doing this.

The putty is kind of a sandwich
between the glass and the metal.

I'm just drilling a line
of loads of very small holes

through the putty.

The obvious danger is that I'm
drilling, like, millimetres away

from the edge of the glass.

If I slip with the drill, there's
a real big danger of it shattering.

HE LAUGHS
I broke it.

My worst fear.

I was so close, I've spent so long

trying to very carefully get out
all of the, all of the putty

holding it in. At the last moment,
when it's just loose,

I just pulled it by the wrong bit
and it's just cracked.

I can't believe it.
I'm absolutely gutted.

I kind of expected it from the way
the crack was coming down,

but...on to Plan B.

Jay? What are you doing?
Not good, not good.

Don't like the sound of that.
No. Look.

As... Oh! Yeah.
So near but yet so far. I know.

So got to measure it up and get
one ordered, like, getting

something like that is going to be
quite hard as well.

Yeah, I don't know where
you're going to find that.

I've got a little black book,
but I don't know if it's that good.

All right, leave it with me.
All right? Thanks, Jay. Thank you.

Another arrival - Alan Thompson
from Peterborough.

He's brought with him an item,
the discovery of which

changed his life forever.

Hi there. I'm Will.
Hello, Will. I'm Alan.

He's hoping furniture and wood
restorer Will Kirk can repair

this very special keepsake.

What's in the box? Is it an early
birthday present for me?

A very poorly writing slope. Ah!

Very sweet. And a few...

..loose pieces. Yes.

What happened to it? Good question.
WILL CHUCKLES

Answer, don't know. Don't know. OK.

How did it come into
your possession, then?

My sister died in 2006. OK.

We cleared her house out,
went up in the loft,

and had another look around.

I don't know why, but I did. Right.
And in the corner of the loft,

underneath the eaves, there was a
box, this box. Just sitting there?

Just sitting there.
So I took it home, opened it up

and got the shock of my life.

Because? Well, this letter.

Inside...

..was my...

..application for my adoption

by what I thought were my parents.

In fact, they were my grandparents.
Oh, my gosh!

And Ethel, my elder sister,
was in actual fact my mother.

So your sister is actually your...
Mother. ..mother? Yeah.

And she never, ever let on.
So you only found out

that information because of this?
Yeah.

My gosh! It's just...

..a box at the end of the day,
but it's more than a box to me.

What would you like me to do
with the box? Whatever you can.

Whatever I can do? Whatever you can.

I don't know. I can't even identify
what type of wood that is.

It looks like it's been in, like,
a house fire or in an attic

for a long time. More than likely.
More than likely. More than likely.

It's in a bit of a state.

If I'm able to restore this, would
you sort of keep the same paperwork

in this box? Oh, absolutely. OK.
It's all part of the history.

Well, I will do all I can to
make this the most beautiful

treasure chest possible.
Thank you, Will.

And hopefully once I've achieved
that, I'll give you a call,

you can come and pick it up.
That's lovely. Thank you.

Thanks a lot for coming down.
Thanks a lot. Cheers.

Getting the slope repaired,

it would mean the world,
literally the world.

Because it's got so many memories.
I don't know how old it is,

or its history,

but the fact that it had got
my adoption papers in it

really means something.

This box is in such a state.

That to one side -
the story, absolutely amazing.

I think I'm still in a bit of shock,
because it's not something

that you hear every day. I mean, I
can imagine what was going through

his mind when he opened this box and
looked through all that paperwork.

I mean, this box is probably quite
easy to miss, because if you look at

the top of it, it's black, it's
charred, almost.

There's a lifting veneer,
cracking veneer.

You can't see any of the wood
that you should be seeing.

The leather is beyond repair -
it's brittle, it's torn and it needs

to be replaced. I really want it to
look wonderful and turn it into

a beautiful treasure chest

that Alan can put his treasured
possessions back into.

Will begins tackling
the tarnished top of the box.

I almost feel like an archaeologist
when they are lifting up sort of

bits of earth and mud and stuff

and they sort of see a mosaic tile
underneath

and they start getting quite excited
and start cleaning away.

You can already see here,
there's a humungous difference.

I mean, look at that.

So, when I usually approach
cleaning a piece of furniture,

I like to use
the least abrasive method,

using weak cleaning solutions
or water,

and sort of going quite easy.

Whereas, with this, I'm actually
using methylated spirits

which will sort of clean anything
that's on the surface,

pretty much back down to the wood,
because there's no way

that I can save the polish
that's on there.

I mean, it's,
it's in a bit of a state.

So I really hope that the rest
of this top cleans up as well

as that corner, then I can work out
the next step for patching

all of these missing
bits of veneer here.

While Will ponders how to restore
the delicate veneer, outside Dom

is continuing his disassembly
of the huge metal barber's pole.

So now I've got the glass removed
from the frame, the structure,

I'm just putting some paint stripper
on to strip off all the paint

so I can actually get a good idea
of how it's all bolted together.

The traditional red and white
stripes of the barber's pole

date back to medieval times when
barbers also performed minor surgery

and tooth extractions -

the red to represent blood,
the white to symbolise bandages.

There's quite a few layers of paint,

so I'll let that sit, come back

and then hopefully that should
all just scrape off fairly easily.

With the paint stripper
left to work its magic,

Dom can unpack the box of loose
components that owner Caner

brought along with the pole. I've
just got endless bits and bobs

in here. It's a little bit like
a disappointing Christmas present.
HE LAUGHS

It's always tricky when things
arrive in pieces that someone else

has taken apart, potentially lost
nuts and bolts, bits missing.

I can tell the red and white part
that would spin inside

the barber's pole would have been
attached to these two discs.

All of these parts I can deal with.

I don't think
there's anything here

that's going to be too difficult,
but...

..fixing this motor is beyond me.

I don't want to start
taking this apart.

I think I'm going to take this
inside the barn, maybe speak to Tim.

If there's one man that can
get things spinning again,

it's Tim Weeks,
The Repair Shop's gramophone guru.

Tim, hey. Hello, Dom.
What have you got?

This has come out of Caner's
barber's pole in a box of bits.

What do you think? Ah, it is a
Garrard electric gramophone motor.

Wow! Presumably the company that
made the rotating poles, they must

have just bought motors in that
were available on the market

at the time, and this would
have been one of them.

Do you think you can get it running
for me? Yeah, we'll get that apart.

Can I leave it with you, then?

Leave it with me, I'll clean
that up. Thank you. Cheers.

I've seen plenty of these -
gramophone motor. That bit is where

the turntable would normally sit.

It's even got the speed control
mechanism here.

HE CHUCKLES

Never seen one
used in quite this way before.

But the most cogent point is,
it's absolutely covered in grot.

Oh, look at the state of that. This
should be nice and oily, and it's

like fudge. That's gumming it up
good and proper. Oi! Look at that.

So all this lot's got to come out
of here, then we can actually

get at it, and then the dog
can see the rabbit.

With the metal components
of the barber's pole scraped clean,

Dom can begin to repaint,
starting with a primer.

After spending so long sanding
and sanding and scraping off

all of the old layers of paint,
it's really nice to finally

be getting some paint on these
parts, and it's, I'm getting

a quite nice idea now of what it's
going to look like, finally.

We've cleaned all the grot out
the motor, put it back together.

Now the moment of truth.

Does it work
or will all the lights go out?

Only one way
we're going to find out.

Oh, yes!

And there she is,
spinning around. Right,

I think we're ready to
take that back to Dom,

see how he's getting on
with the rest of the light.

Hey, Dom, how's it going?
How did you get on? I'm anxious.

It goes. Yeah? It goes.
We have it turning. Fantastic.

We can adjust the speed.

Thank you so much. Thank you.
It's a pleasure.

I shall leave it
in your capable hands.

With all the various components now
repaired, painted and prepped,

Dom can begin reassembling the pole.

There's just a couple of
vital elements missing.

How we doing, Dom? Jay, hey.
I've got a nice delivery.

That's for the red and white bit.
Oh, perfect. And here,

a bit of glass. Bit of glass.
Looking forward to seeing this.

Yeah, it is looking good, though.
It is looking good.

Oh, now that is pretty.
Look at that. That is...

It's worth it, isn't it?

It's lovely. Shall we try it now?
Yes, please.

It's a two-man job, if you don't
mind. Let's give it a go, then.

Yeah. So this larger bit...
Should just sneak through.

Through, yeah. Got it? OK. OK.

And then, hopefully...

No "hopefully" about it. there
we are. Let's see how tight that...

Oh! Oh! Oh-h*-h*! Now that is...

I was, I've, honestly,
a few sleepless nights about

that bit of glass, and knowing the
work to get it, to even find it...

No, it's brilliant. So now I just
need to get some glazing putty,

stick that in there, and then start
on bolting it all back together.

Cool. I'll leave you to it.
Thanks, Jay. All right.

The next visitor to The Repair Shop

is Norma Dove-Edwin
from North London.

Her treasured item
has been sent ahead.

You've already seen it, though,
haven't you? I have seen it.

It's a good painting,
it's a good painting. Yeah.

Painting conservator Lucia Scalisi
is eagerly awaiting the owner.

Hello. How are you, Norma?
I'm fine, thank you. You OK? Yes.

I'm Jay. Hello, Norma. Good to see
you. Nice to meet you. Welcome.

I'll take it off. Will you? OK.
Yeah.
LUCIA GASPS

Oh, wow! This is,
this is magnificent!

This is absolutely fantastic!

And I know this artist. Nigerian.
Yes. Are you Nigerian? No, I was

born in Canada, but I married
a Nigerian. Oh, really?

Who was a friend of Ben's. Oh, my!

So you knew the artist,
Ben Enwonwu? Yes, yes.

Well, I met Ben through my husband.
They were friends.

They went to school together.

I mean, he's a very desirable,
you know, to be collected.

Nowadays, but in the old...

In his heyday, he was like Monet
and all the others.

He wasn't very wealthy, and
he was begging people, Nigerians

and people to buy his paintings.
To buy his work. Yes.

Ben Enwonwu is acknowledged
as one of the most influential

African painters and sculptors
of the 20th century,

winning critical acclaim
for his work from the 1950s onwards.

What was he like as a person?
Was he quite...

Well, I always remember him with,

like, a flower in his lapel,
you know, very dapper,

and, you know, very charming,
very, very colourful gentleman.

And you got on quite well with him?

Well, I liked him,
he was full of fun. Yeah? Yeah.

Well, that's good to know.
This is definitely of the moment.

It's beautiful. It's signed.
It is actually quite dynamic,

the whole thing. You really feel
there's a crush going on there,

don't you, sort of fighting for
the oranges,

and it's absolutely beautiful.

And I can see, sadly,
this terrible damage here that's...

It looks fairly recent, actually.

It is. I let my son
and his children

stay in my flat for a year,
and I don't know how that happened.

Yeah, it's... So they caused the
damage? Well, they said it fell off

the wall, the boys. The boys?

Yes, the boys. OK, right.
There's always boys. I know.

They're quite naughty. Well...
LAUGHTER

Even though it was torn,
it was back on my wall. OK.

But, yeah, we can definitely
do some work on these tears,

and I'll have a look at the varnish
and see if it can't be cleaned,

because you can see how yellow

the varnish is here. Well,
that's through the eye of an expert.

I couldn't tell that myself.
All right.
NORMA LAUGHS

Well, we can certainly repair it,
but I'll have to do some

cleaning tests and see if we can
improve the look of it.

So, Norma, thank you.
Thank you very much. OK?

Thank you, Lucia. It was lovely
to meet you. Lovely to meet you.

I love the colours.
I love the scenery.

I love the blues. One's always
excited about something like that,

having it restored.

I feel it's in good hands
with Lucia,

and I'm really looking forward
to having it back.

So, the main damage to the painting
is this tear, which is very obvious,

and I can see there's torn threads.

These are stretched fibres,
and the moisture in the glue

that I'm going to be using will
shrink those a little bit

and certainly sort of tighten them
up, and there's a lot of fractured

paint around those edges, and
there's a lot of paint loss as well.

To repair the torn canvas
from the back, Lucia will need first

to consolidate and secure the
flaking paintwork on the front.

This is my isinglass,

which is basically
a very, very thin fish glue,

so I'm going to paint very gently,
just dropping it on.

It's really important that we try
and save as much of the artist's

original material as possible.

I'm really not going to do
anything more

than just attach
the acid-free tissue

to either side of the tear,
and it holds it all in place,

or will do when it's dry anyway.

I'm just trying to think

if this is the first

African painting
I've ever worked on.

And I think it might be.

So, this is a first.

The fish glue Lucia is using
has been employed

in various guises for centuries,

but on the opposite workbench,
Will is utilising something

a little more modern
on the writing slope.

He's using an iron to revive
the original glue

and smooth down
the blistered veneer.

There's an area here that was
really lumpy, and already

I can actually feel
that's really Fl*ttening down.

It's one of the main benefits
of doing it this way.

It's sort of reusing the original
glue that's there, rather than

sort of forcing new glue in there
and making a mess, possibly causing

more damage and harm to the surface.
Cos if there was polish

on the surface, then there's risk
of you burning all of the polish,

because there's nothing on there
apart from wood.

You can't go too, too wrong, really,
just keep on moving the iron,

don't keep it in the same place.

I'm really pleased with that so far.

It's a lot smoother than it was.

So there are some areas here

where the iron hasn't heated up the
glue, maybe because those patches

underneath had no glue there. I
really want to get some wood glue

in there to help stabilise that,
consolidate it and get it back

on to that surface underneath.

So, as you can see here,
there are areas of veneer missing,

and I really need to patch that
with some new pieces of veneer.

If you look here, you can see
the colour I need to match.

I found some cedar here...

..which you can see is a lot lighter
than what I'm looking for there.

The reason that I'll use this
as a patch

is because it's like
a nice blank canvas.

So it's a lot easier to make
something that is light darker

than it is to make
something dark lighter.

After carefully tracing
the outline of the missing sections,

the veneer patches are cut to shape
then glued into place.

Might seem to be quite a lot of work

just for a small writing box.

But this is a box that Alan found
all of the information in

and it's sort of key to the story

and I really think
that's worthwhile preserving.

Next, the tarnished brassware.

Start sanding there.

Can already see that lovely brass
coming through.

Just cleaning up like that, you
know, makes a massive difference.

And I want the box
to look like a treasure chest

because it holds so much
treasure in there

and, you know, what better way
than with nice shiny

brass plaques at the top?

I think they're going to come up
looking absolutely wonderful.

That's glued and clamped.

Once that's dried, I can clamp
the plate on the top of the box

and then polish the rest of it,
and then it's done.

So, you can already see
a lovely transformation.

The polish has already
brought out the grain.

It's really nice.

Definitely a lot better
than that black dirty surface

that first came in.

Thanks to Will's expertise, the
writing box surface is glowing.

And outside, metalwork expert Dom is
nearing the end of his renovation -

the illuminated emblem that
hung outside a London barber shop

for three decades.

Dom must now earn his stripes -

decorating the spinning inner tube
in the iconic red and white livery.

I was really worried
about doing that.

I think it looks really,
really good. I'm super pleased.

I can't wait to get it
installed now.

The motor is affixed
to the striped pole...

..and the whole mechanism
can be slotted snugly

inside the glass tube.

Caner brought the barber's pole
to the repair shop hoping that Dom

could renovate the last
tangible link to the shop

his father Harry ran for 33 years.

The memories I have of the barber
pole is going to the shop

on a Saturday morning with my dad,
switching the barber pole,

popping my head out the door
and actually watching it spin.

It was, you know, it's
something that's stuck with me

and it's something that I wanted
to see how I remembered it.

I'm hoping it's going to be
in one piece and working.

Hey. Hi, Dom. Hey, Caner. You OK?

Yeah. Good, thank you.
Lovely to see you again.

Good to see you.

So, firstly, remind me
what you brought in to me.

Erm, from what I recall,

there was a cardboard box
with lots of parts in it.

Yeah! And the body
of the barber pole,

so that's what we had. Yeah.

Erm, I'm hoping you've been able
to put it together.

Are you looking forward to seeing?
Oh, I just can't wait.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll show you.

Oh, that's amazing.

Oh, what a transformation.

And you managed to put
all the parts back!

That's incredible.

I'm lost for words.

I think you might even tempt my dad
out of retirement, actually.

Aww. Short back and sides for you,
I think. Yeah.

Oh, no, that's...that's incredible.

It's actually better
than what I remember it as.

Do you remember seeing it like this?

It wasn't as good as that.

I don't think it was
as good as that!

Erm, I mean, that looks like
it's just come out the factory.

That's amazing.

Seeing it like this, all lit up,
does it take you back? Yeah.

I mean, I remember this
out the front and, you know,

just seeing all, you know, young and
old people coming into the shop...

Yeah. ..people shouting,
"Hello, Harry" through the doorway.

You know, it's just great.

So, yeah, fond memories,
that's for sure.

What do you have planned for it,

now it's sort of
up and running again?

Well, I'm going to try and convince
him to put it on his garden shed...

Oh, good. ..if I can,
and it's definitely going to stay

with the family,
it just means so much to us.

It's...it's incredible. I can't wait
for my kids to see it, actually.

Well, thank you so much for bringing
it in. Aww, Dom, thank you.

It's lovely to see you again.

It's been a pleasure working
on it. Thank you very much.

It's... I'm sorry I brought it in
in so many parts.

Don't be silly. I really appreciate
the work that you've done.

Tremendous work. Brilliant.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. See you later.

I mean, that's amazing. I mean...

I'm feeling, you know, I'm so
impressed with the transformation.

It's going to be a great surprise
to my dad.

For me, it's, erm, you know,

it's more than just a barber pole.

It's a tribute to my dad's hard work

and Harry's barbershop in Holborn,
actually,

and all the customers that
he served all those years.

Art conservator Lucia is busy
working on the painting

by acclaimed Nigerian artist
Ben Enwonwu.

I'm just going to look at the front
and make sure it's evened up.

Yeah, that's nice.

Perfect.

With the damage consolidated
on the painted surface,

Lucia can turn her attention
to repairing the canvass.

So, the patch repair I'm going
to use is the two-part adhesive

and I just literally place it
over the tear.

I have some release paper,
which is silicon-coated paper,

so it won't stick, and then that's
where I'm going to put the heat.

The heat from the heated spatula
will cause the adhesive to flow

and that happens at
a very specific temperature,

which is 65 degrees C.

And I just move over
the surface evenly.

I don't want too much heat
in any one spot.

And because it's not going to stick
to this wonderful release paper,

it's already tacked on that surface,
so it's holding that tear together.

With the canvas stabilised,

the protective tissue paper can be
removed from the painted surface.

The isinglass is
a water-based adhesive,

so I should just be able to
take that off with cotton wool

and I'm going to
use my favourite solvent.

Saliva!

So, I just roll gently
on the surface

and I should just be able
to peel that off.

This is one of my favourite moments,
cleaning.

When you actually work in an area
where there's white paint

and this area had some dirt, and
there's a lot of dirt coming off.

This painting
is a very dirty painting.

Wow! This is quite dramatic.
Quite a dramatic clean.

It's a thin resinous varnish,

it's quite yellow,
and you can really see on the white

how discoloured the varnish
has made the paint.

This is going to look stunning.

The blues are going to come out
really blue, the white's crisp.

That is a fantastic result.

This is going to be
a dream of a painting to clean.

It's going to look fabulous
afterwards.

Once cleaned, Lucia needs to apply
fresh varnish to protect

the painted surface before she can
finish repairing the tear.

This varnish goes off very quickly,

because it's a synthetic resin
and the solvents that are in there

are sort of highly volatile,
they just evaporate really quickly.

And the reason that we varnish
paintings is

because they just look so pretty.

It really saturates the colours,
brings them out.

The Royal Academy always
had its varnishing day

and the artists, you know,
Turner, Constable, the whole lot,

would go in on varnishing day
and the public would be invited

to go and watch the Masters
varnishing their paintings.

But you can imagine varnishing
one of Constable's landscapes

or Turner's Fighting Temeraire,

or whatever he'd
put into the Royal Academy?

There is an art to varnishing.
I actually love it.

Probably hasn't looked like this
since the artist made the painting.

It's very vibrant. It's beautiful!

On the opposite workbench,
Will is nearing the finish line

in the restoration of
the writing slope.

So, this is a case of measuring
50 times and cutting once.

His last task is to replace
the interior leather.

So, the good thing about the PVA
that I'm using is you can

slightly slide it around a bit more.

Some other glues might actually,
sort of, you know,

once it's on, it's on, so at least
it gives me a little bit more give,

which is definitely what I need!

Oof!

So, the leather's gone on really
well. I'm really happy with that.

And I hope that Alan
will feel the same.

When owner Alan discovered the box

in what he thought was his sister's
attic, he unlocked a family secret

that had lain buried for decades.

The writing slope
was very important to me,

purely and simply
because of what was inside it.

And the sooner I get it back,
then the happier I shall be.

How are we doing, Alan?

You OK? How are you? Very good.
Good. Very good.

Nice to see you again. And you.

So, you ready for this?

Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

Crikey!

That is amazing!

Mm. Wow!

I'm lost for words!

Will, you're a miracle-worker.
You know that? He is, isn't he?

You are.
You've done a brilliant job.

You have, because the way it
was before, it's unrecognisable now.

It is! It doesn't look like
how it did when it came in.

Can I open it up? Of course you can.

Oh, my word!

That's marvellous!
Never expected that.

Oh, bless!

All my Christmases
have all come at once.

Brilliant!

It was actually a real pleasure
to work on.

That's wonderful. It's a wonderful
story and it holds so many memories.

Yes. It's like my link with
the past now. Yeah.

Thank you, Will. Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you, Jay.
Thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you. Thank you.

This is yours to take now.
Lovely. I won't drop it!

Thank you. Take care.
Thanks, bye-bye. Bye-bye.

That's nice.

So pleased that Will has done
such a fantastic job on it.

It's my link, my only link now,
with the past.

Information I found in it
told me precisely who I was.

When I get home, all the documents
and the photographs

will go back into it
and this will take pride of place.

Art conservatoire Lucia has filled
the tear on the African painting

and blocked in the missing paint
areas with watercolours.

Now, she's ready to apply
the finishing detail.

OK, I'll just check the surface.

I think
it's good enough to work on now.

So I've got my synthetic resins
in a pot,

I've got my tiny little pots
of pigment,

so I'm going to mix up
some titanium white,

a little tiny bit of something
called phthalocyanine blue.

Despite the painting being
originally created with oils,

Lucia's using synthetic resins
and pigments to disguise the tear.

The problem with oil is it
takes about a year to dry properly

and in that year of drying,
it's already darkened,

so if I was to retouch this
line of damage with oil paint,

it'll look great now, I'll be very
happy with it. A year later,

all you would see is a dark line
running through there, like a scar.

It's called deceptive retouching,

so it's my job to make sure that you
can't see what I've done

is any different from
the rest of the painting.

Your eye will not be drawn
to this area of damage.

When the painting came in to
the workshop, it had a nasty tear

and the varnish was yellowed,
concealing its true colours.

But with some invisible mending,
Lucia has repaired the tear

and revived the original palette
of the Enwonwu artwork.

Owner Norma has returned
with her daughter, !sis,

to be reunited with her
prized possession.

Hello. Hello. How are you?
Hello, Norma. Welcome!

Welcome to you. Lovely to see you.

Do you want to turn round and have a
look at what we might have for you?

Well, I'm waiting. Are you?
Anticipating.

OK. Are you ready?
Yeah. Sorry...

Oh, wow!

Oh, gosh! It's cleaned up.
Oh, that's beautiful! Isn't it?

Look at the colours of the trees.
Yeah.

And the ladies' dresses,
the blues. Yeah.

It's recognisably unrecognisable,
if you see what I mean.

We didn't see that bowl
on that lady's head. Yeah.

Oh, it's gorgeous!
And some of the faces of the...

The characteristics of the faces,
fantastic.

She's brought it to life,
because when you brought it in,

it wasn't as vivid as this. Well,
don't forget, it was done in 1949.

That's true. How old were you?
I don't even think I was a twinkle!

And don't even ask me how old I was!
I'm not going to!

OK. But I could just see your eye
going all over it.

What bits stand out to you?

The colours in the head tie,
that orangey one,

I don't remember seeing that.
This one. And this one down here.

Or the whites. It looks as if
it's just painted. Yeah.

The colours have really
come to life.

Do you remember the damage?

Yes, it was down here somewhere, but
I can't see it. You can't see it?

No, not at all.
No, not at all. No, no.

No, it's really very well done.
I'm really very grateful.

Well, it was an absolute joy to
work on because, you can imagine,

cleaning something like this
and then all these vibrant colours,

which had just become very muted
over time. They had.

If only Ben, the artist,
was alive to see your work,

to see how you brought his painting
to life.

I hope he'd be pleased with it.

It's, um, just fantastic. Thank you,
very, very much. A pleasure.

I'm glad you're pleased.
I'm delighted!

I never thought that it would be
so cleaned up and so beautiful.

Things that I never
saw before in the painting.

I think Ben, knowing Ben,
he would be delighted -

probably ask me for it back!

I don't think it was ever that
beautiful. I can't thank you enough.

Join us next time, as the team
gets to grips... There it goes!

That's where it should be.
..with more precious pieces...

Oh!

That's amazing!
..in The Repair Shop.