11x33 - An occasional table, an old radio & a pair of clompy shoes

[bunniefuu]

In the Repair Shop today...

- It's nice and fluffy. I want to
climb in there myself.

- ..cosy comforts cause chaos...

- This is exactly what I didn't want.

- ..and vintage instructions prove
hard to follow.

- I've done it again!

- The first visitor to the barn is
Wilma Adams from Bristol.

She's sent ahead a treasured keepsake

for the attention of woodwork expert
Will Kirk.

- There she is. Hello.
- Hi.

- How are you doing?
- I'm good, thank you.

- So this is your table. Can you tell
us about it?

- I acquired the table after my mother
died in 2010.
- Right.

- So I recall it in the '70s when we
lived in social housing,

my mum would have not had much,

and so it probably doesn't have that
much monetary value,

but the little that she had she would
have cared for.

I'm not sure whether it was always
damaged.

It was always covered over with a
tablecloth.
- Right.

- And the West Indians would tend to
cover things to preserve them.

- Tell me about her. So Mum was from
the West Indies?

- Yeah, she was from Jamaica.

- Mum's name, what was...?

- Eunice. Eunice Anita Perry.

Mum came to England in 1961 with her
sister.

Mum was 18, her sister was 16.

Her father had been here for a number
of years.

He came in the 1950s, and he was here
building the motorways,

and he invited his wife to come, but
she didn't want to,

so she sent the two daughters.

So they arrived really pleased to see
their father

because they'd been separated from him
for quite some time.

And just a few months after they
arrived, he came home

from work feeling unwell.

And he was then taken into hospital,
and, sadly, he died.

They then tried to fend for
themselves,

but both of them fell pregnant at a
young age.

Within less than a year, they would
have fallen pregnant.

- Your mum was 18 at the time?
- Yeah, and she was training to be

a nurse, but she wasn't able to pursue

the training as she planned...
- OK.
- ..and she continued to work

as a health care assistant.

And one thing she said to us as her
daughters,

cos she had three girls and she was a
lone parent,

that our education was really
important,

so we had to study and not to think
about boys.

- Yeah.

- THEY CHUCKLE

- And we've all been successful in our
careers.

And that's true, what Mum invested in
us.
- And what was Mum like?

- She was quiet, really caring and
considerate.

She's taught me to be a good mother...
- Uh-huh.

- ..and, really, to love people

and care for them.
- Yeah.

- I've often said to my sister how
blessed we were to have Mum

because she was always very patient
and would take the time to talk,

and would value our opinion

and was respectful.

- Sounds like a strong lady.

- Yeah.

This is really a celebration of her
life.

Even though it's just a piece of
furniture,

it's just special just to be able to
have something that's in the family.

And I can say, "Well, yeah, this is my
mum's table."

- So we want to have this looking the
best that it can possibly be?

- Most definitely. That'd be special.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.
- Lovely.

- Take it from looking tired

to looking like a nice piece of art,
really.

- Thank you for bringing this in and
telling us about Mum.

- Thank you.
- You take care now.
- Lovely to meet you both.

- Likewise. Bye-bye.
- Bye.

- Now, this is a great occasional
table.

When Eunice came over to the UK, she
probably

didn't have many belongings,

so investing money and buying a piece
of furniture like this must

have been really quite something. On
the outside here,

that sort of outer moulding has broken
away.

I think this is made of walnut.

I can kind of see the sort of colour
of the wood and the grain in there.

It's missing a few pieces of veneer
there,

but before I can turn my attention to
that, I really need to get

this old varnish off the surface with
some paint stripper.

I'm just going to do a quick test and
see if it's actually

doing its thing.

Lovely.

I can see the lovely colour and grain
in the wood now.

I'm going to brush the strip on the
entirety of the table

and scrape off the old nasty varnish.

- Next to arrive at the barn,

Stephen Penny from Weymouth and his
son Ollie with a challenge

for vintage electronics expert Mark
Stuckey.

- Hello.
- Hello.
- OLLIE: Hello.

- Hi, welcome.
- Hello.

- I'm Dom.
- And I'm Mark.
- Nice to meet you.
- Lovely to meet you.

- Wow, look at this.
- Beautiful.
- It is, isn't it?

Yeah, lime green, quite a rare colour.
- Whose is the radio?

- Well, it's Ollie's now.

The chap that owned it before was

my father, Rodney.
- Rodney, OK.

- But it originally started off life
as his father-in-law's radio,

and his name was William Fry.

He became ill, and he came across to
our house to live.

My dad made it into a self-contained
flat at the top.

So my grandparents lived in the top
part of our house and this radio

was their entertainment till they got
a TV.

The radio stayed up in their little
self-contained flat

until my grandfather passed away and
my grandmother came

downstairs to live with us.

My dad had to extend downstairs then
to make room...
- Goodness me.

- ..and he had to knock down his
workshop.
- Right.

- He was a carpenter and joiner by
trade.

He actually dug out a cellar
underneath the house himself.

- He dug it, really.

- He dug it out...
- Crikey!
- ..and concreted it all inside.

And this radio went down with him into
the cellar, and he used

that as his source of entertainment
down there

while he was making us...he used to
make all sorts.

He built a little wooden horse that I
sat on when I was probably

about three or four.
- Aw!

- He built Bagatelle boards, he did
all sorts of toys.

When my dad passed away, we had to
clear the house out,

and Ollie fancied the radio to keep.

- There was something about it which I
really liked.

I've never heard it work myself, but I
could imagine him

down there listening to the radio
whilst he was digging out

the cellar, of which I've heard a lot
about over the years.

- Yeah.
- So it was just like a reminder of
him,

so I can look at it and cast my mind
back to when he was alive.

- It reminds us of the ethos of his,
never throw anything away.

And hence it's lived on.
- I was going to say, how old...?

It looks very...
- 1950s.
- '50s, it looks like.

- Yeah, it is 1950, yes. And funnily
enough,

the lime green is the rare colour.

- Look at the legs as well.

- Oh, they're one of Dad's.
- Is that...?

- I think originally it had rubber
feet.

- The only one worry about that, this
is what they call an AC/DC set.

Now, that means that this is a live

chassis.
- Ah, and they're metal.

- Yeah. So you could have actually

a fatal injury.
- Great.
- Yeah.

We'll remove those.
- Ah!

- THEY LAUGH

Something we do have to help

in the repair was whilst clearing the
house,

we did have the original instruction
manual for it.

- Oh, OK.
- Well, that's most useful.

- So this is from when the radio was
made, and you can tell that's

the sort of person he was with...
- Ah, data sheets.

That's amazing.
- What are you hoping Mark can do?

I mean, I know you want it to work,
but...
- Yeah, I think

restoring it to how it probably was
originally

would be brilliant. I mean, of course,
you know,

these lines at the front.
- I was just going to ask you that.

- Yeah.
- Was that done by your grandfather?
- It was, yeah.

So those two marks indicate his two
favourite radio stations,

so just brings back those memories of
him.

Maybe in time more lines will be added
to the front for radio

stations that I like listening to, as
well as the original ones

that he had.
- That's a nice idea.

Have to pick a different colour.
- Yeah.

- Thank you so much for bringing the
radio in. I know Mark...

- It's going to be a real privilege
and it's going

to be great fun. I can't wait to open
that up.

- Thank you very much and good luck.
- Thank you.
- You take care.

See you later.
- Bye.
- Bye-bye.

The radio itself is in very good
condition.

The thing which obviously concerns me
more than anything else

is the fact we've got feet here
connected to a direct chassis,

which undoubtedly could well be live
and we need to remove them.

What I need to do now is actually get
into the receiver itself.

This is going to be the fun part where
you actually slowly pull

it out to reveal all of its glory.

This top half should lift off,
carefully.

And what have we got?

OK, you've got insulation of the old
rubber coated wire, that's

all breaking down due to age and heat.

Underneath, these are actually paper
capacitors.

These are renowned due to their age to
go leaky, which will cause

a breakdown on the electrical circuit.

You don't even think about it, just
what I call blanket-b*mb

change 'em, because they're going to
become a problem anyway.

What I've got to do next is that the
chassis has got loads

of dust over it, which is not
detrimental to the electronics,

but you want to work on something
clean.

You, normally, if you're going to
rebuild an engine,

you don't work on it grubby, you clean
it all.

- With the old varnish removed from
Wilma's table,

Will's next job requires a keen eye
for detail.

- This is a solid walnut bit of
moulding that goes

around the outside.

But over here there's an area of
damage, so that needs

to be replaced.

I have cut a lovely new piece of
walnut here.

I now need to replicate that curve on
the inside edge,

which is going to be really tricky.

Now, I've made a paper template here
of the inside edge,

and the idea is I should be able to
transfer that line there

onto the piece of wood, cut that out
on the band saw,

and it should match up with everything
else.

Perfect. Right, all marked out,

ready to cut on the band saw.

The glue has now dried and

the woodwork is ready for carving.

I don't want to take off too much
wood, so I'm going to use my pencil

to mark out the highest point of the
carving here,

carry it right around the outside
edge.

Then that will show me what I can

remove and what section not to remove.

Once I've finished, that top edge
going right

around the outside should be perfectly
symmetrical and even.

I've carved away quite a lot of that
excess wood now,

and I can begin to carve in a lot more
of that sort of more technical

detail where the moulding meets the
top of the table.

I've finally finished carving that
missing bit of moulding

on the outside edge. That just needs
to be colour-matched

in with everything else, I can do that
bit later,

but I'm really pleased with the
outcome.

Now, the part I've been itching

to get stuck into, this damage to the
veneer.

This is going to be really tricky to
fix because it's going

to be impossible to find the exact
same veneer to patch that area

cos that comes from that one part of
that one tree.

This is an old writing box of mine
that I've had for years,

and I've actually started to harvest
bits of wood off of this.

So I've actually removed a section
from the back, here.

And the plan is to use my pigments to
pretty much paint back

in that lovely display of lines and
colours there to blend

in with everything else.

In order to make this patch invisible,

the new piece of veneer that goes in
there has to fit

it's like a snug jigsaw piece.

So I'm using some tracing paper

to just trace around the edge of the
damage.

Now that I've marked it out

on this bit of tracing paper,

I'm just rubbing the back of it, and
that should then transfer

the lines onto the veneer.

There we are. Lovely.

The veneer that I've found has worked
really well.

It's going to act as a really nice
foundation background colour.

I've got some pigments and polish
here, and I've got this background

colour to sort of match in with the
surrounding original wood.

I can then finish off with a really

fine brush and, hopefully, paint back
in that missing decorative

woodgrain effect,

and it should actually look like the
rest of the table.

It takes quite a bit of time, but it's
all going to pay off.

- Last to visit the barn,

Bev Cooke from Nottingham, who's
hoping cobbler Dean Westmoreland

can put a spring back in her step.

- Hi.
- Hi.
- There she is. Welcome to the barn.

- Thank you very much.

- Now, I know Dean is dying to see
what's in the box.

- I'm intrigued.
- Mind if we have a look?
- Of course, yeah.

- Oh, look at those.

- They belonged to my grandmother,
Betsy.

We believe that they must be at least


I'm nearly 60, and I was playing

around with them when I was sort of
four or five.
- Four or five?

- Four or five. So she had nine
children.

I think there's about 17
grandchildren.

- HE LAUGHS

- And we all used to go down there on
a Saturday afternoon.

So as soon as I arrived at her house,
I would go

through the back door, sling off my
girlie shoes and hunt these out,

and all us kids would just disappear
into the fields

and into the gardens around.
- Aw.

- So there's lots of really old,
lovely memories

that these bring back to me, really.

- Why do you think you loved these as
a child?

- Quite simply, it's because of the...

- SHOE CLUNKS

- ..clunk.

Because as a child, I just used to
love wearing any boots

that would make a noise.

And, you know, Granny was such a
loving, caring, patient person.

And, you know, you just felt safe and
secure and loved.

She used to help us, you know, learn
how to cook,

and definitely you could lick the
spoon after the bowl.

- The best bit.
- The best bit.
- Absolutely!

- She'd spend hours with us teaching
us to play cards.

Patience of a saint, really.

- Sounds like the perfect grandma.

- She was, yeah.

You know, she was definitely the
perfect grandma.

Sadly, we lost Gran in 1979.

When we all went to the house
afterwards,

a lot of her personal possessions had
got little labels

on for who she wanted things to be
left to,

and these had a little label on for
me,

so I was very sad, but delighted.

And I'm a little bit ashamed that I've
let them deteriorate.

But, you know, they're loved, just
like she was.

The minute that you put these on your
feet, your feet

just feel cosy, warm and loved,

and that's exactly how Granny made you
feel.
- So being able to put

your feet in there feels a bit like
Granny giving you a hug?

- Yes, I think that's the... Yeah, it
is. I think so, yeah.

- And what are you hoping he's able to
do?

- I'd really like it if you could keep
the clunkiness.

- SHOE CLUNKS, HE CHUCKLES

- Yes.

Clean up the sheepskin inside and make
that fluffy again.

I mean, it's 40 years of accumulated
muck,

and it would just be nice

to see them, you know, back to their

best, I think.
- As Granny would have wanted?

- Yes. Yes.

- What do you think, Dean, can we save
this clomping noise?

- The nails are proud, which is what
gives you the noise, I think.

The leather's worn around the heel.

But, yeah, it's quite tricky, is that.

- I'm sure you'll do your best.
- Do Granny proud, eh?
- Yes.

Yes, please.
- OK.
- Brilliant.
- I'll do my very best.

- Thank you. I can't wait. Thank you
very much.

- Nice to meet you.
- Thank you, bye-bye.
- Take care.
- Bye-bye.

- Amazing pair of shoes.
- I know, mate.
- Good luck.
- Thanks, mate.

- Can't wait to see them.
- Me, too.

What a lovely pair of shoes.

Such a unique design.

It's got this lovely leather strip
around the back just to keep

the heel shape. It's almost a bit like
a Jodhpur boot.

It's got beautiful suede on the top
here.

It does need a good clean, it's gone
quite flat at the minute.

And I'm hoping when I can clean that
up, it's going to come

up really nice.

This is a stacked leather heel.

That leather is very, very dry,

I can tell just from looking at it,
and with it being worn away

so much, it's just not balanced.

The nails are exposed.

I can feel them with my finger,
they're sat quite proud.

And I think that metal on

the ground, along with the solidity

of the block, has created

that kind of clip-clop sound

that she remembers so well.

So when I put my nails in, I'm going
to have to leave them

slightly proud to return that clunky
sort of noise.

But before I can do any of that,

I want to give this suede

a lovely clean.

I'm going to use a suede shampoo.

It really is just a case of working it
in, not being afraid

to get the suede wet.

The furry part of suede,

that sort of furry texture is what's
referred to as the nap.

And what I'm doing here is about
trying to get that nap back.

Once it is dry, I can go

in with a stiffer brush and get

that lovely suede texture back.

- Now that Mark's tested all the
valves and capacitors

in the 1950s radio,

it's out with the old and in with the
new.

- What I've done so far, all the main
components

which are generally due to age

and known to be fatigued or will wear
out,

I've replaced all those.

This is all the quantity

which have come out.

I've got one left here to do.

Soldering is no different to welding,

it's just a lower temperature.

So you still need the same

characteristics, clean material to
work from,

so you get a good flow, and that gives

you good mechanical adhesion.

Next thing I've got to do, I'll
replace the tuning dial cord.

How the actual dial works is if you
imagine as you rotate

in this shaft, what's wrapped around
it is this dial cord.

At the same time,

here we have the indicator, and that
will be connected

to the same dial cord and will then
correspondingly move

in proportion up or down the band.

My problem is this has lost its
ability to sort of support itself.

It's due to heat and age. A bit like
my hair,

it falls out over time.

Really, to do it properly, I would
need to take this tuning dial plate

and cover off. And these knobs are
now, have been there for at least



My worry would be if I tried to lever
and pull them off,

I'd probably break them.

So I'm trying to attempt to do
effectively like keyhole surgery.

Fortunately, Stephen and Ollie have
supplied me with the original

service data for this radio, so I'm
going to use that,

which will make life so much more
uncomplicated for me.

So it looks like it has to go this way
down,

and that'll be that side.

Now, they're saying that

we then go over that way.

Now I've got to turn it upside down.

This is going to be the fun part cos I
can't gain access

to it easily.

That should... That says it goes
straight in.

Oh, I see what I've done wrong.

I've got to do that bit again.

I didn't really read the instructions.

If you don't get the string in the
right direction,

as you pull it, it slips out.

I've done it again!

I'm hoping that this attempt will
work,

so let's have a look.

Right. Effectively, it's there.

I've just got to tighten it up tight,

and I think, touch wood, job's done.

You've beaten it.

- HE CHUCKLES

- I've now reassembled the actual main
chassis.

Proof is now in the pudding,

we've got to turn it on.

Will it make noises?

But what we have to remember,

valve technology takes a little bit
longer.

So, first of all, let's turn that on,

power this up. What will happen,

the sound will start to rise...

- RADIO STATIC

- ..like that and then tune along.

- DISTORTED VOICE

- And so it's picking up radio
stations, making a lot of noise,

which is always a good sign.

So, yeah, yeah, that's all good!

So the last thing I've really got to
do now is refit the case

and then put these rubber feet on it
to ensure

that it's safe for use.

- Will's painstaking attention to
detail on Wilma's table top

has paid off.

Now just one last job remains.

- Just making sure that all the holes
are lining up perfectly,

cos if they're not and you start to
screw in, the screw can take

a different direction and end up
splitting out the surface.

Just taking my time.

Right, I think we're all in place.

Everything seems to be going in very
well.

That's the last screw in place now.

When it came to the barn, it looked
really dull and lifeless.

Wilma said that she wanted it to look
like a piece of art,

and I really hope that I've achieved
that for her,

done her proud, and more importantly,
her mum proud as well.

- Returning to the barn to collect one
of her mum's treasured possessions,

Wilma is hoping to give it pride of
place in her own home.

- Hi there.
- Hi.

- Welcome back.
- Lovely to see you again, Will.

- You, too. You look very smiley.

- Yeah, just excited about seeing the
table again.

I've never seen it in a perfect state,
so it would be lovely

just to be able to be proud of the
table,

and think of my mum

and her resilience and all that she's
done for us.

- Shall we have a look?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?

- Oh, my gosh! Oh, wow!

That is not what I expected.

It looks like a brand-new table.

Oh, goodness.

Wow.

I can't even see the parts that you've
joined.

Wow!

I feel like I want to hug you.

- You can give me a hug, come on.

- Wow, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Wow!

It's beautiful.

More than I would have anticipated.

It's outstanding,

so thank you so much.

I'm looking forward to having a
photograph

of her when she was young just sitting
proudly on there.

It means more than I can put into
words.

- I'll get this wrapped up and I'll
get it out to you.

- It will be really cherished.

So, thank you.
- Pleasure. Thanks a lot, Wilma.
- Thank you.

- Safe trip, bye-bye.
- Thank you very much. Bye.

Feel so honoured to have the table,

just as I'm honoured to have her as my
mum.

As a result of this table being
restored, she will be spoken

about even more than what we have done
in the past,

so it's just...yeah, it warms my
heart, it really does,

it's just so special.

- On his bench,

Dean is attempting to put

the clip-clop back into the old suede
shoes.

- So the whole heel block is made

up of about five layers of leather,

and I'm really just taking

those top two layers off.

They're really damaged.

The rest of the block looks OK,

but you never know.

You can start peeling those layers off
and the rest

of the block comes away.

So many nails in it and it's so dry,
so old, kind of almost

perforated, the whole thing.

This is exactly what I didn't want.

The layers below are leather board,

which is compressed fibres of leather
into a board,

and it's just crumbling.

I can see there, look, another layer's
coming off,

and another layer, and even that
bottom layer.

I feel that my only choice now

is to tear that whole block off

and replace it with

a proper leather block.

It's so insecure that I think

I can just lift it.

And it has just crumbled.

So I think I've made

the right decision there.

I'm just applying some glue

here to the boot heel block

that I've put on,

and the leather top piece.

It's a beautiful bit of leather that
will go on the top and act

as the final piece on the heel block.

The top of the heel is now on.

Now is the moment of truth.

Is it going to sit correctly?

Is it going to be comfortable? Which
is the main thing.

That is reasonably flat.

Sort of a millimetre gap around here,

but that doesn't concern me.

I'm trying to compensate

for when Bev puts her foot in,

and when that happens,

the front will stretch out

and the heel will sit flat.

So I'm really, really happy with that.

What I really need now is to recreate
that sound that Bev

was so fond of. And to do that,

I'm going to mark out some points for
some brass nails to go in.

When most people walk, the outside of
the heel will hit

the ground first, so I think that is

where the main noise is going to come
from.

I'm going to be leaving those dome
nails slightly proud to create

that lovely noise.

It's a little bit odd for me to do

this, but I think recreating

that memory for Bev is the
all-important thing here.

So now I'm going to clean the
shearling.

It's a natural material and it's quite
old.

So what I don't want to do is put any
chemical kind of cleaner on it.

It's important that I use something
very, very mild.

I don't want to matt the shearling
down and kind of do away

with that lovely fluffiness that
reminds Bev

of those hugs from Grandma.

So I'm going to use a flannel

and a very, very mild detergent

to try and lift some of that dirt out.

If I put too much water in, my fear

would be that it wouldn't come back

and it wouldn't kind of

fluff up afterwards.

It's just a case of kind

of getting in and dabbing it,

almost like you would if you spilt

on a carpet.

So there's quite a lot of grime

that's come out of there. I'm quite
pleased with that.

I'm going to let that dry and then
I'll run

through it with a metal comb just to
bring some

of that fluffiness back.

While that's drying I can do the same
process on the other shoe.

- Mark's also freshening up the
vintage radio's footwear,

swapping metal for rubber.

- Yeah, that's going to do that one.

What I like about my little boxes,
they've all come off from old pieces

of radios and record players, so you
normally can find something

to do the job in here.

Potential one.

Yeah, these were a fairly
standard-type issue feet

used on quite a large amount of
electronic devices,

so I knew they'd come in handy one
day.

- HE CHUCKLES

- That's the last foot now in place.

What I've got to do is give it a nice
buff clean-up,

and then it'll be ready to go back to
Stephen and Ollie.

- Stephen's returned to the barn in
the hope

the 1950s radio that kept his dad and
grandparents entertained

all those years ago is ready for its
new home with son Ollie.

- Hello, Stephen.
- Hello.
- How are you?
- Nice to see you again.

- Hi, Stephen, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

- Now, you're here on your own?
- I'm here on my own today, yeah.

- Where's Ollie?
- Well, my son, Ollie,

he's in the services...
- OK.
- ..and he's had a swift deployment

to somewhere else, so unfortunately,
he...
- Can't make it.

- ..can't make it today, yeah, so it's
me on my own.

- OK.
- Are you nervous?

- Excited to see what's under there,
yes, indeed, yeah.

It'll bring back a memory, so it'll be
nice to hear

it if it is working.

- HE LAUGHS

- Right, shall I? Here we go.

- Wow!

- HE LAUGHS

- Yeah! Certainly a lot shinier.

Yes.

- HE LAUGHS

- Oh.
- The electrocution hazard has
disappeared...

- Yeah.
- ..so it's obviously...

- Yes, you're not going to have that
risk.
- ..nice to touch it, yeah.

- And of course, we've kept the
obligatory markings

to identify the stations.

- So can we turn it on?

- LAUGHS:
- You're itching to see if it works.

- Would you like to turn the button?

Now, of course, this is valve.

- So it takes a while to heat up.

- It takes a little while to warm up.

- Oh.

- DISTORTED MUSIC

DISTORTION CLEARS

# Put your sweet lips a little closer
to the phone... #

- Is that Jim Reeves, by any chance?
- It could well be.

- HE CHUCKLES

# Let's pretend that we're together
all alone... #

- It's got a good sound, hasn't it?
- Mm!

- # I'll tell the man to turn

# The jukebox way down low... #

HE CHUCKLES

- Really nice sound.
- Yeah!

- # And you can tell your friend there
with you he'll have to go. #

- Brilliant!

- How does that sound to you?

- That sounded absolutely fantastic.

It certainly brings back a lot of fond
memories, and Ollie

will be proud to have that sat in
prime position in his front room.

- Right.
- And obviously be able to listen to
it.
- Yes, yeah.

- I shall treasure it,

or I won't treasure it, my son will
treasure it.

- He won't get it back.

- THEY LAUGH

- Exactly!
- Well, I'll treasure it for a long
time to

come, thank you very much.

- It's been our pleasure. Thank you.
There you go.

- Lovely.
- It's all yours. Thank so much, nice
to see you.

- Thanks a lot. Bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.

- It brings back memories of my dad,
and, really, the whole ethos

that he used to work by, which was to
mend everything

and nothing was ever thrown away.

It's great to hear it back on song
again.

Ollie will be the custodian of it.

And my dad, Rodney, who's now passed
away,

I'm sure will be looking down and
thinking the radio's gone

to a good home.

- As he nears the end of his repair,

Dean's got one last detail to add to
the suede shoes.

- Shearling has come up really, really
well.

It's nice and clean, it's nice and
fluffy.

I want to climb in there myself.

It is beautiful.

So as a final flourish, there is a
serrated line that goes

around the top of the heel.

And to get that back, I use a tool
called a seat wheel.

It's got a serrated wheel on there,

and I've been heating it up gently

on my spirit lamp.

And what that will do when I run it
round the top of the heel is put

that lovely serrated line in.

It's kind of a traditional

decorative piece, and that will

just finish the shoe off really,
really nicely.

It's a really, really subtle line, but
I'm happy that it's quite even

all the way round.

I think it'll look fantastic, but,
really, the true test is,

is it going to be the correct sound
that takes her back

to those all-important

days at her grandma's?

- Now that the suede shoes are back to
their best,

Bev's returned, hoping they'll provide
a cosy reminder

of a cherished childhood with a loving
gran.

- Bev, hi.
- Hello, again.

- Welcome back.
- Are you all right?
- How are you doing?

- I'm a little bit excited, I have to
say, yeah.

They bring back lots of really, really
happy childhood memories.

There's been a few sleepless nights,

wondering what you've been doing to
them.

- Do you want to have a look?
- I would love to have a look.

- I'll do the honours?
- Go on, Dean.
- Yeah?

- Oh, wow!

Ha! Oh!

That's so clean.

Oh, feel how fluffy they are in there.

Beautiful. Just, you know, proper
memories of Gran.

Oh, wow!

New heels. They're going to make lots
of noise, aren't they?

- THEY LAUGH

- I hope so.

- Can't wait to get my feet in them.

- Do you want to try them on now?

- Wow!
- Would you mind?

- It'd be a shame not to, wouldn't it,
don't you think?

- Hopefully they still fit you.

- I hope so.

Oh, feel that!
- They look even better on, don't
they?

- SHOES CLACK

- Yeah. Is it the noise you expected?

- Absolutely.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, it's great. Thank you.
- That's it.

- You're very welcome.
- I can't thank you enough.
- Aw!

- So when are you going to wear them
again?

- They're far too precious to wear
every day,

but I'll probably take them out in
winter on a nice,

crisp winter's day. Definitely when
it's not wet, though,

definitely.
- They are weatherproof now...
- Are they?

- ..and they are shoes, so they are
meant to be worn.

- Oh, OK.
- Don't be too afraid.

- Maybe they might come out a little
bit more, but I will be

ultra-protective over them, I think.
- Good.

- What do you think Gran would say if
she knew that you were standing

here now in her restored shoes?

- I think she'd be really, really
chuffed, very chuffed.

She's keeping me warm again.

- She's still giving you that nice big
hug?
- Yeah.

Thank you very much.
- It's been a pleasure, they're
beautiful shoes.

- Thank you. I'll go and clunk out
now, then.

- LAUGHS:
- Yeah.

- Just putting the shoes on,

the one thing I wanted to retain was
the clunky noise.

The fact that Dean has put those
lovely, lovely metal tacks

in that make that fantastic sound,

oh, I felt five all over again, and
just completely carefree.

It's brilliant.

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that's seen better days

and you think the team can help,
please get in touch at...

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