A workshop full of wonders...
I heard the word "watch".
..home to experts in time-honoured crafts...
Boom. There you go. That's a good sound.
..together repairing treasured pieces of the past...
Oh!
I like that.
That is really good.
Wow, look at that! Wow! Look at that!
Quite proud of that.
..and unlocking their stories...
I'm completely blown away by this.
Oh, dear!
..bringing the broken...
I don't know where to start with this.
..back to life. Wow!
It's stunning.
Wow! Fantastic!
I think it's just amazing.
Yeah!
Welcome to The Repair Shop.
Morning, Steve. Morning. You all right?
Yeah, good, thank you.
First to arrive at the barn,
Christine Jagger from South Yorkshire.
She's pinning her hopes on Will's woodwork expertise
to secure a future for a gift from her past.
Hi, there. Hi. You must be Christine.
Yeah. So this is yours? It is. Yes. Yes.
Looking very sorry for itself, I'm afraid.
This is a garden bench
that my late husband bought for me, one Christmas.
He bought it from a garden centre and I've had it over 25 years.
What was your husband's name? Gordon.
Gordon. Sometimes he wasn't very good at Christmas presents,
so this was one of his better presents.
I've had, like, a garden fork and a garden spade and...
Hit-or-miss, then? Yes, and... Sometimes good...
..I never knew, so this was my most favourite present ever.
It was Christmas morning,
and I always used to cook Christmas lunch for my family,
so he'd just disappeared.
"Where is he?" I wanted him to peel the sprouts and the carrots!
Yeah. He was a builder and he had a pick-up truck,
and he came down the lane and all I could see was this big wheel.
He says, "Oh, this is your Christmas present."
This must've been really hard to wrap with wrapping paper! Yeah!
Right? He'd put a ribbon on it, though. Did he? Yeah! Bless him!
When he drove down the lane, it was flapping in the wind.
Yeah.
And we decided that we'd put it under the front window.
He used to race pigeons,
and we could see from the seat
the pigeon loft down at the bottom of the garden,
and the pigeons used to fly around and he'd say,
"Oh, there's our Janet there."
They all had names, and he knew every single one.
And then at the weekend I used to potter in the garden.
I love gardening.
He'd make a drink and shout, "Coffee's up!"
Because we used to put the cups here,
and I used to sit at that side,
and he'd sit at this side.
He just used to make me laugh all the time.
He passed away in 2009.
He had cancer.
But I take a lot of comfort from
my sons and my family and my grandchildren.
Yeah.
What would you like me to do with the bench?
Obviously, mend the arms and just clean it up,
because we used to put it in the garage every winter
and then he used to oil it,
and then we'd put it out when the weather got better.
But then when Gordon wasn't here, it's just been left outside.
It makes me sad
that I haven't looked after it better,
because it means so much to me.
Why have you just decided to have it fixed now?
Because it would have been our 50th wedding anniversary
at the end of this month,
and I just feel that he's looking down on me and saying,
you know, "It's all right."
You know?
I have such lovely memories,
and my dogs sit on it now. Do they?
I've got little sausage dogs, so I chat to them now.
This is linked to lots of memories in the past,
but it'd be nice to make new memories with it. New memories, yes.
It's been lovely to meet you, and I'll do my very best
to get this looking lovely again for you.
Thank you ever so much, Will. I really appreciate it.
OK, I'll see you soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.
This bench is in really bad condition.
I mean, everything is so dry and flaking off.
But I do like it. I mean, it's not your average bench,
or your average Christmas present either.
But I absolutely love the sentiment behind it.
This arm here, that might have to go.
I've got part of an arm on that side.
I might be able to salvage that, maybe.
A lot of the damage could be lurking beneath the surface here,
so I need to sand this back
so I can determine what can be kept and what needs to be replaced.
Are they Japanese saws? Yes.
Really, really handy.
They're, um, pull saws.
Right. So they're really accurate.
This one's my favourite because it's so flexible. Wow, look at that.
And really good steel as well. Oh, unbelievable.
Dodging the downpour, Gaynor McCarthy-Smith
and her husband Jamie.
They have a memento that's also braved the elements
for paper conservator Angelina.
Hi, welcome. Hi! Hi. Come on in.
Wow!
This is so big.
Goodness me!
Wow! This...is amazing.
Is this a map?
Yeah, it's a fisherman's chart of the North Sea.
It basically shows the UK here,
and all the fishing grounds right up to the Hebrides
and to the Faroes.
So if you look carefully on the chart,
it'll say, for example, "haddock,
"hake, April to October,"
so they knew where to fish.
This is fascinating.
Whose is this?
It was my late father's.
His name was Joseph Patrick McCarthy,
but he was known as Paddy, and he used it at sea.
He was a trawler skipper out of Grimsby.
Wow! Um, this particular chart is 1945.
And we know your dad started fishing 1946,
so this may have been one of his first charts that he used.
Wow! So when did he start?
He went to work down the docks at the age of 16.
He actually went on the boats... 16! ..and never looked back.
How long did he do that for? Over 50 years.
Now, I don't know a great deal about fishing,
but I do know it is an incredibly...
It's brutal, isn't it? Yeah. Extremely. It's a difficult job.
It's probably one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Yeah.
And also these people that went out,
if they didn't catch fish, they didn't get paid. Wow!
You had to be good. You had to be good to earn your money.
So they'd go out for two to three weeks,
or unless the boat was full of fish,
land it, do a two-day turnaround
and go back out to sea, and do that continuously.
He was renowned in the mid '70s, particularly.
I think he broke the record four or five times... Really?
..for landing the amount of fish.
In 1976, out of the whole year... 328 days.
..328 days at sea. 328 days away at sea?!
Yeah.
Did he bring this with him on every trip?
I think as technology moved on,
he would have used other resources on the boat.
But I don't doubt he would have taken this as a fail-safe.
This is that thing you don't leave home without. Yes.
I imagine every time he'd gone out to sea,
it must have been terrifying.
When I was a child, I think I just didn't understand.
But when he was home, he was amazing.
He was great fun, because he wanted to make the most of us
when he was home, so... Precious time together. Yeah.
What's the dream, then?
So we're doing some renovations on the house,
and we thought it'd be nice to put this up.
I love the fact it's used,
and it was something that he used.
But the paper on top is beginning to pull apart,
obviously on the crease lines, which you'd expect,
but I think the rest of it is becoming very weak.
There's obviously quite a lot of staining on the paper.
Would you like to keep it this way? Yes. Yeah?
Yeah, I would. I love the stains on it.
I love the fact there's probably tea stains
because he was a massive tea drinker,
so with sloshing seas, it's probably spilt over.
So, we do have a very obvious corner missing.
It would be nice if we could see what was there.
OK, I'll have a think.
Brilliant. Well, thank you both so much
for trusting us with this beautiful map.
Thanks. See you later. Bye-bye.
You're going to learn all about the sea,
once you've finished repairing this. I'll be able to navigate!
You could go on a boat trip! Yes! Good luck. Thank you, Dom.
There is quite a lot that needs to be done.
This has been lined in the back with a textile.
So this is paper that has been lined with a textile.
So, because it was folded so much,
there's all of these peelings and liftings of the paper
along the folds that are coming off of the textile.
Both of them need to be flattened.
In order to do that, I will need to use some water, some humidification.
Also, in the bottom corner,
I need to find what was there
and think about the best way to replace it.
But, before any of that can happen,
I need to remove any surface dirt.
So I'll just use a very soft eraser
made specifically for paper,
and this will not remove
any of the much-loved stains.
This is just a tiny little corner,
and I have to travel the entire length of the North Sea,
so there's a big journey for me,
which is just starting.
Well, I've finished sanding the bench
and I've taken the back off,
because it's a lot easier to sand in two parts.
It's really revealed that true beauty in the wood
and it's a lovely, rich teak colour.
Now, teak has lots of natural oils in it,
which gives it better resistance to rain and water.
However, I'm thinking that the arms aren't actually made of teak at all.
Maybe the originals had broken off
and they were replaced with this wood here.
Now, water has got into all these nooks and crannies.
It's just crumbling away.
I'm going to have to replace these completely.
Thankfully, I have the remnants of the previous arms.
This one here, that's the upper armrest,
and this one here - it swoops down at the front.
So my plan is to kind of combine the two together
to make a template of what one single arm should look like.
Once I've cut this out, much like a tailored suit,
you know, it'll need lots of fittings
to make sure that this fits just right.
Yeah.
Look at that.
Perfect.
What I need to do now is to transfer this...
..onto this mighty big piece of teak here,
and get it cut out on the bandsaw. So, here I go.
Well, I've cut my two pieces of wood. Now it's just a case of
joining them together to create one continuous arm.
I'm going to attach them by a tongue and groove joint,
and it's the same joint that's been used at the back of the bench,
so it's in keeping with everything else.
Everything needs to be really precise.
If something is slightly out of line,
that could create a future weakness.
Well, that's the outline of the first part of my joint.
I now need to cut that on the bandsaw,
then I can glue the pieces together.
Arriving from Somerset,
Jane James and a lifelong companion.
He needs help from the queens of all things cuddly,
Julie and Amanda.
Hello! Hello. Oh, welcome to the barn.
Thank you very much. Look at him!
This is my bear.
My mum gave me the bear when I was born,
and I was probably half his size.
I don't remember a time without him.
What is your mum's name? My mum's name's Betty.
She was a ward sister
at St Martin's Hospital in Bath in the 1960s,
and at that time, Eddie Cochran was in an accident in a car.
THE Eddie Cochran?
THE Eddie Cochran, the famous rock-and-roll singer.
Oh, my goodness!
He was 21.
In the car was himself, his girlfriend, called Sharon Sheeley,
and Gene Vincent.
And Mum's hospital was the nearest hospital.
Eddie Cochran arrived and died at her hospital.
Wow!
And Gene Vincent survived. Yeah.
Sharon had a fractured pelvis and was admitted to my mum's ward.
Not many people have heard about her,
but she was one of the first American female songwriters
for rock-and-roll.
Gosh!
She would have been in the hospital for quite a long time
because at that time you would have been on bed rest.
Your mum must have forged quite a strong relationship with Sharon.
Definitely, because my mum got
to know her patients really well.
And although she was a star in her own right,
and obviously her boyfriend was a very international star,
she was always a patient to my mum.
I'm presuming that Sharon would have had a lot of visitors.
She certainly had Billy Fury coming to see her,
and this teddy bear was given to her by him. Oh, my goodness!
My mum tells me that she was pregnant with me...
Oh! ..and Sharon Sheeley gave this
teddy bear to my mum to give to me.
Right. Wow!
Maybe it was a token of her thanks for the care on the ward.
What was it like, growing up with a mum that was a nurse?
Very practical, but very loving.
Very caring.
She was always a nurse,
until she retired at 60.
Is your mum still with us?
Mum's 93... Wow! Oh, wow!
..and very frail
but can still talk about these days on the ward.
This was a precious item given to her... Yeah.
..and he was part of me
from day one of being a baby.
Which is why he looks so threadbare,
because he's been... He's been loved.
Look at the colour he was.
Exactly. Beautiful.
So, his paws were red. Bright red.
Kind of quite velvety. Yeah.
I do think his head's about to fall off as well.
He's got to look like the age that he is,
but I'd like to give him a bit of a makeover.
He's 64 years old,
and I'd like him to be preserved for my children.
My mum had great stories of her nursing career,
but this one, I think, is a special story.
And will you take him to see your mum?
Oh, yes. She will absolutely love it.
We're going to look forward to doing this, aren't we?
Thank you very much. You take care. OK. Bye.
What an amazing story. Eddie Cochran! Eddie Cochran!
Come on. Whew!
All this area here is where it's unstuffed,
so he can't support himself any more. Yes.
A certain size and gravity takes over and everything drops.
I know how he feels!
The paws - she said she remembers them being sort of velvety.
What do you think about his arms and legs and his ears?
We mustn't forget his ears. This looks very threadbare,
but it just wouldn't be right to put fur back on there. No.
How do you feel about popping these into some black dye?
Ooh!
Oh, there's a thought. Yeah.
If these are more black, this will look brighter. Yeah.
And I don't think you'll notice the bald areas as much.
I reckon we need to make a start, then. Absolutely.
This wood wool is actually in quite good condition.
The trouble is, it dries out, doesn't it?
So, as soon as we start moving it... It breaks down.
Oh, yes.
We definitely have to replace it when we come to restuff him.
Angelina's gentle cleaning of the fishing chart
has preserved its weather-beaten character,
but also spruced it up.
It's already looking much fresher and feels much softer.
However, there's all of these liftings
of the paper on all of the areas where the chart was folded.
So these need to be laid flat and then glued down.
And I am using a wet blotting paper...
..to very lightly humidify those areas.
By using the weight,
the water is slowly going to go into the fibres
and allow them to relax.
But there's so, so many of them.
It's sort of like a production line.
It's going to take a while but it's so going to be worth it.
So, once everything is nice and humidified,
then I can get them adhered back into position.
Well, now that everything is
as flat as possible,
and the paper feels nice and supple,
I will introduce my adhesive.
This is methyl cellulose, and paper is made out of cellulose fibres,
so this makes it an ideal adhesive for this job.
I'm just using my bone folder,
just to push those areas down,
and once I'm satisfied,
then I will leave them under weight to dry.
The garden bench is starting to come together...
..but sitting pretty on it is still a long way off.
Beautiful.
Both arms in place.
When you look at them now, they have a sort of sharp, angular edge.
Not very comfy to put your arm on,
and not really in keeping with the original design,
so I'm going to use my chisel and my files now to slowly smooth off
those edges, shape them in
to make everything look like it was never damaged in the first place.
Well, I've finished shaping the arm.
I managed to reproduce that lovely, smooth, curved top there.
But the only thing now that's sticking out like a sore thumb
is this damage to the rail on the side.
Because the bench has been made from various bits of a cartwheel,
there are loads of holes, but some parts, it's just rotten through.
I'm going to cut out that main bit of damage
and piece in a new bit of wood.
Let's get sawing.
The teddy bear with the rock-and-roll pedigree
has been dismantled and washed,
in readiness for the next phase -
rejuvenating his original fur.
I'm going to try and dye these pieces of black fabric.
We definitely wouldn't try and replace the fur.
Jane did say that she'd really like him to look brighter
but without changing him.
Although there are quite a few balding areas,
it's still strong,
so I want to see if we can get these nice and black again.
I think it's going to make a huge difference.
I'm starting to make new paw pads for Bear.
We've gone for a really short pile, lovely cotton velvet.
I'm just going to pin the original paw pads onto my fabric like this,
and then I can draw around
and get a really good fit.
These are really going to smarten him up
and make him look really nice again.
What are you doing, mate?
I'm dying a teddy bear's legs and arms.
Do you do hair?
Turn round.
Ah, it won't take me very long!
THEY LAUGH
Oh, hello. Do you want to see? I do. You look quite pleased.
AMANDA GASPS
That is amazing!
Isn't it stunning?
Right. Let's get this done. Yep.
Angelina has calmed the surface of the North Sea
on the 1940s fishing chart.
Now the paper and textile layers of its missing corner
need reconstructing.
I've got a really nice piece of paper
that I can use for my infill,
and I have prepared a piece of linen
with a heat-set adhesive,
which is going to go behind,
and I will have my piece of paper cut.
When ironed, it will activate and bond all of the layers together.
But, before I go there,
I need to shape this into the loss that I have
and prepare it so it will be nice and evenly distributed
on the back, and not create, like, a big, ugly patch.
So what I'll do is I'll just cut...
..the textile around the overlap.
There we go.
I'll use my very sharp, very pointy tweezers,
and I'm just going to pull, bit by bit, those fibres.
It's going to mean that I'm going to have
a nice and beautifully blended repair.
Once my edges are nice and frayed,
and I have the paper cut into the right shape,
then I will iron both of them together and I will have my infill.
The bottom corner infill
is looking amazing.
I found an identical fishing chart,
so I've had this printed onto tracing paper,
which will allow me to follow the design.
In order to match the two images together,
all I have to do is just trace the lines on the back
with a really soft pencil.
Then I will turn the page around,
trace all of the lines again,
and the lead that I have deposited on the back
will transfer onto my paper.
This way, I will have the right information right in front of me
to then retouch.
I am now starting
the retouching of this corner.
It is such a challenging job to do.
I think this is probably the tiniest thing that I have ever retouched.
Just as an example,
this is about 1.5mm tall.
So this is so, so small.
This is very, very difficult.
I think this is going to be a great ride,
but my eyes are going to hurt by the end of it.
Well, the back's on
and all the woodwork is finished as well,
but at the moment it looks very pale, very light,
where it should have a nice, rich teak colour,
so I'm going to help this along by adding some teak stain.
Now, this is a sort of reddy, brown-y colour.
It's just an enhancement, really.
Oh, yes!
Lovely.
That is a beautiful arm.
The wedge is lighter than the surrounding woods.
When I have stained everything,
I might add some pigments and blend that in further.
Once I've finished staining the bench,
I'm going to seal it with a coat of oil,
which is suitable to go outside.
Then this can go back outside Christine's house.
She can sit on the bench,
much like she did when she spent those days with Gordon.
This garden bench was a treasured Christmas gift
to Christine from her late husband Gordon,
but years spent outside had left it badly damaged.
Christine is hoping it can once again be a special place to sit.
Hi, Christine. Hi, Will.
Lovely to see you again.
Are you excited? Yeah.
I can't believe I'm here.
I feel as if somebody's going to pinch me and I'm going to wake up.
It's just quite emotional for me,
but I'll be just so grateful to have it back.
I can't wait. They'll be happy tears, honestly.
Yeah. Yeah.
This kind of present is a big reflection
on the kind of person that Gordon was. Yes.
He always said things would last forever
if you looked after them,
so he would absolutely love that this has been brought back to life.
Are you ready to take a look? Yes, I am.
Yeah? Yeah. OK. Yeah.
SHE SOBS
Well, it's just...
It's just so lovely.
Well, it's just so lovely. I'm just so grateful.
Can I sit on it? Definitely! Of course you can!
Because the seat is just so comfortable.
We'd sit here and we'd put our coffee here
and, um...
And then you put your other elbow on there,
and then drink your coffee.
The arms are just exactly the same.
Oh, it feels so lovely, Will.
I can't wait to get it home.
I feel like... Gordon's putting his arms around me
and saying, "Will done good."
I can't imagine how long it's taken you to do it.
Oh, don't worry.
THEY LAUGH
Now, who's going to be sharing the space with you?
I know you've got a little sausage dog, haven't you?
I've got two, so Archie and Milly will be sat there.
Sit there and have your morning coffee. Yes. Looking out. Yes.
It will just be absolutely amazing,
yeah, to have it back,
and I will look after it, Will.
THEY LAUGH
Leave it with me and I'll get it back to you.
Oh, that's amazing. Thank you.
I'll see you soon. I'll give you a hug. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thanks, Christine. Thank you. Bye-bye.
I'm just overwhelmed
because it just looks absolutely amazing.
The smoothness of the arms
and how comfy the bench is when you sit down.
I'd forgotten how lovely it was,
and it just takes me back to when we were both sat there and laughing.
We just used to laugh all the time.
I can't wait to get it home.
David Birch has travelled to the barn from Lancashire
with his son Charlie.
Their mission is to put camera expert Pierro Pozella in the picture
about a very special keepsake.
Hi, there. Hello! Lovely to see you. Thank you.
Oh, that looks very nice.
This is my grandad's camera from World War II,
and he carried it through the war with him until 1945.
What was your grandfather's name? Charlie.
Charlie. Yeah.
In 1938, he joined the Royal Engineers.
When the British had to evacuate France,
came out through Dunkirk,
and then was sent through to North Africa,
where he fought with Montgomery.
The Eighth Army was redeployed to Italy.
When he landed, he found his brother,
who was in a different regiment,
had landed before him
and he was killed.
They were very close.
So, Grandad went to Salerno
and he took a photograph with the camera of Uncle Harry's grave.
Yeah. Very sad.
Definitely.
When did he acquire the camera?
We believe he acquired it in North Africa.
It could well have been with him
through all the major battles in Africa.
I know he went through Monte Cassino as well,
which was one of the bloodiest battles of World War II,
and it survived - it's just absolutely unbelievable.
It must have been really hard for your grandfather
to have seen so much,
and then to come back to a kind of normality.
When he was quiet, we left him to be quiet,
but then when he was engaging,
he was just the greatest.
I mean, he was an engineer.
He could build anything.
So, as kids, we were in the local tip,
we would come home with bike parts, wheels of prams,
and we'd go back two or three days later and there'd be
a go-kart made... Great! ..there'd be a bike made.
He was just brilliant at that.
So, what exactly happened to the camera?
It went from its war life to becoming a family camera.
Mainly Nan thereafter.
So, when we'd all go on a family holiday to North Wales,
on the beach, the camera was always there
and she was clicking away.
From family holidays, weddings, christenings,
basically it was my nan's second handbag
because she always had it with her.
Always.
So the camera and the case are a real strong link
to both your grandparents.
Yeah, it means a great deal to me.
It's gone through all the sadness, the joys, the happiness,
and I just want it to come back to life again.
Charlie... This is Charlie as well.
Are you named after your great-grandfather?
Yes. Yes. Oh, that's lovely! Yeah, it's a great name.
And I think we both have a passion for photography in the same way,
which is a really great connection.
Charlie's a professional photographer,
and to me, to have the camera do a full circle,
go from Charlie back to Charlie,
I think would be fantastic.
It's beautiful and very different to anything I use these days.
What's wrong with the camera? It doesn't work.
You can see mould and rust
is actually going on the chrome,
and the inside, I know it's certainly very dirty in there.
So there might be some sand hidden inside, still.
Yeah, there could well be!
It's a very special item
and I really would love it to spring back to life.
I'll give it my best shot for you. Lovely.
See you soon. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot, guys. Bye-bye.
Now, it looks relatively decent on the outside.
They always do. Wait till you get inside.
I'll leave you with it. Thank you. Good luck.
There are a few things which are concerning me.
I can already see,
if I engage the shutter and fire it,
it's sticking, and that's a huge problem.
Without that opening up and letting light in,
it won't be able to capture an image.
I can see there's fungus and haze in the lens.
It can scar the optic,
and if it scares the optic,
the images will come out blurry,
so I want to make sure that comes apart and we take a proper look.
David mentioned there was mould,
which I can see on top of the camera.
I want to make sure to remove this because this is the viewfinder,
and it comes in rather handy when you're trying to take a picture!
David always saw his nan with the case,
so I want to make sure that this gets the love and care it needs too,
and I think it's a job for Dean.
First thing I need to do is take the shutter unit apart,
so I can really see what's going on.
Under Julie and Amanda's care,
the teddy hailing from the rock-and-roll era
is set to regain some of his original dapper looks.
I'm just currently stitching paw pads in place.
I've got the leg turned inside out.
The paw pad has to be stitched in from the reverse,
so that when I turn it through the right way,
you'll see the new, bright red paw pad -
hopefully, tidily - stitched in.
Right.
I've got to gently turn it through.
I don't want to push or pull too hard.
There we go.
Amanda's done such a good job with these paw pads,
and I'm thrilled at the blackness of the black,
and the red against the black is striking.
I want to see those black ears against the white.
Oh, look at that!
I've just got this one arm left to do.
Once I've done that,
I can actually start stuffing and rejointing these limbs.
Pierro is investigating why the shutter mechanism of the old camera
is malfunctioning.
These blades open to let light in,
to allow you take a picture, and then close again.
Just going to remove the casing from the shutter.
There's the blades.
I just want to take a closer look, check the other side.
Yeah, there you go.
It may only look faint but you can see the darker markings.
Just debris and basically oil,
which would have been causing the shutter to jam.
I'm using a chemical
which will break down the old grease,
starting with the main casing,
because when oil gets on the blades, it acts like glue.
To finish it off, just give it a good scrub with a toothbrush.
Yeah, there you go.
I'm going to just clean the shutter blades next.
The debris on the blades would have worked its way in,
just through time, so there could have been sand from Africa,
or any bit of dirt and dust over the whole of its lifetime.
Look how much cleaner that is now.
Right, that's one.
Pop that back in.
There you go. That's one on.
Do the same with the other one.
Right, there are the blades in.
They're all in nicely.
They're moving really freely.
No sticking, no bumps.
They just feel perfect.
Next step is clean the rest of the shutter components,
put it all back together and give it a test.
I've re-lubricated everything and it's all going smoothly,
but until I put it through a tester,
I'm not going to know whether it's actually working.
The shutter is incredibly important
because it allows you to expose the image correctly.
If it's open too long, it'll basically come out pure white.
If it's too short, everything will be incredibly dark.
So it is key that it needs to be spot-on.
This machine is able to calculate the shutter speed in milliseconds
by using light, which travels through the shutter
when it opens to then hit the sensor underneath,
and then this will record how quickly
the shutter has opened and closed.
So, if it's dark indoors and you need a lot more light,
you use 1/25, which means
the shutter stays open longer, letting more light through.
So I'm hoping to see on the machine around 40 milliseconds,
which equates to 1/25 of a second.
Hold it up close, fire it off.
Those numbers are looking great.
Now to try the 1/100.
I'd use this speed when it's really sunny outside and you
really want to reduce how much light is coming through that shutter,
and we're looking for speeds
around ten milliseconds.
Not bad for a 90-year-old camera.
I feel really confident in the shutter
that it'll be able to provide Charlie with the correct exposures
and he'll be able to use it professionally.
Sometimes I think it's ridiculous.
Like, I'm a grown-up and I'm playing with Plasticine.
You could have a little creche corner.
Oh, thank you. There you go. What do I do with it?
What do you mean?
Did you not do Plasticine as a child? No...
Sort of... No. What do...? Can I roll? Yeah.
Just warm it in your hands and then you can create, Chris.
CHRIS LAUGHS
Angelina is turning up the heat
in preparation for filling the losses on the fishing chart.
I've toasted some cellulose powder,
which is like powdered paper,
and that process makes it turn a little bit darker.
It's like toasting bread. Kind of smells really good as well.
That will help them blend in much nicer,
and then I will be able to retouch, if necessary, those small areas.
Well, this is looking great so far.
I'll just continue working through the rest of the areas,
just making sure that everything is nice and even,
ready for Jamie and Gaynor to see.
I am so excited.
I can't wait to see their reactions.
This chart was essential
to celebrated Grimsby skipper Paddy McCarthy
as he fished the North Sea,
but eight decades and the rigours of maritime life
had left it creased, fragile and missing a section.
I'm glad we had enough fabric for this.
Yeah, just about! I know!
THEY LAUGH
Gaynor and her husband Jamie
are hoping this symbol of her father has been preserved.
Hi! Welcome back. Welcome back. Come on in. Thank you.
How are you both?
Er, nervous and excited.
I know it's just a chart, but it's my dad's chart,
and he kept it for a reason.
And for me, that's for me to keep it and look after it.
Do you want to take a look? Yes, please. Yes, please, yeah.
Go on, then, Angie.
Oh, my God, that's amazing!
Absolutely. Yeah.
It's fantastic.
And you've done the bottom corner as well. That's brilliant!
It's all hand-painted. Fantastic. Thank you so much.
That is absolutely amazing. Oh!
I love it.
It's just beautiful.
It really does feel like a beautiful tribute...
Yes. ..for your father, but also to the fishing community.
Very much so.
It puts a different slant on things that we use every day.
Yes. How beautiful they can be
when they're looked after and restored amazingly. Thank you.
Part of me wants to sort of cry, but I can't
because my dad always said, "See joy in everything,"
and that's what I see.
I just see him smiling at me, smiling at it. I love it.
That's nice. It's a lovely sentiment. That's lovely.
Angie's done a beautiful job.
I can't thank her enough.
It's my dad's legacy, I think,
and to celebrate his life and his work
that I can continue to look at and cherish.
Pierro is turning his attention to the lens of the old camera,
which is showing all the signs of its many travels.
The first thing I need to address is this fungus and haze,
because it can leave scarring to the optic
and it can damage the image quality.
It's not like normal glass.
It has a single coating to it, and this coating is really soft.
I need to use a chemical which will essentially kill the fungus spores
and remove it.
Believe it or not, even when cleaning with a cotton bud
very lightly, any tiny bit of dirt underneath the cotton bud
can then lead to scratching the optic,
so I have to be really, really careful.
It went from North Africa, with all the sand there,
to Wales, on the beach, and more sand
and the fluctuation in temperature, all leads to fungus growth.
That's cleaned up really well.
Pierro's repairs are progressing nicely,
but the camera's battered case
requires Dean's leather-work skills.
Hi, Dean. Hello. I've got this case.
It's got a broken strap, and it's just a bit worse for wear.
Yes, it is, isn't it?
If you leave it with me, I'll see what I can do with it.
Perfect. Thank you. All right.
It is a lovely case. It's been hand-stitched, from what I can see.
The only main damage I can see on it, really,
is the strap is actually twisted -
it doesn't sit properly,
and over time that's created a weakness there
that has split it at the rivet.
The first thing I need to do is remove that rivet.
I'm going to use my pincers,
and the stem will bend enough
that I can peel it out.
To repair this, so I don't have to remove
too much of the strap, I'm going to
cut as close as I possibly can
to the back of that original slit.
I can get a hole through that
and get the rivet in.
A little bit of extra forcing,
twist it to ensure a clean cut...
..and I've got myself a hole there.
I take my new rivet and just pull that through.
When I hammer it, it'll lock everything together.
That is now locked in...
..and the strap sits nice and straight.
I'm happy with that.
All there is for me to do now is to give this a really good clean,
and then I can get it back to Pierro.
Did you ever have a film camera? I did, yes. Single-lens reflex,
and the older style as well. Oh, nice. From the 1930s?
Yeah, well, not quite that far back!
The teddy bear with the rock-and-roll past
is restuffed and back in one piece,
but Julie and Amanda's vision for him needs a little more work.
Time we got his eyes in, don't you...? Definitely, yeah.
Do you think I need to hold his paw? Yes.
Looking very handsome.
What a difference an eye makes. Certainly does!
Hurry up, I want to see the other one in. OK!
It's not going to be long before we hand him back to Jane.
I know. I just want to see her face.
So, both eyes in.
Shall I put his mouth on? Yeah. Yeah.
Wow! Come on, then.
After the accident that took Eddie Cochran's life,
his injured girlfriend, Sharon Sheeley,
gave this toy to Betty,
the nurse who cared for her.
But at over 60 years old,
the bear was balding and sagging.
Very handsome. There you go, mate.
Now we've just got to hope
he behaves himself underneath the blanket.
Betty's daughter Jane is back to see if the bear is now strong
and worthy of the memorable tales from her mum's days on the ward.
Hello, Jane. Hello. Welcome back to the barn.
How are you feeling? I'm very excited.
This bear's been sad for a number of years.
And this is about my mother.
This story was an important story of her nursing career,
which is important to me and to her.
OK. Are you ready to see him?
Yes!
Are you sure? Are you sure? Yes! THEY LAUGH
Come on, then.
Oh!
Oh, my goodness!
Magic. Yeah.
Oh, he looks so different.
But... he's still an old 1960s bear.
Good.
Wow!
And he sits up, and his head feels solid now.
I love the red.
Is that how you remember them?
Yes, definitely. Good.
Definitely.
Oh, he's got nice black legs as well now.
Wow! He is gorgeous.
Thank you so much. You're welcome. You're welcome.
I can't wait to take him home now.
He's definitely going to see my mum this week,
and it's so lovely that she's still here
and I can show him to her in one piece.
Definitely. So thank you very much. You're welcome.
Have a safe journey home, Jane. I will. Take care.
Bye-bye. Bye! Bye, Bear! Bye, Bear!
It's so lovely to hold my bear in my arms
and know that his head's not going to fall off
and I can give him a proper cuddle,
and my mum can give him a proper cuddle again.
This is a way of keeping my mum's story alive.
With the old camera's components
all thoroughly overhauled and tested,
Pierro has one final task.
Because I've dismantled everything fully,
it all needs recalibrating and resetting,
so I'm using a ground piece of glass on the back,
which allows me to see the image coming through the lens.
To focus the lens, I'm moving the front optic backwards and forwards
ever so slightly, in order to make sure that tree is nice and sharp.
Once this is in focus, I'll pop the lens ring on,
set it to infinity and it's good to go.
This camera bore witness to soldier Charlie's experience of war
and the joys of family life.
But decades of exposure to sand and dust had left it out of action.
Oh, lovely. Looking nice and clean. Very nice.
Charlie's grandson David, and his photographer son Charlie,
are hoping it can keep on capturing their family history.
Hi, guys. Hi. Hello. How have you been?
Very good, thank you. Yeah. Very excited...
Mm. ..to get it back and to see what
the master's been able to perform.
The master! Did you hear that?
I know!
What are you hoping for today, Charlie?
To get some roll of films through it ASAP!
Yeah, yeah. To try and shoot some pictures with it.
It's, yeah, exciting.
The story's going to go on,
and for the camera to be used again,
especially by Charlie, is just...
Yeah, it's just the icing on the cake to me. It's just great.
Are you guys ready to take a look?
Yes, please. Think so. Yeah, very much so.
Are you ready? Yeah. Yes, please.
Oh, wow! Wow!
Yeah. Wow!
Oh, wow! All the mould's gone off it.
Looks brand-new.
It does.
Wow!
Oh, the lens!
OK! Yeah!
Beautiful.
I mean, I thought it was beautiful
before, but it's even more so now.
Thank you.
I'll leave you to test the action of it, not me.
It's so clean. Wow!
Amazing.
That's much better.
It feels brilliant.
Is it usable?
It's fully usable. OK!
Oh, wow! Wow!
Nice. Wow!
Feels great. It feels very sturdy.
It looks, yeah, like it could last forever again.
It's really beautiful.
And the case is back.
Dean done an amazing job on that.
Oh, wow!
I wasn't expecting that, so that's great. That's lovely. Thank you.
What a thing to have, to be able to take a picture
on a camera that your great-grandfather would have used.
Yeah, yeah. It's one hell of a story.
It's really nice this camera can be used,
not just sort of sitting on a shelf somewhere.
And the more you use it, the longer it's going to last.
Cheers, gentlemen. Thank you very much indeed. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, guys. Bye. Bye-bye.
Really, really excited for the future,
and kind of want to run away and take pictures with it right now,
to be honest.
To have that working again means a great deal to me.
It really does.
And that the camera will be able to write its own new stories,
it's just an amazing feeling.
Amazing.
If you have a treasured possession that's seen better days
and you think the team can help,
please get in touch at...
..and join us in The Repair Shop.