The Repair Shop

Stepping into the barn is a pair of tiny cowboy boots, treasured by the family of Elton John's former drummer, while queen of the invisible fix Kirsten faces her biggest challenge yet, as she must painstakingly piece together a shattered vintage glass lamp.

First through the barn doors is a pair of tiny but treasured cowboy boots. Belonging to Diane Wynell-Sutherland, the boots were bought for her son by her brother Roger Pope, a talented drummer and session musician. Diane shares the remarkable story of her brother's musical journey and his close bond with her son, from Roger's early days in local bands to his collaborations with superstars like Elton John and other iconic musicians in the USA, where the boots were bought. Tragically, Roger battled throat cancer before passing away in 2013, leaving behind a legacy of music and love. The boots serve as a tangible reminder of Roger's affection for his nephew and his enduring presence in Diane's life. However, the boots are showing signs of wear and tear, with brittle leather and split soles. Expert cobbler Dean works his magic, ensuring that the boots will be safe to wear once again and keeping alive the memory of a beloved brother and his extraordinary life.

The next visitors are Mehmet and his daughter Ozlem who bring in a treasured saz, a traditional Turkish instrument with a poignant history. Mehmet acquired the saz as a teenager, just before the eruption of tensions between the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus in the 1960s. Despite the turmoil of the time, Mehmet found comfort in playing the saz, using its music to ease stress and provide moments of respite from the chaos of war. A constant companion throughout his life, the instrument followed Mehmet to his new life in England where it suffered damage, including a significant crack that threatens its integrity. Expert luthier Julyan Wallis takes on the task of repairing the saz, recognising the instrument's significance to Mehmet and his family. With meticulous care and skill, Julyan sets about mending the crack and addressing other issues, including a broken friction peg, ensuring that the saz will continue to serve as a cherished memento for generations to come.

While it's not a timepiece, the intricate parts of the next repair mean Steve Fletcher is well-placed to meet Caroline Caldwell from Castlewellan, Northern Ireland. She brings in a fascinating piece of industrial history – scales used in the linen industry to weigh threads of linen. Caroline's connection to the linen industry runs deep, with both she and her mother and having worked in this once-booming trade that defined Belfast in the early 1900s. Steve takes on the challenge of repairing the scales, aiming to restore both their functionality and their aesthetic appeal. Steve works to address missing pieces and stubbornly stuck drawers, ensuring that the scales will once again serve as a tangible link to Belfast's industrial past.

Left picking up the pieces, quite literally, of the last restoration is Kirsten Ramsay, who welcomes mother-and-daughter duo Mal and Jo McKenna. They bring a cherished but smashed Murano lamp to the barn. The story starts in the 1920s, when Mal's grandmother acquired it as a souvenir from Italy. Mal recounts how her grandmother initially broke the lamp, prompting repairs by her mother, and now, with the adhesive deteriorating, they fear further damage. Tasking Mark Stuckey with making the antiquated electrics safe, Kirsten sets about meticulously dismantling the lamp, cleaning away the old adhesive before delicately reassembling it, ensuring that every piece aligns perfectly. Thanks to the team's expertise, the Murano lamp, once on the brink of irreparable damage, is given a new lease of life.

First into the barn is Hannah Smart, with a moss-covered garden gate which is essentially just a pile of sticks. It comes from the cottage Hannah has just bought which is the former home of Roald Dahl's mother. When Dahl returned from fighting in the Second World War, he lived at the cottage with his mother, and the gate is even referenced in his autobiography when he describes the moment he came home from the war. Years of neglect had seen the gate disappear beneath the hedge until Hannah unwittingly unearthed it. 

As an important landmark in the village with a connection to Dahl fans the world over, wood specialist Will Kirk is tasked with the restoration. The gate is in a very bad state having had all its joints rot away, so the challenge for Will is to work out how to maintain as much of the original structure as possible. 

Next, David Burville has an appointment with Glaswegian Jon Keogh, who has a homemade model of a prawn trawler made by his dad, John. The model is a replica of a real boat owned by his father, who took up fishing after his career building boats in the Clyde shipyards came to an end. Having always yearned to make a living from the sea when Glasgow's shipbuilding industry declined, it was the perfect opportunity to make his dreams come true. Sadly, the fishing industry also declined, and John ended up selling his trawler, something that was hard to cope with at the time. To help him manage, he decided to build an exact replica of the boat he loved from memory. 

The model is in a bad way with broken lights, a deteriorating hull and snapped-off rigging. As David gets to work, he finds more problems than anticipated when he discovers the batteries have leaked. 

Next to arrive is Mayassa Reip with a piece of history, for the attention of silversmith Brenton West, that's played a part in generations of family weddings. It's an ornately decorated silver-framed mirror from Iraq dating back to the early 20th century which belonged to her grandmother who had an arranged marriage. On the day of the wedding, she sat in front of the mirror when her husband-to-be walked into the room – the first time they saw each other was through the reflection in the mirror, and once they met in this way the marriage could go ahead. The mirror has been passed down the female line ever since, and although they no longer have arranged marriages, it has been present at all the subsequent family weddings. 

Mayassa now wants to have it repaired so it can be enjoyed by future generations, including when her son gets married next year. The edges of the frame are sharp and coming away and it is heavily tarnished, but it also has major splits running through the silver decoration. 

Arriving last into the barn are mother and daughter Mona Roddy and Dearbhla Lennon from Dundalk in Ireland. The have a miniature Irish dancing dress that Dearbhla wore when she was two years old. It has the traditional lace collar and cuffs which had originally been made for mum Mona when she was a child learning to dance in the 1950s. 

It's tradition that the lace collar and cuffs are unpicked and re-sewn onto all the dancing costumes, and Mona wore them until she finished competitive dancing in her early 20s. When Dearbhla was learning as a child, the lace was added to her costume, and since then has been worn by Dearbhla's own children. Having had an internationally successful dance career in shows like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, Dearbhla and Mona have a close connection to the lace and the little dress where it all began. 

The dress is stained, but the 70-year-old lace is looking very tattered and is becoming undone. It is the job of textile conservator Rebecca Bissonnet to carefully bring the lace, and the dress, back to their former glory.

The barn welcomes Anthony from Norwich, who has brought in a very rare model car for the attention of Brenton West. The gold-plated model of the Lotus Esprit, the submarine car, was one of only ten made for the premiere of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977, and was presented to his father Michael. For Anthony, the car represents his father's rise from humble apprentice to CEO of one of the most recognisable car brands in the world. Full of guilt for playing with the car as a child, wearing out the mechanics and ruining the gold plating, Anthony wants the car returned to its former glory to say thank you to his dad for all that he's done. 

Next to arrive is Rhona from Paisley with a set of military bagpipes that belonged to her dad Jim. Jim grew up in Port Glasgow and loved the sound of bagpipes. He joined the boy's brigade so he could learn the instrument and spent many years travelling and playing, most notably performing for the king of Norway. Sadly, Rhona's never heard these bagpipes being played, as when she was born, the family moved away from where the pipe band practised and her dad packed them away, never to be played again. Since her dad passed four years ago, it's been Rhona's dream to hear these pipes being played. Musical expert Pete Woods has a challenge on his hands to get these pipes that meant so much to her dad back in working order. 

Next, with a musical assignment for ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay, are Rachael and her mum Bev from Kent. They've brought a pair of jazz musician statues that belonged to Rachael's grandparents and were at the centre of many family parties and gatherings for many years. The jazz duo were gifted to Rachael by her grandma Claudette when she got married in 2010, but sadly, during a house move, the statues were damaged and the male figurine's leg was broken. A cherished reminder of beloved parents and grandparents, Kirsten sets to work to get these jazz musicians looking smart enough to take centre stage in Rachael's home. 

The final visitor to the barn is Harriet, with a precious memento from a very special day. A metal-detecting enthusiast, Harriet discovered the locket buried in a field during a day of metal detecting with her then boyfriend. Unbeknownst to her, her boyfriend had also buried an engagement ring in the field as a grand romantic gesture for her to find, and both the locket and the ring are reminders of one of the happiest days of her life. Harriet wore the locket on her wedding day, but having spent many years buried in the mud, it's very thin and fragile and cannot be worn as a pendant. Richard Talman sets to work.

Arriving first is Claire from Manchester, who has brought with her a notebook that once belonged to her grandmother Jean during World War II. On first appearance, the notebook contains nothing more intriguing than some handwritten recipes for ginger cake and biscuits, but upon closer inspection, the notebook reveals its fascinating dual purpose. Claire explains that her grandmother was in the ‘Wrens' (The Women's Royal Naval Service) during the second world war and had a specific role as a telegraphist, communicating Japanese code to the Enigma team at Bletchley Park. Claire was stunned to discover the handwritten notes about morse code and diagrams of radio equipment alongside a Christmas cake recipe. Jean had remained tight-lipped about her service, having signed the official secrets act, and so much of her involvement in the vital codebreaking work remained a secret until 2009, when Jean finally revealed her part in the vital codebreaking work that helped to end the war. 

Claire is calling on the help of expert bookbinder Chris Shaw to reinvigorate the notebook, which has been battered and torn over the years, with its once vibrant cover now faded and peeling away. Chris has his work cut out to rescue the cover before tackling the tricky areas where the spine of the book has disintegrated. Skilfully restoring this precious piece of history, Chris is finally ready to reveal the recipe/codebreaking notebook to Claire. 

Mechanical mastermind Dominic Chinea has an appointment with Geoffrey from Suffolk, who has brought with him a sizeable fire pump. The contraption, which is over 250 years old, belongs to the parish of Worlingworth, where, from 1760 to 1927, the hand-powered pump was the village's first defence against fire. But aside from a remarkable history, Dom also needs to get his head around the malfunctioning pump. Decades of neglect have seen the valves deteriorate, woodworm devour the handles and the reservoir spring multiple leaks. Dom checks off each of these tasks on a mammoth repair job before applying the perfect finish to give the pump a new lease of life. But will it work when Geoffrey returns to the barn to try it out? 

Next to arrive is 85-year-old Zarina from London. She's hoping ceramics restorer Kirsten Ramsay can piece together what's left of an item of crockery that was gifted to her by a dear friend. The healing bowl is a large dish with beautiful Arabic text featured on the inside. The bowl was originally given to Zarina by the daughter of the Sultan, Princess Amal. Despite being the royal princess, they became close friends at school, a friendship that lasted all their lives. When Zarina left Zanzibar to pursue further education in the UK in 1961, Princess Amal gifted her the bowl as a farewell present and symbol of their deep friendship. Zarina has used it to drink from many times during illness, but her sister accidentally broke it whilst cleaning the house, and the bodged repair has left the bowl cracked and incomplete. Kirsten has a classic case of breaking down before building up, first removing the rough superglue fix before carefully recreating the bowl precisely as Zarina remembers it from her schooldays in Zanzibar. 

The last visitors are Dara and Anne from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, who have an equine challenge for willow weaver Sarah Hatton. They have brought a large woven horse's head, which would be worn during performances of ancient Irish folklore. The puppet head is of Macha, the horse goddess who dates back to the Iron Age, and Dara and Anne have dedicated themselves to keeping these performance traditions alive by taking the puppets to schools and public events. As an ancient tradition, these Celtic mythologies were something shared by both Protestant and Catholic children, and so Dara used this shared history to help bring divided groups together throughout the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. 

But after many years of good service, Macha is no longer in fine fettle. Her ears are completely disconnected from her head, there's a large hole in the wicker of her skull and worn-down material across the mouthpiece. Sarah has a substantial restoration on her hands as she takes the reigns on this one-of-a-kind repair and brings the giant puppet head back to performance-worthy condition.