The Repair Shop: Fixing Britain

Original version

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

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Factual: Antiques

Jay Blades delves into the stories behind the items restored in the Repair Shop.

Jay Blades delves into the stories behind the items restored in the Repair Shop, and finds out more about the show's team of craft experts.

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Jay Blades

Paula Fasht

David Sayer

Rob Butterfield

Emma Walsh

Ricochet Limited

The Repair Shop: Fixing Britain: Series 1: Episode 11

Episode 11

BBC One - The Repair Shop: Fixing Britain, Series 1, Episode 11

Three repairs shed light on how modern motion-picture technology developed.

With the help of archive, Jay Blades reveals how three inventions restored in the barn – a magic lantern, a projector and a mutoscope – influenced modern TV and film technology.

Jay Blades revisits three amazing inventions that have had a profound influence on the development of the film and video technology we take for granted today. 

First, a magic lantern brought into the barn by Marie-Noelle. She can remember her grandmother using it to show her images when Marie-Noelle was a child, but the light source has gone, some of the slides don’t fit and the exterior is showing its age. Jay uses fascinating archive footage to show how the magic lantern was developed and used to produce some of the earliest sequences of moving images, using the same principle as modern day video. 

The second repair is a mutuscope owned by David Powell from Hampshire. The machine is like a flip-book: it rotates a series of still pictures past a viewfinder at speed to give the illusion of motion (again very similar to the basic premise of modern day TV and film). Jay explain the role the mutuscope played in the development of the cinema and how it gave rise to some of the first silent movie stars. 

Finally, a projector owned by Allan Barham is used to show how home projectors like this were one of the key stepping stones for today's film and video.

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The Repair Shop: Fixing Britain

Series 1

Episode 11

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