New: The Repair Shop

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The Repair Shop

Factual: Antiques

Shining a light on the wonderful treasures to be found in homes across the country.

Enter a workshop filled with expert craftspeople, bringing loved pieces of family history and the memories they hold back to life. A heartwarming antidote to throwaway culture.

Series 13

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Jay Blades

Bill Paterson

Dominic Chinea

Sarah Hatton

William Kirk

Kirsten Ramsay

Lucia Scalisi

Christopher Shaw

Brenton West

Glenn Swift

Emma Walsh

Matt Baker

Ingo Nyakairu 

Ashley Golder

Kim Boursnell

Hannah James

undefined Ricochet

The Repair Shop: Series 13: Episode 4

Episode 4

BBC One - The Repair Shop, Series 13, Episode 4

Bookbinder Chris Shaw reinvigorates a codebreaking cookbook that helped win the war!

Bookbinder Chris Shaw restores a notebook containing codebreaking secrets that helped the Enigma team in Bletchley Park. And it's all hands on deck as a 250-year-old fire pump roars back to life.

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.

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