- 20 hours ago
The Repair Shop S16E03
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TVTranscript
00:01A remarkable workshop of wonder.
00:03This is amazing.
00:06Home to experts of every kind.
00:11Together, they revive beloved belongings.
00:14Oh, get an idea of it.
00:16This is amazing.
00:17This is absolutely brilliant.
00:19Bringing both the items.
00:22This looks like it's seen much better days.
00:26And the memories they hold.
00:30It's him.
00:31You ready?
00:32Yeah.
00:32I'm ready.
00:33Back to life.
00:38Wow.
00:39It's amazing.
00:41They are stunning.
00:44I like it.
00:47Welcome to the Repair Shop.
01:00You all right, Will?
01:01I've never seen you concentrate so much.
01:03Hey.
01:04What are you up to?
01:05Oh, okay.
01:08Fancy a game?
01:09Why not?
01:09Okay.
01:10It's been a few years though.
01:12Mind my knuckles.
01:16Do you know what the joke is?
01:18That's your drill.
01:19Yeah.
01:20Great.
01:25Hey, Jeff.
01:27This is great, isn't it?
01:28It's gorgeous.
01:29It's quite a rare little thing, this.
01:31It's very nice.
01:32Yeah.
01:32The first visitors to arrive today are sisters Julie and Tracy, who have travelled from Gosport
01:39to Hampshire.
01:40They are hoping pinball wizard Jeff can work his magic on a globetrotting gaming gem.
01:47Welcome to the barn.
01:49This must be yours.
01:51Definitely is.
01:52Yes.
01:53What exactly are we looking at here?
01:55We always refer to it as the pinball machine, but I know it's got a different name, but
02:00we can never say it.
02:01Go on then, try.
02:03Pinchillata.
02:05Or Pinchetta.
02:06Very near.
02:07Pachinko.
02:08Pachinko.
02:09Pachinko.
02:09Yes.
02:10How exactly does it work?
02:12If I remember rightly, you put the ball in through the hole there.
02:15This is the lever that you would ping the ball around, and it would spin, drop through
02:21wherever, and it'd go ding, ding, and then eventually they'd come out here.
02:26Whereabouts did you get it from?
02:27Our dad got it from Japan when he was in the Navy in Singapore in 1970.
02:33So did he do lots of travelling then?
02:35As children, he was away an awful lot, six months to a year sometimes, yeah.
02:40Did you go and visit your father in Singapore when he was stationed there?
02:44Yes, we did.
02:44We all moved out there as a family.
02:46We lived across the border from Singapore in Malaysia itself.
02:50I was nine, and then Tracy at seven and a half, because there's four of us, see?
02:55What was life like out there for a child at such a young age?
02:59Brilliant.
03:00Oh, was it?
03:02Mainly because school finished at 12 o'clock.
03:04Did it?
03:05It was too hot.
03:05That's an easy day.
03:06Yeah, it was an easy day.
03:07It was lovely.
03:08Yeah, it was such a good life.
03:09When's the first time you saw the machine?
03:11When we moved into our house.
03:13When Dad come with this, it was like, wow, this is ours.
03:17Yeah.
03:17Yeah, this is for us.
03:18So we've actually got photos of us outside, and I am front and centre of the machine.
03:24You know, I always remember the noise it made going around the metal rim.
03:28Yeah.
03:28I can hear that now.
03:30Dare I ask how long ago was it it last worked?
03:3471 is when we got back to the UK.
03:37It would have been unpacked from its crate.
03:39Yep.
03:39We probably would have had a few goes, and Mum swiftly said, right, that's it.
03:43It went to the loft, and there it stayed until last year.
03:46Why did you keep it for that amount of time?
03:48It was very much, you know, part of Dad's journey.
03:52It's our connection to living in Malaysia and the times we had.
03:56And he always would say, I have to get that repaired.
04:00But then, sadly, he got really poorly and passed away Christmas last year.
04:05I'm so sorry.
04:06Yeah.
04:07What are you hoping I can do to this lovely machine?
04:09From memory, it lights up.
04:11Also, every time it hit these here, it dinged.
04:15So it was quite noisy, actually.
04:17Delightfully noisy.
04:19Little tings and ding, ding, ding, ding.
04:20Yeah, and just come alive again.
04:22Yeah.
04:24Well, it would be really nice to take you back down memory lane
04:26and to get this working for you.
04:28We'll see you very soon.
04:29Bye.
04:30Bye-bye.
04:33This is great, isn't it?
04:34I'm looking forward to having a go on it, yeah.
04:36We've got to fix it first.
04:37Yeah, it needs some love and attention.
04:39Can I hand?
04:40Yes, please.
04:42Are you OK like that?
04:43Yeah.
04:44Here we go.
05:00What an amazing and gorgeous machine.
05:03I have worked on one in my life in 1971 when I actually owned one myself
05:08but had no idea what to do with them.
05:10But I'm a little bit in the dark.
05:12I'm sort of mildly nervous.
05:15Looking at the front, the first thing that strikes me is this looks very poor condition
05:20and very, very rusty.
05:21So one of the first things I'm going to do is take this metal frame off and send it off
05:26to be re-chromed.
05:27That'll make a huge difference.
05:29Once the frame is out, I can obviously get to the play field, which will need a bit of
05:34polishing up, but generally that's in very good nick.
05:37One of the problems with this machine, because it was wall-mounted, is that it's not stable.
05:42So I'm going to talk to Win and see if we can make some type of cabinet.
05:46At the back of this machine, I've got the electrics.
05:49There's a bit of wiring going on here, and I presume that different lights come on at different
05:53times with these switches, but I need to put a new power supply in before I can sort that out.
05:58Then I've got all the mechanics.
06:00This machine works by being full of balls, which run down little pathways.
06:05Unless the balls run really freely and easily, the machine won't work.
06:09So my first job is to make sure the balls can flow freely.
06:25Come on then, Susie. How's your football knowledge?
06:28Oh. Strong? No.
06:30Great. I know there's a ball.
06:33Goodness me. And some players.
06:35OK. We're about to have a lesson. OK.
06:39Stepping in to give Susie a crash course in the beautiful game,
06:43our brothers Kirk and Ian Russell from Glasgow.
06:50Hello. Hi. How are you doing? Hi.
06:52This looks interesting.
06:54So this is the 1963 Scottish Cup Final Matchball,
06:59which belonged to our papa, our grandfather, Ian McMillan,
07:03who played for Rangers in that Cup Final, which they won 3-0 against the rivals Celtic.
07:08Congratulations.
07:09Wow. That's amazing.
07:10This is the actual ball from the Cup Final.
07:13Yes.
07:13That's right. Yes. This is the one.
07:14How on earth have you got hold of this then?
07:17So this ball was smuggled off the pitch by one of his teammates, Jim Baxter.
07:22This was likely to be our papa's last Cup Final for Rangers.
07:27Such was his position in football, as revered as he was.
07:31I think he was coming towards the end of his career,
07:33and I think his teammates knew of him as being a good player, a gentleman,
07:37and I think we're more than happy for him to be given some kind of award for that.
07:40So he put it under his jumper, took it off the pitch so that it could be given to our
07:44parts.
07:45Brilliant.
07:46It was headline news.
07:47There was clippings and photographs of Jim Baxter with the ball up his jersey.
07:51So did Jim Baxter present this to your granddad?
07:54Briefly.
07:55The referee caught up with him and took the ball back because you were not allowed to take the balls
08:00in those days,
08:02and so the ball was then taken to the Scottish Football Association.
08:05But thanks to, I think, a lot of persuasion from various Rangers players and the management team,
08:10they managed to persuade SFA to give it back to our grandfather.
08:15What an incredible piece of history.
08:17It's an extra special, the mentor that we have from that.
08:19Wow.
08:20So your grandfather was really like a top, top player, was he?
08:24Yeah.
08:25He won four league titles when he was there, three league cups, three Scottish cups.
08:30He played in a European Cup final.
08:32He scored two goals in a Champions League semi-finals.
08:34He's inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame and into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame as well.
08:39So he had a fantastic career.
08:41I'm very proud of him.
08:42Wow.
08:43Yeah.
08:44Incredible achievements.
08:45Yeah, yeah.
08:46What was he like as a granddad then?
08:48He was a big part of our lives.
08:49We'd go and visit him regularly most weekends.
08:51He would take us out the back garden.
08:53That's probably where you got your football skills from.
08:57Practising free kicks in the back garden with him, teaching us and things.
09:00Whenever we went, we always made a beeline for the cupboard to get the ball out and kick it around.
09:05Kick it around the flat, kick it around the garden.
09:07Never spoke about where it was from or what it was.
09:09So just very humble and very modest.
09:11Let me just get that right.
09:12So whilst you were a kid, you'd use this one.
09:14Often.
09:15Really nice.
09:16Oh my goodness.
09:20Can I have a look?
09:21Of course.
09:21I love that you just had no idea as kids.
09:23It's just another football.
09:25It's even got a signature on it.
09:28Look.
09:28Oh, look at that.
09:29Whose signature is that?
09:30That's his signature.
09:32Yeah.
09:33The bladder.
09:34That doesn't sound good.
09:37What is it that you would like me to be able to do?
09:41So it would be great if it could be returned maybe to a sense of structure.
09:45It makes it look more like a ball.
09:47And the leather would be brought back to life a wee bit.
09:50It'd be great if we could see the signature maybe a little easier.
09:54And what would be the plan for the future of the ball?
09:57Yeah, well, we've actually been in contact with Rangers.
10:00And Rangers are quite keen for it to be to display the Ibrox in their trophy room.
10:04So, which would be just fantastic.
10:07I think that all we can say is leave it with us.
10:09Yeah.
10:09Do the best we can.
10:10Absolutely.
10:11But promise me you won't kick it around the front anymore.
10:13Please.
10:14Those days are done.
10:14Thank you very much.
10:15See you soon.
10:15Bye.
10:30This is amazing.
10:32I've got a ball here that is so well known in the Scottish football folklore.
10:37The bladder itself has completely perished.
10:41And I can tell that because it's rattling around in there.
10:44I'm going to have to open this ball up to be able to remove the old bladder.
10:50So that's started the process.
10:53Actually, I'm quite scared.
10:55Because the thing that I'm really worried about is sewing it back together.
10:59And when I come to inflating the new bladder, will the old seams hold up?
11:06If they don't, it's going to create a lot of extra work for me.
11:12But I just have to wait and see what happens.
11:15There we go.
11:16Now, as I press this panel down, I can expose the old bladder here.
11:23And that's 60 plus years that that's been in there.
11:31It's going to give up the fight.
11:33It really is going to give up the fight.
11:36There we go.
11:37Oh, my.
11:42So that has definitely had it today.
11:46And there's some writing on the side.
11:48Made in England.
11:50And more importantly, it's got the size on it, a number five.
11:53So I know the size of the bladder that I need to find.
11:57I can pop in a new bladder, fix it into position,
12:02and then close up the seam.
12:04And then once I've got this sewn up, I'm going to have a chat with Lucia
12:09and see if she can highlight the signature.
12:20Will.
12:20Hey, Geoff.
12:21Hi there.
12:21That pachinko machine.
12:23Yes.
12:23I really desperately need a cabinet for it.
12:25Right.
12:26Because the machine isn't freestanding.
12:28So what it needs is a box around it so it can be static and put on a table.
12:33Because in theory, they usually go into the wall, right?
12:35That's it, yeah.
12:36I've done some sort of basic diagram.
12:39OK, leave it with me.
12:40I really appreciate it.
12:41No worries.
12:48At his bench, Geoff is taking a closer look at the intricate inner workings of the pachinko machine.
12:55So I'll give the machine a very basic initial clean.
12:58And now I'm just seeing if the actual mechanisms work or not.
13:02Balls drop in through here and they fill the machine up.
13:05So all these little counterweights have to be able to move freely.
13:10They then run through here, through here.
13:14Then they run through here.
13:15And this should move.
13:18And it's not.
13:20And seems a bit jammed.
13:21So I'm going to lay the machine down and see what's wrong with it.
13:28OK, I'm just going to look inside its innards.
13:31And if I pull this nail out.
13:34I'm going to remove this little plastic cover.
13:38Right, found the culprits.
13:41Look at this.
13:42A little rubber ball and a little stone.
13:47Amazing.
13:47I wondered if a younger Julie or Tracy may have run out of balls and thought,
13:52Oh, these are about the right size.
13:54They'll do nicely.
13:56Now, that's working beautifully.
13:58That's all free.
13:59That's absolutely perfect.
14:01And then there's this chute that goes into this weird box.
14:04I haven't a clue what it is.
14:05So I'm going to take it out now and take a peek.
14:12Oh, it's got bells in it.
14:14It's got bells.
14:15The bells.
14:17So let's see.
14:18I wonder if I put some balls into here.
14:22I wonder if I can make the noise.
14:25Fantastic.
14:25That's lovely.
14:26Love it.
14:27Absolutely love it.
14:28Now I've got rid of the blockages to the machine.
14:29I've got to take it all apart.
14:32Really thorough, deep, clean.
14:33Get rid of all the debris and rust.
14:35Then I can put it back together and then feed the machine with those hundreds of balls
14:40and check if it works or not.
14:50Geoff has asked me to make a cabinet for the pachinko machine.
14:53All of the woodwork has been done.
14:55Everything's been cut out, measured precisely.
14:57I now need to glue and screw everything together.
15:00I'm hoping my measurements are right,
15:01because if it's too small, the machine's not going to fit inside.
15:13Next, Peter Moss and his son Alex, a hoping bookbinder Chris,
15:19can rewrite the future of a publication that tells a tale of human resilience and hope.
15:25Hi there.
15:26Hello.
15:26Hello, hello.
15:28What do we have here?
15:29This is Raggle Taggle.
15:31This is very precious to us.
15:33This is a book created in a prisoner of war camp,
15:37where my father, Jock Moss, was a captive held by the Japanese Imperial Army.
15:44So your father was in a prisoner of war camp?
15:46Yes.
15:47He was there for, I think, three and a half years in total.
15:51How did your dad end up in the camp?
15:53He was a member of the Indian Army in Kuala Lumpur.
15:57He was in Singapore, where senior officers walked past with a white flag and a Union Jack to surrender to
16:07the Japanese.
16:09Allied troops who were captured by the Japanese during the Second World War
16:13were sent to prisoner of war camps all over their newly acquired empire
16:17to be used as slaves for the war effort.
16:21Jock Moss was sent to one of 14 camps on the island of Taiwan, known as Shirakawa, Camp 4.
16:28Do you know much about the conditions of the camp?
16:30From what I hear, I understand the conditions were pretty atrocious.
16:33He certainly had nightmares for the rest of his life.
16:36Goodness me.
16:38So this is a prisoner of war camp magazine, basically?
16:41It is basically a prisoner of war camp magazine.
16:43Who would have contributed to this book?
16:46The prisoners in the camp, for the benefit of the other prisoners in the camp.
16:53Basically as a distraction against the misery and despair that they all had.
17:00So if you can read something like this, you realise so many other people are in the same boat as
17:03you.
17:03Kind of gives you that hope.
17:05And to despair.
17:06Yeah, exactly.
17:07But that's why Raggle Taggle is so important.
17:10That's what your father focused on in the camp.
17:12I think that's entirely right.
17:14It was terribly important to him and therefore to us.
17:18What was your father's involvement with the magazine?
17:20My father was the editor of it.
17:23It's absolutely beautiful.
17:24It's unbelievable.
17:25They are a series of stories and handwritten, typed, painted, puzzles, amusing anecdotes.
17:38Was it one copy and then was it passed around?
17:41Absolutely.
17:42There was only one copy and there were 800 people to read it.
17:46Really?
17:46Wow.
17:47So they were allowed half an hour per individual to read it.
17:51That's why it's worn and torn and the mosquito netting covering.
17:57Is that mosquito netting?
17:58That's mosquito netting and brown paper and rice glue.
18:02It is truly unique, isn't it?
18:04Absolutely.
18:05It's one of my fondest memories of my grandfather was actually going through this magazine.
18:09It was always about the people who contributed and brought it to life.
18:13What did your father do with the magazine when he returned home?
18:16He decided that it should be printed and there were about 400 copies made and distributed
18:22and in order to print the book, sadly, some of the pages had to be cut out.
18:29Yeah.
18:29What would you like me to do?
18:30It would be astonishing if you could in any way hold the pages in some way back.
18:37I would love somebody to conserve it for future generations.
18:43I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in and reading the contents as well.
18:47I cannot thank you enough.
18:49We'll see you very soon.
18:50Really great.
18:51Thanks so much.
18:52Good luck.
19:08Godness.
19:09I have never, ever seen a book like this.
19:13It's phenomenal.
19:15What a title page.
19:17Sport.
19:19And what a beautiful drawing of factory roofs and chimneys.
19:24It's a testament to the resourcefulness of the prisoners.
19:28It looks like craft paper. It's mosquito net.
19:32It's a really historical, important book that needs to be maintained.
19:39There's a long way to go with this book.
19:42It feels very, very weak along the spine.
19:45All the little scuffs I will stick down, I just need to conserve that.
19:49The first thing I need to do is to get it dismantled internally
19:54so I can repair the pages.
20:02Did you ever play football?
20:03Do you know what? Never good at football.
20:05No? No.
20:06I fenced. Fencing for about 15 years.
20:09Strike the pose?
20:09The problem now is, if I lunge...
20:13All right, I can't get back up.
20:15The knee's gone.
20:16It'd be easy to beat.
20:17It's OK.
20:27Susie has fitted a new bladder in the football
20:30and is trying to figure out how to sew it back up
20:34without popping the replacement.
20:37Now, I've been giving this closing of the seam a great deal of thought.
20:42I've got very old fragile leather
20:45and I've got a bladder that is very close to the surface here
20:50and I'm using very sharp needles.
20:52So I'm using like a saddle stitch
20:56because that's how this was originally sewn together.
21:21Music
21:22This is by far the hardest part
21:25because i've got no room to sort of work in i need to get the curve of the needle
21:32inside and come out of this hole here but everything is really really tight and it's
21:40fighting me it's just so awkward but i'm gonna battle away here i will not be beaten
21:53so close it's just so close all the time there you go oh yay one little stitch
22:03oh i'm so pleased i'll take it right so that's that first bit done now i'm just going to start
22:12pulling up from where i began and start tightening the whole thing up
22:34so this seam is nicely pulled together and it looks really really tidy i'm very happy with it
22:41it's going to hold this ball together nice and tight as i pump up the bladder
22:48hopefully all the other seams are going to hold too that's my biggest concern here
22:53so i just need to pump it up
23:00so you can imagine i mean i feel nervous just blowing up a ball but how ian must have felt
23:05with his teammates going into that game so now i'm in the danger zone i can feel the resistance on
23:13the
23:20pump
23:21can't hear anything can't feel anything i think we're good i think we're good it feels really good
23:27it feels like a ball again it's got some life in it i'm now going to attend to the areas
23:32where we've
23:32got some surface cracks before i hand this over to lucia
23:55jeff has got the frame of the pachinko machine gleaming and is ready to see if this arcade antique
24:01could still spring into action i can lift the machine up we can open it up
24:10now the moment of truth i'm going to put balls in the machine and see if the mechanism works
24:25so i'm going to go to the front and here i place a ball in this little hole here comes
24:32through to the
24:32plunger and off we go
24:36the mechanism seems to be working that's a very good start
24:45hooray i won amazing yeah i've got the noise the pachink sound when you actually win and we think
24:51that's where the name pachinko actually came from from the sound itself i am overjoyed
24:58i could easily spend all day here but i've actually got work to do so i need to get on
25:02with the electrics
25:13the electrics are relatively simple but it's some nice bulbs that flash on when you get a win
25:18which there are only two but do brighten up the game now both the bulb holders and the bulbs have
25:24seen better days and need to be completely replaced i'm going to use standard modern pinball lamp holders
25:31and bulbs first thing i need to do is solder this new bulb holder to the red and yellow cables
25:41nice steady hand great that's good right well that's soldered beautifully i've just got to do
25:48the second one now that i can put some power onto the machine
26:06right wires in place the moment of truth stand the machine up let there be light hopefully
26:16well if all is working there should be a light here right in the center and a light up there
26:28geronimo
26:32and the switches work as well which is lovely i'm very very very pleased
26:36just need to play the machine and make sure everything works as it should
26:51chris has fully dismantled the prisoner of war magazine and must now reunite the pages that were
26:57torn apart i've been working on the pages and i found one of my worst fears written about he's talking
27:05about a vivid dream in which under public gaze some vital garment my trousers for example was missing
27:14and the delight is that he's done a drawing of himself without any trousers and he's got some hairy legs
27:20and knobbly knees utter delight laughing and having humor raises the spirits and i can see why raggle
27:29taggle would raise the spirits the big issue i have with this book is that the pages have been cut
27:35for the printing after the war that's where the major damage has occurred and the problem i've got is
27:42rehinging them so to address this concern i'm using some really really fine repair tissue and it's heat
27:51reactive so the glue on it gets reacted by heat so i apply it with a heated spatula so the
27:59glue reacts
28:00the parasites and sticks what i'm doing here is reconstructing the folded page
28:10i've got seven more pages to rehinge and then i am going to sew the text onto this piece of
28:19cloth
28:20which is how they did it in camp, and then I can give it a new spine.
28:50Geoff and Will have reached the final stage of their repair of the pachinko machine.
28:56All right, Geoff. Hello, Will.
28:58Well, fantastic job on the cab list. That's fabulous.
29:00If you'd give me a hand, I'd be very grateful.
29:02Happily, happily. OK.
29:05Lovely UK there. There we go.
29:08Oh, please fit. Hold on.
29:15Oh, Geoff, it fits.
29:17That's absolutely brilliant.
29:18I'm so pleased. It looks quite smart, doesn't it?
29:21It looks beautiful. What's left to do?
29:22Just got to drill a hole for the electrics, give it a final polish, and we're done.
29:27When this retro Japanese marvel arrived,
29:30it was a rusty relic with jammed mechanics
29:33and lights that had been out for decades.
29:38All working? Yeah, it looks fantastic.
29:40Look at the light back there. That's lovely.
29:42It looks beautiful, actually. I'm really pleased to stick this over here.
29:46Now Julie and Tracy have returned, hoping the buzz, bells and bling
29:51have been brought back to the machine that holds memories of their father
29:55and their childhood in Malaysia.
30:01Hello.
30:02Hello.
30:02Hi.
30:04We're back.
30:05You look really excited.
30:07Yeah, I am.
30:08Yeah.
30:08Would you like to take a look?
30:09Yes, please.
30:10Yeah?
30:10Yeah.
30:11Yeah.
30:15Oh, my word.
30:18Wow.
30:19Oh, my God.
30:22This is beautiful.
30:24The frame's beautiful.
30:26Shiny.
30:27I'm speechless. Honestly, speechless.
30:31It's on a base, Will.
30:33Did you do that?
30:34Yeah.
30:34Will did an amazing job.
30:36Yeah, amazing.
30:37We always used to have to lean it slightly against the wall.
30:39So this is just, like, perfect.
30:42And is that, that light?
30:43That's the light.
30:44Yeah, it's got power to it now.
30:46Yes.
30:48God takes you back.
30:49Mm.
30:50Really takes you back.
30:51We had it from Dad.
30:53He's not here to see it.
30:58He'd be so excited.
31:01We wouldn't go looking.
31:04Yeah.
31:05I want to ping it.
31:06You want to ping it?
31:10Okay.
31:15Oh!
31:18I remember that sound.
31:21It is great, isn't it?
31:26Oh, just a minute.
31:27It's the sound.
31:28It just takes you back.
31:29You could close your eyes, you could be back in Malaya.
31:31It's amazing.
31:33It took me back.
31:34I felt like a kid again.
31:36Mm.
31:36Brilliant.
31:37Absolutely brilliant.
31:38You know, obviously, Dad's not here to see it,
31:41but he would have been so proud and so pleased.
31:52It's great.
31:53Next to arrive at the barn is Emma McLennan from Kent.
31:57She's bringing a rare instrument that's crying out for a rescue
32:00from Luthier Becky.
32:04Hi there.
32:05Hi.
32:07Tell us about what you brought in.
32:08I've brought in today a Cretan Lyra,
32:11which is a stringed instrument played with a bow.
32:15It's quite a unique instrument, isn't it?
32:17It is, isn't it?
32:17I haven't actually seen one in the flesh before,
32:20so it's a real treat for me.
32:21Right.
32:22Yeah, it's quite beautiful on the backside as well.
32:24It's nicely carved.
32:25Oh, that's gorgeous.
32:26It's very traditional for Cretan music.
32:29So it's a folk instrument then?
32:30It is a folk instrument, yeah,
32:32but it's at the heart of any Cretan music ensemble.
32:36But particularly at big parties called Glendi,
32:39where you would be celebrating the community, an anniversary,
32:43or you'd be celebrating something like the Orange Harvest,
32:46or a celebration of cheese pies.
32:49Cheese pies? I love cheese pies.
32:50That's great.
32:51They should be celebrated.
32:52I know, exactly.
32:53You know, any excuse.
32:55And there'll always be a band with the Lyra at the centre playing.
32:58Who does it belong to?
32:59It was.
33:00My son, Alex's, and it's something that Alex loved.
33:05My mother is from Crete,
33:06and Alex had been going since he was a small child.
33:10So Alex spoke the Cretan dialect.
33:14Really?
33:14And he just loved the music.
33:16Wow.
33:16So he was keen to learn to play,
33:18and that's why in 2013 he ordered this.
33:22Just taught himself.
33:24My word.
33:24Are you quite proud of Alex
33:26and the way that he embraced the culture?
33:28I'm hugely proud of him.
33:30He was a real people person anyway.
33:32He got to know people in every walk of life,
33:35including some shepherds from the mountains,
33:37going up to the sheep shearing.
33:40There's music, and there's food and drink,
33:43and it's really quite an experience.
33:46How long did he play this for?
33:48He played it until 2019,
33:51when he could no longer play it.
33:53Oh.
33:53Because he developed motor neurone disease.
33:58Excuse me.
34:01He lost the ability to use his hands.
34:04He couldn't walk.
34:05And so he had to start playing.
34:08And so it's inevitably fatal.
34:11But Alex was 31 when we lost him.
34:1431 years old?
34:15Yeah.
34:16We lost him in 2020.
34:17Oh.
34:18But really, he played it as long as he had the ability to play.
34:23Which is why it's quite an important item for our family.
34:30Sadly, something fell on him and it bust.
34:34Restoring it will make us almost feel as if we're somehow restoring Alex in some way.
34:39I just want to see it whole and played again.
34:43Okay.
34:44And I'm so grateful to you for taking it on, really.
34:46It means so much to us.
34:47It's an honour to me.
34:48I really appreciate it.
34:50Well, see you soon.
34:51Bye-bye.
34:51Yeah, you take care.
34:52Bye-bye.
35:09Bye-bye.
35:09This is an absolutely beautiful instrument.
35:12I can really see why Alex loved it.
35:14With these instruments, you press your fingernail to the side of the string.
35:18You don't stop it with your pad of your finger.
35:20So, the fingerboard here is quite grooved where Alex's fingernails dug into it.
35:26I love that he's left that little imprint on this instrument.
35:30So, I'm going to be preserving that.
35:32This hole in the front is an absolute disaster, really.
35:38First thing I'm going to do is remove this front.
35:41I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to go in.
35:44I don't want to cut anything.
35:46I just want to break the glue seal.
35:50This blade suddenly feels really thick.
35:54And there's no give in this seam at all.
35:58This feels very wrong on a lot of levels.
36:02I'm going to introduce a bit of moisture.
36:04If it's natural glue, it should dissolve a little bit.
36:12I think I'm starting to get there.
36:14I think the water is doing something.
36:17The slightly bigger blade actually sank in a little bit then.
36:22Yes, that is starting to come away.
36:25My goodness.
36:27I can't tell you how relieved I am.
36:29There was a moment that I thought it was never coming around.
36:33Once I've managed to get round the hole of this front and remove it, I can actually start to fix
36:38the crack.
36:51Suzie's repair of the Scottish Cup final football is all stitched up, so she's passed it to Lucia to bring
36:59the all-important autograph back to life.
37:03I do not want to cover up any of Ian McMillan's signature, so I think what I'm going to do,
37:09the actual end of his name, the end on the end of McMillan, has disappeared.
37:14So I thought, I can actually reconstruct that.
37:17I found a few of his signatures on memorabilia online, and I've been practising just in pencil, but this is
37:24the one I'm going to use, this nice soft end.
37:26I literally have to guess this in terms of the size that I want it to be.
37:38And so he takes the little railway tunnel of the end from the bottom.
37:54That's good, I quite like that it looks a bit sort of smashed up.
37:56You can see it's there.
37:59You actually know what it is, even though it's broken, and you can read it.
38:03I'm pleased with it.
38:04I think what I'm going to do now is go back to some of the other lettering on the signature,
38:09and then I'll hand this back to Susie.
38:17Let's see.
38:22Becky is making headway with her repair of the Cretan Lyra.
38:27Ooh.
38:29The main issue is obviously this great big gaping hole in the front.
38:33Gosh, this feels fragile now.
38:36Oh, look, though.
38:38A lovely maker's signature inside and the date, 2013.
38:42It's always lovely to look inside an instrument.
38:45It's a real privilege, actually.
38:48My plan next is to turn my attention to this front and get the bits of wood roughly back in
38:54the correct positions.
39:04I'm just going to clamp it as much as I dare for now to stabilise it.
39:16Now I've got all the cracks aligned, I'm going to glue them.
39:22This is a hot, natural glue that I'm using.
39:26I'm going to get as much into this crack as I can to make sure that it goes all the
39:31way down through the crack so that I've got a really good joint here.
39:37The clamps are going to hold the sides of the crack in position as the glue gels, so it's really
39:42important I get this on quickly and have aligned both sides.
39:48I've got a straight edge here that I can use to check the sides of the crack are even.
39:53I just need to manipulate this a little bit here to flatten it out.
40:02That's actually gone down quite nicely there.
40:09Both sides of that crack are level, thank goodness.
40:13Once this part of this crack is dry, I can then tackle the rest of them.
40:34So what have you got there Becky? Looks interesting.
40:37Yeah, this is the Cretan Lira and look at all this Greek writing inside there.
40:42Oh wow, yeah, yeah, fascinating.
40:45Letters I don't even know.
40:46No, no, I get a lot of Dutch writing inside the fairground organs that I do.
40:50Of course.
40:51Maybe you should learn Greek and I should learn Dutch.
40:53Do you know, there's an app for that.
40:55Is there really?
40:55I think so.
41:02Chris has got the pages of the Prisoner of War magazine back together as one.
41:08And now needs to add the all-important spine.
41:11The pages are all sewn.
41:13I've got my fabric hinge all ready to be stuck to the board.
41:18And then over that I'm going to attach the new spine.
41:22So this is a major part of a book, the spine.
41:27I found a bit of paper and I am so pleased with the match.
41:32I'm going to use a mixture of paste and PVA.
41:35I don't want it to dry so quickly.
41:37So I'm going to use PVA to get it stuck.
41:40And then the paste is allowing it to manoeuvre.
42:00Once the spine is complete, I can then move on to repairing the dust jacket.
42:13I am going to start re-sticking the mosquito net down into its correct position.
42:19I'm going to use some rice starch paste.
42:21Exactly what they'd have used in the camp.
42:24It did the job 80 years ago, so it should do the job now.
42:42Becky has conquered the cracks on the Lyra repair.
42:46She now needs to turn her attention to reuniting its fractured components.
42:51I'm thinking about how I'm going to reattach the front to the body of the Lyra.
42:56There are absolutely no flat sides on the back of this beautiful instrument.
43:00So I've got no way of anchoring clamps round the edge to reattach the front.
43:06So the plan is to mix up plaster of Paris.
43:09And with this former, which to make really, I just drew round the outside of the Lyra in the rough
43:17shape I wanted to make a plaster cast.
43:19The reason I need this cast is that it will give me a flat surface here to clamp onto.
43:26And that should make it a really strong bond when I finally get the front back on.
43:31The cling film is used to protect the surface of the instrument from the plaster of Paris.
43:37So the next step is to mix up plaster of Paris.
43:41I love doing these jobs.
43:42It just brings me back to my childhood.
43:45My grandad was a carpenter.
43:46I'm used to disappearing to his shed, making things with wood, but also making things out plaster of Paris.
43:53I think he would find this really funny, actually, before I made elephants and crocodiles.
43:58And now I'm making a cast for a Cretan Lyra.
44:02OK.
44:03It looks quite creamy now.
44:04Now I can pour the plaster in.
44:07I want to make sure that I've got enough in all the way around the mould so that it's nice
44:12and even.
44:13I'll just lift it.
44:18Ah, that's better.
44:20Now I can just leave that to set.
44:22All I have to hope is that the instrument doesn't stick to the plaster and that I can get it
44:27out.
44:27So, just keeping my fingers crossed.
44:35It's approaching the final whistle for Susie's repair of the 1963 Scottish Cup Final football.
44:43The chair's given the ball back to me and I'm so, so impressed with what she's been able to do.
44:48It really has brought this ball to life.
44:51What I want to do now is to just put the sheen back into it.
44:57So I'm using a dry cloth and a little bit of product to get this in the best condition I
45:04can before I give back to Kirk Moon.
45:13This piece of footballing folklore was a long way from being match-fed when it arrived dull and deflated
45:21after Rangers legend Ian McMillan had used it for kickabouts with his grandsons.
45:29How's it looking? Are you happy?
45:30I'm really happy.
45:32It looks like a football again.
45:34It looks healthy.
45:35Well done.
45:37Now Ian and Kirk have returned, hoping Susie has been able to breathe new life into the ball that sparked
45:45a media frenzy.
45:47And to keep the grandfather's legacy alive.
45:51Hello.
45:51Hello.
45:52How are you doing?
45:52How are you doing?
45:53How are you doing?
45:53How are you doing?
45:54How are you doing?
45:54How are you doing?
45:55Excited to see the ball today, that's for sure.
45:58They're excited and nervous obviously talking about it, the whole way coming down to see this.
46:02Now that obviously Pabst has sadly passed, it would be lovely just to get a glimpse of what it might
46:06have looked like back in the day.
46:08Are you ready to take a look?
46:10Yeah, yeah.
46:11As many as we'll ever be, yeah.
46:12Okie dokie.
46:19Oh wow.
46:20That's absolutely first class, isn't it?
46:25That's absolutely tremendous.
46:27And it's, yeah, shaped like a football.
46:29This is great.
46:31You can see the signature there.
46:33It's great.
46:34You can really see the signature.
46:36You can properly read that now, whereas before it was so faint and it's lovely to think that that's his
46:41signature.
46:41He's written that.
46:42Thank you so much Susie, that's excellent.
46:44Well, it wasn't solely my work.
46:47Luchia did an amazing job of bringing out that signature.
46:50That really is great.
46:52You can just picture Pabst and the team of playing with that ball in the cup final, absolutely.
46:57Yeah.
46:57That's quite a special thought, isn't it?
46:59He was a very, very modest man, but I think for him to see this and to reminisce some of
47:04what he went through, I think he'd be absolutely delighted.
47:07Yeah, brilliant.
47:08Well, I'm very pleased to say it's yours to take away.
47:10Wonderful, thank you so much indeed.
47:12Or should we have a kick around outside?
47:13No, this is good to take away.
47:16Thank you so much.
47:17Much appreciated, thank you.
47:22I think they're happy, Susie.
47:24Well done.
47:25No, thank you.
47:27Just to see, obviously, Papa's signature on there, you can read it now, which is absolutely fantastic.
47:31So, it's a very fitting tribute to our Papa.
47:34Rangers have been very kind in offering to display this.
47:38The ball means so much to the Rangers community and to us as a family, and we're delighted to be
47:42able to share it with everyone.
47:50With the cast now set, Becky can bring the elements of the Lyra back together in harmony.
47:57I've put the body into the cast, which does seem to be doing the job.
48:01I do have a good flat surface to clamp on.
48:04Now I've got the trickiest part of this whole restoration, I think, getting the front reattached to the body.
48:10I always dry clamp fronts back onto instruments first.
48:14Because the glue takes hardly any time to gel and dry, I want to be able to just do it
48:18in section after section.
48:20It just makes it a much calmer process.
48:23I'm going to start at the top here.
48:26And I'm going to use my opening knife to work my way round in sections, forcing the glue in through
48:31the seam,
48:32so that I get a really nice strong bond and I'm not stressing the wood at all.
48:49I'm so concerned about getting this front on properly because it was so perfect when Alex played it.
48:54But I am quite paranoid about not getting a good joint between the front and the back.
49:03It looks as though everything's going how I want it to.
49:07But I'm not going to know until the glue has properly dried and I've taken all the clamps off.
49:26Chris is about to write the last line in his repair of the magazine Raggle Taggle.
49:32I'm really happy with the way it looks.
49:34It feels like they would have had this back in the day in the camp.
49:38There's very little I have to do.
49:40It is just toning down and blending the old and new piece of paper that I've put in for the
49:45spine.
49:49I'm using watercolour because it has that nice ability to feel faded.
49:55Add a bit of colour in but it still looks a bit washed out.
50:05I've got a bit of mosquito net to put on top just to make it look really spot on.
50:10And I can't wait then to be able to hand this back to Peter.
50:19Created in captivity by prisoners of war after the fall of Singapore to Japanese forces in 1942,
50:27this magazine offered hope and humour for inmates facing despair.
50:33When it arrived in the barn it was fragile and frayed,
50:37with loose pages hanging on by a mosquito net thread.
50:42What, Chris? You ready for this?
50:45Yeah, I am.
50:45Very nice.
50:49Now Peter and Alex have returned, hoping to see the magazine as it was
50:54when their father and grandfather created it
50:57to offer hope to prisoners of war in their darkest of hours.
51:03Hi guys, welcome back. Good morning.
51:07How have you been?
51:09I'm intrigued, fascinated.
51:12I can't wait.
51:13Shall we take a look?
51:15Please.
51:16Yeah.
51:20Dolly.
51:23Dolly.
51:24Wow.
51:29That is astonishing.
51:33Absolutely miraculous.
51:38It doesn't fall to bits.
51:41I can't believe you've managed to do all of that.
51:45Thank you so much.
51:47Just beyond words.
51:48It's absolutely a pleasure.
51:51I wanted to hand it back to you, looking like it would have.
51:54And you've certainly done that.
51:56And you're now an important part of Raggle Tackle.
51:59That's a huge honour.
52:01Thank you so, so much.
52:03Bye-bye.
52:04Bye.
52:08Well done, Chris.
52:09Thank you, Will.
52:12I'm feeling in wonder, really, to hold it in my hand in the condition now,
52:18which must be as near as it would possibly ever be,
52:22to how it was 82 years ago.
52:25And to be able to see it for the first time intact,
52:29it is wondrous.
52:39Becky is approaching the finale of her repair of the lira,
52:43and it's reached a critical point.
52:46I genuinely didn't know, until I took the clamps off,
52:49whether the front would have glued properly.
52:51But it has, and it's such a relief.
52:54And it's the bit I've almost been looking forward to the most,
52:58preserving what's left of Alex on the fingerboard.
53:02There are some little dents on here where his fingers have touched,
53:06and I need to keep those.
53:08It's really important.
53:09Usually, I'd sand it all off and make it all beautifully smooth.
53:12In this case, I'm definitely not going to do that.
53:15With just my normal varnish polish and a microfiber cloth,
53:20I'm going to be removing the dirt, but preserving the wear.
53:24I can feel the grooves in the fingerboard where Alex played it.
53:27That's lovely, actually.
53:29Once I'm happy with the finish on this fingerboard,
53:31it'll be time to put the strings on,
53:33and then Emma can hear this beautiful instrument once again.
53:39This Cretan lira symbolises an everlasting bond
53:43between a mother and a son.
53:46But an accident had left it shattered and silenced, until now.
53:51Let's have a look.
53:53It looks amazing.
53:55I hope Emma's pleased.
53:57I'm sure she will be.
54:01Emma is returning with her daughter, Katerina,
54:04hoping to hear the instrument sing
54:06that meant so much to their brother and son, Alex.
54:12Hi there, welcome back.
54:14Hi, hi, hi.
54:15Wonderful to see you.
54:16Nice to see you both.
54:18Now, when we last saw your mum,
54:20she was telling us about your brother
54:22and his love for Cretan music and culture.
54:25Do you remember him playing this at all?
54:28Yes, yeah.
54:30We're laughing because when he was first learning,
54:32it was not the most pleasant experience.
54:36So we had to bear with him over the course of the summer,
54:39but by the end he was pretty good.
54:41Yeah.
54:41He was.
54:42The lira was broken
54:44and at the same time,
54:46Alex was physically broken by metaneum disease.
54:49And to see it whole again would be a bit like
54:52seeing Alex restored.
54:54It's symbolic of renewing and getting things back on track.
54:58That's really beautiful.
54:59Would you like to see what Becky has done to you now?
55:01Yes, please.
55:02OK.
55:14Look at that.
55:16It's amazing.
55:18You can't tell.
55:20You know, you can't tell at all.
55:22Thank you, Becky.
55:23It's been a privilege.
55:25It really has.
55:26It's a beautiful instrument
55:27and I've been very careful to keep all the marks he made on it,
55:31like the finger marks in the fingerboard
55:33because that's him embodied in this.
55:36Wow.
55:39Just...
55:41Wonderful.
55:42Just wonderful.
55:43Thank you so much.
55:44Can I introduce you to Theo Lace?
55:46Who's going to play this beautiful instrument for you?
55:49Hello.
55:50Wonderful to meet you.
55:51Likewise.
55:52Gosh.
55:52So this is it then.
55:53Beautiful.
56:28That is so wonderful.
56:29That's...
56:30I know this song.
56:31Oh, you too.
56:32And it's a song about a man singing to his mother after his death.
56:37That's right.
56:39And remembering him.
56:40And so it's just perfect, perfect choice.
56:44Thank you, Theo.
56:46The choice of song was so emotional and so perfect.
56:50And it was his voice singing to his mom and his sister again.
56:55It just feels like we've had a piece of my brother restored to us.
56:59I can't wait to hear Alex's favourite songs on it.
57:01I can't wait to hear my children play it.
57:05And bring his spirit back in some ways.
57:11If you have a treasured possession that's seen better days, and you think the team can help, please get in
57:18touch at bbc.co.uk slash techpar and join us in The Repair Shop.
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