This has been going for many years now, where half a dozen or so very able people restore stuff brought in by members of the public. This happens in a barn. However, according to the credits at the end of the programme, it needs a support team of over eighty people. Some of the restorations, interest me. They've renovated a few jukeboxes over the years, but in my opinion they've concentrated more on the cosmetics than the sound. There's currently a new series on and this was one of the restorations shown last night. A vintage 35mm cinema projector. It had been donated to a group of volunteers who were restoring an over 100 year-old, small cinema in a sea-side town. The guy doing the work said he had little knowledge of these projectors, which had a few parts missing and he didn't seem to have any circuit diagrams or a handbook. This sort of "confession" happens quite often, yet these people always manage to "come through," well, it wouldn't be included in the programme otherwise. But as always, he got it going, which I found impressive. But I as I do, sometimes, had a few suspicions. During the "reveal," I noticed this, as he turned it on. This I suspect is a "PAT testing" certificate dated June 2023. In the UK, all electrical appliances that have been repaired and are offered for sale, or are to be located where the public has access, have to be certificated. I would imagine this had been done by the BBC and this section of last night's programme had been on the shelf for over a year. So maybe he had a bit of unacknowledged "help?"
Yeah Riley, we frequently are curious how the repairers can manage some of those seemingly impossible repairs…especially the ones that the designated repairer admits that they have never done such a repair. Your posting sort of confirmed our suspicions. Well, spoiler alert or not, the show is entertaining to us mechanical dumbells. Haha. Great posting this time. I liked it.
The presenter Jay Blades is absent from the current series. He's been charged with domestic abuse. It manages quite well without him. I always thought him a waste of space in these programmes. In earlier series he just wandered about each week in an expensive "designer leather overall," with a 1" paintbrush in the vest pocket. I'd rather have less of the flitting back and forth between other repairs and the time spent on including more of the featured repairs, or the inclusion of another. But they're advertising at the end of programmes, for jobs to do and considering some, they include, they must be hard pushed to find enough interesting ones to keep the series going. It amuses me that for particular jobs, specialist equipment suddenly appears. Last night the jewellery repairer had a laser gold welding machine. Another thing I notice is that some items particularly soft toys, which aren't particularly interesting in the repair, they concentrate more on the emotional back story. I skip through these bits. One episode a few years ago I noticed in the telly mag. description, an item to be shown was, "the repair of a pre-WW2 portable transistor radio." I thought I must see this! Of course it was a valve radio, which took a 90v battery. The repair was easy enough, but the battery was a problem, as now they are made of "unobtainium." So the repairer overcame this by linking 10 x 9v. PP3 batteries in series. He taped them into a block and put them in the battery compartment. I noticed at the "reveal" the repairer didn't offer the owner a roll of solder and say, "Here you go, when the batteries run out, use this on some more, but don't bring it back to us."
Riley— I enjoy your commentary about this interesting show. I have just starter last nights’ Repair Shop” with the projector. I taped it last night. I do not like the emo aspect of the show, but the characters and the assignments I do like very much. Here we go then.
I agree with that. I can see that the show would appeal to knowledgeable chaps like yourself. For folks like me that have no repair skills it also interesting to see what can be done. Some of those repair people seem to have a genuine skill.
There are several youtube channels showing furniture restoration. I enjoy watching those. Some are real artists (or is it artisans?)
I love BBC's "The Repair Shop"! It's like a cozy hug for your heart. Watching those skilled artisans bring old treasures back to life is extraordinary. Each item has its own story, and how they connect with the owners is touching. Seeing how something seemingly broken can be transformed into a beautiful piece of history again is inspiring. I also appreciate how they share tips and techniques, which is super helpful for anyone looking to tackle their repairs. If you’re into crafts, you might want to use mod podge fabric for those DIY projects. It's a game changer for adding flair to your repairs or creations. Overall, the show makes me think twice about throwing things away. It’s all about giving things a second chance!
You can be an artisan without being either an artist or an expert. But those on "The Repair Shop" are mostly both. Last night's episode, included yet another teddy. There's so many included, as they usually have the best, "back stories," which can be laboured to help fill the time. It's obvious that they're "touting for business" as each week in the credits, they ask for people to contact them with possible projects for inclusion in the progamme.
I guess my sister, who is 77, has "a suitable case for treatment." When she was about four or five, our father won a stuffed toy polar bear, in a work's raffle, which was between two and three feet tall. These toys came in all sizes and were popular in the early fifties, after the birth of Brumas, the polar bear cub, in London Zoo in 1949. She naturally called the toy Brumas. She has still got him and he's not in bad condition. She sent me a photo last year of him dressed in the football kit of Wimbledon F.C. But I can't find it.
Riley:—that teddy was in rough shape. I was surprised it had a “tinkler”. I had never heard of those.
Hmm.. Some possible "smoke and mirrors" over the "Mastermind Chair." I'd be surprised if there was ever only one. The studio where the programme was screened would have been used for a boat-load of other productions between the programmes and the chair would have been returned to the props room each time, for a week and between series, for months. Every chance of it getting lost or damaged. Big trouble if it couldn't be located, for any programme. There could have been half a dozen in the 25 years the series ran. Magnus Magnusson's daughter banged on for ever, about the chair, but look at the state of it. Most of the paint was missing from the arms. It was never like that, as I remember it, having watched the programme for years. So, hardly, a "lovingly cherished heirloom." It didn't look much different after the restoration. The wooden toucan, "really?" Is that the best they could do? Tuning the glockenspiel before plating?
I mentioned Brumas to my sister. I wasn't aware that she had had him renovated several years ago, by a woman she knew. (He wasn't a regular topic of conversation). He'd been re-stuffed, as the original filling was actually straw. So here he is as he is now, the latest photo. He never actually looked like a polar bear as they aren't "cuddly." It might seem strange for someone to hang on to a stuffed toy for nearly seventy years. But in all other respects, my sister is quite normal, married with a grown up daughter and she was a bank manager for many years. There weren't many female bank managers in the eighties. Edit. I forgot to mention that my sister said a friend of hers with MND got someone to offer her own teddy to, "The Repair Shop." They replied that they weren't taking any more.
