Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Welcome to the Vipershaw.
00:02I'm ready to see some magic.
00:03Where precious but faded keepsakes...
00:06It's in a bit of a sorry state.
00:08Deep breaths.
00:09Are restored to their former glory.
00:11New beginnings and new memories.
00:13Lovely. We can do that.
00:15A dream team of expert craftspeople.
00:18Perfect teamwork.
00:20That's the fun part.
00:21It's going to look absolutely stunning.
00:23Using traditional techniques passed down the generations.
00:27If someone's made it, then I can fix it.
00:29Go on, my son.
00:31Restore irreplaceable treasures.
00:37Take it away, Mark.
00:38And unlock the stories that they hold.
00:41Oh, my God.
00:43It's like it's brand new.
00:45You're a wizard.
00:46Thank you so much.
00:59MUSIC
01:19Oh, my gosh.
01:20First, an unsteady assignment for furniture restorer Will Kirk.
01:25Courtesy of the Cox family.
01:28Madeleine and Andy and their children Freya and Aidan.
01:33Hi there.
01:34Hi.
01:35Welcome to the barn.
01:38What am I looking at here?
01:39It looks like a bed, a bench, I'm not too sure.
01:42It's had a many and varied life.
01:45It started life as a bed.
01:48It was the very first piece of furniture
01:50that we bought together as a couple.
01:52How many years ago was that, then?
01:54Coming up for 30 years now.
01:55We were moving from London to Northampton
01:57and transported it back on the roof of our car.
02:00Wait, this and mattress on the roof?
02:02How big was the car?
02:04Not big enough.
02:07It was so special to us as our first bed.
02:10And then it was the bed where we brought Aidan home from hospital.
02:14We were told we couldn't have children
02:17and Aidan and his twin sister Darcy were IVF.
02:22Aidan was born five months premium
02:24and he was given a 5% chance of survival.
02:27His little sister, we knew from fairly early on,
02:30wasn't going to survive.
02:31Yeah.
02:32So it was a fairly traumatic time.
02:35Gosh.
02:36But Mr Strong, always fighting.
02:39Gosh, defying all of the odds.
02:42And then after a few weeks of being at home with Aidan,
02:46I thought, my trousers are getting a little bit tight.
02:49We did a pregnancy test and it was Freya.
02:53So I have two miracles.
02:56And this was the bed where Freya was born in.
02:59The very first photo of me and Aidan together is on the bed.
03:02On the bed.
03:03I'm about ten minutes old.
03:05And then it was kind of yours next, wasn't it?
03:07It was a veggie bed.
03:09A vegetable bed?
03:11Vegetable bed.
03:12Yes.
03:13It was beyond purpose as a bed but we didn't want to get rid of it
03:15because it had meant so much to us.
03:16And he said, let's make it a veggie bed.
03:19Oh, I see. Very clever.
03:21So the whole bed just went into the garden and we filled it with soil
03:24and grew vegetables in it for a few years.
03:26So are you quite a keen gardener then?
03:28I am, yeah.
03:30And then when we kind of redid the garden again,
03:32we turned it into a bench.
03:34Well, I admire your creativity.
03:39What's it being used for now? Is it still out in the garden?
03:41It's still out in the garden.
03:43And it started to just rot away.
03:45We're just losing her.
03:46A collar hurts.
03:47That's so silly, calling a bench her.
03:49She really, really is.
03:50But she's like a part of the family.
03:52So you've added bits of wood underneath to raise it off the floor.
03:57Yeah, literally because the bottom of the legs had started to rot
03:59so it was purely to keep it holding it together.
04:01You're missing a good few inches of most of these legs there.
04:04Yes.
04:05I just can't think of kind of family life without it, really.
04:09And with Freya going away to uni,
04:12we were having a conversation about kind of when you start your own life
04:15and, you know, often you have your own home and everything,
04:18what do you want from the house?
04:20And Freya looked at me and she just went, the bench, of course.
04:24And so to have it restored means that we continue to have the memories
04:28that we have with it and creating even more memories for Freya.
04:33I hope she's in safe hands.
04:35I hope so too.
04:37I will take great care of her.
04:39Thank you very much.
04:40Bye-bye.
04:41Bye-bye.
04:42Bye-bye.
04:45Bye-bye.
05:01There is so much wrong with this bench.
05:04It's really bad.
05:05It's rotten on the inside.
05:07It's splitting.
05:08It's wobbly.
05:09There's a lot of wood that's going to have to be replaced.
05:12Parts of the legs are intact.
05:14Parts aren't intact.
05:16There are different types of wood that are better for outdoors.
05:19Like teak is really good because it works well in heat and rain.
05:22This is probably a piece of pine.
05:24It's dried out, it's cracked.
05:26It was never going to last.
05:28I'm going to try my best to save as much of the original as possible.
05:32I'm going to break it down into individual components
05:35to see what can be salvaged and what needs to be replaced.
05:43MUSIC PLAYS
05:55Have you ever built a guitar?
05:57Me? Yeah.
05:5820, 30 guitars, I suppose.
06:00What?
06:01Because I repair and restore, I've done over 10,000 jobs.
06:06I haven't got one.
06:07Well, not yet.
06:08I've got a couple going spare.
06:10Luthier Julian Wallace's experience will be music to the ears
06:14for Glaswegians Andrew Ferguson and Kirstie Stewart.
06:18They're hoping he can rectify a painful past mistake.
06:23Hello. Hello. How are you doing? Fine, thank you.
06:26Good on you.
06:27Hello, look at this.
06:28Now, that's a beautiful guitar. Tell us about it. Thanks.
06:31Well, I made this guitar at college as part of a course that I was on.
06:34You know, I wanted to become a luthier, do you know what I mean?
06:37That was my goal.
06:38To make guitars?
06:39Make guitars and repair guitars.
06:41This was the second year of it.
06:42You know, I designed it all myself.
06:44So all this inlay stuff, all done by hand,
06:46and a French post, all myself.
06:48Put as much as I could into it.
06:50And I've got the inlay and the headstock there,
06:52which just kind of represents my dad, who passed away.
06:55D for Dell. D for Dell.
06:56Derek, it is, but Dell.
06:57He was the one that got me into woodwork, because I'm a joiner to trade.
07:00All right.
07:01And then he got me into music as well,
07:02so when I started playing the guitar and stuff like that,
07:04you know, it means it's sentimental in that way as well,
07:07because he kind of inspired me in both worlds.
07:09Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
07:11And may I say, it's stunningly amazing.
07:14I mean, wow, you've gone to town.
07:16You know, I put a lot of work into it.
07:17I just enjoyed it so much that I feel as if that's why it came out so well.
07:21But during the making of this guitar,
07:23I put the neck on at the slightly wrong angle.
07:27Just this heel joint here.
07:29So as soon as I put the strings on, I could see I could get my finger in there.
07:33So that was the issue.
07:34I knew right away I was like, this neck's on at the wrong angle.
07:36Oh, bless you.
07:37So my heart kind of broke at that stage.
07:39And I was...
07:40I knew it was just such a simple mistake, but it was such a big fix.
07:45How big a job is that, like, to sort out the neck?
07:48A neck reset is one of the hardest things.
07:51I have ways and techniques, but you never know how it's going to go,
07:54because you could do more damage trying to get it off.
07:57Yeah, we've taken it to a few luthiers,
07:59and they've all rejected it and said that it's just such a big job
08:04that they don't want to touch it.
08:06I tried to get the neck off, but as a second-year student,
08:09you know, I just didn't have the skills or the tools really to achieve that.
08:14So did you finish the course then?
08:16No, I ended up getting pregnant, and he left college and, like, got a job.
08:22So it was a bit of a shame that he had to give up his dream.
08:25I had to give up my college course as well.
08:28So you both made sacrifices for the family.
08:30Yeah, well, it's not a hard decision to make.
08:33You've got to do it to take on a family
08:36and just be going to college and stuff like that.
08:38It couldn't be done.
08:39So it was always on my mind to go back to it, and it still is.
08:42What would it mean to hear it played?
08:44I would just, you know...
08:46Be so grateful.
08:47Be made up, yeah?
08:48Yeah, we both would, I think.
08:50Just to hear it playing.
08:51Yeah.
08:52It's never sung at all.
08:53No, it's just pretty sad.
08:55Yeah, it is heartbreaking.
08:57Well, listen, I think Jules has got a lot of work on his hands,
09:00so we'd best let him get started.
09:02OK.
09:03Thank you for bringing us in.
09:04Thank you so much.
09:05Thank you, guys.
09:06Thanks, bye.
09:07Take care now.
09:08Bye-bye.
09:09See you later.
09:11That is a big job, right?
09:12Oh, it's huge, Jake.
09:14It's a big one.
09:33I'm just looking at Andrew's guitar,
09:35and it's so gorgeous that if this was me building it,
09:39I would be so chuffed to myself.
09:41I'd be so proud.
09:43What a shame that just that one little error has happened.
09:48I'm slightly trepidatious because jobs like this,
09:52which is known as a neck reset, is never a walk in the park.
09:57I'm just putting the strings on
09:59to see how much the guitar is out of whack.
10:04I'm already a bit horrified.
10:07I can see already that there is a big distance
10:13between the strings and the fingerboard
10:16where we press down to play.
10:22And have a look from the side.
10:27That's bad.
10:28That is so high, you would never be able to press down comfortably.
10:33It wouldn't be a joy to play.
10:35This neck, when set back,
10:40will bring the strings right down.
10:43So I have the non-easy task of removing the neck,
10:48resetting it back, so it will play well.
10:57MUSIC PLAYS
11:05Will has a non-easy task on his hands,
11:08having taken stock of the condition of the family bed-turned-bench.
11:14Now that I've had a chance to dismantle the bench,
11:17I've managed to have a better look at the legs,
11:20and they are really bad.
11:22I mean, this I cannot save.
11:24It's so rotten.
11:25The other three legs aren't as bad,
11:27but the feet on the bottom have almost completely disintegrated.
11:32So I've decided to turn up some new feet for them.
11:43I've actually used this original leg as a template
11:47to work out exactly where I need to make all of my grooves.
11:55Right. Well, that's all marked out now.
11:58I can start turning.
12:20Right, well, now that I've got my cylindrical shape,
12:23I can start turning in that finer detail.
12:25I'm actually going to use my calipers
12:27to measure the thickness of the piece I'm trying to copy.
12:33Now, as that's turning,
12:35I can pretty much rest that on the surface there
12:39and use my gouge to remove the wood.
12:43And as I remove it,
12:46it will then get to the right thickness
12:48and the calipers will slip through,
12:50so I know that they're pretty much identical.
13:20Did you have a favourite toy as a kid?
13:22I had lots of favourite toys, mainly construction toys.
13:26Designing and making?
13:28Yeah, all of that.
13:30Gemma Lee has travelled from Colborne Bay
13:33seeking Mechanical Marvel Steve Fletcher's help
13:36with an irreplaceable childhood toy.
13:39It's a bit of a mystery.
13:41It's a bit of a mystery.
13:43It's a bit of a mystery.
13:45It's a bit of a mystery.
13:47Gemma Lee has travelled from Colborne Bay
13:50seeking Mechanical Marvel Steve Fletcher's help
13:53with an irreplaceable childhood toy.
13:56Hello. Hi.
13:58Hi, welcome. Hello, thanks for having me.
14:01Look at that. I know.
14:03This is my Gold Edition Etch-A-Sketch.
14:06The most iconic toy? Yeah.
14:08I had one as a kid. I'm sure you did.
14:10I didn't have one of my own, but I think one of my sisters had one.
14:13I've never seen a gold one.
14:15This is my Gold Edition.
14:17Where did you get it from?
14:19When my parents divorced when I was about eight,
14:22this was one of the first toys my dad got for me in his new house.
14:25He wanted to make sure his house was kitted out for me
14:28and had stuff ready to play with.
14:30This is one of the first things I remember him getting for me.
14:33It must have been quite tough as an eight-year-old going through that.
14:36Do you remember much of it?
14:38Both of them did an amazing job
14:40at making me understand that I was still loved
14:43and that it was going to change that.
14:45I do remember kids in school saying,
14:47I was like, what are your parents for?
14:49I said, don't feel sorry for me.
14:51Get two birthdays and two Christmases, I'm happy.
14:53Two sets of toys. Exactly.
14:55Did you play with it all the time?
14:57Oh, absolutely, yeah.
14:59Writing secret messages to my dad, to my friends.
15:01And recently I took it out and it didn't work.
15:03I didn't realise how devastated I'd be.
15:05Is your dad still with us?
15:07No. Unfortunately, my dad passed away back in 2018.
15:10What was Dad's name?
15:12William. Everyone called him Bill.
15:14He had a really short illness and he was in hospital for about two months
15:18and unfortunately passed away quite quickly.
15:21And I think that might have been, like, one of the big things
15:24that made me realise the memories that it holds.
15:27So this is a real connection with your father then?
15:31Yeah, absolutely. He was a very, very involved father.
15:34If I couldn't make it work, my dad would be there
15:37showing me how to do it, you know, putting his hands over my hands
15:40and working the controls.
15:42So I would never throw it away, even if you couldn't get it working,
15:45because it's so integrally a part of my childhood.
15:48And it just makes me smile.
15:50Is that being an eight-year-old again? Every time you rediscover it?
15:53Yeah, just relive it.
15:55What actually is wrong with it?
15:57So, obviously, you would twist the knobs and draw pictures,
16:00but unfortunately this one doesn't go any more.
16:03There's nothing there, is there? No.
16:05The thing is, there's such a box of magic tricks in there.
16:08I've got no idea what's happening in there.
16:10I don't know how it works, no. No.
16:12I can't wait to have a look inside and I hope I can get it repaired,
16:15just so that I can play with it.
16:17Thanks so much. I'll leave it in your capable hands then.
16:20Thank you very much. See you later. Bye-bye now. Bye.
16:38I loved playing with these when I was a kid.
16:40I'd always try and do a diagonal line from one corner to the other,
16:45or a perfect circle, which is really difficult.
16:48To get one in to repair, it's just so exciting.
16:53But I do need to get inside to have a look and see what's actually gone on.
16:59Unfortunately, there's no screws at all,
17:02so I was hoping it would just be quite easy to take apart.
17:08I'm just going to try and gently prise this off.
17:16I've got to be so gentle with this, because if this is glued on,
17:20if I try to force it, it'll just break.
17:28I think that's so firm that I'm pretty sure that's glued together.
17:34If this was a clock, I'd know just what to do.
17:38This is unknown territory.
17:43And I'm wondering whether I'm actually going to get this repaired at all.
17:48I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on.
17:51Yeah, this might take some time.
18:04MUSIC
18:13Strumming supremo Julian is on a mission
18:16to make Andrew's silent guitar sing for the very first time.
18:21To do that, he must reset the misaligned neck.
18:25So I'm just masking up to remove the neck,
18:30and the first stage is to loosen this area of the fingerboard,
18:33which is known as the tongue.
18:35I need to soften the glue, and I've just heated up my heating iron,
18:40slotted for the frets, and its job is to transfer the heat.
18:44That, in turn, will soften the glue.
18:46And if I heat this on my iron as well,
18:50I've got two heaty helping hands going on.
18:54I just want to go so slowly and gingerly,
18:57I don't damage anything inside.
19:04There we go. I'm just right up to the line there.
19:08It's gone in like butter then.
19:10Just sort of fell in there almost.
19:12That's really good, so I don't need to go any further.
19:15So now this tongue is nice and loose,
19:17I'm turning my attention to loosening the dovetail inside the body
19:21and popping the neck out.
19:23And I need to put my soldering stick
19:26down into these pre-drilled holes Andrew's done.
19:34That heat is going to radiate all the way through,
19:37and then I can use a special jig to push the neck out.
19:57My jig is on. It's nice and tight.
20:02And the idea now is to turn this screw,
20:07and ultimately it's going to push the neck that way.
20:10I can actually feel how warm this is now.
20:13That iron has been in there for a while.
20:16Hopefully I'll feel it bite.
20:19There, it's gone stiff.
20:22Oh, noises. It's definitely moving.
20:27Yeah, it's still loose. This is good news.
20:29Up she comes.
20:33Oh, nice.
20:41It's just like that.
20:43Now I'm going to do the other side.
20:47It's just, I can see the end is gnawing.
20:54I'm so relieved.
20:56That has come out absolutely lovely.
21:03I'm going to slide the dovetail in.
21:05I'm going to turn it around so I'm comfortable.
21:10Andrew's put it on too far forward.
21:13I've got to set it back, but I've got to set it to a precise point.
21:17To do it, I have got these strips of sandpaper,
21:21and I'm going to be pulling them through inside the joint itself.
21:25And as I pull, I'm going to keep slight down pressure here.
21:30And as I pull, it takes more off this edge of the heel than that edge.
21:37Ultimately, it sets it back at the angle I want.
21:41Get it nice and tight to the body.
21:43Goodness knows how many hundreds of pulls I've got to do,
21:47but I've got a lot of patience.
22:11The lathing has gone really well.
22:13I've made a new leg and three new feet.
22:16The original feet were either no longer there or completely rotten.
22:20Unfortunately, that rot has travelled up a few of the legs,
22:24like this one here.
22:26I can feel that the wood is still quite soft.
22:29Freya and Aidan spent so many years playing on the bed, learning on the bed.
22:33It's really important to save as much as possible,
22:36so I'm actually going to use a resin for exterior wood.
22:40It kind of acts as a filler and as a binder as well.
22:55I'm just pressing with my finger.
22:58There's lots of loose bits of wood in there that are coming apart,
23:02and I need to sort of bind them all together.
23:06When this dries, it's incredibly solid.
23:08You can sand it back, shape it and paint over it.
23:11It's going to last for many more years to come.
23:38Well, all the resin has now dried, and it's solid.
23:57And once it's painted, you'll never know that it's resin and not wood.
24:01I'm now starting to sort of bring everything back together,
24:05and this bench is joined together with mortise and tenon joints.
24:10The idea is that the tenon slips into the mortise.
24:13This piece of wood here joins the front two legs together.
24:18I'm hoping this should slide in place.
24:23There we are.
24:25Lovely.
24:26This leg over here is one I had to completely replace,
24:30so I need to open up a sort of opening here that this leg can slide on to this rail.
24:52I'm just using a chisel here to open up the space.
24:56I'm using my favourite mallet because this top bit here is made of olive wood,
25:01so whenever you whack your chisel, it kind of releases an olive-y fragrance.
25:07It's quite nice.
25:16Right, let's see if this fits.
25:22No.
25:34Look at that.
25:35That's the only mortise that I need to make.
25:38I've got a few tenons that need to be added on to the side panels,
25:42and then I'm one step closer to reassembly.
26:01More comfortable tampering with timepieces,
26:04the stubborn sketching toy has Steve erring on the side of caution.
26:10So I've managed to get hold of an old sketching toy.
26:16It's better to experiment on this one, so I'm going to try and get into this.
26:21If it works, I'm going to do the same to Gemma's.
26:25Right, I'm just going to use this scalpel to cut away down the seam.
26:36Hopefully that will give me access to the mechanism.
26:42I'm just being really careful because I don't want the blade to suddenly slip through
26:47and cause any damage.
26:53I've cut all the way around, and I'm just going to now prise it off,
26:59and hopefully it's all going to come apart intact.
27:07That's all good.
27:14Wow, there we go.
27:17That's brilliant.
27:18I'm so happy this has worked, so I can take Gemma's apart now with a bit more confidence.
27:48Got it apart now, and it's full of all these beads and aluminium powder.
28:00It just sticks to absolutely everything.
28:03I can see how it actually works.
28:05The two knobs are connected to these wires that go around all of these other pulleys somehow
28:11and move these bars up and down, which this little pointer piece is attached to,
28:16and it would just scratch the powder off of the glass on the front.
28:21It makes the lines that you're drawing.
28:24All these wires have come off.
28:27I can't see any of them broken at all,
28:29so I think the biggest challenge is going to be working out the configuration of the wires.
28:34I'm not sure exactly where they're supposed to go.
28:38Right, so I'm going to remove all of the aluminium powder first,
28:42and then I can get everything cleaned up.
29:09With countless sandpaper scrapes behind him,
29:13Julian is beginning to see the fruits of his labour.
29:18Oh, that's a nice tight fit.
29:22That's in there.
29:25And hopefully now my alignment to the bridge.
29:30Look at that.
29:32Just kissing the bridge there.
29:35Just kissing the bridge there.
29:38That's banging, that is.
29:40So I better glue and clamp it up.
29:50When I learn all this stuff, I do it on my own guitars first,
29:54and we all make mistakes.
29:56You've got to make a few mistakes on the way.
29:58As long as you learn from them, you're winning.
30:06It looks quite brutal, but it's to ensure a tight fit.
30:20Lovely.
30:22Clamps are on.
30:24I just want to let that dry now.
30:26But the truth is, when the strings are on and it's playable,
30:30that you know you've done the correct job.
30:32So a tiny bit is in the lap of the gods,
30:34so I'll give them a little prayer,
30:36and hopefully it's all really good.
30:46With the treasured bench now standing on its own four feet,
30:50Will is applying a final future-proofing layer of protection.
30:55It's really nice to see the bench finally coming back together.
30:59All the woodwork done, gluing done, joints done,
31:02and I've given this a prime with white paint primer.
31:07Now that, along with this exterior paint,
31:11this should act as a barrier for any water.
31:13I mean, I'm making this impenetrable,
31:15almost like a submarine.
31:17You can put this in the sea and it won't rot.
31:20Don't hold me to that, but it's very waterproof.
31:23This bench means so much to Freya.
31:26She was born in this bed, bench,
31:28and she wants to take it with her when she moves out.
31:32So it is that nice reminder of family and of home,
31:35and I really hope that I've done it justice.
31:43An integral part of the Coxy's life for the past 30 years,
31:47this bed took over.
31:49An integral part of the Coxy's life for the past 30 years,
31:52this bed turned vegetable bed turned bench
31:55had become an irreplaceable fifth member of the family.
32:00Hi there. Hi.
32:02Welcome back. Thank you.
32:04Nice to see you. Very excited.
32:06Yeah, we're very excited.
32:08How's it been, not having this in the garden?
32:10It kind of, our day revolves around it,
32:12and it's just not been there.
32:14Yeah.
32:15That was why it was so important for us as a family
32:19to see what you could do for us.
32:22Yeah. Right.
32:24Shall we have a look? Yes.
32:26Yeah? Yeah. Are we ready? Are we ready?
32:28OK, let's have a look.
32:35Oh, wow!
32:37Beautiful. Can you see that?
32:41Look at that.
32:43That is amazing.
32:46And the feet are back.
32:48Incredible.
32:50Are you all right, Mum?
32:52Yeah, it's just so much here.
32:57So much of our family here.
32:59Can I sit?
33:01Are you going to sit? I'm going to sit.
33:03Freya's going to sit.
33:05It didn't fall down.
33:07You can sit on it.
33:09Can I join you? Yes.
33:11Dad, do you want to...? Yes.
33:13There's space for all three.
33:15I only tested this with one person,
33:17so with the three of you on, I was thinking,
33:19oh, my gosh!
33:21That is amazing.
33:23Incredible.
33:24Absolutely amazing.
33:26It takes me back to the children being babies together
33:31and playing in the bed, and it was our safe space.
33:35Yeah, it was.
33:36What do you think?
33:38It's just incredible. It is.
33:40It's stable.
33:41Aidan, any plans on turning this back into a vegetable bed?
33:44Probably not.
33:45Probably not.
33:47It's been an absolute pleasure to work on,
33:49and I get it shipped off to you.
33:51Fantastic. Thank you so much.
33:52Thank you very much indeed.
33:53See you again.
33:54You too. Bye-bye.
33:56Cheerio.
34:01I don't know how he's managed to bring it back
34:04literally from the brink.
34:06I'm still actually in shock.
34:08She will follow me wherever I go,
34:10and I can make my own memories with kids and friends
34:13and you guys even more.
34:14She's coming with me into that part of my life now.
34:17It didn't have a future,
34:18and what it has now is a future to make more memories.
34:39Visiting the barn from Surrey are sisters Kelly and Dawn Langley.
34:44With them, a priceless item
34:46destined for the hands of leather expert Susie Fletcher.
34:51Hello. Hello.
34:53How are you? Welcome.
34:55Good, thank you.
34:56Nice to meet you, babe. Good to meet you.
34:58What have you brought in for us?
35:00We have brought my dad's taxi badge.
35:03Oh.
35:04And it's over 50 years old now.
35:06What was your dad's name? John.
35:08John. Been a cab driver for 38 years. Yeah.
35:11He retired in 2010 and then passed away in 2011.
35:15He wasn't a collector of anything,
35:17so that's the only thing we have left of Dad, really.
35:21Do you know what? That's the first taxi badge I've seen.
35:24Is it? Yeah.
35:25I don't even know what a taxi badge is.
35:27When they pass the knowledge, they get given a number,
35:30and that's the number my dad had,
35:32and that's the badge he had.
35:34You say the knowledge. What is the knowledge?
35:37It's the routes, it's the runs,
35:39it's the points of interest that you have to learn.
35:41You then go up to London to the public carriage office.
35:43They will sit and basically ask you questions.
35:45How did you get from Buckingham Palace to Old Kent Road?
35:48And then you have to do the name.
35:50And you get your badge once you've passed the knowledge.
35:53That's it. So that is a badge of honour.
35:56Yeah. Definitely.
35:57He was proud of his job, you know.
35:59He always wore a suit jacket and a tie.
36:02That was the only car we had. Yeah.
36:04It was his pride and joy, he was always cleaning it,
36:06and it was always spotless for when he went up to London.
36:09All our holidays and everything, packed everything in the cab.
36:12Down to Canberra Sands for a week.
36:14It sounds like the cab was a part of your life.
36:16Oh, it was. As his.
36:18Well, that's all our memories, isn't it, with that cab?
36:21Yeah.
36:22I always think of the cab drivers having this huge sort of
36:25extended family and the camaraderie.
36:27And they all have nicknames for each other as well.
36:29Oh, do they? Yeah, they tell jokes to each other.
36:31He was full of jokes. Talking in this rhyming slang.
36:33He'd say, can you go and get the linear draper for the paper?
36:37And the rocking horse for the sauce.
36:39Yeah, Mum wasn't happy about it, but Dad thought it was funny.
36:43He used to phone us when somebody got in the cab that was famous.
36:46Whilst we were in the cab? Yes.
36:48I was at home and Dad rang and he said,
36:50you went to see Rod Stewart, didn't you?
36:52I said, yeah, I took Dawn, he was brilliant.
36:54He said, do you want to talk to him in the back of the cab?
36:56Oh! Was he actually in the back of the cab? Yes.
36:58Dad would do things like that.
37:00So there's no more cab, but... But we got the badge.
37:02You got the badge. Yeah.
37:04Dad passed away in 2011,
37:06so I've just had it up in my living room on a frame.
37:09So I don't let anyone touch it because of the way it is.
37:12Yeah, cos at the moment it's really dry
37:14and its strap is actually tearing down the bottom here.
37:18I don't remember it ever being brand new looking.
37:21Right. But I remember it being black leather.
37:23OK. But worn.
37:25And with the brass, I remember it bright.
37:27Oh, really? Yeah.
37:29And the green paint, all the green's gone.
37:31Like the brass in the middle.
37:33It's just falling apart and it's heartbreaking to see it like that.
37:36What's the rhyming slang for good luck, Susie?
37:38LAUGHTER
37:40Not a clue.
37:42Thank you for coming to see us. Thank you.
37:44Lovely to meet you both. Thank you.
37:46Take care. Bye-bye.
37:54Mmm!
38:00What I find so interesting about items like this
38:04is that they carry the weight of the history
38:07of Dawn and Kelly's dad's work.
38:11Brenton will have the pleasure of working on this beautiful badge,
38:16but I think I've got lots of things to consider here.
38:19I need to be able to stabilise this cracked surface,
38:22which is very worrying.
38:24The leather really does need to be refreshed.
38:27Down here, where the strap has worn
38:31and the stitching has just perished over time,
38:34that'll need to be reinforced,
38:37and then I'll be able to stitch around that strap and the badge itself.
38:42But the very first thing I want to do
38:46is just see if I can push that strap through.
38:52That won't go through. I'm going to see if I can do it the other way.
38:57No.
39:00It was made to stay on.
39:04Don't want to force anything.
39:06I'm going to have to figure out how to line this in situ
39:11and what I can do to get it back to that original look
39:16that Kelly and Dawn remember.
39:26Steve's perseverance has paid off,
39:29and with the sketching toy open,
39:31he can turn his attention to its inner workings.
39:35I've given everything a really good wash
39:38and got rid of all the aluminium powder and the little beads now,
39:42and that means I can work on it far easier.
39:45What I need to do now is to put all the lines and pulleys etc
39:51into place on the back plate
39:53and try and work out exactly where everything is supposed to go.
40:00I'm just going to follow what I can see on the donor sketching toy.
40:09MUSIC PLAYS
40:16I'm going to get into a right old tangle here, I think.
40:22This is really very difficult to follow, all of this.
40:30I've actually followed it all now,
40:34and I've got a whole load of cable left, which I shouldn't.
40:40So that can't be correct.
40:43This is far trickier than I thought it was going to be.
40:46I thought I was just going to put the lines straight on there,
40:50the same as this one, and it's not working.
40:53There will be a way, and I will do it, but it might take some time.
41:05MUSIC CONTINUES
41:27I finally got it working.
41:30The wire had just stretched,
41:32and so the pulley that's attached to that was just slipping.
41:36But it's all tight and working now.
41:39This has been really, really difficult.
41:42But I can pop all the powder back in, then I can get it all reassembled.
41:47And I'm just keeping my fingers crossed
41:50that when it's all finished and I tip it over, it's going to work.
41:59MUSIC CONTINUES
42:09The neck may have been reset,
42:11but the show's not quite over for Julian and the handcrafted guitar.
42:16I'm just hoping it's all going to work.
42:19This is actually quite scary.
42:21There's always a little element of doubt.
42:23Wow.
42:30How's it looking?
42:33It's looking spot on.
42:35The neck's at the right pitch to the body.
42:37I'm so glad we've got to this stage.
42:40Andrew did say that he was heartbroken
42:43when he found out the neck was at the wrong angle,
42:46and hopefully he'll feel so joyous when he sees this.
42:50It's looking so good.
42:53MUSIC CONTINUES
42:58Nice one.
43:00All done?
43:02All done, mate.
43:04That's gorgeous.
43:06A beginner's error had seen Andrew's passion project
43:10lie silent for too long.
43:12Now he and Kirsty have returned,
43:15hoping Julian has finally given the guitar its voice.
43:20Hello. Here they are.
43:22Good to see you again. It's good to see you.
43:24How you doing? How you doing?
43:26Good. Excited. It was pain, really.
43:28It's been the way it was for me.
43:30Just to get it fixed, it'll be class.
43:32Because you've never played it. Never played it, no.
43:35You ready to see it?
43:37I think so.
43:39Gorgeous.
43:50Oh, wow.
43:52It's yours. It's yours. Go on. It's yours.
43:55Ah, mate.
43:59It looks wonderful.
44:01It looks just exactly how I had it when I was ready to string it up.
44:05Yeah.
44:07And that's what I wanted. That's unbelievable.
44:10It's better than I could have imagined.
44:12I see.
44:14I can't thank you enough.
44:16Mate, you're welcome.
44:18It looks the part, but does it sound the part?
44:20That's the one I want to know.
44:22Well... You'd do us the honour?
44:24I would. I would, indeed.
44:26Oh, bless you.
44:29Erm...
44:33How's that... Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on.
44:35How's that feel?
44:37He's just... He's just...
44:39Oh, bless him.
44:41Do you know what, Jules? I mean, it's amazing because...
44:44You know, I kind of feel like it's both of ours now, so thanks.
44:47You're welcome.
45:02So how does it feel playing it for the first time?
45:04It's beautiful.
45:05You know, it sounds better than I thought it was ever going to sound.
45:08I mean, it's...
45:10It's amazing.
45:11I couldn't be happier.
45:13I just can't believe it, to be honest.
45:15It's fab.
45:16It's a dream come true.
45:17It's going to inspire me to get in the workshop as well, Jules, so...
45:20Yeah, good man.
45:21Thank you for bringing it to life.
45:23I mean, it's just perfect. It plays so nicely.
45:25It's just amazing.
45:26All I can say is thank you for bringing it in.
45:28No problem. Thank you, G.
45:29Take care.
45:30Take care, guys.
45:32Thanks, guys.
45:33See you, guys.
45:35That is...
45:36So I win it back from them.
45:38Wow.
45:41To play it for the first time, it's an amazing feeling to have
45:44I got so close to that moment.
45:46And, you know, with the mistake I made,
45:48just to hear that first note come out of it,
45:50I had a lump in my throat.
45:52It was just absolutely amazing.
45:53And it's just so wonderful to, like, see Andrew play it
45:56and know what it means to him.
45:59It will definitely inspire me to look at some way to go back into the Luthier
46:03and, you know, make my own guitars again, because I loved it.
46:14Susie has given the leather of the London taxi badge a gentle clean
46:19and can now set to work on its fragile strap.
46:22I'm going to use a piece of Zephyr, which is this very thin material.
46:28Even though it's very, very fine, it has incredible tensile strength.
46:34This Zephyr is going to give that whole area much needed support.
46:39I'm now going to put this paste on the exterior.
46:43It's going to draw those loose fibres together
46:46and therefore add some stiffness to it.
46:49But also, it's ideal for gluing this Zephyr in place.
46:58Now, I'm just going to give this a good coating.
47:04Once this is all completely dried,
47:06Dawn and Kelly will be able to handle this with complete confidence,
47:09knowing that it's not going to break.
47:14MUSIC
47:26I'm so happy with that strap.
47:29Now, I'm going to focus on replacing the decorative stitch line
47:34around the edges here.
47:36On the actual badge part itself,
47:38it is holding the two pieces of leather together,
47:41but over time, the thread had just become rotten and disintegrated.
47:47I found remnants, and I thought it would be like a black thread,
47:52but actually, I've got a maroon thread,
47:55which is really going to pop next to the blackish-brown colour of the leather.
48:04The leather is very fragile,
48:07so any pressure I put on it has the risk of breaking that edge.
48:15I've got two stitches in here, and already I'm getting excited.
48:19Once I've got all the stitching finished,
48:22I can hand it over to Brenton,
48:24and he can focus on the brasswork and bringing that green colour back up.
48:29This is going to look stunning by the time it's finished.
48:37MUSIC
48:40MUSIC
49:04Susie's given me the London taxi badge
49:08to polish and try and sort out the missing paint.
49:15You can see the dirt coming off the badge.
49:19It's got lots of really nice scratches and dinks in it,
49:22showing its age and its story.
49:26This is looking great,
49:27and I want to make it look like it did when it was first issued.
49:31Once the green's on there, that's going to look fabulous.
49:34This is very, very durable, this epoxy resin,
49:37and this will last for absolutely ages.
49:47This is very intricate work.
49:49I don't want to get over the edges and spoil it.
49:56Because it's so thin, I'm hoping that it will float its way to where I want it to be.
50:04MUSIC
50:10Once all the green is filled in, I can hand it back to Susie.
50:15And I won't be sorry. I don't think this is really, really tricky.
50:20MUSIC
50:34MUSIC
50:38Having unravelled the mysteries of the sketching toy's mechanism,
50:42Steve is preparing to seal his victory.
50:46I'm just going to put the silicone on there.
50:49It will seal up the gap and stop any of the powder from coming through.
50:57Because it's black silicone,
51:00you might not be able to see that it's been cut through.
51:06Have plenty of cloths next to you, is what I always say,
51:11because you can make a right mess sometimes.
51:16That's worked really well, and I'm now confident that Gemma can play with this.
51:21And I'm sure she's looking forward to seeing if I've been able to repair it,
51:25because she hasn't been able to use it for years now.
51:28So I just need to let it set.
51:30And I can seal up the donor sketching toy,
51:33so I'll have one myself to play with.
51:39For Gemma, the treasured toy represented the special bond
51:43between father and daughter,
51:45evoking memories she hoped to draw on once more.
51:51Hello. Hi.
51:53How you doing, Gemma? You all right? Yeah, good.
51:55I must say to you, this is probably one of the hardest things he's had to do.
52:00Testing you. Sorry about that. It was testing me.
52:03But this is more than just a sketching toy, isn't it, to you?
52:06It is, yeah. It's got so many memories attached to it.
52:08It's memories of my dad, and it's memories of really good times with my friends as well.
52:12Are you ready? Yeah, I am. Steve?
52:14I'm really excited. Right.
52:20Ah! Good as new.
52:23Sorry, I can't stop smiling. I'm so happy.
52:26Do I get to have a play? Oh, yes.
52:29OK, I'm hoping it's not going to make funny noises and things.
52:35Awesome!
52:37I'm not going to be able to draw anything particularly impressive.
52:40I'm doing a very bad star, I think.
52:43OK. But the point is, he draws again.
52:47He does. That's what I'm really excited about.
52:50I'm going to have to practise again now, because that is a really, really...
52:53I've got to have a look at this. Yeah, me too. ..really shaky starfish.
52:57Well, that's not bad. You can make an underwater scene out of that, I'm sure.
53:00That's all right. I'm beaming. Thank you so much, honestly.
53:04Well, it's yours to take home now. Awesome.
53:06Well, home for me is Wales, so I did want to say a big diolch yn fawr iawn,
53:10which means thank you very much in Welsh.
53:12Oh, good on you. Thanks, Steve. Very well.
53:14I'll take it, mate. Cheers. You take care now. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
53:18My dad would be ecstatic that it's fixed.
53:21It connects to so many events.
53:23I'd write happy birthday on it for him, put it out for him to see.
53:26It's going to be on pride of place on the bookshelf
53:28with really good memories attached to it,
53:30and it's just being able to look at it and think of my dad.
53:40Now that the brass has been given a new lease of life,
53:44the taxi badge is well on the road to recovery.
53:49So I've got the taxi cab badge back from Brenton.
53:52What an amazing job he's done.
53:55So now I'm just using a little bit of acrylic paint
54:00to fill in the areas where the surface of the leather has pulled away,
54:06as I've sewn around the edge here.
54:09And this is one of the things that I really like doing.
54:12It's really challenging myself to see if I can make it look
54:17like I haven't actually touched that area.
54:20I can't wait to give it back to Kelly and Dawn and see their faces.
54:23I have a feeling they are going to be very happy.
54:32The symbol of a proud cabbie's 38-year career.
54:36Very nice. Isn't it gorgeous?
54:40For Dawn and Kelly, the badge is a precious reminder
54:44of their much-missed, larger-than-life dad.
54:47Hello. Hello.
54:49Hello. Nice to see you both.
54:51How have you both been? Yeah, good, thank you.
54:53Good. Really good. Excited.
54:55Have you been thinking more about the badge?
54:57I have massively, you know, with it not being there.
54:59It's like Dad not being there, so I'm just so excited to see it.
55:03Yeah.
55:05So would you like to see it now? Yes, please.
55:07No kidding.
55:16Oh, my God.
55:19Wow. God.
55:22God, that looks brilliant. It's amazing.
55:25It is.
55:27It looks new but old.
55:30Oh, my God. It's incredible.
55:32The colour. I know, it's great.
55:35Brenton worked on the badge.
55:37He's just got it right.
55:39It's perfect.
55:41It's taken me back, hasn't it? It's great.
55:43I can literally hear his voice.
55:45That's the first thing you would think of?
55:47Yeah, I can hear him. It's just...
55:49It's just him. Yeah, it's brilliant.
55:51I love the fact that neither of you can actually take your eyes off it.
55:55I know. I can't stop looking at it.
55:57It just looks brilliant. It is. It's absolutely fantastic.
56:00You can put just that in a frame now. Yeah, well... The whole thing.
56:03Well, I might be able to help you with that.
56:07It needs to go in something
56:10that represents your dad's journey
56:14driving around the city of London.
56:17Oh, it's fantastic. That is so nice.
56:20I had an old map of London, so I was like,
56:23I know what I can use that for. Yeah.
56:26Oh, it's incredible. Oh, I love it.
56:28That is fabulous. Thank you.
56:31It's really lovely to meet you both and hear all about your dad.
56:34Thank you for sharing that story. Thank you.
56:36Thank you. Safe travels. Take care.
56:38Bye. Thank you. Bye.
56:43I'm not a real emotional person,
56:45but just seeing it look the way it did just triggered something.
56:49It just took me back to being little.
56:51Sitting in the back and the badge would always be there
56:54and it just reminded us of really happy times.
56:57Yeah, and now, because they've done such a fantastic job on it,
57:01it's going to last. Yeah.
57:07If you have a treasured possession that's seen better days
57:10and you think the team can help,
57:12please get in touch at bbc.co.uk
57:15and join us in The Repair Shop.
57:27Thanks for watching.