The SR 2024 episode 14
The SR 2024 episode 14
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Welcome to the Vipershaw.
00:02I'm ready to see some magic.
00:04Where precious but faded keepsakes
00:06It's in a bit of a sorry state.
00:08Deep breath.
00:09Are restored to their former glory.
00:11I don't think I'm even breathing at this point.
00:13Lovely.
00:14So exciting.
00:15A dream team of expert craftspeople.
00:18Stroll, stroll, stroll.
00:19Back, back, back.
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.
00:30So much fun.
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.
01:00These are the most awkward handles.
01:02And it's heavy.
01:03What's in here, like a thousand mini ukuleles or something?
01:12Taking on the first assignment of the day
01:14is Barnes resident silversmith, Brenton West.
01:18Nice shirt today Brenton.
01:19Thank you, it's the summer vibe.
01:21And the tan is looking good as well.
01:24Hoping to see an extraordinary family heirloom transformed
01:28real gold hammer knows Brenton is the right man for the job.
01:36Hi there.
01:37Hi.
01:38You must be Rie.
01:39I am.
01:40What do we have here?
01:42This is a very, very old silver tray that's been in my family for,
01:45I'm pushing 200 years now.
01:47200 years?
01:48God.
01:49My granddad always said it was given to the kind of
01:52eldest son in the family, which is kind of why I have it.
01:56And because of that we sort of think maybe it's a Pidyon Habin tray.
02:00It's a Jewish ritual that is performed when the first son is born.
02:06So if that's the case,
02:07then my great-great-granddad would have lay on this tray as a baby.
02:10Oh really?
02:11Yeah.
02:12Essentially the first son has to be kind of bought back from God.
02:17So you kind of pop the baby on the tray and they sort of say,
02:20you know, would you prefer to keep your money or have your son?
02:23And they said, I'll keep my children.
02:26That's quite sweet. I think I'll keep them.
02:28Whereabouts did it start its life then?
02:30It probably would have been bought by my great-great-great-grandfather
02:33because it's mid-19th century Viennese.
02:35My great-great-grandfather was like a lawyer in Vienna.
02:40He kind of spent his life working towards like Jewish rights.
02:44He was ultimately in Sarnok, which is a small town in Poland,
02:48and he was like deputy mayor of the town.
02:51Not everyone has something like this
02:53that has been held by generations and generations before them.
02:57My brother and I were very close to our granddad, Arthur,
03:00and actually as the years go by,
03:02it's probably the most kind of cherished physical possession that I have.
03:06I suppose as I've got older and learnt of the journey
03:09that it must have taken to actually get here
03:12and to survive where a lot of my relatives didn't.
03:16What is the tray's journey? How did it get here?
03:19My family and a lot of families like mine,
03:22especially in Vienna and Poland,
03:24were kind of either captured by Nazis or by Stalin.
03:29My granddad was only six when the war started,
03:31you know, when they got put in the camps,
03:33so he actually came out an orphan.
03:35It was already kind of too late for my great-grandparents.
03:38He was at an orphanage in Moscow, and I think his auntie,
03:41my great-aunt Hela, who had kind of escaped to Australia
03:44just before the war in about 1938,
03:46she managed to find him, get him on a boat to Australia.
03:49Now, my assumption is that Hela took this to Australia with her.
03:54Yeah.
03:55Because certainly my granddad wouldn't have had it with him,
03:58but also when you were in Gulags, in a prison camp,
04:02the only way to actually survive this time
04:04was to sell the possessions that you brought with you.
04:07I can see a handle missing, but what would you like done to the tray
04:11and what's actually wrong with it?
04:13Well, it'd be great to have the handle back.
04:15I mean, that's the main thing.
04:17Obviously some of these kind of ornate flowers on the edge,
04:20so there's been something there.
04:22And then obviously it's quite dull, so it doesn't have much of a shine.
04:25Yeah, OK.
04:26If I could see it as my ancestors saw it,
04:28then that would be pretty special, I think.
04:30What this has endured is obviously
04:32some of the worst horrors of the 20th century,
04:35which my family endured as well,
04:38and this is kind of just represents the fact that
04:41against those odds and in spite of everything, we are still here.
04:46I will do my best to make it look beautiful for you.
04:49Thank you so much. Lovely to see you.
04:51Thanks a lot. See you soon. Bye. Bye-bye.
04:58What amazing history, and this is sort of here to tell the story.
05:02It still exists. Incredible.
05:04Well, it's had a past, it's down to you to give this a future.
05:07Good luck.
05:12LAUGHTER
05:21Considering this has been round the world,
05:23it's hardly surprising that it's got damage like this.
05:26I'm going to have to make a whole new handle for it.
05:29So I've got a handle to copy, luckily.
05:31I can make one exactly the same.
05:33I've got to replace the missing foliage.
05:37Again, I've got a pattern over here that I can copy.
05:41It's going to be a lot, a lot of hard work to make that again.
05:45Yeah, it's going to be a challenge.
05:47This tray is absolutely filthy dirty,
05:50and the first thing I'm going to do is take it outside and give it a bath.
06:12Next, art conservator Lucia Scalisi is waiting in the wings
06:18to greet thespians Mark and Diane White from Fife.
06:24Hello. Hello. Hi, there. Hi, hello.
06:27You've brought in a painted canvas.
06:30Yes, it's from our drama club in Lesley and Fife.
06:33What's the club called? Lesley Amateur Dramatic Club.
06:36Mark is chair of the club, and I'm the secretary.
06:41We think Lesley Drama is the oldest
06:44continuously performing drama club in Scotland.
06:47The club was actually set up in 1904 in the town hall in Lesley,
06:51and their first performance was actually in 1905.
06:54They had the rehearsal rooms at one end of the High Street
06:57and the town hall at the other, so all the scenery
07:00and all parts of the stage like this were carried down the High Street.
07:03That must have been a sight. Yes, I would imagine.
07:07And this sat above the stage in the very centre
07:10for everyone to look up at when they were waiting for the play to start.
07:14Who painted this canvas?
07:16We believe this one was painted in about 1950
07:18by a gentleman called Andrew Heard, who was chairman
07:21and did virtually everything in the club for a period of about 50 years.
07:25He was a painter, a scenery creator, an actor, a director.
07:29You still have members of the club today who remember Andrew
07:33and remember him putting it above the procedural march of the stage.
07:37And how come you're both into drama?
07:40I started doing drama when I was in high school, musicals mainly,
07:44and then I joined Lesley Drama and then you joined two years later
07:48and we played opposite each other in a one-act play
07:51where we were dressed as Greek statues,
07:54and in 2010 we were married.
07:57So you actually met on stage? Yes.
08:00How romantic! How romantic!
08:02Sort of like star-crossed lovers.
08:04So you have a love of drama and the club,
08:07but you bring all that together and you've got your own little love story
08:10going on on Big Love Story.
08:12And is the club still there?
08:14In 1981, the club had to move from the Town Hall.
08:19We moved to several high schools and there's an awful lot of people
08:23that actually didn't know that Lesley Drama Club existed
08:26because we've been hidden away.
08:28It's returned to the Town Hall after all these years.
08:31We're moving ourselves back into the heart of the community,
08:34which is what we've wanted to do for a long time.
08:36The council had closed it about six or seven years ago
08:39and when it came on the market, I inherited it unexpectedly,
08:43so I was able to actually go to the council with a cash offer
08:47and now we're able to actually preserve it for the people of Lesley.
08:51Well done. That is really quite an amazing feat, isn't it?
08:55It's really quite something.
08:57They're just itching for the doors to open
09:00so that they can come out on a Saturday night and see live theatre
09:04or live bands, comedians, whatever, in the Town Hall,
09:08in their own little town.
09:10So it's a real hub of the community. That's right.
09:13Yeah, that is amazing.
09:15So what do you want me to do with this canvas?
09:18Just maybe get it looking a bit less sad, I think.
09:22As soon as you touch it, the paint is coming off.
09:24Yeah, that's the nature of it.
09:26The fact that it's still here is really quite a tremendous thing.
09:29What would it mean to you personally to have this restored?
09:32We're heading towards our 120th anniversary.
09:35We felt it was the ideal time to get it restored
09:38and get the canvas put back in the middle of the hall,
09:41much as we're hoping to put the club back in the middle of the community.
09:45So that everyone from Lesley can see it
09:48and be proud of the club that they've got that survived through everything.
09:53So we're just standing on the shoulders of giants in going forward
09:57and getting this back where it should be.
10:00That is a lovely way to put it.
10:03Well, if you're happy to leave it with me,
10:05I will do my absolute best to get it spick and span.
10:08Thank you very much.
10:10I'll see you soon.
10:12OK, then. Thank you. Bye-bye.
10:18MUSIC PLAYS
10:34I think it's a really interesting painting.
10:36I think the story is really quite magical.
10:40I love the idea of an amateur dramatic society
10:43really bringing in a whole town together.
10:47And it's just magnificent.
10:49It's all torn along the bottom here.
10:51I can't re-stretch it,
10:53so what I'm going to do is strip-line this bottom edge.
10:56Now, that's adding another piece of fabric on the bottom
10:59that will allow me to be able to pull this
11:02around the actual wooden stretcher that it's on.
11:05And then after that, the retouching.
11:08There's some big scratches and losses here.
11:11But my first approach has to be the consolidation of the flaking paint.
11:15It is actively flaking.
11:17So I can't really do anything
11:19until I've actually got the paint reattached.
11:22But before I even get to that stage,
11:24I also need to do some little cleaning tests.
11:27And I'll go into the different colours and see what happens.
11:32MUSIC CONTINUES
11:44Outside, Brenton is getting to grips with his repair of the silver tray.
11:50The handle from this end of the tray is completely missing.
11:55This handle's intact, luckily.
11:57And I'm going to attempt to cast a new handle using casting sand.
12:03So I need to put some sand in the bottom of this,
12:06make the bottom impression,
12:09put this other box on top, put sand on top,
12:12and hopefully I'll have a mould I can pour some silver into.
12:19Now, this sand I'm using is a special casting sand,
12:23which is a very fine sand that's got an oil mixed with it.
12:27And that makes the sand stick together.
12:32If this works, this will be the biggest thing
12:35that I've ever cast using this method.
12:37And I'm still not sure if it'll work or not.
12:41It might end up that I get bits of handle that I've got to solder together
12:45and I might have to cast it more than once.
12:48I've got to put some releasing powder.
12:52I use plaster.
12:56If you put that on the lower half, it stops the two halves sticking together.
13:01OK.
13:03I'm going to put this half of the mould onto here
13:06and start to put sand into this part.
13:13And hopefully mould the intricate part of the handle.
13:23Come on, Julie. Keep it a straight line. You're all right.
13:27I love being your Lumber Jill.
13:29Lumber Jill, I like it.
13:39Now I've made the two halves of the mould,
13:41I've got to melt some silver and try pouring that in,
13:44see if it makes an impression.
13:46I've got some scrap silver here, which is part of my collection
13:49whenever I'm making something, any offcuts go into this little pot
13:53to melt and make into other things.
14:19That's reached 1,000 degrees.
14:21Hopefully the silver will have melted in that crucible.
14:25I've got to be quite quick because it will cool down very quickly
14:28as soon as I take it out.
14:32That is molten.
14:40Go out.
14:44Let's have a look and see what it looks like.
14:50Look at that.
14:55Really, really, really, really pleased with that.
14:58So I'm just going to leave that to cool down
15:00and then I can start cleaning it up and trying to match it to the tray.
15:05It's going to look really fantastic.
15:19Look at that.
15:24Next, metal worker Dominic Chenier has swooped in
15:28to answer the distress call from Sally Wilkinson from Norfolk.
15:38Hello. Hello.
15:39Welcome to the barn. Thank you.
15:41Sally, I don't know where to start.
15:44I've got so many questions.
15:46I guess, what is this?
15:48This is a model of the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
15:51My late dad, Annick Garrard, made it.
15:53Why, I guess? Why did he want to make this?
15:56He always did make things.
15:57He made me stilts, he made little drums.
16:00He made his own car.
16:02He made his own car?
16:03He made his own car, yes.
16:05Fully on the road like a kit car or he built it all?
16:09Built it all as in the 1950s.
16:11That's impressive.
16:12He liked to bang his hammer about
16:14I used to know your dad, so we can hear him.
16:17He probably went round the workshop
16:19and found bits and pieces to make it up.
16:21Bits of tin, bits of aluminium, bits of wood.
16:23There's all sorts in here.
16:24Yes, my dad.
16:25And then this looks like a bit of maybe drain pipe?
16:28Yeah.
16:29Obviously a clever man. I love it.
16:31I just love this ingenuity. It's brilliant.
16:33Yeah.
16:34Why did he want to make this?
16:36To put on the top of the roof of Bullock Fair charity shop
16:39to promote the charity shop and the air ambulance charity.
16:43He started the charity shop in 1999 and I worked there full time.
16:47In all, we've raised £2.3 million.
16:50£2.3 million?
16:51Yes, yes.
16:52So this was kind of a weather vane?
16:55It was, yes.
16:56On top of the roof?
16:57Yes, and the propellers used to go around
16:59and the helicopter used to go around
17:01and the little man used to go up and down it.
17:03This little guy?
17:04That little guy, yes.
17:05How?
17:06There's inside, there is...
17:08My dad made it. It was an electric drill.
17:11So the drill would kind of wind the string up or something?
17:14Wind that up and down, yes.
17:16He used to get up on the roof and change the battery
17:19and the little man used to go up for two or three hours.
17:22That's such a...
17:23He was always creating things, making things,
17:26doing things for the shop and repairing it where it needed to be repaired.
17:30So, yes, he'd greatly missed when he went, so, yes.
17:33It was very sad.
17:35That was 2010, he passed away.
17:38OK.
17:39The shop still keep going.
17:41But he's left behind an amazing legacy.
17:43I mean, this is kind of a symbol of it, but it's a lot more to it than this.
17:46It is, yes. It's why I want it repaired.
17:48It's a symbol to him for all that he's done.
17:51What are you hoping I'm able to do to it?
17:53The propellers came off. They are a bit insecure.
17:56Yes.
17:57It needs a repaint so it looks like it was originally.
18:01You can see it's all a bit battered.
18:03If I'm able to repair it, police say it's going to go back on the roof.
18:06Oh, yes, yes.
18:07It's definitely going to go back on the roof so everybody can see it.
18:10Good.
18:11It always reminds me of Dad when I see it up there.
18:13And it's like a legacy for him because that's what he did.
18:18He made things and everybody can see it.
18:22I'm honoured to be a very small part of such an amazing thing.
18:26Leave it with me and I will do the best I can.
18:28All right, thank you.
18:29Bye-bye.
18:30Bye.
18:37Bye.
18:50I love the challenge of getting this helicopter working again.
18:54The body is mostly made of aluminium, which is clever
18:57because it doesn't rust and deteriorate in the same way that steel does.
19:01But the pain is it's just flaking off.
19:05One way or another, I'm going to get this little guy popping up and down again.
19:09It kind of looks a bit like me.
19:11Shall we call him Little Dom?
19:20This is very clever.
19:21A bit of filing cabinet there, a couple of pulleys off of the VCR or something like that.
19:26There is literally a drill in here.
19:30Absolutely brilliant.
19:31But first things first, I need to get all of this mechanism out so I can have a proper look.
19:56That looks like a massive whistle, David.
19:58It basically is.
20:00It's actually an organ pipe, but not a very healthy organ pipe at the moment.
20:05No noise coming out of it.
20:06It wants a bit of work, yes.
20:14The painted stage canvases unstable surface is causing all sorts of drama for Lucia.
20:22From the cleaning test, I worked out it's quite a problematic painting.
20:29It's painted in a household emulsion, so we've got a lot of crumbling
20:33and there's a lot of loss in this bottom area in particular.
20:36The first thing I've got to do is get the paint fixed back onto this canvas.
20:41Consolidation is putting an adhesive onto the paint layer to reattach
20:48and using my heated spatula, which helps the adhesive to flow and also to fix very quickly.
20:54Because this canvas is so rough, for this paint to still be attached to it is nothing short of a miracle, to be honest.
20:59But the bits that are flaking are happily sitting back down where they belong.
21:05So once the consolidation is done, I'll feel much more confident about handling the canvas
21:11and then I'll be able to move on to the next stages of repairing the most damaged areas.
21:17Now the new handle for the silver tray is cast,
21:26Brenton can turn his attention to the missing decorative moulding.
21:31I'm going to make a silicon cast of it and then I'm going to use a metal clay which has silver in it
21:37and hopefully I'm going to put that clay into my silicon mould
21:42and when you fire it in a kiln, the clay burns away and leaves just the silver behind.
21:49It's quite miraculous how it works.
21:53I need to mix up equal parts of this silicon.
22:00This is very similar to the moulding compounds that a dentist might use for making moulds of your teeth and your mouth.
22:13We're just making sure that it's in to all of the little intricate flowers and stems.
22:21I'm just going to try and peel this off and see what it looks like.
22:26That's coming off quite well.
22:28Okay, I'm just going to push this clay into the mould.
22:43That's okay.
22:46I'm going to try and peel the silicon away from the clay without breaking the clay and the clay is quite fragile now.
22:55So we've got the detail of the flowers on here that is on the tray and I've now got to cook that at 800 degrees.
23:05Hopefully I can make this piece fit into the hole on the tray and you won't be able to tell that it's ever been repaired.
23:12Music
23:30With any restoration, preserving the touch of the creator is paramount and the homemade helicopter is no exception.
23:40This lovely handwritten text on the side, I love that and I think little details like that give it its character and I don't want to lose that.
23:49Which is very easily done with a brand new paint job.
23:53So I'm just taking some time to trace around all of these little details.
23:58So once I've rebuilt the helicopter, I can actually paint all of these back on.
24:04Now I can get on with the paint stripping.
24:10I'm going to use a chemical stripper for this.
24:14It's kind of sad in a way to be brushing away so much history, but it's got to be done.
24:20It is the best thing to do for the helicopter, however painful this is.
24:26Already it's all wrinkling up. Brilliant.
24:32Once I've finished stripping off all of this paint, I can turn my attention to the mechanism.
24:38That is not going to be straightforward.
24:51Already in the throes of a major challenge, Lucia stabilising the weak and tattered drama club canvas.
25:00I've finished the consolidation and now I'm working on the back of the painting.
25:04The bottom edge was completely broken, so the next job is to attach another edge to the bottom.
25:10So that I can then put it back onto the new stretcher.
25:15I'm using polyester, which is very stable.
25:18This won't respond any differently to the actual main body of the canvas.
25:23I've prepared it with a feathered edge so that it makes it a thinner aspect when it's sitting on the back of the painting.
25:31I'm going to just line it all up. Let's see what happens.
25:35I've got my lovely lining iron.
25:41Ooh, that's quite nice. Melting beautifully.
25:47And then I've got a new stretcher.
25:52It's got crossbars, so it's a lot more stable than the other one.
25:56You can see these are the original canvas edges already curled up around the edge of the stretcher.
26:01And I'm going to reattach that with copper tacks.
26:04And this is the new bottom edge.
26:07Once all the edges are attached to the new stretcher, we're on the home straight.
26:26I've done the tacks on the edge of the painting and it's tensioned.
26:45And I've applied the first coat of brush varnish.
26:49This is a particular varnish that aids consolidation.
26:52But it also provides me with the isolating layer between the next phase, which is the filling, which I'm doing now.
26:59There are many losses all over the surface of this, so I'm filling using a commercially prepared acrylic filler.
27:06It's very adaptable. It has a lot of plasticity, quite elastic.
27:11And for this type of canvas, it kind of needs something quite substantial to sit on the surface.
27:17And this filling provides me a ground on which I can do the retouching.
27:22And also just to bring it all up to a nice surface level.
27:25Once all the fillings are in place, I'll be ready for retouching.
27:38After a sterling effort, Brenton is on the home straight and his repairs to the silver tray are coming up roses.
27:47I've got the piece that I made for the hole in the bottom sitting in place.
27:53I'm really pleased with the way it looks. That fits well.
27:56The handle is cleaned up. I think I can solder this onto the tray now.
28:03I'm just going to heat this area up and pop a little bit of solder into it.
28:09Once it's hot enough, it'll flow into the joint, hopefully.
28:19There it goes.
28:28This handle now feels pretty secure. I can lift the tray up by it and it's strong enough.
28:33I've got to let that cool down, clean it up.
28:36Then I've got to give this whole tray a big polish and it'll be ready to give back to Rio.
28:44This Viennese silver tray has been in Rio's family for almost 200 years, but arrived at the barn dulled and missing a handle.
28:57Lots of polishing.
28:58I can see it reflected on your face. Goodness me.
29:04For Rio, the hope is the tray will be a fitting tribute to family members killed during some of the darkest moments of the 20th century.
29:14Hi. How are you?
29:18I'm good, thank you.
29:20Lovely to see you.
29:21Thanks. A little bit nervous, but I can't wait to see what it looks like.
29:26I'm just desperate to get it.
29:29Go on, Brenton.
29:33Wow. Wow, it really is.
29:40It really is. It's like it's brand new, isn't it?
29:44To say this is 200 years old, nearly.
29:49Wow.
29:51It's very different, isn't it?
29:53Yeah, I mean, this is the tray that my great-great-great-grandad would have bought, right?
30:01I know, you can't tell, can you?
30:05Wow. It's majestic. And I wish my grandad could see it, to be honest. He would have been very happy.
30:14What do you think he'd say?
30:16You could always tell when he was kind of delighted with something, cos he'd just kind of grin.
30:20Yeah.
30:21It would have definitely gone back up on the highest shelf prior to place, this time with its own kind of reflective glass.
30:28Yeah.
30:30It's always represented kind of survival and endurance and all these things that we like to say when things have been difficult.
30:36Yeah.
30:37The fact that it's broken is because our family was broken, and so were many others.
30:42To restore it, it's kind of just, it's no longer just about survival. It can be wonderful again, you know? It's beautiful.
30:53Well, I'm very pleased to say it's yours to take home.
30:56Amazing.
30:57Get it back where it belongs.
30:58Thanks again.
30:59You're welcome. I'll get the door for you.
31:00Thank you so much.
31:01Cheerio. Bye, Rio.
31:08He was happy, wasn't he?
31:09Well done. Well done.
31:12You know, we love my grandad to bits, and to keep these stories going, to have family members that didn't make it or that did make it and have since passed on,
31:21you know, to make sure that their memories are still alive as well, and, you know, it feels really good.
31:33As one assignment draws to a close, a new one begins.
31:38So, Chris, if you weren't a bookbinder, what would you be?
31:41Basketball player.
31:42Really? Really?
31:44Well, I'd like the height.
31:46Basketball's loss is bookbinding's gain, which is good news for Anjali Prasad from Manchester.
31:58Welcome to the barn.
31:59Hello.
32:00You must be Anjali.
32:01Yes, I'm Anjali.
32:02Nice to meet you. I'm Will.
32:03Hello.
32:04I'm Chris.
32:05Hello.
32:06What have we got here?
32:07This is the story of Ramayana, which was written by my great-granduncle in 1914.
32:14This book is small because it just puts the events of Ramayana in a chronological order.
32:21Ramayana is one of the scriptures which is very important in Hinduism, and it is the story of the fight between good and evil and how goodness wins in the end.
32:35Wow.
32:36So, that's been written in a dialect of Hindi, which seems to be dying out.
32:41So, is this like a one-off, or are there more of these?
32:43I'm not aware of any other copy.
32:46And this was made by your great-uncle?
32:48My great-granduncle, Sri Jagmohan Matho.
32:52Whereabouts?
32:53This is in pre-independent India, in the state of Bihar.
32:59So, what inspired him to write this in the local dialect, then?
33:03So that people could get a better, improved knowledge of Ramayana.
33:09My great-granduncle was a self-educated man.
33:14He could read and write various languages, such as Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, also the local dialect.
33:22He was the first person in our family who actually got himself educated.
33:28Really?
33:29And he also helped to improve the local irrigation in the village.
33:34I'm sure that the locals must have really appreciated it.
33:37Yeah, he was well-known in the area.
33:39And he died at a very young age, in his thirties.
33:42And he didn't have any children.
33:44Goodness.
33:45So, he had adopted my grandfather as his son.
33:49Oh, so that's how it's passed over?
33:50Yes.
33:51So, yeah, this book is what connects me to the village from where my parents and my ancestors came from.
33:59And this represents the basis of what we are today.
34:05What exactly is wrong with the book?
34:07The front page is pretty damaged.
34:10It is in two pieces.
34:13I think that most of the damage is on the front page.
34:17Later on, there's some damage on some of the pages.
34:21And, of course, the binding is coming off as well.
34:24I would like this book to be preserved so that we always remember what my great-granduncle did.
34:31I can't wait to see what you do, Chris.
34:33Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
34:36Thanks very much, and we'll see you soon.
34:37Thank you. Bye-bye.
34:38The Ramayan booklet is an abridged version of the ancient poem about Prince Rama rescuing his wife Sita from a demon king.
34:51Many versions of this sacred text exist, but the original Sanskrit is attributed to the sage Valmiki and contains 24,000 verses.
35:03Well, goodness me, what a unique book.
35:09Obviously, the front cover is just hanging on by a thread, and there's some tears just in the middle.
35:18There's some page loss, which would be nice to find something to fill in the losses.
35:24And then some little creature has sort of nibbled the corner here.
35:29So, again, it probably could do with sort of little bits of paper put in there.
35:34The binding, it's really a traditional open stub binding.
35:40It actually is disintegrating, but I think it's important to keep the look of that, you know,
35:47because that's what has been there for all these years, so I don't want to get rid of anything.
35:53So the first thing I'm going to do is start taking it to pieces.
35:56So the first thing I'm going to do is start taking it to pieces.
36:17Dom's been answering the mayday on the little helicopter with big issues.
36:23It's so interesting sitting looking at these parts and all these pieces.
36:27I'm just amazed at Alex's creativity and ingenuity, really.
36:32But I want to simplify things for Sally.
36:35She's not got time to be climbing on the roof and changing the battery for the drill.
36:39So I've gone for solar power to power it.
36:43Then I can run wires down to a motor, very similar to what's inside this drill.
36:49There's basically a motor and a gearbox to lift up the rescue man.
36:54I'll get it wired up now, test it and see what happens.
36:59The heat lamp that I use to dry my paint gives off UV rays.
37:03Hopefully this solar panel will read that as the sun.
37:19There we go.
37:34Look at that.
37:38When I hold it right in front of the sun, my artificial sun, that is so cool.
37:46This is absolutely brilliant.
37:48I'm so chuffed.
37:49If I can get all this wired into a switch and everything else I need inside the helicopter,
37:55Sally can put this back on the roof and never have to go up there again.
38:02It's been a really interesting process of reengineering and rethinking parts to try and get it to work,
38:09but also trying to keep some of the history.
38:12Unfortunately, there are some areas where I've had to reengineer.
38:16The propellers are one of those things.
38:19I've got what's left of the original ones here.
38:22I think this central hub was the top of a closed rail designed to be indoors in a shop,
38:29made of steel, and it's just completely rotten.
38:32These gutter sections are broken and corroded.
38:35I can't just slide that on the top.
38:38I've redesigned the main central hub for the propellers.
38:41I've decided to use aluminium because it doesn't go rusty.
38:44Then I'm just welding on these support braces, which eventually I will rivet on the actual propellers.
38:51That should sit up on that helicopter on the rooftop of the charity shop and spin for years to come.
39:14Ah, look!
39:26Oh, I'm pleased. That is really, really good.
39:29That means now I can very carefully rebuild everything and then paint it.
39:35Perfect!
39:38So I've now fully dismantled the pamphlet and I'm going to be sifting through some vintage papers
39:50to try and find the perfect bit of paper to fit in and cut in and repair.
39:57It's a bit of a job because I'm trying to find the bit of paper that feels right,
40:03the perfect weight and approximate sort of colour.
40:06And it's surprising how, when you start looking at the vintage papers, everyone does feel completely different.
40:16All these bits of paper, I've picked them up over the years.
40:20It'd be lovely to organise them, but for some reason I've never got round to that.
40:25It's chaotic, my collection, a bit like myself.
40:32That's really nice.
40:35I haven't thrown anything away for 40 years and it's exactly for this reason.
40:42Oh, look at that bit. Oh, that's even better.
40:46So there's two more bits of paper I need to find and then I can start to repair them.
41:05Every time I use the foot pedal of the lathe like this, it blows the fuse.
41:14Well, don't do that!
41:16I knew you were going to say that!
41:18Now that the theatrical canvas is strong enough to tread the boards again,
41:23Lucia's next act is to restore the missing detail.
41:27All the filling is done and I've started retouching.
41:30So I'm mixing my colours up using acrylic paint.
41:34But the colours I'm going to be working with are the greys of the background,
41:38this lovely vermilion pink, which is the circle,
41:42and then I've got yellows and browns and that's the basic palette, really.
41:46It doesn't matter about being super accurate to start with.
41:49I need to get the base colours in, so I need to get rid of the white
41:52and then I can start doing the colour matching proper.
41:55So it's quite a big job.
41:57Do you know what? It's really satisfying.
41:59Once you get the right colour mixed up, it's very, very satisfying.
42:04These drama clubs, you know, they're so few and far between.
42:08And for a small town like Lesley to have its own drama club,
42:12and you can see the passion that both Mark and Diane brought in with them,
42:16it's a wonderful thing for a small town to have.
42:19This canvas graced Scotland's oldest continuously performing drama club,
42:24but the green rooms and grease paint had taken its toll.
42:28For Mark and Diane, the canvas is symbolic of their own double act,
42:33having met on stage performing at the club.
42:38Oh, wow, look at you. You look fantastic.
42:41Hello. Hello, Diane. Hi. Hi, Mark.
42:43Lovely to see you again. And you.
42:45So, are you looking forward to seeing the painting?
42:48Very excited, yes. Oh, just a bit.
42:50What are you hoping for?
42:52Just for it to be able to be displayed for at least another 50 years, really,
42:57so that the legacy can carry on.
42:59It's part of our history because we met through the drama club 18 years ago.
43:05And who knows who else might meet there in the future?
43:08Are you ready to see it? Yeah. Yes.
43:12Wow.
43:14Gosh.
43:16It's so clear.
43:18Yeah.
43:20Isn't that just amazing?
43:22Yeah.
43:24You can see so much more of the colour now.
43:26You can't quite take your eyes off it.
43:28No. It's incredible.
43:30Oof.
43:32It's just...
43:34It's just...
43:36It's just...
43:38It's just...
43:40It's just...
43:42Seeing the difference in it from the time that, you know, we found it,
43:46it's just brilliant. I just love it.
43:49It connects us with the history so well.
43:51I just can't wait to get it hugging the town hall now.
43:54Oh, that's great to know. That is great.
43:56Well, it's ready for you to take home,
43:58so I'll pack it up for you and get it ready to go.
44:01That would be fantastic. Thank you so much.
44:03Thank you very much indeed. Great pleasure.
44:05Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye.
44:11It's really exciting to think about putting the canvas
44:15up above the stage in the town hall
44:17at the heart of the community where everyone can see it and enjoy it.
44:21It's part of our history. It's part of the drama club.
44:24It's also part of Mark and I's history.
44:26And hopefully we're going to be looking to the future
44:29with the opening of the town hall,
44:31and other people can use it as part of their history as well.
44:41BIRDS CHIRP
44:44There he is. Nice one. I've returned your tool.
44:47Just in time as well.
44:54Chris is now embarking on the crucial part of his restoration,
44:58stabilising the pages of the Romayan booklet.
45:02The front cover, as is always the case,
45:07has got the most damage on it.
45:09There's quite a lot of page loss
45:11and there's some two quite hefty tears,
45:14one almost sort of severing the paper in half.
45:17To repair the page loss, I'm going to introduce some new paper,
45:22which I found some vintage paper for,
45:24and then again strengthen all the edges with some Japanese tissue.
45:29It's a surprisingly simple process,
45:32as long as you've got a lightbox, and this is a homemade lightbox.
45:37I made this, you know, 40-odd years ago. I like gardening.
45:41So it's a seed box with a bit of plastic screwed in
45:44and a light in the middle.
45:50It's not, in terms of books, really that old.
45:54What's amazing about it is that Anjali's great-granduncle
46:00wrote this book in a language that is dying out
46:04in the hills of India, all the history of it.
46:08It does give you sort of goosebumps
46:10and it's one of the real pleasures of working on something like this.
46:17Pop this over.
46:19I'm going to put a tiny little line of paste
46:21along this very edge of this original paper
46:24and then I'm going to join that together
46:26and then I'm going to overlay some Japanese tissue.
46:29And the Japanese tissue is going to be the bond.
46:35MUSIC PLAYS
46:46I can adjust the cracks and then I can start to Japanese tissue it.
46:51MUSIC PLAYS
47:02So that can go into the press so it can dry.
47:08And that's what I need to do to all the pages now
47:11so I can get on with that.
47:21MUSIC PLAYS
47:46So all the pages now are dry and mended
47:49and the front cover, for example, I'm really happy.
47:53It does feel a whole lot more sturdy.
47:57On the inside there's the odd sort of shadow
48:00from where the Japanese tissue has been
48:02and that's what I'm just going to sort of colour down and sort of tonal in.
48:06I'm going to use a tiny bit of watercolour paint.
48:09I've got a whole load of bits of paper
48:11where over time you just make sort of colours up
48:14and you can reinvigorate them by adding a bit of water.
48:18I'm just adding very slightly and blending in all the time.
48:32It's almost liftoff for the homemade helicopter.
48:39Now I've got the mechanics of the helicopter completely sorted.
48:42The bodywork is all back in place.
48:44The paint job is looking its best again.
48:46It's time to look at trying to get little Dom, the little rescue man,
48:50coming up and down.
48:52Basically the string has two beads at each end
48:55and as it's winched down the bead stops at this arm
48:58and that pulls it down and flicks a switch
49:01and then it winds it up and then the bottom bead pulls it,
49:05switches the switch and sends him back down again.
49:08In theory that's how it's supposed to work.
49:17That's it, it's climbing, it's going up.
49:25Yes!
49:31Look at that.
49:36I'm really relieved for starters and just over the moon.
49:40Once I've finished off these last few bits in here
49:43I've got to attach the propellers.
49:46Give it back to Sally.
49:53The model air ambulance was built by a local philanthropist
49:57to draw in the crowds to the charity shop that funded the cause
50:01and provided a quirky landmark for the town.
50:05Becky, do you mind giving me a hand?
50:07Yeah, sure.
50:08I can't quite cover this up on my own.
50:10No, it's a bit large, isn't it? It's looking great.
50:15Up and over, hopefully.
50:16OK, go.
50:18Oh, nicely done. Yes.
50:21For Sally, it symbolises her dad's love for building things
50:26and the joy and generosity it's brought.
50:30Sally, hi.
50:31Hi.
50:32Welcome back to the barn.
50:33Nice to see you again.
50:34How have you been?
50:35I've been nervous, excited.
50:37Nervous?
50:38Everything. I was going to be like...
50:40I've missed it.
50:41Oh, bless you.
50:42So, yes, I've been looking forward to this day.
50:44Yeah.
50:45It represents my dad and what he's done.
50:47I just like to keep this part of him alive.
50:50Yeah.
50:51Well, do you want to see it?
50:54Yeah.
50:55Yeah?
51:02Wow!
51:04That's brilliant.
51:05That really is.
51:08And you've got drainpipes on there as well.
51:12You've done it just like he's done it.
51:15So it spins round now, nice and freely.
51:18Brilliant, yes.
51:19And the propellers spin round.
51:21That's fantastic.
51:24I have had to repaint it, but I've kept his writing.
51:28I'm more than happy.
51:29That's in my dad's style.
51:31That's him down to a T.
51:34You've done justice.
51:38Dare I ask, does a little man go up and down?
51:41Well, the last thing I wanted was for you to have to go up the ladder
51:45every day and change that battery.
51:47So I've come up with a solution.
51:49So, on bright, sunny days...
51:52Yeah.
51:53..this will be the sun.
51:54I've put a solar panel on the top.
51:57Wow!
52:00Oh, isn't that fantastic?
52:02Isn't it lovely?
52:04Isn't it lovely?
52:07Oh, brilliant.
52:11Wow.
52:14You've done an amazing job.
52:17People will see that and they will see the little man going up and down.
52:21And it means a lot to me because they are looking at what my dad made.
52:25Yeah.
52:26That means a lot.
52:27Well, I will get it all packaged up for you and sent back to the shop.
52:30Yeah.
52:31And you can get it back on the roof where it belongs.
52:33Thank you very much.
52:35Thanks.
52:36See you later.
52:37Bye.
52:38I feel absolutely fantastic to see my dad's helicopter again.
52:42He made so many different models and different things.
52:45And this represents the last thing that he really made.
52:49And it just means so much to us all to have it back again
52:52because it's in remembrance of him.
52:54And I'm pleased that we can remember him in that way.
53:04MUSIC
53:16After a lot of painstaking work,
53:18Chris has reached the final stage of restoring the battered Ramayan.
53:23All the pages now are blended in the colour,
53:26they're all mended, they're all dry,
53:29and now it's time to bind them together.
53:32And I'm binding them in exactly the same style as it came into me
53:36and as I presume it was originally bound, with exposed sewing.
53:40It's a really bold, simple, but extremely effective method
53:45of binding individual pages.
53:49It's just a matter of punching holes in the paper
53:54and then sewing through those holes.
53:58It's part of the aesthetics of the binding.
54:02MUSIC
54:08I do love that statement.
54:11This is such a small statement for a book that is so important,
54:16and I think that's fantastic.
54:26I'm always slightly nervous handing something back.
54:29I hope I've done it justice.
54:32MUSIC
54:37Worn and falling apart at the seams,
54:40this version of the epic Hindu tale of the Ramayan,
54:43written by Anjali's great-granduncle over a century ago,
54:47is believed to be the last surviving copy.
54:50Chris, great job. Thank you, Will.
54:53Right, let's get it covered up. Brilliant.
54:57Now Anjali's hoping the precious keepsake can endure
55:01as a symbol of her roots and those of future generations.
55:06Anjali, nice to see you again. Hello.
55:08Hello. Welcome back.
55:10That's a smiley face.
55:12I just want to know what the book is going to look like now.
55:16Right. Shall we have a look? Yes, please. Yeah.
55:19Come on, Chris.
55:22Fantastic.
55:26It's beautiful now.
55:37All the pages are beautiful now.
55:43And the page where there was so much damage,
55:46that has been restored.
55:48That's fantastic.
55:50And the best bit is that you have kept the original binding.
55:55That's fantastic. That's beautiful.
55:58Exactly how it came in.
56:00I wanted it to go out, but obviously all secure.
56:03Thank you. Sorry.
56:05One of the many reasons that this is so important to you
56:08is the fact that it's that link to your great-granduncle, right?
56:11Yeah, this is the only link I have with my great-granduncle.
56:14And it will be his message and his values.
56:18So hopefully that will be taken into the generations to come as well.
56:22It was lovely to see you again.
56:24How do you say goodbye in Hindi?
56:26It would be namaskar.
56:28Lovely. Well... Namaskar.
56:30Thanks a lot. Safe travels. Bye-bye. Thank you.
56:37Good job. Thank you, Will.
56:40The book almost feels like new.
56:42Now that it's repaired, I can look at it.
56:44I can read through it, and I can turn the pages.
56:48It is a connection which I have with my great-granduncle.
56:53I can imagine him writing the book,
56:56telling the message of Ramayana to other people.
57:04If you have any questions,
57:07if you have a treasured possession that holds a Christmas memory
57:12and would like to ask the team for a special festive fix,
57:16please get in touch at bbc.co.uk
57:20and join us in The Repair Shop.
57:36www.therepairshop.co.uk