A guest on The Repair Shop: Beyond The Barn opened up about the tragic death of their son.
A guest on The Repair Shop shared the tragedy behind their precious item (Image: BBC)
A guest on The Repair Shop has opened up about their heartbreak after the tragic death of their son. The BBC programme returned to screens on Wednesday, September 2, with the first episode of Beyond the Barn.
The series follows experts restoring precious items from guests across the country, while also discovering what happened after the special items were restored.
The items included in tonight’s episode were a replica of Doctor Who’s robot dog K-9, a cowboy hat worn by musician John Cambridge, who played alongside David Bowie, and a leather case used by a cook who catered for Winston Churchill during World War II.
Luthier Julyan Wallis, who repairs instruments and guitars, also set to work on restoring a ukulele, after the owner’s parents brought it in following his tragic death in a motorcycle accident.
Couple Colin and Trish were looking for Julyan’s expertise to return the music to their precious instrument. Showing the broken ukulele, with its strings torn out of place, Trish explained: “This is our son’s ukulele. He was killed in November 2022 in a motorcycle accident.”
“Awful, I’m really sorry to hear that,” host Will Kirk replied. Trish went on: “Cameron had lots of musical instruments, he loved music.” Colin continued: “He grew up in a very musical house, his brother played guitar and Cameron wanted to play guitar too.”
They shared how their son played guitar, bass guitar, double bass, banjo and accordion. “He was a teacher in Thailand,” Trish went on. “When he went off to Thailand he took the ukulele and a chess set, and nothing else.”
Paying tribute, Colin called Cameron “outstanding”, as Trish shared: “He loved people, he was a caring person. He hated to see anybody sad, down, music was part of the way he tried to make people happy.”
Will replied: “This must have meant quite something to him.” Trish and Colin wanted to restore Cameron’s most-prized possession so that she could one day play it herself.
Cameron’s ukulele had been broken after a friend sat on it, with Colin sharing: “We heard a crunch. But Cameron, being the type of person he was, he didn’t want the friend to be upset so he threw it over his shoulder and denied that it was there. It landed in some bushes near the house, I think he knew it was beyond repair so he left it there. And I think it rested there for about six months.”
When Trish and Colin travelled to Thailand to bring Cameron’s body home, they couldn’t find the ukulele at first. “There were lots of tears,” they recalled. Trish explained how they found the ukulele when her sunglasses “flew off”, with Colin saying: “It was almost as if Cameron was saying, don’t forget my ukulele.”
Trish broke down in tears as she reflected on the moment she saw the broken instrument. She said: “For me it was, Cameron’s gone and that’s gone too, because it’s smashed.” She added: “Cameron touched this, he touched the strings, he held it close to him, almost hugging it. I’ll be able to do the same, it will feel like I’ve got a little bit of Cameron back.”
The Repair Shop: Beyond the Barn is available to watch in BBC iPlayer.