The Repair Shop

The BBC star shared the special news in a rare personal update on the programme to her colleague.

The Repair Shop star shared the news minutes into the episode.

On Wednesday night (August 12), BBC viewers saw art on paper conservator Angelina Bakalarou and resident upholstery expert Sonnaz Nooranvary waiting in the barn to meet their next guest.

However, when Sonnaz asked how her friend and co-star has been, Angelia wasted no time in sharing the good news.

Putting her hand up, The Repair Shop expert excitedly squealed, “I’m engaged!”. Sonnaz replied: “Congratulations! Look at that ring! Oh, I’m so pleased for you, exciting.”

Viewers were then given a close-up of the engagement ring, as it was a gold band with a dark red gem in the middle.

At the time the episode was first broadcast, last October, fans were quick to shower the BBC star with support and well-wishes.

On social media, one person said, “Congratulations on your engagement, Angelina. I hope you have many happy and healthy years together.”

Another agreed: “Congratulations on your engagement” as a third echoed: “You two make a handsome couple, congratulations!” A fourth chimed in with: “Many congratulations to you both, wonderful news.”

While it’s not known how long the BBC star has been with her partner, Simone, he first appeared on her Instagram back in 2015.

The pair seem to enjoy holidays together as The Repair Shop expert has shared glimpses of their time in the likes of Doha and Sardinia.

Angelina has been part of the BBC series since 2023, although it seems as though she already knew a familiar face in the barn, long-term favourite Will Kirk.

Not long after get debut, Will shared a snap of them together enjoying a day out with The Teddy Bear Ladies Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell.

When asked how she got involved in the show, Angelina replied: “One day, I got an email from a member of the production team asking whether I would be interested in joining and being an expert on the show.

“And, you know, one thing led to another interviews, videos, chats, and before I knew it, I was in the barn, doing my first item. So yeah, it was quite surreal.”

The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer

The Repair Shop viewers learnt the tragic tale of rescue dog Pepper who helped search for survivors in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing disaster.

The Repair Shop viewers saw one man share the touching story of his late border collie rescue dog, Pepper.

During the BBC show, which first broadcast last year, experts Dominic Chinea and Suzie Fletcher spoke to a man called Neil Powell.

The man had an old dog collar and a tattered rescue jacket with him, keen to get it restored in tribute to ‘one of the best’ dogs he’d had.

Explaining more about Pepper, The Repair Shop guest shared that he qualified to become a search and rescue at 18 months and was involved with helping to find a young German boy who was missing in bad weather conditions for 36 hours.

However, one of the more poignant searches Neil and Pepper were involved with was the 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am disaster, where they were called in to try and find survivors, reports the Daily Record.

Recalling the ‘dreadful’ smell of the aviation fuel, Neil highlighted that Pepper had discovered a suitcase during their time there, which was significant as it had scorch marks on, suggesting that the plane crash had been a bomb.

During the horrific tragedy, 270 perished in the Lockerbie bombing, amongst them 11 residents of the Scottish town.

Sadly, Pepper, along with the other dogs involved, developed tumours in their noses and windpipes while in the crater searching for human remains.

Admitting they weren’t sure it was caused by the aviation fuel, Neil confessed to being heartbroken over Pepper’s death, adding, ‘it was really awful.”

While Dom issued an apology over the loss of his cherished companion as Neil emphasised how significant the jacket was to him that he wore during mountain rescues.

One touching moment during the restoration saw textile conservator Rebecca Bissonnet make an unexpected discovery, Pepper’s name on the jacket, which had been hidden for years.

Calling her find ‘really moving’, Rebecca recreted her name to make it a permanent fixture on the jacket.

Ultimately, the duo succeeded in restoring both the jacket and the collar as they mounted it to a wooden board.

When Neil returned to the barn to witness the final result, he became visibly emotional as he fought back tears, calling it ‘perfect’ before praising the ‘talented people’ in the barn.

Spotting Peppers’s name, he confessed to being ‘overwhelmed’ by the sweet gesture before sharing that the display would go up at the base of their Mountain Rescue Centre.

The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer

Two siblings went on the BBC show in the hope of recovering never before seen home movies

A brother and sister battled tears as they said an emotional fix on The Repair Shop had given them “peace” after the family experienced a trauma.

Siblings Zaff and Nasari went on the BBC show with a broken projector that had been used to film home movies they’d never been able to see.

Their dad had recorded footage of them as children with their relatives during their childhood in Uganda, but after they were forced to flee the country in the 1970s under Idi Amin’s rule, it was packed up and not touched.

Both of their parents had since died, and Zaff and Nasari told experts Dominic Chinea and Mark Stuckey that they hoped fixing the projector would mean they would get to see them “walking around” again.

Discussing their childhood, Zaff said: “It was, yeah, very, very fun times, but the trauma that came after, with leaving Africa. Dictatorship. Idi Amin. We had 90 days to leave the country, and we weren’t allowed to take anything with us.”

The show explained that after staging a coup in 1971, military dictator Amin seized control of Uganda in East Africa. Accusing the country’s Asians of exploiting the economy, he ordered the expulsion of their entire population, forcing over 70,000 people to flee.

The family ended up leaving and starting “from scratch”, building a new life in the UK.

The siblings’ mum died at 45 and their dad died soon afterwards aged 50. The projector was “locked away” for 40 or 50 years, with the pair trying to fix it a few times but having no luck.

When they left the barn, Mark set about restoring the precious heirloom and was thrilled to get it working. Recovered footage showed Zaff and Nasari playing in Uganda as children, while their grandfather were also seen.

Both looked tearful as they viewed the films, with Zaff saying it was “astonishing” and Nasari saying: “I just feel my dad touching it. I feel like he’s here and he’s putting it on.”

“It brought me peace, seeing my mum and dad and how we were, and my grandfather, how much time we spent together,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “It’s my dad. Everything about it is my dad.”

She went on: “After them passing away, it’s been that long, you forget who they were and how they looked, and the feeling came back again. It made me feel at peace.”

The Repair Shop airs on BBC One.

The Repair Shop expert was left fighting back tears after an emotional restoration on the BBC show.

The Repair Shop expert Will Kirk couldn’t hide his emotion as a guest left him feeling choked up.

The woodwork restorer, who has become a fan-favourite on the BBC programme, admitted he was ‘going to cry’ after an emotional restoration.

During Wednesday’s (July 8) episode of the BBC hit show, Will and expert shoe restorer Dean Westmoreland were joined by Barbara Dennison and granddaughter Giovanna.

The duo came into the workshop looking for the experts help to restore a pair of baby shoes holding precious memories of wartime heroism.

The shoes belonged to Barbara and her late father Norman William gave them to her. He was gifted the shoes in Holland in 1945, during the Second World War after saving a little girl.

During a heartfelt moment, Barbara explained: “He was going down the street in Holland and there was a little girl playing in the street. Some shooting started and he grabbed this little girl and jumped into a cellar.

“When the shooting finished, he took her back to her mum and dad. The family must have been really grateful because he saved her. They must have been talking and he told them that he had a little girl, then they brought him these little shoes.”

Pointing at the shoes, she added: “Shortly after that his jeep got blown up but they survived , which is a miracle in itself.”

Dean knew he had a huge task on his hand as he admitted that he was feeling “nervous”. While getting stuck into the restoration, he said: “They’re so delicate and so small that I’m a little bit nervous about handling them.

“Unfortunately, I can’t scale my hands down to get in and do all this fine micro-detail work. The lining on this one is actually, almost all of it has come away. The leather is quite stiff, it’s quite dry so I’m going to have to think about how to hydrate this leather.”

Despite the huge challenge ahead, Dean managed to restore the item and Barbara was left in tears after reuniting with her precious shoes.

Joining Dean and Will back in the workshop, Barbara was tearful as she said: “Oh that’s lovely. Look it’s all stitched on. Oh Dean, thank you.”

She continued: “You’ve done exactly what I wanted. Each crack is just a wonderful memory of my dad and all my kids.”

The moment left Will emotional as he turned to Barbara and Giovanna and admitted: “You’re going to make me cry.”

Barbara was grateful to Dean for all his hard work as she added: “I can’t thank you enough.”

You can catch up on The Repair Shop on BBC iPlayer.

The Repair Shop expert Amanda Middleditch felt the pressure during the latest episode

A significant World Cup item was brought to The Repair Shop barn on Wednesday.

During the latest instalment (June 24) of the popular BBC programme, experts Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch met Steph Taylor and her daughter Alison. The life-long football fans sought help in restoring a soft toy of the 1966 England World Cup mascot, World Cup Willie, who was in a “rather sorry state”.

Steph explained that she bought the toy at the first match she went to that year. After getting tickets to all the matches at Wembley Stadium, including the final, Steph brought Willie along in her pocket.

The guest explained that she also went to the matches with her future husband, Chris, with their romance blossoming during the tournament. The couple got married that same year, before welcoming their daughter eight months later.

Sadly, tragedy struck when Chris died of an asthma attack just nine months after Alison was born.

“That makes Willie much more significant,” Julie noted, before Alison said: “Because they weren’t together very long, he’s the only thing that I have that connects mum and dad. So, it’s quite special to me as well.”

Julie and Amanda quickly got to work to try and restore the “very important” toy to its former glory. However, Amanda was noticeably nervous.

“He looks extremely fragile, doesn’t he? I’m quite concerned about his face,” she said.

Amanda added: “This little guy’s face is absolutely terrifying. The damp has left him with these two ugly holes. I’ve got to make him look good again.”

The expert tried to feed a new piece of fabric underneath the toy’s damaged face, but she worked with caution. She said: “I’m holding my breath here because the worst thing that could happen is his face disintegrates on me, and then I would have to replace the whole face.

“Oh, it’s a scary one! I think this is actually scarier than taking a penalty in the World Cup final. [I’m] absolutely terrified. But we can do this.”

Julie and Amanda successfully managed to restore World Cup Willie, leaving both Steph and Alison speechless as they were reunited with their possession.

“Oh my goodness, that’s amazing!” said Alison, while her mum noted: “I don’t know if he’s ever looked that good!”

A visibly emotional Steph added: “[I’m] quite filled up about it all, really. Yeah.”

Alison continued: “He’s quite special because he’s a link to my mum and my dad. He’s the only thing that really connects them,” before Steph said: “He’s a very important lion.”

The Repair Shop is available to stream on BBC iPlayer

BBC expert Steve Fletcher was given the task of restoring a sentimental item on the latest episode of The Repair Shop.

Emotions were at an all-time high during The Repair Shop as BBC’s Steve Fletcher and Dominic Chinea welcomed Robin into the workshop.

The guest had a large globe with him, which he explained was a ‘world clock’ and was built by his great-grandfather.

He commented: “It’s based on a grandfather clock mechanism. The idea is that the clock makes the globe rotate once every 24 hours. Then, using the numbers on the ring around the equator, you can see what the time is anywhere in the world.”

The BBC stars were blown away as they both called it ‘amazing’ before Robin confessed that he’s never known it to work in his lifetime.

Curious, horologist Steve asked if his great-grandfather was a clock-maker, as the guest explained that he wasn’t, he had been a mechanical engineer, but made the item in his spare time in the 1930s after retirement.

He added: “There’s a little newspaper cutting in here, according to the newspaper it’s supposed to chime every half hour. It took him five years to perfect.”

Sadly, Robin shared that his great-grandfather died when he was one year old, but he has memories of the item in his grandad’s dining room.

When asked what he wanted them to do with the unusual clock, Robin stated the idea would be to get it working, which is something his own father had wanted to do but never was able to.

He added: “If he’d have seen it working, I think it would have really been special to him if I could get it working now, in his memory, but also, grandfather and great-grandfather before that. Just to keep the family legacy going, as it were.

In the end, after the item was worked on by both Steve and Jonathan Wright, it was time for Robin to return to see the final restoration.

When the globe was revealed, which the experts managed to get working once again, Robin was blown away. He commented: “Wow! Well, it looks gorgeous, it really does look gorgeous. I’m… I am stunned, I really am stunned. Thank you. That’s a lovely sound, isn’t it?”

When Steve turned the clock strike on, Robin laughed as he struggled to hold back his emotions. He added: “Wow, that is so sweet. Sorry. I’d have loved my dad to have seen it and heard it. He’d have been thrilled. It’s really, it is emotional.

“Extremely emotional, but it’s magical, fabulous. We shall treasure it until it’s time to hand it on to the next generation.”

Steve added: “It’s been a real great challenge, so thank you very much for bringing it in.

The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.