The Repair Shop

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.

A second disaster has struck the prized car collection of The Repair Shop star star Dominic Chinea, and he says this may be the final straw as he considers selling it

TV star and The Repair Shop presenter Dominic Chinea admitted “it’s getting worse and worse” as he introduced the latest update on his Land Rover restoration project.

The engineering expert has been restoring a dilapidated 1957 Series 1 Land Rover that he found buried in a hedge near his new home in Cornwall. He has described it as one of his most challenging projects to date, given that the chassis was completely rotten and the vehicle had been half-buried in undergrowth for several years.

Dominic hasn’t had the best of luck with the rebuild. Only a few weeks ago, Dominic admitted that he had hit a major snag after accidentally damaging the Land Rover’s seat base as he lifted the rear tub.

He said he was thinking of reaching out to Repair Shop co-star, upholstery expert Sonnaz Nooranvary, before the Land Rover can be considered complete.

But Dominic’s trials and tribulation with the Land Rover restoration aren’t his only problem at present, because he’s had a second mishap with his vintage VW Caddy.

The BBC star is something of a petrol-head, counting a 1957 Porsche 356a, multiple Land Rovers (Series 1 and Defender 110), a 13-window VW camper, a 1958 VW split bus, and a 1936 BSA motorbike among his extensive collection. One of the numerous vehicles undergoing restoration in Dominic’s new workshop is an early Eighties Volkswagen Caddy pickup.

Back in February, back-to back storms caused a major accident in his new workshop, causing major damage to the Mk1 Caddy.

Dominic explained: “Previously, during the last storm, part of the roof flew off of the workshop and landed on the Caddy, smashed into the bonnet. It made a hole in the bonnet, dented the wing, and I was gutted.”

He added that the reinforced concrete beams that support the structure of his workshop are becoming increasingly corroded: “The steel rebar is getting rusty and swelling up and it’s breaking the concrete and a chunk of that has fallen off the roof.

“Of course, it’s landed on the windscreen of the Caddy and broken the windscreen”

Dominic blamed himself for the accident, explaining that he’d had some work done to install a ramp into the workshop and that the vibration from the machinery may well have dislodged the loose chunk of concrete: “That is my stupid fault,” he said. “I should have put something a board over [the cars] or moved them outside or something like that.”

Dominic said that after this latest disaster he was close to giving up on the pickup: “I may well sell it because I haven’t really used it since I’ve been down here and I feel bad that the poor thing is just getting worse and worse whilst it’s here.”

He called out to fans, saying that he wasn’t really sure what the car might be worth, saying: “Make me an offer.”

Catch Dominic on The Repair Shop tonight (Wednesday, May 6) on BBC One from 8pm to 9pm.

The Repair Shop expert Steve Fletcher faced a challenging restoration on the BBC show.

Steve Fletcher, an expert on The Repair Shop since its launch in 2017, was left astounded by the item he was called upon to restore.

During the latest episode of the BBC programme (April 29), viewers watched Steve alongside Sonnaz Nooranvary examine the item that had been brought in.

Casting her eye over it on the table, Sonnaz remarked: “I’m no builder, but needless to say, this looks like it’s seen much better days.” Concurring, Steve responded: “Yeah, I’ve done up old buildings, and I don’t think any of them were as bad as this.”

Stepping into the barn was Dawn Shrives from West Sussex, who jokingly told the experts they were looking at “ruins” before revealing it was an extraordinary model watermill constructed by her late father in 1996.

She explained: “He put it all together to go in front of our family home to replicate the red brickwork of the house. Every little brick he made by hand, individually, he wanted it to be a working watermill. Obviously, the years of it sitting on the ground, outside, the weather had gotten to it.”

Dawn went on to describe how her father had planned to install an underground chamber to make the watermill turn. Tragically, he passed away in 2014, and her mother subsequently moved to a smaller property, reports the Manchester Evening News.

She noted that with her mother now living in a bungalow, there is nothing left to remind her of her beloved late husband, underlining just how precious the watermill model truly is. Dawn continued: “He’s touched, every single piece of this. He’s crafted this, and she looks out her front window and sees this deteriorating; it’s just so sad to see.”

She went on: “So to have it brought back to life for the family, for mum, would just be amazing. Just to see it put back together and whole again, I think, is almost- we can’t even think of that.” As Steve outlined his intentions to repair the model, it was evident he faced a considerable challenge.

Ultimately, after crafting bricks to substitute those Dawn’s father had originally made, Steve succeeded in restoring the dilapidated model and incorporated water to make the wheel rotate as her father had envisioned decades earlier.

When the moment arrived to reveal the completed restoration, Dawn brought her mother, Pam, along to view the model. The two women were immediately moved to tears upon seeing it unveiled, astounded by Steve’s achievement.

Pam promptly thanked Steve as Dawn exclaimed: “Look at that! Isn’t that lovely?” Pam remarked: “Gosh, that’s amazing. You’ve done all of these (roof tiles). Gosh, thank you.”

Upon noticing the water feature surrounding the house, Steve activated it for the first time, demonstrating the functioning watermill. She observed: “It’s just beyond anything that we could’ve thought would ever happen to it, thank you.”

Addressing the camera directly, Dawn said: “The watermill just sums up a legacy that will now stay in the family, be preserved, and dad would be so pleased to know that it’s working and it’s loved and it’s still loved.” Pam agreed, adding: “It’s just the best thing we could have done, isn’t it?”

The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.