Enter a workshop filled with expert craftspeople, bringing loved pieces of family history and the memories they hold back to life. A heartwarming antidote to throwaway culture.

Season 12 - Episode 1



The team restores four precious heirlooms, including a painting belonging to a Ukrainian family who risked everything to conserve their family history in the face of unimaginable odds. Also in the barn is an original 1963 calendar from Liverpool's Cavern Club featuring an early Beatles booking, an 18ft self-built kayak and a leather swivel chair that evokes precious memories of a much-missed father and grandfather.

The first arrival is for paintings conservator Lucia Scalisi. Maria has brought a 19th-century Madonna and Child painting that originally hung in a Ukrainian village church where her family lived. During the Second World War it was rolled up and hidden in her grandmother’s coat just before she was taken to a forced labour camp in northern Germany with her two daughters. Lucia has her work cut out as cracks have appeared where the painting was hastily folded and stored. Maria hopes to one day return the restored painting to its original home in the Ukrainian village church.

Dom has his own challenge when a two-person kayak, originally built from a kit in the 1960s, arrives measuring 18ft. It was built by owner Stephen’s father and was the focal point for him and his brother Nigel’s childhood holiday memories. Being so large it has been stored outside and the years have taken their toll, completely rotting through the original wooden deck and blistering the fibreglass hull.

Peter, son of Ray McFall the original owner of Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club, brings in an item for the attention of paper restorer Angelina Bakalarou. It’s a wall calendar from 1963 used to book in bands at the venue. It records the dates of all the bands who played at the club during 1963, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The final item of the day is for upholsterer Sonnaz Nooranvary when Joelle and her children arrive with a broken office swivel chair. It belonged to Herall, Joelle’s father, who would play with his grandchildren spinning them around in it.

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skorpion.