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 4



The team repair a microscope that once belonged to a pioneering scientist and is now in the hands of a keen youngster wishing to use it once again. Elsewhere in the barn, there are restoration jobs on a pair of well-worn war boots that accompanied a captured soldier during the Second World War and an abstract sculpture that links a mother and daughter. On Will’s list is the substantial repair of a swinging bench from India that threatens to collapse the next time it’s sat on.

Arriving first are eight-year-old Felix and his dad Sam from Hertfordshire. They have brought with them a microscope handed down from Felix’s great-grandfather John D Bernal. Felix has a keen interest in science, perhaps unsurprising considering his great-grandfather was a pioneering figure in the field of crystallography and helped pave the way for the scientists who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. But despite Felix’s enthusiasm, he won’t currently be making any discoveries as the microscope, dated 1890, no longer works. Optics expert Richard Biggs diagnoses the key problem: the microscope is missing a crucial lens. He must also restore the reflective mirror that illuminates the glass slides.

Cobbler Dean Westmoreland has an appointment with Malcolm, who is entrusting him with a very special pair of boots that saw his late father Jack through some very difficult wartime years and beyond. Jack was captured in Norway before seeing any combat and spent five years as a prisoner of war. His diaries, which Malcolm still has, detail the horrific conditions that Jack and his fellow soldiers endured, including periods of starvation and freezing winters. When Jack eventually returned home, the boots came with him, but the heel has worn down, the stitching is falling apart, and the moths have attacked the felt uppers.

Next to arrive is Krishna from Hertfordshire. She’s hoping that woodwork maestro Will Kirk can repair a swinging bench that has been in her family for over 120 years. The bench, a traditional item of furniture from Gujarat in west India, belonged to Krishna’s great-grandfather, and she remembers it being in family members’ homes as a child in India. When Krishna had cancer, the bench was a sanctuary where she could recover from her chemotherapy sessions. But now its joints are loose and precarious, and the whole structure threatens to break if sat upon. Will’s plan includes dismantling the entire bench so he can assess which parts need to be replaced and remade, and he enlists Sonnaz Nooranvary to restuff the upholstery.

Finally, Maria has a unique challenge for ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay. She has brought in a handcrafted sculpture made by her mother Betina, an artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The marble sculpture is the first in a triptych of works depicting a growing organic object, and it's a work of which Betina was particularly proud. However, when brought to the UK, it split from its wooden base, with pieces sheared off the sculpture itself. It's a tricky repair, so Kirsten calls in Dom to assist.

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