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 14



The team restores four precious heirlooms, including a shattered ceramic poppy for a war veteran, which was created for the art installation at the Tower of London to commemorate the centenary of WW1, and a 1950s hot towel machine passed down a Cypriot family of barbers. Also on the job sheet is a portrait in pastels of a much-missed sister.

The first arrival is for ceramics conservator Kirsten Ramsay. Steph and her stepmother Alex are entrusting Kirsten with a shattered ceramic poppy that reminds the women of a loved father and husband. The red poppy was created for the momentous 2014 art installation at the Tower of London to commemorate the centenary of WW1. Each of the 888,246 poppies that filled the moat surrounding the Tower represented the lost lives of British soldiers. Thousands of visitors went to gaze at the dramatic sight, and among them were Steph and her late father, Pete. He was extremely proud of his daughter who served in the Royal Artillery, and he bought one of the poppies as a reminder of their day together. Tragically, Pete died of a rare blood disease in 2017 and, just a few months after, Alex decided to move it inside from her garden for safe keeping when it broke into pieces in her hands. Alex knows Pete would want his daughter to have it. That is, however, if Kirsten can piece it back together.

Barber Panos Adamou is the next to arrive, with a vintage tool of the trade for metal master Dom Chinea to spark back to life. The hot towel machine was bought in the 1950s by Panos’ Cypriot father, Peter. He settled in the UK, along with many other Commonwealth citizens, to work hard and achieve his ambitions. He trained to be a barber and opened a successful shop where this machine was installed to produce hot towels and water for the wet shaves. Panos and his brother both followed in their father’s footsteps and worked alongside him for years, with the hot towel machine loyally steaming away. Eventually, in the 1980s, the machine gave up and was banished to the basement. The Adamou brothers lost their dad recently, and Panos would love to get the machine back in service at his own barber shop in Peter’s memory. Dom has a lot of limescale to contend with, which has clogged up all the fixings and has caused it to spring several leaks. Time to showcase his soldering skills.

Next, it’s horologist Steve Fletcher's time to shine when Jasvinder comes to call with the clock that was her father, Darshan’s, pride and joy. He bought the distinctive wall clock in the 1960s. These timepieces are known as 30 day clocks as they only need winding once a month, a task that Darshan took very seriously. Jasvinder and her brother clearly remember its resonating chime. It’s a sound she dreams of hearing again, knowing it will remind her of her father who she lost when she was just eight years old. Steve tackles the enormous main springs which are gummed up with oil, and does his best to make Jasvinder’s dream come true.

Lastly, sisters Tiffany and Sarah arrive with a precious reminder of their elder sister Tracy, who died as teenager. The sweet portrait of Tracy, done in pastels when she was 13 years old, is terribly stained, and they are banking on paper conservator Louise Drover being able to improve and preserve it. Louise uses various ingenious tricks of the trade to transform the picture and wow the sisters.

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Thank you,
skorpion.