‘The Repair Shop’ BBC2

Every Picture tells a story and 2017 saw the start of a 15 part series devoted to the Conservation and restoration of a Nations Fine and Decorative arts resting in our homes.

If we are lucky we all come to inherit or find an object we want to hold onto in our lives. This story is about ‘The Repair Shop’ aired in March/April this year BBC2 and I was part of the expert team We have had great reviews! and a second series has been commissioned.I was thrilled to be a part of the series & even more-so that it has been recommissioned for later this year. The first series was filmed at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum South Downs National Park near to Chichester. We filmed in the most beautiful late 17th century ‘Court Barn’ from Lee-On-Solent (rescued and reconstructed in the late 1970’s at the Weald & Downland Living Museum). Filming was great fun and testing too. It was pretty cold in January & February this year and working in-situ is a challenging environmentfor any Conservator at the best of times. I learned much about working in temperatures hovering around freezing – not my usual environment – not least that my portable varnish unit ceased to function and the varnish when applied did not dry readily. The supreme delight of this series though is that it taps into the emotional aspect of the objects brought into The Repair Shop. We are told Every picture tells a story, the stories we heard from the people and places attached to the objects makes for compelling television. The objects are worth more than any monetary value that may be attached to them and even now when I listen to the programmes I am moved to tears by many of the stories. My favourite has to be the story told by Patricia and Ivor Salmon and their beautiful painting of Icknield House. The painting passed to Patricia from her mother who received it as a wedding gift from the artist and owner of the house, Violet McDougall. Patricia & Ivor are a delight and so gracious in the sharing of theirstory. I was moved when one of the researchers appeared on set one day with a basket of flowers from them as a Thank you. We had a great team of experts working on the programme from the Producers, Researchers, Editors et al at Ricochet; the Camera Crew who guided us through the making of the scenes and the Expert team themselves (l-r in photo) Lucia Scalisi – Paintings; Kirsten Ramsey – Ceramics; Jay Blades – Upholstery;Stephen Fletcher – Horology; Will Kirk – Furniture and woodwork; Dominic Chinea – Metalwork – to name a few. Looking forward to more objects, stories and Conservation later this year. Join us at BBC2 and now on iplayer.

Advertisement