The Repair Shop

S06:E48 - Harmonium, Titanic Frank and Maria's Teddy

Today in the Repair Shop, Jay Blades and the team bring three treasured family heirlooms, and the memories they hold, back to life.  First in the barn today, a musical challenge for expert David Burville. Abbas Qureshi and his son Asad have brought in a beautiful but battered harmonium in search of someone who can restore its voice. Abbas' musical career started as a boy growing up in rural Pakistan where he first sang on stage aged 8, after moving to the UK in 1965 he carried on performing and formed a band in the 1980s playing all over England accompanied by this harmonium. But now the instrument is broken, leaking air and out of tune, Abbas hasn't been able to find another harmonium that compliments his voice as well as this one, so it's now down to David to restore the perfect harmony between musician and instrument.A very well-travelled piece of history is next to wind its way up the path to the barn. Belonging to Harry Dymond and his daughter Kathryn it's a sailor's logbook called a Continuous Certificate of Discharge, a record of all the ships served on and all the sailings made by Harry's professional seaman grandfather Frank, including one very famous and ill-fated ship's passage aboard the Titanic. Frank, or "Titanic Frank" as he's known to the family, survived the disaster and commanded one the last lifeboats to leave the sinking ship. Frank's original logbook went down with the Titanic, but this replacement records the fateful journey and went on to accompany Frank for the rest of his life. Today it's dog-eared, torn and held together by tape – it's down to the Barn's resident book-binding expert Christopher Shaw to bring it back from the brink and restore it back to being a treasured heirloom the family can be proud of once more. Finally, an ageing teddy from the 1950s needs some TLC from bear experts Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch. Teddy has been with Maria Naylor since her family's flight from Hungary after Russia took control of their homeland in 1956. Leaving in the dead of night with just the clothes on their back, Maria, her parents and her siblings found themselves in a refugee camp in Austria. On seeing the children without any toys another young girl gave them Teddy to keep. Teddy travelled with the family across Europe until they settled in Manchester. After her sister's recent death, Maria is hoping Julie and Amanda can give him a new lease of life in his later years.