The Repair Shop

S07:E16 - Gran's Diary, Handmade Leather Apron, Jacko the Monkey

Today in the Repair Shop, Jay Blades and the team bring three treasured family heirlooms, and the memories they hold, back to life.First to arrive at the barn, Mashuk and husband Paul, with a document of great personal importance that needs rescuing and restoring by the barn's book binder Chris Shaw. This delicate diary belonged to Mashuk's grandmother Lucy-Grace Gomez, who lived in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Lucy-Grace was a big part of Mashuk's childhood growing up and even when he moved to the UK and she stayed in Dhaka they would talk on the phone a couple of times a day. The diary, written in Bengali, is a treasure trove of memories from Lucy-Grace's life, from going to convent school to marrying her husband, favourite recipes and even lists of songs. But now the pages are too delicate to read and need Chris' help to preserve them for the future.The next arrival is a simple piece of workshop wear which holds strong memories for Craig Groom of his inspiring engineer grandfather. Craig assumes his grandfather made this apron himself from leather offcuts, and remembers him wearing it during happy times in his workshop as they tinkered with cars. But over the years the leather has become dry, scratched and splitting while the perished leather straps have been repaired with garden twine. Despite it's simple appearance this apron proves a complicated challenge for master saddler Suzie Fletcher.Finally, a cuddly companion in need of rejuvenating. Jacko the monkey, accompanied by his owner Cynthia Davis, arrives seeking the help of soft toy specialists Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell. Jacko was brought for a young Cynthia by her father, Jacko was an instant hit, but he became even more precious to Cynthia when she suddenly lost her dad when she was just 20. Jacko became a shoulder to cry on and a link to Cynthia's father. Today he's looking a lot the worse for wear, he's lost a foot and a lot of stuffing, but Cynthia is hoping the bear repair pair can make him huggable once again.