May be of interest - The Repair Shop

[SPSlick]

The Repair Shop BBC2 6:30pm
Episode 1
The Repair Shop, Series 1 Episode 1 of 15

In the repair shop today, three cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.

Furniture restorer Jay Blades and horologist Steve Fletcher tackle a timepiece with huge sentimental value for its owner Jane Fanner. Her late father, who was completely blind, made the clock himself, but it hasn't ticked or chimed since his death.

Antique furniture restorer Will Kirk tests his carpentry skills on a 50-year-old wooden flying fish that may have been carved by a descendent of one the mutineers from HMS Bounty.

And accordion expert Roger Thomas wrestles with an 80-year-old instrument that was played in the bomb shelters of London during the Blitz.

 

[John15]

Thanks SP - I'll check it out.

John

 

[AJB Temple]

Likewise.

 

[Jasper42]

Juest read this, smack on 6:30 pm so started wateching.

Thanks, (wife not looking too happy)

 

[AJB Temple]

Watched it. Nice programme.
Camera work (out of focus then sharpen) is annoying.
The guy who repaired the wooden fish bodged it a bit with all those flats on the sanding.
Not sure why they need to introduce time pressure.
I liked the barn!

 

[CHJ]

Rather disappointing from a craft perspective for me, too high a proportion of humorous scene links and not enough process detail, there's no doubt the personnel featured know their trades from the observed snippets but for me a prolonged WIP approach to fewer items would have been more enjoyable, guess it's the attempt to introduce a tea time audience to a creative world rather than another soap opera or reality show.

 

[bugbear]

I assume the experts do the repairs in their own real workshops, and the Weald and Down barn is just where they make the TV program.

The thought of a horologist working in an open barn next to a woodworker's dust is laughable. As is the spurious time pressure (not real, I assume).

It's really just about the reaction of the owners.

Awful; Won't be watching again.

BugBear

 

[RogerP]

Another dumbed down offering for prime time.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Watched it. Not impressed - just another makeover show with limited craft content.

 

[AES]

Ah well, from the balance of the comments above it seems I didn't miss much.

While I appreciate that a TV "show" cannot (and should not) try to teach a specific subject or craft, I do generally get annoyed at the usually superficial approach by, it seems to me, just about all programme makers when it comes to anything to do with "hand work" - and many other things come to that.

I watched the pottery throw down programme with interest (though I'll never be a potter, and don't even want to try) but did get pleasure from it, but always got annoyed with the artificial time pressure ("30 seconds to go potters, then tools down" - complete with NASA-type count down). Do the TV makers think we're all kiddies?

In these days of satellite TV, UK viewers may care to note that Bavarian TV ("BSF") recently carried a series of very interesting programmes about stuff made today in the Black Forest area - NOT cuckoo clocks, but a wide range, including jewellery, glass, coconut "matting" (the red carpet used on presentation shows, state visits, etc), small hand tools, kitchen utensils, pottery, etc, etc. Of course you'd need a bit of German to get much out of it, but a MUCH more "sensible" approach to such stuff than generally put out - both interesting and informative.

AES

 

[AJB Temple]

Be fair chaps - it is a half hour prime early evening TV programme that is aimed at a general market, not craft experts. It is a positive step. I learnt something from it - including the inner mechanism of an accordion and what clockmakers use to clean clocks. The woodwork stuff is weak, but the programme touched on a variety of skills.

 

[bugbear]

The language on the clock was also very evasive. My view is that the lady owner thought her blind father made "it", by implication the whole thing.

But to me, it looked (a lot) like a factory made movement in a homemade case.

BugBear

 

[Harbo]

I watched the programme today and found it very superficial.
As someone who has been making a couple of clocks for several years and hasn't finished one yet, I find it very difficult to believe a blind person could make one. He would have needed to operate a lathe, cutting gear etc and work to tight tolerances. Perhaps he had a talking vernier gauge?

Rod

 

[bugbear]

I watched the programme today and found it very superficial.
As someone who has been making a couple of clocks for several years and hasn't finished one yet, I find it very difficult to believe a blind person could make one. He would have needed to operate a lathe, cutting gear etc and work to tight tolerances. Perhaps he had a talking vernier gauge?

Rod

I don't know wether a blind person could make a clock movement or not (although I know for certain that Moore and Wright made Braille micrometers).

But in this instance (although we see little enough of the movement), I think it was purchased "whole" and put in a case he did make.

BugBear

 

[profchris]

I thought it wasn't bad, as a 30 minute programme aimed at the general population. I'd have liked to know how the fish tail was clamped for glueing, but 99% of viewers wouldn't have cared.

I think it got over two messages:

1. Decent quality things can be fixed, even if they seem very broken.

2. It takes a lot of skill to fix them.

And I got some tips for fettling my accordion, if I ever feel brave enough!

Doubt I'll watch the rest, but it wasn't too bad.

 

[Racers]

The best bits we didn't get to see, the accordion was goodish but not enough detail, the fish, I wouldn't let him near anything of mine tools included, why did he clamp the piece of wood in a drill vice to saw it then smack it with the back of the saw to snap it off?
They seemed to want to get the clock woman to cry, I guess they think it makes good tv these days.

If they showed less things and more detail it would be much better.

Pete

 

[bugbear]

The best bits we didn't get to see, the accordion was goodish but not enough detail, the fish, I wouldn't let him near anything of mine tools included, why did he clamp the piece of wood in a drill vice to saw it then smack it with the back of the saw to snap it off?
They seemed to want to get the clock woman to cry, I guess they think it makes good tv these days.

If they showed less things and more detail it would be much better.

Pete

I suspect they couldn't show more detail without letting the people use
their real workshops - what we're seeing is the Court Barn, and all the tools and benches
are just set dressing.

http://www.wealddown.co.uk/buildings/court-barn/

BugBear

 

[Racers]

The shot of the metalworking lathe must have been filmed at the clockmakers workshop, so outside filming must have been done.

Pete

 

[bugbear]

The shot of the metalworking lathe must have been filmed at the clockmakers workshop, so outside filming must have been done.

Pete

They actually installed a Myford lathe in that barn! Wether we saw real work being done on it, I know not.

(around 9:28 - 9:32 into the episode
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... -episode-1
)

BugBear

 

[John15]

Too light-hearted for me with not enough serious detail to be interesting.

John