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Episode 9

Jay Blades and the team restore a homemade telescope, a well-travelled leather case, a bureau that served a village post office for decades and an antique seesaw.

Jay Blades and the team bring four treasured family heirlooms, and the memories they hold, back to life.

Father and son Simon and Jake Mosely are hoping optics expert Richard Biggs and metal expert Dominic Chinea can get an
ingenious, if unorthodox, telescope working again. Simon’s grandfather built it entirely from bits salvaged from scrap yards and bomb sites while working as an air raid warden during the Second World War. Hugely impressed by this piece of amateur engineering, Richard and Dom try to follow in Simon’s grandfather’s inventive footsteps to get the telescope working once again.

Saddler Suzie Fletcher is brought a briefcase once owned by an intrepid traveller. Now belonging to Rupert Truman, this heirloom once accompanied Rupert’s father across Africa on many work and family adventures, but is now beginning to show its age.

The next job falls to furniture restorer Will Kirk. Kathryn Lovell and her dad John have brought in a writing bureau that once belonged to Kathryn’s grandparents, who ran the village post office and would sit for hours at the bureau, writing letters and doing the books.

The final challenge of the day sees Dominic Chinea attempting to revive a rare and curious children’s toy. The 'Flexiwhirl' seesaw gave owner
Joanna Butterwick immense joy as a child, and she hopes the team can help her replicate that for future generations. The seesaw dates from the 1930s and was ahead of its time: not only did it go up and down, it also went round and round. Now it’s down to metal maestro Dom to dismantle the rusty mechanism and replace the missing parts to see if he can get it spinning again.

59 minutes

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:24

    Eric Chevalier

    Bright Emotion

  • 00:43

    Eric Chevalier

    Everyday Joy

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Jay Blades
Series Producer Tanveer Bari
Series Producer Cat Green
Executive Producer Rob Butterfield
Executive Producer Hannah Lamb
Executive Producer Alex Raw
Production Company Ricochet Limited

Broadcasts

Take Part

If you have a treasured possession that needs restoring, please get in touch.