If it’s broke, they fix it:
The Repair Shop’s message of doing it up rather than ditching it has struck a chord with viewers. James Rampton reports.
New series aims to bring back the approach of ‘make do and mend’.
Stephen Fry has described The Repair Shop as, “The best programme on British television”. It is not hard to see why.
There is something innately soothing, and often quite moving, about this show hosted by Jay Blades. The premise is simple: people take their broken family heirlooms to be mended at The Repair Shop in a thatched barn in Sussex by experts such as the furniture restorer Will Kirk, the clock repairer Steve Fletcher and the ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay.
It is a joy to see everything from carriage clocks to rocking horses brought lovingly back to life.
As the narrator introduces the experts in The Repair Shop, he underlines that, “They will resurrect, revive, and rejuvenate treasured possessions and irreplaceable pieces of family history, bringing both the objects and the memories that they hold back to life.”
The programme exhibits the best of an old-fashioned community spirit. What’s not to like?
Blades, who is a skilled furniture restorer, reveals that he always understood the benefits of fixing things.
“I’d always done repairs. They call it ‘upcycling’ now, but when I was a kid we called it ‘make do and mend’. I was born and brought up in Hackney in the East End of London, and we were pretty poor, so that’s what we did,” he says.
The presenter, who acts as the ‘foreman’ on The Repair Shop, goes on to consider why the show has turned into such an enormous sleeper hit all over the world.
“It’s become so popular because a lot of people want to be part of something that feels like a community. I’m not saying other
shows don’t do that, but at The Repair Shop, we have got such a family ethos that that oozes through the screen.”
The Repair Shop taps into a contemporary idea about avoiding waste and upcycling items where we can. Blades emphasises that in his view, we have become too much of a throw-away society and, “That is wrong. The way the consumerist society has been is that we buy something brand-new and, if it doesn’t work, we just throw it away and get another one.
“But shows like The Repair Shop, and craftsmen and women up and down the country, are trying to bring back this idea of ‘make do and mend’, actually bringing back what we had in the 1940s and 50s.”
Blades is a great evangelist for the social benefits of learning about the delights of restoring much loved items. He says it is a skill which it is particularly helpful for youngsters to acquire.
“Young people are being sold the message that they need to get on social media, get on Love Island and become famous.”
But, Blades adds, “I love to show young people who are focused on sport or music that they can focus on something very creative. They can focus on fashion, on interiors, design, anything along those lines. So that’s what I like to focus on.
“I teach young people how to make money from nothing – how they can fix up a broken-down chair and how, if they sell it to the right people, they can make £150. And it’s all above board and they haven’t had to look over their shoulder or worry about the police catching them.
“Some of the young people I work with can’t read or write but are good with their hands – restoring furniture is perfect for that.”
Blades proceeds to express his happiness that he is able to convey his upcycling message through The Repair Shop. The programme allows him to stress the importance of, “Giving back to the young people, giving back to communities, showing them it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. You can create something from nothing, and you can also have fun while you are doing it. I’d love to be the Jamie Oliver of furniture.”
Finally, tears often flow during the “reveal” at the end of The Repair Shop. Blades admits that he is not immune from the high emotions that fill the air at the close of each episode. “What you have got, remember, is that once you have repaired a family’s item, you’re going to be part of their history. The emotion that is in the barn is real. So I do get emotional. I have got to try to keep it together. “But my bottom lip does go every now and again.”
“They call it ‘upcycling’ now, but when I was a kid we called it ‘make do and mend’.”
– Jay Blades