If it’s broke, fix it:
Don’t ask for whom the clock ticks, it’s for a whole generation who repair things rather than throw them away. Kerry Harvey reports.
The driving philosophy behind The Repair Shop.
If anyone had told me I would happily spend Friday nights literally, at times, watching paint dry, I would have laughed – until The Repair Shop.
Nearly seven million Brits switch on every week to watch the show’s team of skilled artisans and tradespeople repair and restore family heirlooms, and now Kiwis are joining them in droves.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” says clockmaker Steve Fletcher, one of the series’ expert craftsmen, of the show’s success.
“It’s taken everyone by surprise and it just shows that we’ve really hit a nerve in the way people are trying to recycle things, renew things and repair things rather than just throwing them away and buying something new.”
And it seems The Repair Shop has also sparked an interest in many trades previously in danger of disappearing.
“It’s encouraged a lot of youngsters to take up crafts and trades and we’ve seen a real resurgence in people wanting to get into these old crafts,” Fletcher says.
“There are lots and lots of old techniques, trades that are dying out. We mustn’t let that happen, so it’s really important that youngsters do come into these trades because once the old techniques are lost, they’re lost forever.”
Fletcher is one of a permanent team of eight craftspeople and tradesmen – metal and leather workers, carpenters, toy restorers, ceramics experts and a painting conservator – who use their skills to restore items ranging from grandfather clocks to treasured teddy bears.
“The items that come in are absolutely priceless to people and irreplaceable,” Fletcher says, admitting the stories behind the items brought in for repair tug on his heartstrings as much as they do on those of viewers.
“The hardest thing is holding back the tears a lot of the time. These are real, proper, raw emotions and it’s not put on; it’s totally real and we really engage with the people and the things that are brought in.
“We understand the huge sentimental value of all the pieces brought in. It’s way beyond any financial value, any monetary value. It really is to do with the sentimental, true value of items.”
While only a few of the thousands of items put forward for restoration each season make it on to the show, Fletcher says that has led to a lot more work for other tradespeople around the UK.
“There are huge numbers of people working in little sheds or workshops at home, so there’s a massive amount of expertise around the country and I’m sure it’s the same in New Zealand,” he says.
“One of the things about The Repair Shop is that it makes people appreciate the things that they’ve got far more and they are taking these things to other experts and getting them fixed.”
Fletcher’s dad – a fellow horologist (clock maker) – was once one of those people and as a young man, Fletcher had no plans to follow him into the job.
“I used to see my father working in a small workshop on his own every single day, long days, and I thought there is no way I wanted to do that,” he says, adding when his plans to be first a vet then a silversmith failed to get off the ground, he changed his mind about the family business.
“My parents were quite poor at the time and they couldn’t afford to send me off for the training I needed, so I went to a clock-making college in the end because I got a full grant for it.
“Now I can’t think of any better trade. I’m third generation doing it and now my son and daughter are in the trade as well.”
That said, he never “in a million years” expected to find himself plying that trade on television.
“I was always as a child desperately shy and, if anyone had said that I was going to stand in front of five cameras and talk, I would have run a mile but I think new experiences are the most wonderful thing. It’s happened at a great time in my life and I’m very grateful,” Fletcher says.
“I’m going to be 64 in a few days’ time. I’ve always planned retirement about 85, so I think I’ll still be here at 85 doing it.
“Every time I come down here I get excited, thinking, ‘I wonder what’s going to come in, I wonder what the challenges are going to be and what other experts are going to be in the repair shop’ because new experts come in and we see other expertise and I learn so much from all of that. It’s a lovely, lovely
environment.”
“There are huge numbers of people working in little sheds or workshops at home.” – Steve Fletcher