Parliament needs The Repair Shop

THE experts on BBC2’s The Repair Shop – along with the craftsmen and women on Money For Nothing who turn stuff heading for the dump into unique works of eye-catching novelty – are a perfect antidote to that most horrible cliché of modern telly, the celebrity presenters of factual programmes who must “have a (useless) go” at every activity and trade they encounter.

Anyway, last Wednesday evening I arrive at The Repair Shop, a few minutes late – and there, blink, was Andrew Neil! Goodness, at last they’ve dragged Parliament kicking and screaming into the Shop, to be restored to its former glory. Sadly, just more Brexit and Speaker Bercow, all in need of deadheading – so I make my excuses and zap-adee-doo-dah away.

I have recently bumped into four words – a couple of ugly ones that refuse to roll off the tongue, and a brace of lovely examples that simply slide effortlessly off. First the ugliness of the words prorogation and prerogative – ach-y-fi, as they say down the pub. Then at The Repair Shop, brought in to be restored, is an antique family heirloom, a remarkable child’s wooden high chair that not only converts into a delightful rocking chair but also doubles up as a potty.

Upholsterer Sonnaz Nooranvary explains how she is going to cover the back of the chair with a foundation which will give it a look of “plumptious niceness”.

There, I bet you smiled, as I did when I heard her say it. So, next time you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, don’t sigh and say “I must go on a diet”, just smile and declare “Gosh, what a vision of plumptious niceness I am”.

Should you want to hear Sonnaz deliver what must be two of the cwtchiest words in the English language, go visit iPlayer... 60 Min Versions: Episode 21 – some 37 minutes in – and embrace a smiley repair. Huw Beynon Llandeilo