Episode 8

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

Painting conservator Lucia Scalisi welcomes a symbolic seascape painting into the barn. Owners Jenny and James sought solace on the Pembrokeshire seashore when they lost their baby son Elijah after only 37 days. For them, this painting of a rocky harbour and a rowing boat has come to symbolise the turbulent emotions they have encountered. Working on such a poignant painting is a huge responsibility for Lucia, but when the couple returns to see her restoration, they are utterly blown away.

Bear ladies Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell revive a dislocated doll belonging to Ana, who fled to the UK from Bosnia with her parents when she was a child. With mechanical maestro Steve Fletcher getting a head start on the doll’s squiffy eye, the ladies turn their attention to making the baby doll more robust and a little less scary.

Farmer Simon is hoping to see his grandfather’s fiddle drill back in action once again. The vintage seed-sower has seen better days, but with the joint craftsmanship of metal and leather experts Dominic Chinea and Suzie Fletcher, the unusual drill is soon in fine fettle once more.

And ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsey revives an earthenware Parisian plate belonging to a family that fled the Nazi invasion of France and subsequently travelled around the globe, always with their precious plate in tow.