Episode 9

First into the barn is Christine Jagger from South Yorkshire, with a cherished garden bench – the best Christmas present she ever received from her late husband, Gordon. For 25 years, this spectacular seat took pride of place in the garden. It was where they would share a coffee and a laugh together, and it gave them a front row seat over the pigeon loft, where Gordon’s racing birds would roost. Since Gordon’s sad passing in 2009, time and weather have taken their toll, leaving the bench broken and flaking. But to Christine, it remains the heart of their home. With what would have been their golden wedding anniversary approaching, she asks Will Kirk to bring it back to life – a daunting responsibility for such an emotionally charged and badly broken piece of furniture.

From Somerset, Jayne James brings a beloved teddy bear with an extraordinary past. The bear was given to Jayne’s mother Betty, a nurse at St Martin’s Hospital in Bath in 1960, by Hollywood songwriter Sharon Sheeley, immediately after she had survived the car crash that killed her boyfriend, rock ’n’ roll legend Eddie Cochran. Betty was pregnant at the time, and naturally the bear was presented to baby Jayne, becoming her instant and lifelong companion. Now threadbare, sagging and on the verge of collapse, the bear is entrusted to soft toy restorers Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch. With new red velvet paws and rejuvenated black fur, they restore him to a state befitting his star-spangled past, ready for Jayne to take him back to 93-year-old Betty.

Next, Gaynor McCarthy-Smith and her husband Jamie bring a remarkable fishing chart, once used by Gaynor’s late father Paddy, a celebrated Grimsby trawler skipper. The vast 1940s paper chart, stained with spilt tea and sea salt, guided Paddy through the perilous waters of the North Sea for more than 50 years. But now, brittle folds, torn lining and a missing corner threaten to erase its history. Paper conservator Angelina Bakalarou works delicately to clean, flatten and infill the chart’s fragile surface, reconstructing the missing section by hand and ensuring it can once again be safely displayed as a tribute, not just to Paddy but to generations of his fellow trawlermen who risk their lives at sea.

Finally, from Lancashire, David Birch brings in a wartime camera that once belonged to his grandfather Charlie. This camera travelled with Charlie through Dunkirk, north Africa and Italy, capturing images of the conflict and of the grave of his fallen brother. After the war, it served in happier times, seeing constant action at the hands of David’s grandmother on holidays and family gatherings. But decades later, corrosion, fungus and grit have left it lifeless. Camera expert Pierro Pozella dismantles and cleans every mechanism, while cobbler Dean Westmoreland restores the worn leather case, together hoping to ensure the camera that recorded a family’s past is ready to capture its future.