Jacob Jordaens: Renaissance Watercolours

Inside every museum is a hidden world, and now cameras have been allowed back behind the scenes at the world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Although many of us have had to stay away over the last year, the work has continued in the V&A’s workshops and storerooms to conserve some of the two million wonders in the museum’s collection.

In this episode, the museum sonservators work to preserve and maintain four unique objects. Theatre and Performance keeper Geoff and conservator Jo work to repair an eye-popping red lurex suit that belongs to Jim Lea, the bass player in one of biggest glam rock bands of the 1970s, Slade. Meanwhile, curator Peta and conservator Victoria are finally able to bring a 500-year-old wax modelled by Michelangelo out of cold storage, but it isn't long before they find something on one of the buttocks that takes them both by surprise.

Curator Elania, while working on a display showing the prominence of watercolour painting during the Renaissance, disovers a series of unusual white dots on a piece by a Flemish master that hasn’t been shown for over a century – Christ, St Paul and the Theological Virtues, by Jacob Jordaens. And finally, curator Josephine and keeper Anna aim to prepare a kimono, designed by the Cameroon-born designer Serge Mouangue, in order to add it to a touring exhibition celebrating the Japanese national dress.