[Croozer]

Taking a few steps back, both in time and perspective, is this programme not doing exactly what television was meant to:creating an illusion in which its audience is sufficiently emotionally and/or intellectually invested to keep watching?

There may be no real 'Repair Shop' but its staged creation with experts who are just that - rather than actors- and genuine punters with real 'stories' associated with real items is done well enough to command an audience who would otherwise neither know nor care that there was a difference between a radio valve and a water valve.

I agree that for technical discourse it falls short, but it is television and all the illusion and 'magic' associated with it, created primarily for entertainment rather than education.