BBC TV: The Repair Shop

[Electronpusher0]

Originally Posted by PaulR

I am glad to see that doesn't just happen here!

Happens here too, I just can't make SWMBO see that its important, "its just a TV show, its entertainment" grrrr.

Peter

[Dave Moll]

Fortunately, I can rage at the television as much as I like - with no one else to complain!

[David Simpson]

Seeing that Forum-wise, we now have a link to one of the "radio experts" via nigelr2000(post 442), I wonder if any of the views expressed in this lively long thread have reached the program producers &/or the radio experts they use. Considering the lambasting we've given them, their ears must be burning. As yet(maybe I've missed the info), non of these guys have been flagged as Forum or BVWS or VMARS, etc. members. Perhaps some are but have kept their heads down, taking a hefty fee for lowering their standards, & keeping schtum.
I've said this before, but "Salvage Hunters - The Restorers" uses top notch experts & sets a high standard which the likes of "The Repair Shop" can never achieve. Its too yucky - the presenter drooling over "Old Granny's broken china doggy" & so on.
A friend up here has actually met Drew Pritchard. Yes - he looks like a weasel, but professionally - what you see is what you get. A forthright up-front guy. I also know that the Restorers he uses are held in high regard in North Wales, & throughout the whole UK in fact. As I have family down that way. The electrician he uses seemingly is ex Royal Engineers, and you never see him fannying about and doing bodge jobs.

Regards, David

[Radio Wrangler]

Drew Pritchard is a business. The stuff he handles and has restored/refurbished sells for real folding money and once he's sold it, who knows where it goes or moves on. One thing is certain is that if anything is unsafe as it leaves him, he can be on a very sticky wicket. He seems to understand this and as a consequence the stuff he sells seems competently done. I've not seen PAT tests done, but they would be wise. Not even charity shops will sell anything electrical second-hand without a PAT test.

So it's a bit odd that the telly people don't seem to be covering their rear ends with a final test. I can't see a general disclaimer working unless the thing is described as not fit for use, should the worst happen.

David

[M0FYA Andy]

I've raised the topic on here before, but whenever Drew Pritchard's restorers deal with a nice historic impulse slave dial, they ruin it by installing a quartz mechanism. Totally ridiculous, you can drive a slave dial without a master clock by using a readily-available modern 'impulser' module, hidden inside the clock case.
But then they cost maybe £80 instead of £2 for a mass-produced quartz mechanism....

Andy

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by David Simpson

Seeing that Forum-wise, we now have a link to one of the "radio experts" via nigelr2000(post 442), I wonder if any of the views expressed in this lively long thread have reached the program producers &/or the radio experts they use. Considering the lambasting we've given them, their ears must be burning. As yet(maybe I've missed the info), non of these guys have been flagged as Forum or BVWS or VMARS, etc. members. Perhaps some are but have kept their heads down, taking a hefty fee for lowering their standards, & keeping schtum.
I've said this before, but "Salvage Hunters - The Restorers" uses top notch experts & sets a high standard which the likes of "The Repair Shop" can never achieve. Its too yucky - the presenter drooling over "Old Granny's broken china doggy" & so on.
A friend up here has actually met Drew Pritchard. Yes - he looks like a weasel, but professionally - what you see is what you get. A forthright up-front guy. I also know that the Restorers he uses are held in high regard in North Wales, & throughout the whole UK in fact. As I have family down that way. The electrician he uses seemingly is ex Royal Engineers, and you never see him fannying about and doing bodge jobs.

Regards, David

Once again, I disagree strongly with this view. The restorations performed in most sections are clearly of the very highest standard, museum standard in some cases. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I don't really see the purpose of a comparison with Salvage Hunters - The Restorers. They're both excellent programmes for anyone interested in restorations. But quite different. There's a high degree of sentimentality in The Repair Shop, and that's what the vast amount of viewers want, it's not a tutorial for restoring anything, let alone radios. It's wonderful to see the excitement and even tears of people whose childhood memories are brought back to them.

We seem to have a giant bee in our bonnet over the way that radio restorations have been performed. Que sera, we have to get over it. The program producers have a much bigger picture to satisfy than the fact that nerds like ourselves smuggly point out errors or faux pas.

I also doubt very much that there's a feedback situation going on whereby our ramblings will affect or even effect the way radios are treated. I Also think it's unfair to criticise the radio repairers as having 'sold out' for "a hefty fee". I doubt they get a hefty fee all told given the time and trouble they go to as explained in a previous post.

It's an entertainment programme with a nod towards sentimentality, antiques, bygones, and nice endings. It's not meant to be a 100% accurate tutorial for would be repairers to follow complete with product names etc. If it irks people so much, as they say there's always the on/off switch. I love it, faux pas et all.

[ms660]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Once again, I disagree strongly with this view. The restorations performed in most sections are clearly of the very highest standard, museum standard in some cases. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I don't really see the purpose of a comparison with Salvage Hunters - The Restorers. They're both excellent programmes for anyone interested in restorations. But quite different. There's a high degree of sentimentality in The Repair Shop, and that's what the vast amount of viewers want, it's not a tutorial for restoring anything, let alone radios. It's wonderful to see the excitement and even tears of people whose childhood memories are brought back to them.

We seem to have a giant bee in our bonnet over the way that radio restorations have been performed. Que sera, we have to get over it. The program producers have a much bigger picture to satisfy than the fact that nerds like ourselves smuggly point out errors or faux pas.

I also doubt very much that there's a feedback situation going on whereby our ramblings will affect or even effect the way radios are treated. I Also think it's unfair to criticise the radio repairers as having 'sold out' for "a hefty fee". I doubt they get a hefty fee all told given the time and trouble they go to as explained in a previous post.

It's an entertainment programme with a nod towards sentimentality, antiques, bygones, and nice endings. It's not meant to be a 100% accurate tutorial for would be repairers to follow complete with product names etc. If it irks people so much, as they say there's always the on/off switch. I love it, faux pas et all.

If I could do english composition I would have wrote what you wrote

Lawrence.

[Electronpusher0]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Once again, I disagree strongly with this view. The restorations performed in most sections are clearly of the very highest standard, museum standard in some cases. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I don't really see the purpose of a comparison with Salvage Hunters - The Restorers. They're both excellent programmes for anyone interested in restorations. But quite different. There's a high degree of sentimentality in The Repair Shop, and that's what the vast amount of viewers want, it's not a tutorial for restoring anything, let alone radios. It's wonderful to see the excitement and even tears of people whose childhood memories are brought back to them.

We seem to have a giant bee in our bonnet over the way that radio restorations have been performed. Que sera, we have to get over it. The program producers have a much bigger picture to satisfy than the fact that nerds like ourselves smuggly point out errors or faux pas.

I also doubt very much that there's a feedback situation going on whereby our ramblings will affect or even effect the way radios are treated. I Also think it's unfair to criticise the radio repairers as having 'sold out' for "a hefty fee". I doubt they get a hefty fee all told given the time and trouble they go to as explained in a previous post.

It's an entertainment programme with a nod towards sentimentality, antiques, bygones, and nice endings. It's not meant to be a 100% accurate tutorial for would be repairers to follow complete with product names etc. If it irks people so much, as they say there's always the on/off switch. I love it, faux pas et all.

I agree with most of what you say, I watch and enjoy the Repair Shop and most of the restorations are to a very high standard.
It just seems to be let down by the radio / electronics restorations. A little more attention to detail and the show would be perfect.

Peter

[Superscope]

Likewise,

I think it's a very unfair (and inaccurate) statement to say: "which the likes of "The Repair Shop" can never achieve".

The Skilled Crafts people used on the show, are equally as good as those used on Salvage Hunters.

The end results in the show (Barring the Radiogram! ) are nearly always Exemplary to say the least.

But bear in Mind, most of the items appearing on the Repair Shop, would never get repaired at all if it were not for the show because there is simply no Financial Value in the final Product. Unlike, as was said previously, the High Value items repaired by Drew's Restorers.


Ian

[emeritus]

I guess it's only enthusiasts such as forum members who want strictly accurate restorations such as using real BA brass bolts with the correct head style rather than Metric. I guess the average member of the public is more interested in ending up with something that works and looks good externally and is less concerned with what is inside and out of sight.

[ex seismic]

I think the problem with radio related jobs is that with the woodworker, or leather worker you see them doing something and more or less instantly achieving something be it a bit of carved wood or a nice stitched seam. With electronics there is no mass appeal, someone measuring a voltage doesn't achieve anything apart from some meaningless numbers on a meter which are meaningless to us as well as we have no idea what is being measured. This might well be followed by a resistor being un soldered and replaced. Again, meaningless to the great unwashed, and us for the previous reason.

What annoyed me some time ago was a valve radio "restoration" where at the end when it was switched on in front of the owner, not only did it come on instantly but on a programme not available in the area where the programme is filmed.

Gordon

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by emeritus

I guess it's only enthusiasts such as forum members who want strictly accurate restorations such as using real BA brass bolts with the correct head style rather than Metric. I guess the average member of the public is more interested in ending up with something that works and looks good externally and is less concerned with what is inside and out of sight.

Again, to be fair I think that the restorers in RS would use real BA bolts or anything else like that if it was obtainable. As Steve says the restorations are usually of museum quality performed by real experts. Last night the music box man tackled what looked like a simple repair. When he started going over 5000 pins to make sure they were all straight I thought "yes he really knows what he is doing"

[Radio Wrangler]

The electrical and particularly electronic side of things is essentially invisible and you can only see what is going on through instruments and you have to know enough to be able to interpret their readings. In other words, it all lacks any visual appeal. And that's really all TV cares about. You can SEE some artful leather or wood work going on. Watching someone fix a bit of electronics is like watching pain dry and harden.

Magic may be being performed, but there are no showers of sparks, flashes of light and all that dramatic jazz. At least three quarters of a good radio/audio repair comes down to thinking, so it's going to look deathly boring. Unless.... someone invents a way to film our thoughts, and if that happens, we are going to have more problems than just the nature of one TV programme!

David

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by Superscope

Likewise,


But bear in Mind,
Ian

Funnily enough, Julie and Amandas business is Bear it in mind. As someone said, they know what they are talking about and are very nice. One time when we visited their popup shop in Ironbridge, Jay popped in to say high to them. Seemed OK, too.

Back towards the topic, I'd guess that all of the repairers / restorers are running businesses doing the kind of thing they do on the show.

And on the subject of the radiogram itself, one has to wonder how it ended up in the state it did, with so many missing parts, or badly damaged parts. It must take some abuse to damage a PCB like that. I also noted that when the various bits were lfted out they were already disconnected. That of course could simply be the way it was filmed, after having been already dismantled for examination.

[David Simpson]

As I said in post 429 - I think that the other experts are top notch. And, I've expressed that sentiment on previous posts in past years. Its just that, for vintage radio/electronics enthusiasts, the choice of radio "experts" lets them down. Also, I just dont like the excessive pathos & drooling sentimentality that the producers expect the presenter & all the experts to display.
At least on "The Restorers" the experts are "here's the good news, here's the bad" folk who make it quite obvious that time will no doubt be expensive. The "Automiton" husband & wife experts up this way at Forres, which Drew Pritchard used recently, did a fantastic job on his knackered drum beating bear. However, I just dont see them speeding up their restoration work just to satisfy TV program producers, or pathetically holding Drew's hand whist he cried.
On the RS "show" the pathos is as false as the diving safety on "The Gold Divers". Also, everything you see in the RS wooden(replica 17th century ?) workshop - is totally false. The different workbenches are just TV props. The electricity supplies, the lighting, the blacksmiths forge, the pillar drills, etc, - are all brought in just for the program. I would imagine that the proper experts have well managed & well laid out workshops & studios back at their home base. Surely, the TV audience can't believe its a real permanent multi-discipline workshop - - can they ? Any that do are sad "so & so's".

Regards, David

[Welsh Anorak]

But does it really matter? And does anyone (else) care? As Steve Hz says, it's an entertainment show which likes a good slice of human interest. The widget they fix is somewhat incidental as long as the restorers are camera friendly and the owner has the 'aah' factor.
If it makes Mrs Jones think her old radio, clock or whatever might be repaired by one of us, then it saves a piece of equipment being dumped and keeps us in business.

[AC/HL]

I'm guessing that there are a lot of viewers who are only interested in the social content of TV programmes like this, and who go off to make tea when the teccy bits are showing. They want to see the bits that we don't and vice versa. It's general entertainment with a practical bias.
Crossed with Glyn

[CambridgeWorks]

I have watched little of this entertainment in the past and doubt I would bother again. It is just presented as a fairy tale workshop ( just look at the state of the building) with magic performed on sentimental items to a degree to milk the last bit of emotion out of the owner. Not to say some of the experts are extremely good and true craftsmen.
In my mind, to create a show featuring people and belongings brought together again is to me just sloppy sentimentality for the sake of viewing figures, all put together in 3 days we are informed.
Sorry, I know not many agree with me or what David Simpson has said, but that is how I see it.
Let face it, tv programmes like this these days have no expectation to be taken seriously, surely? It is just too contrived.
I switched the tv off this afternoon when I saw that The Repair Shop was on at my time of wanting to relax.
A programme I will avoid, but will still look forward to reading about the next job that is discussed on here. Whether a complete bodge or making litz wire to rewind an IF transformer!
Rob

[DMcMahon]

Seems like this show comes in for quite a lot of Forum criticism, much of which I understand and some of which I agree with.

Overall I personally enjoy watching the show, there are some good/fine skills often demonstrated, I particularly like the clock, art & furniture repairs, there are of course occasional questionable repairs, but as long as watched as entertainment not as a instructional restoration workshop it is worth watching I consider.

David

[McMurdo]

the application form is available if you want to appear on the Repair Shop. The questions, particularly the later ones, might give an insight into the motives behind the programme, which is made by Ricochet, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers.

https://www.ricochet.co.uk/casting/t...shop_1071.aspx