Something A Little Different...

If you are at all a regular visitor around here, you might be a bit surprised by this post.  It has nothing to do with superheroes, swords or sci-fi.  It's something that is a recent discovery of mine that has become just about my favourite thing on television.  Very few things will hold my attention like this show and absolutely NOTHING on television has ever had such a consistently positive effect on me.

After the worst day, at my utter grumpiest and most cynical, this show can and does work something of an emotional miracle on me. 

It's ironic that the show that has such a restorative effect on my psyche is actually unironically called The Repair Shop.

It is a show that delivers EXACTLY on its name.  From the BBC, The Repair Shop gathers a bunch of highly skilled craftspeople under one roof and invites folks to bring in their "much loved but broken treasures" to have them restored, repaired and refurbished.  We're talking about items as diverse as antique silver heirlooms, broken clockwork toys or vintage pinball machines.  They fix upholstered items, ceramics, clocks and just about anything else you might imagine being handed down the generations of British families.

The show follows a simple formula for three items each episode.  Bring in the item and owner, ask about the history, follow the repair through the shop and return it when it's done.  Simple but remarkably powerful.

For me it is a real one/two punch but in such a good way.  The obvious emotional moment of someone getting back something they thought beyond repair that has true meaning and attachment for them is enough to get me teary, pretty much every time.  It's not just a repaired item for most of these people, it's a repaired memory.  They fix holes in people's lives, often holes that they barely realized were there.  It is truly, honestly beautiful to watch.

What's equally lovely is the Zen-like calm way these incredibly damaged and dilapidated pieces are handled both with impressive skill and genuine respect.  A small, nearly monetarily insignificant piece of family jewelry is handled with the same reverence as a painting valued in the 10s of thousands of dollars and received back with as much bittersweet joy.  It's a wonderfully calm and yet deeply impactful hour of television.

It is still being produced and broadcast and most of the episodes are available on YouTube. 

If I could figure out how, I'd actually like to try to make a Canadian version of this show.  Seriously.  I just don't know exactly how one goes about creating a television show...

I cannot recommend this one highly enough.  Best served cuddled up with a warm drink and a cookie or five.  Television for the soul.