I don’t usually watch The Repair Shop on BBC television, but it happened to be on over Christmas. It was the Christmas Special, filmed in a heavy snowfall; I only realised later it was probably recorded in the height of summer.
In the show, members of the public bring family treasures to be repaired by expert craftspeople.
In this episode Dame Helen Mirren was invited as a guest.
She presented the Repair Shop with a project which caught my attention; she works with Denville Hall, a retirement home for people in the theatrical profession. Past residents include Sir Richard Attenborough, Robert Hardy and Marianne Faithfull; Scottish comedian and actor Stanley Baxter died there last year.
It drew my interest because Denville Hall is located in Ducks Hill Road, Northwood, where I spent much of my childhood.
She told the story of Martin Landau, a theatre director who was a supporter of the home (not to be confused with the American actor of the same name).
Landau came to Britain on the Kindertransport, a Jewish child fleeing from Nazi Germany. Aged just 14, he never saw his parents again.
He brought with him his most treasured possession; a cello, which was deliberately broken by the German guards as he boarded the train. Despite the damage he kept it, and left it to Denville Hall on his death.
The project was to repair the cello so that it could be played again for the enjoyment of the residents of the hall.
Becky Horton, a stringed instrument restorer, described it as beautiful, but ‘a real mess’. It was badly cracked, and the neck was detached from its body.
It was a long and very anxious process to repair the cracks, and she became tense as the neck had to be glued in place very precisely, or the tone of the cello would be imperfect.
Later in the programme Helen Mirren returned to see the completed work. Becky told her that during the process of restoration, she had fallen in love with the instrument.
A celebrated cellist, Raphael Wallfisch, was introduced to play ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, proving that after more than eighty years the cello was resonantly alive, with a future ahead of it.
THANK YOU for this touching story.
It struck a chord: not only how it reminded me of Nicholas Winton and his profound selfless actions in 1938. But also the bronze memorial at Friedrichstraße station in Berlin (which I chanced upon) – matched by one at Liverpool St. station in London.
Berlin is on my list of destinations ‘to do’. I remember armed guards searching under the train, and East German students singing Dylan songs. Last visited in 1970 (I think) on a school trip on the way to Moscow and St Petersburg.
Memorable things to visit in Berlin (though not foodie) include: holocaust memorial, Reichstag (nearby, Norman Foster), Friedrichstraße station (complex of walkways & bridges below, very John le Carre), Checkpoint Charlie (tourist magnet, but…), route of Berlin Wall (marked by bricks in roadways), and the haunting Stolpersteine brass plaques embedded in the pavements marking the homes of jews sent to the camps.
Thanks Nick. You really don’t have to scratch very deep to uncover history.
Yes. It’s a credit to Germany and Berlin that they live with and respect these daily reminders of their awful past. And, of course, what a civilised society can descend to in the absence of wise leadership.
What a beautiful story. Point of interest – The Repair Shop is filmed at the Weald and Downland Museum near Chichester, a wonderful collection of domestic houses, shops and workshops from medieval and Tudor Sussex and wider SE. Well worth a visit.
A school trip in the 70s, time to revisit, perhaps.
A lovely little piece Alistair. It made me quite nostalgic.
I used to watch The Repair Shop and was amazed at what the experts could do.