Episode 5

The experts lend their skills to a community project, hear the stories behind new treasures to be repaired, and visit a local crafting hero.

Dom and Lucia are in Scotland’s biggest city for one of their biggest - or at least highest - fixes yet. Roof works mean once-in-a-generation access to Glasgow Cathedral’s weathervane, so the pair are helping blacksmith Stacey and apprentice Jameel clean and re-gild this iconic cockerel. The medieval building has a storied history, but definitely predates lifts, so Lucia volunteers to go boldly where no Repair Shop expert has gone before – straight to the top of the 225-foot-high spire.

Back on solid ground, Kaming, a member of Glasgow’s Hakka Chinese community, has a Chinese unicorn head he hopes Lucia can bring back to life. The fragile bamboo and paper mask plays an important part in celebrations and festivities, but years of vigorous dancing have left it tattered and torn, its once-proud horn now held on with sticky tape. As he is the last person, he knows with the ability to do the traditional dance associated with the mask, he hopes having the costume repaired will mean he can teach it to future generations before it is lost forever. However, it is not a simple fix. Lucia must contend with unfamiliar materials while balancing her artistic restoration with creating a mask that will stand up structurally to years more use in the future.

Dom is joined by Will at Aberfeldy’s Crannog Centre, where visitors experience recreations of 5,000-year-old traditional dwellings. After a devastating fire three years ago put the project in jeopardy, thatcher Scott is looking to the future and building a new cookhouse using traditional techniques and local materials. It could mean big business for the centre, and increased opportunities to work with the local community - but creating Iron Age dwellings in the modern age is anything but simple.

Finally, Will heads to Beauly to meet Alan MacPherson, who has gone from keen shinty player to shinty stick maker. Now producing more than 1,400 shinty sticks, or camans, a year from his Highland workshop, he instructs Will in the intricacies of creating equipment that can stand up to the rigours of this hard-fought game. Once the woodwork is over, it is time for Will to test his sporting prowess.