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Old 6th Apr 2020, 11:37 am   #341
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

I guess they don't have to pay teams of scriptwriters, continuity people, hire costumes etc., and bad weather isn't going to affect shooting schedules like it can with drama programmes that involve exterior locations.
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 12:35 pm   #342
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

If they'd faked any experts with C-list actors, Equity would have insisted on a cast list being whizzed past viewer's eyes

I think they are real enough and all their skills and failings are real. It's what they're being directed to do that seems fake.

"We need a cliff-hanger on that backgammon set!"

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Old 6th Apr 2020, 12:36 pm   #343
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They all have precisely the same goal in mind. To give their target audience what they want. Those that get a second series are successful. Those that don't, aren't.

Ergo, they are all equally successful. Cherry pick the format(s) that you enjoy and ignore the rest.
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 2:28 pm   #344
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I haven't waded through the many pages re this thread, but I've seen plenty enough knocking this programme. I don't see it that way at all. It's a programme about restoring old objects √, it's interesting √, It's somewhat sentimental and just 'nice' √, it beats watching crass reality stuff √. The fact that it doesn't do everything 'properly' or does this or that 'wrong' doesn't really matter to me. It has to be presented with a degree of swagger and commercialism to keep fringe people and the wider public interested. If you want a cold, clinical guide to restoration there's lots of stuff on Youtube, though don't expect it to necessarily be any more accurate! The Repair Shop isn't a guide on how to restore anything in detail, it's 'interesting' entertainment. I like it, there's lots of far worse stuff on the TV to grumble about!
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 2:33 pm   #345
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

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Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
"We need a cliff-hanger on that backgammon set!"
I like that I believe the term used in TV is 'jeopardy'. It's such a relief to me to find programs made without it (and the accompanying schmaltzy music) that when I put the telly on, I'm often restricted to BBC 4.
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 2:46 pm   #346
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I'm often restricted to BBC 4.
Me too (though I could do without the utterly cringeworthy TOTP repeats). Having said that BBC4 ain't what it used to be. I watch a lot less.

Some of these programmes might make it onto mainstream TV with Eastenders and the like cancelled so some good might come out of this crisis!
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 3:02 pm   #347
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

Thank you, stevehertz, for a good summary.
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 4:37 pm   #348
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Trouble is, for Forum folk & the fraternity of radio restoration folk in general, the TV watching public will see a couple of radio repair duffers on The Repair Shop and we'll all be tarred with the same brush. The art restoring lady does exceptional work, as does the horologist guy, the ceramics lady, and so on. So for broken radios, why didn't the producers acquire the services of genuine Vintage Radio Repair & Restoration professional ?
Talking of professionalism, I've a cousin out in the USA whose retired husband has restored an MG TF(I'm deeply envious). He tells me that the American TV car restoration programs "Fantom Works" & "Chasing Classic Cars" are the bees knees. As I've seen myself, every nut & bolt is genuine new galvanised or stainless steel, and the engineering work exceptional. But their vintage car fraternity are appalled at UK car restoration TV programs we are lumbered with. Despite a great number of bespoke engineering enterprises, particularly in the midlands - the quality of the presenters & the reliance on the pathos of the background stories let us down.
I do like "The Goblin Works" though, and that tall lassie is gorgeous !

Regards, David.
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 4:59 pm   #349
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Yes, that's exactly how it is, specialist restorers will always knock TV programmes that tackle a subject in a more entertaining, light hearted way. That simply exposes 'our' lack of understanding of the raison d'ĂȘtre of TV programme makers who, in order to make money (it's their job, not a hobby) are compelled to make programmes that appeal to a wider audience than just dyed in the wool, serious restorers. The US is a different thing. They do things differently and always on a grander scale. And maybe even a niche, specialist orientated restoration programme in the US still entices enough viewers to make it profitable, it's such a huge country.
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Old 6th Apr 2020, 5:11 pm   #350
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It's now obligatory to have a clown, I suppose to widen the audience to include more 'divs'. I do learn things watching TRS, and this it what makes it appeal to me.

Fran Blanche has issued a new YT video that is much more our sort of thing, featuring a Heath-Robinson pseudo-digital alpha-numeric display module by IEE called a Bina-View.
A filament lamp and some solenoids at the rear, and a series of unique chequer-pierced plates at the front. These were selectively manipulated by a tiny amount to project the desired number, letter or character on the diffuser screen at the front. I'm not quite sure what they were thinking, but to modern eyes it looks like the work of someone unhinged- they certainly could have been once they had finished making a working prototype!

Once you see it you'll fully understand why it's inherently unreliable.

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Old 6th Apr 2020, 6:04 pm   #351
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Slightly at a tangent but when these drama/jeopardy type programmes came about there came a series where a task had to be achieved by a ridiculous deadline to save some probably imaginary day.

One of these touched on a project process that I was regularly involved on a professional basis. Suddenly my critical path charts for managing a project were dismissed with: “What!? Sorry, I saw this done on such-and-such a programme and it can be done in 48 hours.”

When us old sweats get together and see the standard of some of today’s stuff we often say: “And we used to fret and worry about x and y.”

As Steve Hertz says, these programmes are just for entertainment, and entertainment involves a lot of illusion, painted hardboard sets and dressing up. A man who had run a successful business for decades once said to me: “The aim of any business is to deliver the lowest quality possible that will be acceptable to the customer.” Initially that sounds outrageous but when you think about it it's true. The same goes for telly programmes. The problem with many of us on this forum is that we a probably a little more demanding than Joe and Joanne Public.
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 9:08 pm   #352
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Slightly OT, but talking about technical TV programs I just watched BBC 4 'How to Make' (on toothbrushes). It was, in my view, really good! Next week is apparently 'Headphones', the acoustic design of which I used to get involved in professionally, so I'm really looking forward to it.
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 9:27 pm   #353
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

Not being a TV-type, I'm happy to have missed-out on this series.

One series I can wholeheartely recommend, however, is the *radio* "50 things that made the modern economy" podcasts by Tim Harford.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04...odes/downloads

and the subsequent "fifty more things"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/pr...50-more-things

series.

Each of the 50-things is covered in 15 minutes, and all provide a wonderful insight into practical consumer economics.
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 9:34 pm   #354
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I wish they would sort out the continuity - this weeks episode included shots of the Jukebox still being worked on - even though it was returned a while ago including a fault which they didn't cure - maybe they introduced the fault while working on it. The 'fault' they cured, broken wire to a contact buried deep within the mech, didn't quite seem to tally with the problem described and most likely came adrift as it was taken apart. The fault they returned it with - 2 wires crossed over in a multi plug - 'may well have been the original fault' as they were not correctly connected. That problem may have been introduced before the present owner took it to them. Perhaps we'll never know.
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 9:51 pm   #355
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

It seems to be a feature of this programme that they show brief clips of items being worked on from other episodes, both before and after the current one.
I also find this very annoying, it just seems to be 'padding'.

Andy
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Old 10th Apr 2020, 6:57 am   #356
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy View Post
It seems to be a feature of this programme that they show brief clips of items being worked on from other episodes, both before and after the current one.
I also find this very annoying, it just seems to be 'padding'.

Andy
And as linking pieces in during the episode. I assume it is to keep the attention of todays channel surfers.

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Old 10th Apr 2020, 8:37 am   #357
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

Padding seems to dominate most programmes. I suppose it's a natural consequence of paying 'em by the minute.

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Old 10th Apr 2020, 9:13 am   #358
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Originally Posted by vidjoman View Post
I wish they would sort out the continuity - this weeks episode included shots of the Jukebox still being worked on - even though it was returned a while ago including a fault which they didn't cure - maybe they introduced the fault while working on it. The 'fault' they cured, broken wire to a contact buried deep within the mech, didn't quite seem to tally with the problem described and most likely came adrift as it was taken apart. The fault they returned it with - 2 wires crossed over in a multi plug - 'may well have been the original fault' as they were not correctly connected. That problem may have been introduced before the present owner took it to them. Perhaps we'll never know.
I must say that I was also suspicious of that repair; not sure how that wire fell off after 60 years of not being moved; as you say more likely of being pulled when he dismantled it. Didn't seem to fit with the problem. More likely dirty contacts on one of the multi-plugs (amazing how many things cure themselves by just cleaning contacts). And as for swapping over two wires to fix it that was suspicious too; as it was working OK for years before? Perhaps he just found a dirty contact and had to pad the work out to make it more interesting?

Mike.
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Old 10th Apr 2020, 10:22 am   #359
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vidjoman View Post
I wish they would sort out the continuity - this weeks episode included shots of the Jukebox still being worked on - even though it was returned a while ago including a fault which they didn't cure - maybe they introduced the fault while working on it. The 'fault' they cured, broken wire to a contact buried deep within the mech, didn't quite seem to tally with the problem described and most likely came adrift as it was taken apart. The fault they returned it with - 2 wires crossed over in a multi plug - 'may well have been the original fault' as they were not correctly connected. That problem may have been introduced before the present owner took it to them. Perhaps we'll never know.
And as for swapping over two wires to fix it that was suspicious too; as it was working OK for years before? Perhaps he just found a dirty contact and had to pad the work out to make it more interesting?

Mike.
It may well be that dirty contacts were the original fault when presented to the program makers.
The 2 wires were NOT swapped in the program to cure the fault. They were found after the Jukebox was returned from the program and after many hours of work by another Jukebox repairer who patiently checked every wire in the multi plugs and found the error. The 2 wires incorrectly fitted in the plug were refitted to their original pin numbers and the Jukebox worked correctly. This was mentioned on a Jukebox forum a short while ago.

I suspect that the plug wiring had been strained trying to remove the plug from the chassis, the wires became detached, and were reconnected to the incorrect pins. These multi-pin plugs (quite large, often about 4"x1") are usually held to the chassis with springy metal clips on the casing that must be pressed in to release before the plug is pulled. Failing to do this can result in the wires getting pulled slightly and the joint/wire pulling apart inside the plug. The wire are about 60 years old and are often brittle.
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Old 10th Apr 2020, 12:41 pm   #360
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Default Re: BBC TV: The Repair Shop

Quote:
I wish they would sort out the continuity
it can be quite amusing to see the repairers spontaneously changing clothing in between shots, maybe the budget does not allow for these sorts of details!

Jay Blades was interviewed on Radio 4 the other day, sound clips from the juke box episode were played. I think after so many series smouldering away, it's now taken off, a bit like bake-off did.
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