I've been thinking... says Colin Raynor

Regular readers will know that, without dismissing the darker and more serious matters in life, I do tend to think more about what brings joy and gladness into everyday life, and I will continue to do so.

Maintaining that theme I will come straight to the point - I think one of the best programmes on TV at the moment is ‘The Repair Shop’.

This little programme was in the backwaters of mid-afternoon BBC2 when someone must have realised that it deserved a wider audience and a better viewing time.

So it came to BBC1 about 5pm and has recently slotted into the early evening and even had a Christmas special. The format is simple and I urge you to watch it. People bring items that are precious to them and their family, some hundreds of years old and seemingly beyond repair.

Old clocks, broken pottery, damaged paintings, rocking horses with decaying leather, maybe furniture that has been left in a shed for years. Family heirlooms that have not seen the light of day until the current family custodians want to see it restored and so keep the memory of a loved one alive. The workforce in the Repair Shop shop are all experts in their chosen fields but often, not only applying by their own special skills, but also by working together they can return the broken and damaged object to the owner for the family to treasure for more years to come.

Why do I like this programme so much? It would be easy to say because it’s a ‘cosy’ programme for my generation and that I don’t deny.

What it does make we aware of is the number of people in this country who have fantastic skills that I never knew existed.

These skilled craftspeople really care about the task they have been asked to undertake. They listen to the individuals who bring in the broken item and feel the sense of responsibility they have been given to restore a piece of that family’s history. They give ‘good customer service!’

Often they will be asked to repair it but not to make it look brand new, and with genuine emotion the owners explain ‘because that would mean it would not be the same item that my great, great, grandfather had when he was a child’.

That is the precious intangible aspect of the work that the experts strive to maintain.

Have you got something in your home that you consider ‘precious’, not because it is worth a lot of money but because of what it means to you and your family? Now is the time of year when people tend to ‘have a clear out’. Don’t throw anything away you will regret later.