Herald columnist and feature writer Mark Smith appears on a new TV show from the makers of The Repair Shop tonight. Doctor Who fan Mr Smith will be taking his broken Tardis to the repair experts on Toy Hospital on Channel 5.
The programme features toy-fixer-extraordinary Charlotte Abbott and is produced by one of the people behind The Repair Shop, Sandy Watson.
Based in an old hospital, each episode features a team reviving and repairing a range of toys including dolls, teddy bears, mechanical toys, Subbuteo sets, and Gameboys. The first episode also features the team doing a repair for Mr Smith.
Charlotte Abbott, who lives in Edinburgh, was recruited to the TV series from her day job at Leith Toy Hospital, where she has a particular interest in mechanical and electrical fixes. Ms Abbott thinks it’s part of a trend towards conserving things rather than chucking them away.
READ THE FULL FEATURE: Doctor Who: As a new TV Repair Shop begins, I took my Tardis along
“A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh well, there used to be toy hospitals’,” she says, “and I think there were up until the 1970s. But when we moved to producing toys abroad incredibly cheaply, people wouldn’t pay for repairs because why would you? And a lot of the toy hospitals closed down.”
However, she thinks things are changing. “A lot of people are more environmentally conscious and there’s a big movement with mending all sort of things."
Mr Smith says he was given the Tardis for Christmas in the late 1970s, because he was obsessed with Doctor Who.
He said: "I also played with it until the mechanism broke and the doors and the light fell off but whenever I moved house, it would come with me. I always knew it was important to me but what the Toy Hospital helped me realise was that the Tardis and Doctor Who were a kind of refuge when I was a child and still are now. If I’m feeling stressed or depressed or bored, the first thing I’ll do is stick on an episode of Doctor Who and I feel better.
"When I saw how Charlotte Abbott had so beautifully and carefully repaired my Tardis: suddenly, I realised how much something that brought me comfort and joy as a child – Doctor Who – still does as an adult.
Abbott says this emotional role toys often play is something she sees all the time during her work.
“I get a lot of people on the phone who cry for various reasons, sometimes just in relief to know their toy can be fixed – sometimes they don’t understand what can be done,” she says. “People will think the worst and say, ‘My dolly is in pieces and I don’t think it can ever be fixed’ and it just needs restringing, which is one of the easiest things you can do repair-wise."
Toy Hospital begins on Channel 5 tonight at 8pm
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