Dame Judi Dench held back tears as the Repair Shop team repaired her late husband’s pocket watch
An emotional Judi Dench said it was ‘more than she could have hoped’ for The Repair Shop team to repair her late husband’s pocket watch and engrave his initials.
The veteran actress corrected the emotional repertoire as part of a BBC One live special held at the Edinburgh Television Festival to mark the show’s fifth anniversary.
Before the 87-year-old appeared on stage, a tape was played showing her introducing the team with a pocket watch she had gifted to her late husband, actor Michael Williams, in 1972 – a year after they got married.
Love: Emotional Mrs Judi Dench has said that the repair of her late husband’s pocket watch and his initials by The Repair Shop team was ‘more than she could have hoped for’
Dame Judi told furniture restorer and host Jay Blades that she gave Williams the watch while they were acting together in a play and that he used it during production.
She said he then carried it in his pocket and ‘treasured it’ before he died of lung cancer in 2001 aged 65, after they had been married for just under 30 years.
The actress described her late husband as ‘awesome’ and said it would be ‘lovely’ if she could hear the pocket watch working again as a reminder of the times they split. shall.
Kind: The veteran actress corrected the emotional repertoire as part of a BBC One live special held at the Edinburgh Television Festival to mark the show’s fifth anniversary (pictured with her late husband Michael Williams in 1999)
Another clip shows horologist Steve Fletcher dismantling the watch so he can thoroughly clean it and repair its mechanisms.
When Dame Judi was presented with the repaired watch live on stage at the television festival, she was emotional and described the piece as ‘awesome’ as she put it to her ear to hear it. a tick after years of silence.
The team also pointed out that they had engraved her husband’s initials on the back of the watch for her, to which she replied: ‘Oh my word, that’s more than I could have hoped for. Thank you very much.’
She added that she was ‘full of admiration’ for the work they do and was an avid viewer of the show.
Judge Craig Revel Horwood, 57, serious coming of the ball, also joined the live session on Wednesday as he managed to get a lifelike chimpanzee from Andrew Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard musical Webber, given to him as an opening night gift, fixed by the expert team.
In a video clip, furniture restorer Will Kirk and ‘The Teddy Bear Ladies’, Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell, who specialize in making stuffed toys, are seen repairing the chimpanzee with how to create new hands using liquid rubber as well as repair its thin coat by giving it hair plugs.
After being introduced to the resurrected animal, the notoriously harsh Horwood said the transformation was ‘astonishing’.
He added: ‘That’s actually 100 times better than what it would have looked like in 1992.’ The team asked them if they got a perfect 10 on their work, and he said they got ‘better than 10’.
Live show: The actress, 87, was a special guest alongside judge Craig Revel Horwood, 57, in the live section to mark the show’s fifth anniversary at the Edinburgh Television Festival
Dame Judi then cuddled the chimpanzee, describing it as a ‘beautiful person’.
Earlier this year, the actress appeared in a mock sketch of The Repair Shop for Comic Relief.
She plays a character struggling with memory who wants an old doll from her childhood repaired to help remind her of her youth, but finds it stolen by Dawn French and Jennifer. Saunders smashed.
Comedy: It comes after, earlier this year, Dame Judi appeared in a fun sketch faking The Repair Shop for Comic Relief alongside Jay Blades
Source: | Dailymail.co.uk
