The Repair Shop expert admits ‘it’s nerve-wracking’ as he faces emotional project
Mark Stuckey tackled an emotional project on The Repair Shop (Image: BBC screengrab)
The Repair Shop’s Mark Stuckey admitted it was “nerve-wracking” as he tackled a moving restoration project. The BBC star was tasked with fixing a broken projector that contained unseen home movies of a brother and sister who had lost both of their parents, reports the Mirror.
As he tried to mend the equipment during the latest instalment of the show, he confessed: “So it’s a little bit nerve-wracking, but at some stage you’ve got to do that plunge. It’s like being on the top of a diving board – you’re just not ready to go, but you have got to throw yourself off.”
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Zaff and Nasari took their broken projector on The Repair Shop (Image: BBC screengrab)
Siblings Zaff and Nasari had explained that their dad had recorded footage of them as youngsters with their relatives during their upbringing in Uganda. However, after they were forced to flee the country in the 1970s under Idi Amin’s regime, it was packed away and left untouched.
Both of their parents had since passed away, and Zaff and Nasari told Mark and Dominic Chinea that they hoped repairing the projector would allow them to see them “walking around” once more.
Zaff shared how they had a “very fun” time growing up but also talked about the “trauma” of having to leave Africa along with over 70,000 others, after military dictator Amin seized control of Uganda and ordered the mass explusion of the country’s Asian population.
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The siblings got to see old footage of their mum (Image: BBC screengrab)
Thankfully, Mark managed to get the mechanism working, revealing footage of the siblings’ mum, dad and grandfather.
“There’s undoubtedly loads and loads of memories here,” he said as he viewed some of the reels. “I’m really looking forward for them, for the first time, to see their past in the present.”
Zaff and Nasari were emotional when they returned to the barn, and were thrilled to see that there was film on the projector. Both looked tearful as they viewed old footage showing their grandfather at his factory and their mum waving at the camera.
Nasair said it made her feel at “peace”, while her brother added: “And to see all the faces that we’ve never seen for God knows how many years, on the screen. Astonishing.”
