BBC’s The Repair Shop has fans in tears with incredibly emotional restoration moment

BBC’s The Repair Shop left fans incredibly emotional, after one man shared an incredibly touching story when bringing his item for restoration.

Mick Harper appeared on the hit show on Wednesday, asking expert Jayesh Vaghela to handle his late father’s tweed hat.

Aside from some photographs, Mick revealed that the cap is the only belonging left behind by his father, Bill, who passed away at the age of 56 when Mick was just 21.

Bill wore the hat to work every day, and Mick described it as “part of him”. 

He said: “There’s a lot of memories with it, when he’d come in laughing, joking, chucking his hat on the side. Sometimes he’d chuck it on my head when I was little.

“Because it was his, and I haven’t got anything of my dad’s, I want to wear it myself,” he continued. 

Reflecting on his time with his father, Mick added that he “could be very strict but he used to come in every Friday after work with a bag of sweets for us, it was a real treat”.

When Jayesh restored the hat, Mick said that it felt like reconnecting with his father, especially with the additional embroidery of ‘Bill’s cap’ that the experts left on the inside.

“It’s amazing, thank you, and I like Bill’s cap, thank you very much,” he said, tearing up. “This is like seeing my dad when I was 21 again, just that feeling that he’s here and with me. It’s part of him, and it’s now, in my eyes, part of me.”

© BBC

Mick also shared that his mother passed away three years ago, and that his brother gifted the hat to Mick for his 60th birthday after finding it among her belongings while clearing out the house.

Viewers rushed to X, formerly Twitter, to share their reactions to the show. One wrote: “Always get emotional watching #therepairshop absolutely homely and just nice.” 

Another commented: “Who else but @TheRepairShop @BBCOne can make you have tears in your eyes with an old camping stove and flat cap [face holding back tears emoji] #therepairshop”, while one fan penned: “Awww the guy with the cap… I’m bawling for him [face holding back tears emoji] [crying face emoji] [crying face emoji]”.