Steve has been a restorer of antique musical boxes for over 35 years. With an antiques shop on Cinque Ports Street in Rye, he is now nationally well-known for his work on the BBC’s hit show The Repair Shop, where he is the in-house musical box restorer. Stephen is in conversation with Rye’s pianola specialist Mike Boyd, and he talks about his life before antiques – a degree in mechanical engineering was the springboard to a career in fixing mechanical antiques! And he quickly specialised in fixing antique cylinder and disc musical boxes. Stephen maintains that no day is ever the same as no restoration project is ever the same, so his enthusiasm for his work remains completely undimmed. He says that each restoration throws up an entirely different set of problems to be understood and then fixed.

In recent years Stephen was invited to join the panel of restorers on The Repair Shop, and in this talk he reveals some of what happens behind the scenes and how the show became an immediate hit with the public. Find out the constraints under which the restorers have to work and next time you watch the show you will get even more from it!