The Repair Shop expert 'daunted' over Mastermind chair renovation
The chair belonged to late Mastermind star Magnus Magnusson
What did you miss?
The Repair Shop viewers were served up a healthy dose of nostalgia as the original Mastermind chair was taken to the workshop.
The iconic chair from 1972 was taken on the BBC programme by Sally Magnusson, the daughter of Mastermind’s host Magnus Magnusson, who died in 2007 at the age of 77. Broadcaster Sally said the black chair had been in her home since her father died but that it wasn't in great shape.
She hoped it could be patched up and preserved for their family and future generations and took it to expert Sonnaz Nooranvary, who admitted the renovation job felt “extraordinarily daunting”.
What, how and why?
The chair featured on the Wednesday 16 October episode of the show, with Sally explaining that it was “not in the best of nick any longer”.
“This is an iconic chair isn’t it?” said Nooranvary. “This is what people will remember watching that programme.”
Sally said she had been “wildly proud” of her dad and that the chair was a huge part of his legacy.
“Mastermind gradually turned him into a celebrity,” she said. “Suddenly when he walked down the street it was, ‘Magnus I’ve started so I’ll finish’.”
“Mastermind had and continued to have in his heart a very special place,” she went on.
Read more: The Repair Shop
The Repair Shop viewers moved by story of woman who lost mum in a fire
The Repair Shop viewers 'in bits' over heart-warming 'TV moment of the year'
“This has played its part, this chair, frankly in the life of the nation and yet here it is doing what my father would have loved to see it doing, which is to be a place where the great grandchildren he’ll never meet can crawl around over it and where it can be a part of our family life. Objects are so important for telling stories that can then be passed on down the generations, that continuity is precious to me.”
Nooranvary went to work on the seat and the arms, admitting that it felt “momentous” and “extraordinarily daunting”.
However, viewers were confident that she would get it right.
What did viewers say?
“Repairing the original Mastermind chair must be incredibly daunting,” one said on X. “But Sonnaz will do it justice.”
“How great to have Sally Magnusson bring the Mastermind chair in,” said another. “I loved Magnus Magnusson doing Mastermind back in the day.”
Someone else wrote: “Legend has it that Orson Welles also sat in the Mastermind chair for his appearance on the Parkinson show. Apparently, he was too big for the normal chairs, and they had to borrow the 'Big Black Chair' from Mastermind.”
When Nooranvary had finished Sally returned to the barn to see the repaired chair. She was thrilled, saying the experts had done a great job and that her dad would “so approve”.
“He would be touched,” she said. “He would be moved that we’ve all gone to the trouble of conserving this piece of his history and the nation’s history.”
The Repair Shop airs on BBC One on Wednesday evenings.