The Repair Shop guest shows off incredible WWII secret code recipe book
The BBC show featured a recipe book belonging to a woman's late grandmother that included hidden code used at Bletchley Park.
What did you miss?
The Repair Shop featured an incredible piece of wartime history as one guest brought in her grandmother's handwritten recipe book with code from her work during the Second World War hidden inside of it.
Guest Claire Vassiloulis had fond memories of baking with her late grandmother Jean but in recent years had discovered her old recipe book was actually a hiding place for her secret work during the war.
The episode also featured a wicker horse head mask that viewers labelled "creepy".
What, how, and why?
In this week's episode of the BBC One show, Claire Vassiloulis brought in a beloved cookbook belonging to her late grandmother Jean, which she had fond memories of from childhood when they had baked cakes together.
But after her grandmother's death in 2012, Vassiloulis realised that the handwritten recipe book actually contained code from Jean's time as part of the Wrens - a group of women who worked for the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
Jean was just 18 when she joined the Wrens, working on deciphering code that was sent to Bletchley Park. Her notebook included recipes such as Christmas cake and ginger parkin alongside short cipher and Japanese code.
Her proud granddaughter said: "She couldn't talk about anything because she signed the secrets act. We knew she was in the Wrens but we didn't know what she was doing was so clever."
Book repairer Christopher Shaw said: "I can't quite believe what I have in front of me...A cookbook, a spy book..." as he set about the painstaking job of repairing the pages.
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A delighted Vassiloulis said after seeing the repair: "It's just my grandmother in a book. Just being with her in the kitchen, on the chair, pinny on.
"It's the two parts on her life - she baked all the time, and before she baked, she did coding. The fact it was hidden among the recipes just shows you how secretive it was."
One viewer commented on X: "The ginger parkin book is just sensational!"
Someone else added: "I'm agog every week by the talent and ingenuity of the repairers."
Another person wrote: "What a wonderful job by #BookbinderShaw on the old recipe/code book on tonight’s programme!"
What else happened on The Repair Shop?
Also featured in the episode was an item that left some viewers feeling a little creeped out.
A pair of village fete performers brought in a wicker horse's head that had seen better days, and while the repair was impressive, when the guests wore the horse mask to dance in at the end of the episode it left viewers comparing it to classic horror film The Wicker Man.
One viewer joked: "That’s not creepy." Someone else added: "I’m getting a creepy wickerman vibe." Another viewer commented: "Sure Ive seen that horses head somewhere before #wickerman."
The Repair Shop airs on BBC One at 8pm on Wednesdays.
