The widow of a Dundee United legend and HMS Unicorn will feature on an upcoming episode of The Repair Shop: On the Road.
The BBC show – a spin-off of the hit The Repair Shop series – will see presenters Dominic Chinea and Lucia Scalisi travel to Dundee to fix treasures and objects that can’t be brought to their West Sussex workshop.
Monday’s episode features Frank Kopel’s widow Amanda, who asks for help to repair her husband’s Scotland Schoolboys football cap.
The Tannadice hero cradled the moment in the latter years of his life whilst battling dementia.
He passed away in 2014 and Amanda has since spearheaded the Frank’s Law campaign to abolish care charges for under-65s with debilitating conditions after his death.
She has also welcomed SFA guidelines limiting how often players can head the ball.
The episode description added: “It’s all to play for when Dom picks up a Scotland Schoolboys football cap that holds immense significance for Amanda.
“It was awarded to her husband Frank, who became a legend at local club Dundee United, playing there for a decade.
“But after retirement, Frank suffered from vascular dementia, and he would cradle the cap often, serving as a reminder of earlier days.
“Now, the gold brocade is tarnished, and the purple fabric faded, so master hatter Jayesh Vaghela has his work cut out to restore it to how it looked when Frank first held it all those years ago.”
HMS Unicorn is also featured on the show, with The Repair Shop experts tasked with repairing a fibreglass copy of its unicorn figurehead.
The show also highlights fundraising efforts amid a £30 million restoration plan.
HMS Unicorn replica figurehead to be restored on The Repair Shop
A description of the episode says: “Dom and Lucia are in Dundee, where regeneration of the waterfront has sparked change throughout the city.
“However, in the shadow of the celebrated RSS Discovery, Scotland’s oldest wooden ship, HMS Unicorn, is moored around the corner and a little neglected.
“Beloved by many, especially the generations of the Women’s Royal Naval Service who trained on it, the 200-year-old vessel is in need of immediate preservation.
“However, getting it into dry dock is a costly operation, so the team are visiting to help with the fundraising efforts.
“In the past, a fibreglass copy of the unicorn figurehead went on tour to raise awareness of the project, but it has been unable to perform those duties since it was damaged a decade ago.
“Despite some recent health troubles, heraldic sculptor Peter is eager to repair the figurehead so that it can go out on its fundraising excursions once again.”
Repair Shop expert Lucia Scalisi will also visit Dundee’s V&A to learn about their restoration of a lost Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed interior.
- The Repair Shop: On the Road will be broadcast on Monday February 17 at 8pm on BBC Scotland and iPlayer
Conversation