The daughter of Sir Edward Trenton “ET” Richards, Bermuda’s first Black premier, brushed away tears of delight as a crumbling painting of her childhood home on the island was restored to its former glory on prime-time British television.

Patricia Dangor spoke movingly of the house her father built, which she described as a “solace from quite severe segregation” when she was growing up.

Jay Blades, the presenter of the hit show The Repair Shop, looked visibly surprised and appalled as Ms Dangor spoke of the extent of the systemic racism that dominated life in Bermuda until the end of segregation in 1959.

More than three million viewers of the BBC One programme, which restores items of emotional importance for members of the public, heard Ms Dangor talk lovingly of the home and the protection it gave her from the segregation of Bermudian society.

The programme described the former premier as a “trailblazing civil rights activist”.

Ms Dangor said of the Warwick house depicted in the painting: “My father, Edward Trenton, had it built for my mother before they were married.

“She was not allowed to come look at the building; what was going on.

“But on the day they were married, he carried her across the threshold and they lived in it until they died, really.”

Describing why her father became involved in politics, Ms Dangor, a former British circuit judge and member of the Bermuda Court of Appeal, said: “Bermuda at that time was a totally segregated island.

“Black and White children didn’t go to school together.

“The churches were separate — you were in a different part of the church.

“My mother was mixed race and people thought she was White.

“She took me into a restaurant in a pram and they said, ‘Well, you can come in’ to my mother, ‘but you can’t bring the baby in’.”

She added that her father would not let her go to the cinema “because Black people had to sit somewhere else, in the front, and White children used to throw paper airplanes at you”.

Ms Dangor was accompanied on the programme by her daughter, Rokeya Willson, who said of her grandfather: “He was a very larger-than-life character and very charming, and you could see the impact on everyone he met.

“I remember I would go into town with him and he would be hailed left, right and centre by people in the street.”

Referring to the painting, Ms Willson said: “It’s a picture of a house, but it’s also the memories of my grandparents.”

Art conservator Lucia Scalisi then set about rescuing the painting, which she described as faded, crumbly and dented.

Ms Dangor and her daughter appeared overwhelmed when they saw the restoration.

Looking at the refreshed depiction of the garden path, Ms Willson said of her grandmother, Madree: “We can almost see her walking down there — and, of course, she walked down there as a bride as well.

“Grandpa would be very proud and he would have loved the fact that something he thought was important to capture on canvas is preserved.”

Ms Dangor said: “It represents joy and happiness, that house.

“A part of me that still yearns for Bermuda — really, that’s the emotion that I have when I see this house in its glory.

“I will look at it every day and I will remember how lucky I was to live in that house.

“The times of quite severe segregation, that house was a solace for us.”

Bob Richards, Sir Edward’s son and a former deputy premier in the One Bermuda Alliance government, said he had seen part of the programme, telling The Royal Gazette: “I thought it was really cool.”