King Charles to star in Repair Shop special to celebrate BBC’s centenary

King Charles is to guest star in a special episode of The Repair Shop as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations.

Filmed between autumn 2021 and March 2022, before Charles became King following the death of his mother the Queen, the episode sees Charles meet with the show’s host Jay Blades and his expert team of craftspeople to explore their shared passion for preserving heritage craft skills.

The team will also mend two precious items chosen by the monarch – a piece of pottery made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and an 18th century clock.

In August 2021, the team of Blades, ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay, horologist Steve Fletcher and furniture restorer Will Kirk were invited to Dumfries House in Scotland to meet the King, then the Prince of Wales, and learn about The Prince’s Foundation’s work in training the next generation of craftspeople.

Charles gives Blades a tour of the estate and he met some of the students on the Building Craft Programme set up by The Prince’s Foundation which teaches traditional skills such as blacksmithing, stonemasonry and wood carving.

Blades, who grew up in Hackney, London, said: “You’ve got someone from a council estate and someone from a royal estate that have the same interests about apprenticeships and heritage crafts and it is unbelievable to see that two people from so far apart, from different ends of the spectrum, actually have the same interests.”

Meanwhile, the collections manager of Dumfries House, Satinder Kaur, gives Kirk, Ramsay and Fletcher a tour of its collection of 18th century furniture and decorative arts.

A skills swap also ensues as the Building Craft Programme lends its graduate Jeremy Cash to the Repair Shop to work alongside metalwork expert Dom Chinea on a special third item – a fire set in the shape of a soldier which has a poignant story behind its existence.

In spring 2022, Blades and the team welcomed the King to The Repair Shop barn to be reunited with the items.

BBC commissioning editor Julie Shaw said: “People will see the former Prince of Wales as you rarely see him – and he is as captivated by the skills of the team who work on his items as any of our Repair Shop visitors."

Kaur, collections manager for Dumfries House, said: “It was a joy to welcome Jay Blades and the talented restorers to our Dumfries House headquarters to explore our collection of 18th century furniture and decorative arts, including many examples of Thomas Chippendale’s work, which were a huge hit with the team.

"They also met with students benefiting from our Building Craft Programme, which helps preserve heritage building craft skills that are at risk of being lost through education and training."

The special episode of The Repair Shop will air on October 26 at 8pm on BBC One.

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