King Charles will star in a special episode of The Repair Shop later this month as part of events to mark 100 years since the BBC was established.
Charles will meet the show’s host and furniture restorer, Jay Blades, and his team of craftspeople to talk about their interest in bringing new life to objects.
The show was first broadcast in 2017 and usually sees members of the public bring in heirlooms, antiques or broken items that are in need of some care and attention from the team of repairers.
On the episode, which will be broadcast on 26 October, the team will fix two items chosen by Charles – including a piece of pottery made for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, and an 18th-century clock.
It was filmed between August 2021 and March 2022, before he ascended to the throne. Blades, the ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay, horologist Steve Fletcher and furniture restorer Will Kirk were invited to Dumfries House in Scotland to meet the then-Prince of Wales. The episode will see them getting a tour of the estate, as well as meeting some of the people on The Prince’s Foundation’s building craft programme which teaches blacksmithing, stonemasonry and wood carving.
Blades received his MBE for services to craft from Charles in May. Reflecting on his own upbringing on a Hackney council estate, Blades 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.”
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.”
