Jay Blades and The Repair Shop team have filmed an incredible royal special - fixing two items for King Charles III.
The programme, in which family heirlooms are restored by a team for their owners, was filmed with HRH The Prince of Wales before his accession to the Throne back in Autumn 2021 to explore their “shared passion of preserving heritage craft skills”.
As part of part of BBC 100 to mark the BBC’s Centenary, the show’s foreman Jay and ceramics expert, Kirsten Ramsay; horologist Steve Fletcher; and furniture restorer, Will Kirk were invited to Dumfries House in Scotland to meet The Prince and learn about The Prince’s Foundation’s work to train the next generation of craftspeople.
Jay, 52, 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.”
The Prince gives Jay a tour, meeting some of the students on The Prince’s Foundation’s Building Craft Programme – a training initiative that teaches traditional skills such as blacksmithing, stonemasonry and wood carving.
Meanwhile Collections Manager, Satinder Kaur, gives Will, Kirsten and Steve a tour of the collection of eighteenth-century furniture and decorative arts, that are housed at Dumfries House.
As a result of the visit, a skills swap ensues: Jay, Kirsten, Steve and Will pledge to restore two historic pieces that The Prince has selected.
The Building Craft Programme lends graduate Jeremy Cash to the Repair Shop to work with metalwork expert, Dom Chinea on a very special third item brought in by a member of the public – a fire set in the shape of a soldier with a poignant story behind its existence.
The two precious items The Prince has chosen for repair are an 18th century bracket clock from the collection at The Prince’s Foundation’s Dumfries House headquarters, and a piece of Wemyss Ware made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee; legendary British ceramics produced since 1882.
BBC Commissioning Editor, Julie Shaw, said: “This is an incredibly special programme which has the magic that Repair Shop viewers have come to know and love. 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. The episode is a real treat and we hope that people enjoy it as much as we do.”
In Spring 2022 Jay and the team were delighted to welcome His Royal Highness to The Repair Shop barn to be reunited with the items and see how they had repaired the items.
Executive producer of The Repair Shop and Managing Director of Ricochet, Joanna Ball, said: “We’re so happy that The Repair Shop can play a part highlighting how important passing on craft skills to the next generation is. Hosting His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales at the barn was a real privilege for the whole team.”
The programme, which will air on October 26, was filmed between Autumn 2021 and March 2022 before His Majesty became King Charles III.
Satinder Kaur, collections manager for Dumfries House, said: “At The Prince’s Foundation, we are very proud to have partnered with The Repair Shop for this very special episode. It was a joy to welcome Jay Blades and the talented restorers to our Dumfries House headquarters to explore our collection of eighteenth-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. Over the past five years, The Repair Shop has done of a wonderful job of showcasing the skill involved in craftsmanship, and of highlighting the importance of repairing items, rather than replacing them, so it was a very natural collaboration.”
Appearing at Cheltenham Literature festival on Monday, Jay was asked about becoming a major TV star and had responded by hinting that something big was due to be announced. He said: “I’m getting there but I still have work to do.
“I’m sworn to secrecy but in a couple of weeks you are going to see something that will potentially take me up another notch. I’m sworn to secrecy, secrecy at the highest level.”
Although we are yet to see his majesty’s reaction to the work, Jay also insisted in his talk this week despite now having seen hundreds of items, there had been no bad repair or transformation anyone was unhappy with thanks to their hard work and dedication of the team.
He explained: “No item has ever left the barn and someone’s not happy with it. We have over 600 years of experience there. And what you don’t see on the TV is that there is such a community of getting this thing right.
"We all work together. If you’ve ever worked in a workshop or your work around creative people, it’s one of those things where you can be on a coffee break, and you’re still thinking about how to fix it, still thinking about the solution.”
Jay received an MBE from King Charles when he was Prince of Wales in May 2022.
He left school at 15 and has set up a charity to help young people who struggle in education to partake in practical jobs.
He is also an ambassador for the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, which financially supports those who want to learn a traditional craft.
The Repair Shop began in 2017 on BBC2 for three series but was so popular and successful it then moved to BBC1 and since March 2020 it has aired at 8pm as well as having a spin off daytime series.
* The Repair Shop special with his majesty will air on Wednesday October 26 at 8pm on BBC One.
