King Charles III to star in BBC The Repair Shop centenary episode

King Charles III will be featuring in a special episode of The Repair Shop to honour the BBC’s centenary.

In the programme, the monarch will meet with the show’s craftsman Jay Blades and his trusted team to explore their shared passion for preserving heritage craft skills.

The team will also fix two valuable items chosen by the King – an 18th century bracket clock from the collection at Dumfries House and a piece of pottery made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee by Wemyss Ware, a renowned British ceramics company founded in 1882.

In August 2021, The Repair Shop squad which includes 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 specialists.

‘The episode is a real treat and we hope that people enjoy it as much as we do.’

Viewers will see the King give Blades a tour of the estate as well as meeting 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.

‘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 programme was filmed between August 2021 and March 2022, before Charles became King following the death of his mother the Queen Elizabeth II.

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 Repair Shop’s executive producer Joanna Ball and managing director of Ricochet, added: ‘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 special episode of The Repair Shop will air on October 26 at 8pm on BBC One