‘The suspense is killing me’: King Charles hopes The Repair Shop will fix his Victorian clock
King Charles III will appear on the centenary episode of the BBC show
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King Charles III is shown overseeing the repair of his Victorian clock in preview of a special episode of The Repair Shop.
The episode, The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit, will air at 8pm this evening (26 October) on BBC One and was filmed while the King was still the Prince of Wales.
In the episode, the King needs help fixing a bracket clock and a Wemyss Ware piece which were made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
In previews from the episode he tells presenter Jay Blades that the damaged piece fell over after someone opened a window, joking: “They didn’t own up.”
Experts who overlooked the restoration of the clock include ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay, horologist Steve Fletcher, and furniture restorer Will Kirk.
In the preview, before the clock is revealed, the King is seen asking the crew: “Have you sorted this? The suspense is killing me!”
The King said he “just loved the sound, the tick-tock” of clocks, adding: “But also if they chime, that’s why I love grandfather clocks.
“I find it rather reassuring in a funny way, and they become really special parts of the house... the beating heart of it. So that’s why they matter to me.
“I’m afraid it is something I learnt from my grandmother, she had great fun putting a few together and trying to get them to chime at the same time in the dining room, which made it very enjoyable because everybody had to stop talking.”
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Elsewhere in the episode, the King also meets students from the Prince’s Foundation Building Craft Programme which teaches skills such as wood carving and blacksmithing.
He said that the lack of vocational subjects like these in schools was a “great tragedy”, adding: “Not everybody is designed for the academic.”
“I know from The Prince’s Trust, I have seen the difference we can make to people who have technical skills which we need all the time,” the King continued.
“I think that’s been the biggest problem, sometimes that is forgotten. Apprenticeships are vital, but they just abandoned apprenticeships for some reason.
“It gives people intense satisfaction and reward.”
The Repair Shop will air on BBC One at 8pm on Wednesday 26 October.
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