TV’s Repair Shop team find themselves under a new kind of pressure to repair a 19th-century ceramic clock… because it belongs to a king
Presenter Jay Blades and the team invited Charles to join them for the BBC’s centenary episode when he was still the Prince of Wales.
In the repair shop: a royal visit, King Charles help needed with clock and Wemyss Ware made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
He told them that the damaged 19th-century pottery had fallen when someone was opening a window. “They didn’t own it,” he said.
Blades and ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay, watchmaker Steve Fletcher and furniture restorer Will Kirk tackled the clock and pottery repairs.
And before announcing the results, Charles asks the crew: “Did you get it? The tension is killing me!”
Big reveal: Has the watch returned to its former glory?
In the episode, he also meets students from the Prince’s Foundation Craft Building Programme, an educational initiative that teaches skills such as blacksmithing, masonry and woodcarving, and he described the lack of vocational education in schools as “a great tragedy”.
King added: “Not everyone is meant for academics.”
“I know from The Prince’s Trust, I’ve seen what we can do for people with the technical skills that we need all the time.
“I think that was the biggest problem, sometimes it’s forgotten. Discipleship is vital, but for some reason they have simply given up on discipleship.
“It gives people great satisfaction and reward.”
Charles was invited to a centenary celebration when he was still Prince of Wales
“I just love tic-tac-toe”
Speaking about his love of clocks, he added: “I just love the sound, the tick-tock, but also when they chime, that’s why I love old clocks.
“I find it quite amusingly reassuring and they become really special parts of the house… the beating heart of it. That’s why they’re important to me.
“I’m afraid I learned that from my grandmother, she used to have a lot of fun putting a few together and trying to get them to ring at the same time in the dining room, which made it really fun because everyone had to stop talking. “
https://news.sky.com/story/the-suspense-is-killing-me-king-charles-hopes-repair-shop-magic-can-fix-a-victorian-clock-12730225
