JAY BLADES

RAGS TO RICHES

The Repair Shop frontman Jay Blades MBE talks famous guests, the north/south divide and why we should all be attempting more DIY this Christmas

By REBECCA PITCAIRN

What do you look forward to watching on TV during the festive season? For me it’s the Christmas specials of shows that really pull on the heartstrings, such as The Repair Shop, which returns after the success of its 10th series with a one-o special this December.

The show, which is filmed in and around a barn at The Weald and Downland Living Museum in Singleton, near Chichester, has become one of the BBC’s most successful programmes since it first aired in 2017.

Now watched by over seven million people per episode, The Repair Shop sees members of the public bring in their broken heirlooms to be repaired by a team of 11 experts that includes clock expert Steve Fletcher, antique furniture restorer Will Kirk, ceramics conservator Kirsten Ramsay and, of course, furniture restorer and frontman, Jay Blades.

But as well as members of the general public, Jay and the team occasionally welcome VIPs and celebrities to their South Downs-based workshop. On the most recent series, Dame Judi Dench brought in a broken watch belonging to her late husband, Michael Williams, and His Royal Highness King Charles III also appeared on the show for a one-o special to celebrate the BBC’s centenary.

“When you get famous people like that come in and are just in awe of the show, it’s a real nice thing,” says Jay as we sit down to chat during a quick break in his very hectic filming schedule. At the time of our interview, the King’s appearance, which was filmed before he ascended to the throne, had not yet been publicised so Jay remained tight lipped about what went on during the visit. However, viewers of the special episode, which aired in October, will have seen the pair get on famously as King Charles presented two items for restoration: an 8th-century bracket clock and a 19th-century ceramic vase made for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Despite his brush with royalty, 52-yearold Jay admits it’s the ‘ordinary folk’ who venture into The Weald and Downland Living Museum’s Court Barn – the main setting for The Repair Shop – that make it the success it is. “The guests are all so unique, there’s not one story that’s exactly the same as another one so I love that people all over the country give us their items and trust us with the things they’ve got – it’s really special,” says Jay who last year also set up a workshop in Yorkshire in a bid to balance the north/south divide when it comes to representation on TV.

“I wanted to celebrate the uncelebrated,” he tells me. “There are places in the UK that we don’t celebrate enough and it’s important to hear a di erent type of voice. What tends to happen is we focus a lot on the south and there is some real talent and some real community in the north.”

While The Repair Shop, which has propelled Jay into the spotlight since the series began filming six years ago, sees members of the public bring in items for restoration, his Yorkshire workshop sees deserving local heroes nominated to receive a bespoke, handmade piece of furniture in recognition of the work they do for their community. “It’s a really beautiful show,” Jay continues. “There are some brilliant characters and the

THE SOUTH DOWNS

A RECENT ROYAL GUEST ON THE REPAIR SHOP

things that they have done for the community have gone way above and beyond.”

Working with local communities and encouraging the people within them to grow is in Jay’s blood. Prior to working in TV, he co-founded charities Street Dreams and Out of the Dark, which helped give disengaged and disadvantaged young people practical skills.

“With [community work] you’re always trying to inspire people to do something di erent, to better their horizons,” says Jay, who was awarded an MBE for his services to craft in May this year. “And that’s what I want to do when I’m on TV, I want to make a change with the infl uence I’ve got. There are people out there that are su ering, some in silence, and I want to show them that they can do it.”

Jay himself is no stranger to adversity. He has spoken openly about his struggles with mental health and dyslexia, which went undiagnosed as a child meaning he didn’t learn to properly read or write until just last year – a challenge he documented for the BBC documentary, Learning to Read at 51.

Last year, with the help of a ghost writer, Jay wrote a memoir, Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair My Life, and he has recently published a home improvement book, DIY with Jay, which he says, makes a great Christmas gift for anyone keen to brushup on their handiwork around the home.

“I want people to understand that fi xing stu is quite simple and everybody starts somewhere,” Jay says. “All of the experts that you see at The Repair Shop were all beginners at some point. No one is born an expert and everyone will have had a DIY disaster somewhere down the line. Some of my fi rst attempts were rubbish! But once you achieve something, something as simple as putting up a shelf or even a picture frame and it isn’t wonky, you can walk past it and feel happy.”

And with the cost of living rising, the ‘make do and mend’ approach is something that, according to Jay, we should all be taking on wholeheartedly. “We’re going to need to watch the pennies and that means doing it yourself,” he adds. “There’s been that make do and mend culture in the past and all I’m doing with this book is giving you an advantage so you can give it a go yourself and save yourself a couple of quid.”

DIY with Jay: How to Repair and Refresh Your Home is out now, published by Bluebird, RRP £20. All episodes of The Repair Shop are available to stream on BBC iPlayer

THE WEALD AND DOWNLAND LIVING MUSEUM MARY BERRY IS A FAN OF THE REPAIR SHOP

Did you KNOW

The Court Barn, the setting for The Repair Shop, gets particularly freezing during the winter. “We each have two water bottles up our jumpers during fi lming,” Jay admits.  Despite its TV fame, The Court Barn is not The Weald and Downland Living Museum’s most popular building. Bayleaf, a timber-framed Wealden hall house with a fi rst-fl oor privy jutting out of the side, is considered the museum’s most iconic. “I’ve always thought it is so strange, that people used to go to the toilet and it would drop down into their garden!” says Jay.  While Mary Berry has never appeared on The Repair Shop, Jay says she is a huge fan of the show: “When I fi lmed with her for Mary Berry Save Christmas, she told me she sits down every Wednesday to watch it and if she’s o fi lming, her husband doesn’t watch it until she gets home so they can watch it together.”

PHOTO: ALICIA CLARKE

Interview with… KAREN SWAN

SUSSEX AUTHOR OF THE CHRISTMAS POSTCARDS

By DENISE TYLER

Q You’re known as the Queen of Destination Fiction and your books have featured Rome, Paris, Greece, Spain, Norway to name a few – and now the Himalayas in The Christmas Postcards. Do the destinations inspire the stories or the other way round?

A Generally I think of the story and then I will research places. I want my characters to be embedded in the places I’m setting the books in so I want to know how it feels to be a local there, not a tourist. Every time I go somewhere, I'm looking around thinking, what's it like to live in that house? Or to be that person living in there? That’s what’s underneath everything, underneath every location, underneath every character.

Q In The Christmas Postcards, Natasha’s desperate social media search for her devastated daughter’s lost toy triggers a life-changing mystery with scandalous revelations. What inspired that idea?

A I had seen a TikTok about a little girl who had left her teddy at a tourist attraction in Iceland somewhere. There was an online appeal and a tour guide took the teddy, drove with it across Iceland with all his tourists, met someone at the airport who then flew over with it. And then the dad of this little girl met them at the airport. You know, parents will go to extraordinary lengths. Each of my children have had a toy that had this tyrannical hold over the family. If it got lost, the child was not going to sleep that night. So by the time my daughter was born, as soon as it became apparent which was THE toy, I got triples!

THE BEAUTY OF ASHDOWN FOREST

“Each of my children have had a toy that had this tyrannical hold over us”

SHE HEADS TO GODDENWICK FOR HER CHRISTMAS TREE

Q You moved from London to rural Sussex. That’s quite a change...

A I happened to come down to see a friend and I got horribly lost. I ended up driving through Lindfield, which of course has to be one of the prettiest villages in all Sussex: Georgian townhouses, a duck pond, the village green. I mentioned it to my mother; she's Irish and had moved over from Ireland to Hove when she was 16 to train as a nurse. Sussex had been her first English home and she loved it. That immediately gave me the sense of having roots there. We’re right in the Ashdown Forest and it’s actually the best of both worlds because we’ve got the forest at the front of the house and farmland behind us so we get to enjoy the sheep grazing, but we can walk out the front of the house with the dogs straight on to common land and it’s just glorious.

GLOW WILD AT WAKEHURST

Q You’ve raised three children in Sussex; where were your favourite family haunts and have they changed as the children have grown?

A My daughter still loves Tulleys [Farm] for Halloween and we all loved Heaven Farm in Danehill for the bluebells when they were little. We would go to what we and our friends called the smelly donkey service at Hadlow Down on Christmas Eve, where they would bring a live donkey into the church and the youngest born baby of the parish would be carried in as baby Jesus; it was just idyllic. We always get our Christmas trees at Goddenwick where you can choose and cut your own and we always like going to Wakehurst Place, especially at this time of year when the leaves are changing. But for us, walking in the forest was very much our family thing.

Q Where are your favourite places to eat as a family in Sussex?

A Our local pub is very much The Gri n [Fletching]. My teenage boys can be found propping up the bar when they’re home and of course the garden is beautiful though I like being inside near the fire. I like it because it’s a really honest pub; it’s not tarted up. I also like the Red Lion at Chelwood Gate; they do an excellent Sunday lunch. The Coach and Horses, also in Chelwood Gate, is another lovely local pub with a lovely garden, great for a good meal with friends. We don’t tend to go to restaurants too much, but we’ve been to Gravetye Manor a few times.

SUNDAY LUNCH AT THE RED LION

Q In The Christmas Postcards, Natasha loses herself in painting to switch o from her troubles; what’s your favourite way to switch o from writing?

A I’m definitely a dog walker and I love to walk in the woods. I’ve heard the Japanese term ‘forest bathing’ and that’s literally what I do. If I’m stressed, if I’m angry or upset I walk the dogs and when I come back I’m no longer any of those things. I also do a lot of sewing and I find I can totally lose all track of time when I’m doing that; it just disengages my brain. There’s always a buzz when I’m writing – what do I need to do in that scene, what about that character – but sewing is a great way to make that stop. I’m self-taught so the potential for getting it wrong is always really high; I have to be absolutely sure I’m doing it right!

Instagram: @swannywrites Twitter: @KarenSwan1

A W I N T E R TREAT

Why The Sussex National is a must-visit over the Christmas season

The Sussex National at Plumpton Racecourse has been a local tradition for our county’s residents since 2001 and another spectacular event is expected this year.

Located in picturesque East Sussex countryside at the foot of the South Downs, Plumpton hosts 17 jump meetings a season and the annual Sussex National Raceday – taking place this year on Bank Holiday Monday 2 January – is the winter highlight at the racecourse.

With live music, delicious food and drink, a brilliant bank holiday atmosphere and seven exciting jump races, the Sussex National attracts racegoers in their droves from all corners of Sussex.

“The Sussex National is a cracking race and has been a key part of our racing calendar for over 20 years,” says Plumpton Racecourse Chief Executive, Dan Thompson. “It gives people something to look forward to after Christmas and there is always a brilliant buzz.

“It is a race targeted by many local trainers and owners,” he continues, “and it usually attracts a very good field of runners. There have been some thrilling editions of the race recently and we hope this year will be no di erent.”

The Sussex National is the ultimate test of stamina and jumping for thoroughbred horses, who are tasked with clearing 20 obstacles over three-and-a-half miles. Last year the contest was won impressively by Go Whatever for leading Plumpton jockey Tom Cannon and trainer Chris Gordon, who both won the Sussex National for the first time.

After the race, Chris – who grew up nearby to Plumpton – said: “It means a lot to win this. Especially as it's my old local track – I'm a Sussex boy so this is just fantastic.”

The Sussex National wraps up a busy festive period at Plumpton, with two other meetings taking place in the build up to Christmas Day, namely the Christmas Raceday on 12 December and the Festive Run Raceday on 20 December. The racecourse o er a special Christmas treat for these fixtures, with the first 250 people through the gates getting a free glass of mulled wine, a mince pie and a Santa hat.

“Our fixtures close to Christmas are always popular as there’s a fantastic atmosphere in the stands with everybody in good spirits,” says Dan Thompson. “A day at the races is a great way to celebrate Christmas, whether that be with friends, colleagues or family. The live music is always good fun in our main racecourse bar, while there’s also hospitality options available for anyone wanting to celebrate in style.

“It’s also brilliant that the Festive Fun Raceday and Sussex National Raceday both fall within the school holidays,” he adds with a smile, “giving families the option of an a ordable day out, with accompanied under 18s gaining free access to all of Plumpton’s meetings.”

PLUMPTON RACECOURSE

Adult tickets start at just £14 for the two December meetings and £17 for the Sussex National Raceday. To get your ticket or find out more information, visit plumptonracecourse.co.uk

“Chichester will be looking spectacular this year”

Once upon A TIME...

The enchanting story of The Nutcracker will come to life in the cathedral city of Chichester this Christmas

From 26 November until 2 January there will be a magical Nutcracker Christmas Trail throughout Chichester. Guarding the city of Chichester throughout the festive period will be 11 magnificent Nutcracker Kings. Discover all their names and be entered into a draw for the chance to win a Nintendo Switch and game, sponsored by Blue Spire Accountants, or one of two £50 Chichester Gift Cards. The trail can be completed via the LoyalFree App (free to download) or a trail leaflet can be collected from participating businesses or downloaded from the Chichester BID website.

Then, on 10 December from 11am–4pm, families are invited to take part in a

Nutcracker Experience Day. Pick-up a special passport and go on a free Nutcracker adventure across the city enjoying a variety of free Christmas themed activities including storytelling at The Library on Tower

Street, Nutcracker dance workshops at

Wagtail Co ee & Yoga on Eastgate Square, facepainting and Santa letter-writing at The Cathedral, and Christmas decoration making at Draper's Yard. Collect passport stamps as you go before heading to the V2 van on East Street to receive a surprise gift.Visitors can also enjoy mesmerising Nutcracker themed street entertainment throughout the day as well as capturing Christmas memories at the giant snow globe on North Street (open 11am-4pm).

The festivities don’t stop there.On Saturday 17 December, Chichester will host a full line-up of music and entertainment including performances from Chichester City Band and dance and drama group Stagecoach Chichester. For the Christmas shoppers, two Twilight Shopping evenings are planned to take place from 4pm–7pm on Thursday 15 and 22 December. With the Christmas Market and many high street and independent retailers opening later, visitors can also enjoy a variety of festive entertainment whilst browsing for treats and gifts.

Chichester will be looking spectacular this year with a beautiful array of brand-new Christmas lights adorning the main shopping streets and picturesque side streets. Also new for this year, there will be a special character light trail featuring Santa and five of his friends, who have all been named by local school children and V2 Radio Listeners.

Adding to the magic, over 35 businesses will be part of the city’s annual Christmas Window Competition. Best-selling author and Chichester local, Kate Mosse MBE, will be judging the displays and the public can cast their own vote via the LoyalFree App in the People’s Choice Award.

To find out more visit

chichesterbid.co.uk/christmas

Limited to editions of 280, our newly-commissioned Art Deco posters feature glamorous holiday destinations around the world, ski resorts in the European Alps, and the world’s greatest historic automobiles. Over 100 designs to choose from, all printed on 100% cotton fine art paper, measuring 97 x 65 cms. Priced at £420 each (inc. UK sales tax). Private commissions are also welcome.

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