Who are the experts on The Repair Shop?

If you’ve got a beloved household item that’s seen better days, odds are the experts featured on The Repair Shop can help you give it a new lease of life.

Debuting in 2017, this hugely popular BBC series has fixed countless family heirlooms over the years while their owners share the deeply personal stories that connected them to each treasure.

Hosted by furniture restorer Jay Blades, The Repair Shop enlists a group of restoration experts who must rely on their specific skills to find inventive ways to rectify a range of different issues. Who are these talented tinkerers? Let’s take a look.

Who are The Repair Shop experts?

Steve Fletcher

Horologist Steven Fletcher has been with the show since its early days and is The Repair Shop’s resident clock expert.

Despite almost pursuing a career as a vet he decided to enter the family business after watching his father repair watches as a child. Now, Fletcher has over 45 years of experience under his belt and also runs a clock and watch repair shop in Witney where his son now works.

“The best part of being on the Repair Shop is the reaction of people when they see their transformed item, from excitement to true deep emotion,” says Fletcher. “I have learnt so much from the other experts who are always willing to hand on their knowledge.”

Suzie Fletcher

Suzie is Steve’s sister and she’s an expert in all things leather. Specialising in saddle repair, retro fittings and overhauls, she also helps out with restorations on leather clothing and furniture items.

“My brother Steve would Skype me regularly as he always did and told me he was involved in this new BBC TV show called The Repair Shop,” says Suzie.

“Every time he called he looked to be having such a good time I jokingly said, 'If they need anyone to do leather I'm your gal.' I really was joking but after several phone calls and a lot of reassurance from Steve I agreed to give it a go and joined the team.”

Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch AKA The Teddybear Ladies

Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch started their own teddy bear repair business in 2006. Named Bear It In Mind, the store quickly inspired them to start their own podcast, Barely Begun, where they share tips and discuss various elements of teddy bear restoration.

“It was the ‘teddy bear’ that gelled the partnership. With our combined sewing skills, we also ran workshops. It wasn’t long that we were receiving many requests for repairs and restorations,” says Middleditch. “We are delighted to be able to share our skills with a worldwide audience and give hope to those who, to date, have felt there was nothing that could be done for their precious item.”

Tatchell adds: “Both on and off screen, The Repair Shop has a wonderful ‘feel-good’ factor which is something to be very proud of!”

Dominic Chinea

Dominic Chinea is a YouTuber, former set designer and metalworker who is reported to have even created the iconic sign featured in episodes of The Repair Shop. Chinea joined the show in season two and has so far restored a range of items including a weathervane from last year's series which he says was his biggest challenge yet.

“The challenge was how to make it safe and future proof whilst not removing the charm,” he explained. “I always find the challenge with every repair is knowing when to stop. It’s tempting for the grand reveal to have a large transformation, however it's truer to the items and their history to leave them as original as possible.”

Brenton West

Brenton West is a silversmith with over 40 years of experience working in the trade. Within The Repair Shop team, he’s the person to visit if you need missing pieces replicated or the shine restored to your beloved item.

An avid photographer, it was actually a camera repair that got West involved with the show: “The producers asked me to repair a wooden camera that they had been told was irreparable. It was the sort of job that I had been doing for ages but was still challenging,” he says. “Taking a picture of the Repair Shop experts with the restored camera was a great ending.

“I reminded the producers that I was also a silversmith (I had used those skills on the brass parts of the camera). Soon I was being asked if I could fix this or that and within no time I became one of the regulars.”

Kirsten Ramsay

Celebrated as the ‘Queen on the invisible fix’, Kirsten Ramsay is The Repair Shop’s in-house ceramics professional and she also works within the preservation department at the British Museum in London.

Ramsay’s career started 30 years ago and when she was approached by The Repair Shop team to join as one of the programme’s experts, she was convinced someone was winding her up.

“Restoration has always seemed rather niche and nerdy - I couldn’t believe that there was going to be a mainstream programme showcasing the skills of a team of restoration experts,” she smiles. “How wonderful!”

Rebecca Bissonnet

Rebecca Bissonnet is a textiles expert and a new comer to The Repair Shop's growing list of in-house fixers. Bissonnet has extensive experience repairing all kinds of objects and once worked on a dress worn by the Queen during her coronation.

Despite this, she almost missed out on the opportunity to join the show altogether. "They had found my details through my website and I actually missed the call because I had just popped next door to the village shop to buy cherry cake!" she laughs.

Thankfully, she got back in touch with them and joins the show for its latest outing.

Richard Talman

Richard Talman is the show's resident master goldsmith and spends his time on The Repair Shop fixing people's beloved jewellery and personal items.

With over 30 years of experience under his belt, he's pretty proficient at it too. In 2010, he founded his own restoration company called Richard Talman Fine Jewellery - or RTFJ for short - and it was a path that eventually led him all the way to The Repair Shop.

Over the years, he's fixed plenty of precious pieces and has even worked on engagement and wedding rings for his co-stars Jay Blades and William Kirk.

Mark Stuckey

Mark Stuckey specialises in fixing radios and electronics and has become a firm-favourite on The Repair Shop’s ever-growing collection of expert tinkerers.

Outside of the show, Stuckey runs his own radio repair shop in Norfolk and has pinned his passion for vintage repairs on a fascination with times gone by.

“I would say people like myself have an interest in the past, perhaps because it seems they were better times, things were less complicated and hearing the sound coming from a radio loudspeaker,” he says. “That’s where I get the buzz, something from the past that I cannot only look at but have the same enjoyment as those original owners had, so many years ago.”

William Kirk

William Kirk spends his time on The Repair Shop restoring furniture and household items.

He has a history of featuring on other fixing-focused TV programmes, having also appeared on Channel 4’s The French Collection and the BBC show What to Buy and Why. He joined The Repair Shop in 2017 and has featured among its list of experts ever since.

Kirk runs his own restoration workshop in London and has also worked with the show’s jewellery expert Richard Talman to create engagement rings for his wedding.

Christopher Shaw

Bookbinding is Christopher Shaw's area of expertise. Having spent many years in the trade, Shaw started his own workshop in 1982 and has won numerous prizes and awards all over the world.

“I’ve been bookbinding since I was 18,” he told the BBC a few years back. “I always say anyone can bookbind, it just takes plenty of practice.

“I got into it quite randomly, I was on a building site at 17, I didn’t like the place I was living, and I always loved books, so I went to Guildford Technical College. It was a real stroke of luck as it just clicked. The nice thing about bookbinding is it’s really engrossing, it’s therapeutic and mindful.”

Pete Woods

Pete Woods is a drum maker and lends his skills to The Repair Shop as their local percussion expert. Over the years, he’s helped to restore and repair a wide variety of musical instruments, which in turn have had unexpected results.

Just last year, Woods’ restoration of a family saxophone which was owned by the late father of two siblings brought tears to eyes both in front of and behind the camera. When the fixed instrument was played, its owners said it was like hearing their father’s voice one more time.

Angelina Bakalarou

Angelina Bakalarou joined The Repair Shop as a regular in 2023 after making a number of guest appearances in previous episodes. She is a paper and paintings conservator and spends her time restoring works of art.

Before her time on The Repair Shop, Bakalarou spent a decade working with The National Archives as a project conservator and conservation manager. She’s also a keen sketcher and artist.

David Burville

David Burville is a specialist organ builder and owns and runs his own workshop in Canterbury which is one of the largest organ-building spaces in the UK.

Throughout his time on The Repair Shop, he has worked on many different projects and even restored a harmonium owned by the poet laureate Simon Armitage which had personal significance due to its links to his late father.

Jayesh Vaghela

Jayesh Vaghela specialises in fixing and restoring hats. He made his first appearance on The Repair Shop a number of years ago before leaving and returning for its latest episodes.

Outside of the series, Vaghela works as the assistant manager at Lock & Co in London, a store that wears the title of being the world’s oldest hat shop. Famous customers at this store include Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde.

Lucia Scalisi

Lucia joined The Repair Shop in 2017, focusing her time on restoring paintings.

Before appearing on the programme, she shared her expert knowledge of artwork preservation in lecture halls all over the world, and has even appeared on other BBC shows including 2011’s Restoration Roadshow.

Outside of The Repair Shop, Scalisi owns her own restoration business which helps customers bring their artworks back to life.

Louise Drover

Expert Louise Drover, who joined The Repair Shop in series seven, specialises in restoring paper-based artworks including prints, drawings and historical wallpapers.

Before becoming an expert on the show, Drover spent time working with an array of big-name clients including the V&A Museum, Blenheim Palace and the National Trust.

Sonnaz Nooranvary

Sonnaz Nooranvary joined The Repair Shop in its second series, sharing her upholstery restoration skills with whoever needed her help.

While she remains one of the original experts, she almost didn’t appear at all. “I got a random phone call from the production company out of the blue. They were casting for Season 1. And I wished I said yes, but I was wary about it,” she explains.

“They, then, called me back when it got recommissioned for Season 2. did. I went down and met some of the experts, and visited the barn. The production company really put my mind at ease about the integrity and the care that they were really wanting to put into the programme.

“There was just something different about it that wasn’t on TV at the time, I was hooked.”

Julyan Wallis

Julyan Wallis calls himself ‘The Guitar Doctor’ so it might not come as such a big surprise to learn that he's The Repair Shop’s go-to guy for guitar-based problems.

Based in Cornwall, Wallis bills himself as an expert at fixing stringed or fretted instruments and also has experience restoring more unique string instruments like ukuleles and mandolins.

Dean Westmoreland

If you’ve got a problem with your shoes, you’ll want to see Dean Westmoreland, The Repair Shop’s resident cobbler.

During his extensive career, he’s fixed many different types of shoes. “It’s always a challenge because every pair has a different story. I’ve had clown shoes, running spikes, war boots. I’m open to everything,” he says.

However, in doing so, he’s paid the price with his hands: “I have a squared-off thumb!” he told OK! Magazine.

The Repair Shop returns on Wednesday, 10 April at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.