BBC Urgently Drops Jay Blades From TV Schedule, After ‘The Repair Shop’ Frontman Charged With Domestic Abuse

The BBC is urgently pulling all episodes of its hit show The Repair Shop featuring Jay Blades, after the presenter was charged with alleged domestic abuse offences Friday.

Viewers expecting to tune in Friday evening for an episode of another crafting show featuring Blades saw a change in the TV schedule, following Blades’ appearance in court yesterday to face the charges.

Blades is not set to appear in next week’s episode of The Repair Shop, but the show is midway through its 13th series and The Times reports that the broadcaster is now making urgent plans to to avoid broadcasting episodes in which Blades appears.

The primetime restoration show draws a weekly audience of approximately 2.5million viewers, and there are 300 episodes available on the BBC’s catch-up service iPlayer. These will remain in place with Blades being featured, according to The Times.

Blades has become a household name since appearing in the show, which sees members of the public bring in beloved family items to be fixed by workshop expert craftspeople. King Charles is known to be a fan of the show, and appeared in a special episode in 2021, and Blades recently appeared alongside Dame Judi Dench in a TV special called Dame Judi and Jay: The Odd Couple.

This is the latest headache for the BBC, following its abrupt sacking of The One Show presenter Jermaine Jenas, and dropping archive material featuring Huw Edwards, shamed former BBC news presenter, who helmed Coronation coverage and delivered the confirmation of the Queen’s death in 2022. One BBC producer told Deadline yesterday, “At this rate there’ll be nothing left to show!”