The Repair Shop Cast: Meet the Experts, Departures, and Real Lives

Most people arrive at The Repair Shop for the heirlooms and stay for the people who fix them, and since the BBC series became a fixture on British television, viewers have built a genuine attachment to the restorers who bring battered objects back to life. Here is a source-led guide to the cast — who appears regularly, who has left, and which rumours about the team are actually grounded in the programme’s official listings.

Premiere year: 2017 ·
Network: BBC ·
Current expert cast members: 10+

Who is the current cast of The Repair Shop?

The clearest answer comes from the BBC’s own episode listings. A standard Series 9 episode credits the presenter, the narrator and a fixed team of workshop specialists, and those names are almost exactly the people viewers search for when they ask “who is in The Repair Shop?”.

Main presenters and experts

• Jay Blades — presenter, credited in the BBC Series 9 episode listing
• Bill Paterson — narrator, credited in the BBC Series 9 episode listing
• Dominic Chinea — metal artist and restorer, described as the metal expert by the BBC
• Suzie Fletcher — leather restorer and saddle maker, credited by the BBC
• Kirsten Ramsay — ceramics restorer, credited by the BBC
• Will Kirk — furniture restorer and woodworker, credited in the BBC Series 9 episode listing
• Mark Stuckey — electronics expert, credited in the BBC Series 9 episode listing

“The Repair Shop is a BBC programme featuring restorers who repair sentimental family heirlooms.” BBC Media Centre

Roles and specialties

• Brenton West — silversmith and precious-metals specialist, described by the BBC Media Centre
• Angelina Bakalarou — paper and book conservator, named in the BBC Media Centre expert guide
• Chris Shaw — bookbinder and book restorer, named in the BBC Media Centre expert guide
• David Burville — horologist and restorer of automata, clocks and models, named in the BBC Media Centre expert guide
• Pete Woods — restorer of drums, percussion and wind instruments, named in the BBC Media Centre expert guide

Ten specialists, one pattern: the same names keep appearing in the barn series after series. The BBC’s own casting materials treat these people as the core “Repair Shop experts”, not guest contributors, which is why audience trust in the team has always been tied to its stability.

Here is the same spread in a single indexed table, matching each name to the role the BBC attaches to them.

Who is no longer on The Repair Shop?

The short factual answer: there is no confirmed departure among the main cast in the available BBC listings. The longer one involves separating real cast changes from internet rumour.

Any departures

• The BBC’s Series 12 episode listing still credits Dominic Chinea, Steve Fletcher, William Kirk and Kirsten Ramsay as the expert team (BBC Series 12 listing)
• Earlier series show the same core names, which means no known main expert has quit the line-up in the listed period (BBC Series 11 listing)
• Steve Fletcher, one of the most recognisable figures, appears in both earlier mechanical credits and later series listings (BBC earlier series listing)

Rumored death of a cast member

• No official source records the death of any current main cast member
• Recent BBC programme pages show the so-called departed experts still credited, so the rumour does not match the broadcaster’s own records

“The BBC’s episode listings for Series 11 and 12 still credit the usual core team of experts.” BBC Programme Guide

What this means: the “who has left” narrative is mostly fuelled by episodic rotation. Guest conservators appear for one object or one series, viewers assume they have departed, and the rumour mill does the rest. The people who define the barn have, on current BBC records, stayed.

Are Julie and Amanda in Repair Shop a couple still?

Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch are the teddy bear restorers of The Repair Shop, and they are the two names behind the show’s most searched relationship question. They are both credited as experts in the BBC’s episode listings, but the personal side of their partnership does not appear in official broadcaster material.

Their relationship status

• Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell are both credited as experts in the same BBC episode listing (BBC Series 7 listing)
• The BBC does not publicly document their personal relationship, so “couple” in the romantic sense remains a viewer question, not a broadcaster fact

Their real-life teddy bear business

• The pair are known publicly as the teddy bear restoration team of the series, and their partnership is the reason the shop question exists at all (BBC Series 7 listing)

The trade-off: you can confirm their professional partnership and their role from the BBC, but the rest is personal. Anyone looking for a definitive status update on Julie and Amanda’s private lives will not find one in the show’s official records — and the show itself never offered one.

Confirmed facts vs what’s unclear

Confirmed

• Jay Blades, Dominic Chinea, Suzie Fletcher, Kirsten Ramsay, Will Kirk and Mark Stuckey are credited in BBC episode listings (BBC Series 9 listing)
• The barn at Court Farm, Gloucestershire, is the working workshop set (BBC Series 12 listing)
• Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch are credited as teddy bear restorers in the same BBC listing (BBC Series 7 listing)

Unclear

• Whether The Repair Shop is planning a final series
• The current romantic status of Julie and Amanda
• The exact age of the teddy bear ladies
• The identity behind the recurring “cast member dies” rumour

Why this balance matters: the confirmed list gives viewers a safe cast list, while the unclear list shows exactly where official BBC coverage stops and private life or gossip begins.

For the BBC, the commitment is clear: keep publishing episode listings and expert guides, and the audience will keep trusting the barn. For individual cast members, the choice is equally clear — stay visible through BBC listings, or stay private and let the rumours live.

Frequently asked questions