The Repair Shop Cast: Full List, Departures & Updates

Anyone who has watched a weeping owner hand a shattered heirloom to a stranger already knows the spell of The Repair Shop. After ten series on BBC One, the people doing the saving — the clock doctors, the leather whisperers, the metal menders — carry private stories that are sometimes as fragile as the objects on the bench.

Seasons aired: 10 ·
Episodes: 90+ ·
First aired: 2017 ·
Current main cast: 10 ·
Departed cast: 3

Six facts define the show’s public identity — and one pattern stands out: everything important about The Repair Shop happened quietly, off-screen, before it became a storyline.

Who is the current cast of The Repair Shop?

The line-up that made the show famous is still largely intact. According to IMDb’s 2025 credits, the regular restoration bench includes Will Kirk, Suzie Fletcher, Steve Fletcher, Dominic Chinea, Kirsten Ramsay, Julie Tatchell and Brenton West, with specialist contributors Peter Stewart-Blacker, Simon Crawford and Richard Fraser also listed.

For a craft-by-craft walkthrough of the workshop floor, our guide to the experts of the BBC show covers each specialism in turn.

How old is Suzie Fletcher?

• Published age: not confirmed in official BBC materials.

Suzie’s birth year has never been a fixture of the show’s publicity, so profiles tend to focus on her story rather than her age. What is confirmed is the timeline that shaped her: her husband died in 2020 (Prima (UK lifestyle magazine)), and she has spoken about how the loss affected her health and her return to the bench.

How old is Kirsten Ramsay?

• Published age: not confirmed in official BBC materials.

Kirsten, the ceramics restorer, sits in the same position. No official age has been published, but she remains a constant presence in the 2025 credits (IMDb (film and TV database)).

How much weight did Suzie Fletcher lose?

• Public figure: no exact number confirmed in interviews.

The coverage of Suzie’s weight loss has been emotional rather than numerical. In interviews with Prima (UK lifestyle magazine), she has described how grief after her husband’s death led to weight loss, and how she gradually rebuilt her strength through work.

No precise figure has been published, and the show’s official materials do not address it.

Has Steve from The Repair Shop been ill?

• Health update: stroke in 2023, per report.

Steve Fletcher, the show’s horologist, suffered a stroke in 2023, as reported by Prima (UK lifestyle magazine). He was still listed in the 2025 credits and appeared in two episodes of the On the Road spin-off (IMDb’s On the Road credits (film and TV database)).

What happened to Susie’s husband from The Repair Shop?

• Timeline: husband died in 2020, per report.

Suzie’s husband died in 2020. She has been candid with Prima (UK lifestyle magazine) about how the loss changed her life, and how the steady rhythm of restoration work gave her something solid to return to. It is the context behind every “where is Suzie?” comment thread.

The pattern: the cast have lived through strokes, bereavement and health battles away from the cameras, and the show has never turned those struggles into plotlines. Viewers reward that restraint with fierce loyalty.

The implication: the same emotional contract that draws viewers also makes the show vulnerable to cast departures.

Who has left The Repair Shop?

The departure list is short. Three names have dropped out of the regular credits across ten series, and only one of them made headlines: Jay Blades. He left the show in 2024 (Daily Express (UK tabloid)), and by March 2025 HELLO! (celebrity news outlet) reported he was absent from new episodes, with the BBC yet to publicly confirm a decision about his status.

The other exits stayed quiet, with no public statements attached. The spin-off, The Repair Shop: On the Road, runs with its own presenters and travelogue format, so its credits differ from the main show — a difference that occasionally reads as “cast changes” to fans (IMDb’s On the Road credits (film and TV database)). The personal stories behind the bench are the focus of our full cast profile.

Has anyone been unhappy with The Repair Shop?

• On the record: no credible public statements from cast or crew.

The unhappiness rumor lives mostly in comment sections. No current or former expert has gone on the record with complaints about the production, and the only departure with an official storyline is Jay’s, framed around personal reasons. HELLO! (celebrity news outlet) noted the BBC’s silence on the details.

Who actually owns The Repair Shop?

• Ownership: it is a BBC production, not a commercial shop.

The workshop is not a business you can visit or buy. The barn set lives at the Weald and Downland Living Museum in West Sussex (Wikipedia (show reference entry)), and the format belongs to BBC One (BBC programme page (official broadcaster)). The experts own their real-world workshops; the broadcaster owns the programme.

Why is The Repair Shop ending?

It is not — at least not according to the official record. Series 10 aired in 2025 (BBC programme page (official broadcaster)), and the On the Road spin-off ran alongside it (IMDb’s On the Road credits (film and TV database)). The BBC has announced no cancellation, and HELLO! (celebrity news outlet) noted in March 2025 that the broadcaster had not publicly confirmed a decision about Jay Blades’ status.

The “ending” theory is fan inference, fed by the frontman’s exit and by tabloid coverage that keeps asking whether the format can survive without him (Daily Express (UK tabloid)).

The implication: every new series now reopens the same question until the BBC either announces a renewal or plans a proper send-off.

Do The Repair Shop experts get paid?

Yes — the experts appear under standard television contracts, although the BBC has never published figures (Radio Times (UK TV listings magazine)). The clearer signal is on the business side: most of the cast are independent tradespeople who use the show as a showcase, not a substitute, for their real work.

Will Kirk, for example, is represented by talent agency Insanity, whose biography confirms he has worked on the show since it first aired in 2017 (Insanity (talent agency biography)). Dominic Chinea’s own website describes the independent metalwork practice he runs alongside the programme (Dominic Chinea’s official site).

The trade-off: an appearance fee is only part of the equation. The marketing value for each expert’s real business is the bigger prize, and it is why the bench has stayed so loyal.

Are Julie and Amanda in Repair Shop a couple still?

Yes. Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch, the soft-furnishings experts, are a couple, as noted in published cast coverage (TV Guide (TV cast database)).

• Relationship status: couple, with no public indication of a change.

Both women continue to be credited together through 2025, and neither has suggested any change in the relationship (IMDb (film and TV database)).

Why this matters: The Repair Shop sells restoration, but viewers stay for connection, and the experts’ real-life bonds are part of the show’s emotional grammar.

How the main cast compares in 2025

Six familiar names, one pattern: the only headline departure is Jay Blades, and the rest of the bench has held steady through the show’s biggest storms.

Ages are as reported in public cast profiles such as TV Guide’s cast listing; exact ages for Suzie Fletcher and Kirsten Ramsay are not published.

The pattern: the experts who remain have weathered both personal storms and cast turnover, proving that the heart of the show is the craft, not any single presenter.

Timeline: the moments that shaped the cast conversation

Every date below was a private event before it became public — and the show’s decision to let experts tell their stories on their own schedule is central to why audiences trust them.

• 2017 — The Repair Shop premieres on BBC One (Wikipedia (show reference entry)).
• 2020 — Suzie Fletcher’s husband dies (Prima (UK lifestyle magazine)).
• 2023 — Steve Fletcher suffers a stroke (Prima (UK lifestyle magazine)).
• 2024 — Jay Blades leaves the show (Daily Express (UK tabloid)).
• 2025 — Series 10 airs, with On the Road continuing alongside (BBC programme page (official broadcaster); IMDb’s On the Road credits (film and TV database)).

The timeline shows that every major change in the show’s public narrative was preceded by a private event.

Confirmed facts vs. what’s still unclear

The official silence on many details reinforces the show’s deliberate opacity.

What the reporting says

Jay Blades was absent from new episodes of The Repair Shop in March 2025, and the BBC had not publicly confirmed a decision about his status.

HELLO!’s reporting on The Repair Shop

Suzie Fletcher has spoken about her husband’s death in 2020 and the weight loss that followed, describing grief as the backdrop to her return to the workshop.

Prima’s interviews with Suzie Fletcher

The Repair Shop follows specialist restorers as they return treasured family heirlooms to their former glory in a workshop in West Sussex.

BBC programme page for The Repair Shop

The common thread: the official record is thinner than the rumor mill, and the cast’s own silence, until they choose to speak, is part of the show’s mystique.

The stakes for The Repair Shop

For the BBC, The Repair Shop is comfort television at scale: a warm, family-friendly format that has run for ten series and still draws devoted audiences. For the experts, the show has become a second career layered on top of their craft. For viewers, the bond is personal — they have watched these people grieve, recover and keep working. The choice for the BBC is clear: publicly recommit to the bench, or let the next casting rumor write the show’s final chapter.

Related reading

• Meet the Experts of the BBC Show — a craft-by-craft guide to the restoration team.
• Meet the Experts and Their Personal Stories — the life chapters behind the tools.

These guides offer a deeper look into the craftspeople’s lives and work.

Frequently asked questions