King Charles was visibly moved on a special episode of The Repair Shop as he heard the chimes ring once again on an 18th-century clock.
The new monarch appeared on a special episode of The Repair Shop on Wednesday night, filmed while he was still Prince of Wales, before the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
King Charles showed the team around the grounds of Dumfries House in Scotland, where students work on everything from woodwork to horology, as part of The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit.
After impressing viewers as he spoke of the importance of apprenticeships and noted that ‘not everybody is designed for the academic’, the King was shown the fully restored clock, and was left in awe as he heard it ring.
Before the big reveal, presenter Jay Blades greeted the monarch with a cup of Earl Grey tea presented in an HRH mug, to which Charles responded: ‘How did you guess?’
As he entered The Repair Shop barn, he asked horologist Steve Fletcher: ‘Have you got the bells working again? The suspense is killing me.’
And following the uncovering, the royal paused, muttering: ‘Oh my, look at that. You see? Fantastic. It just shows what love, care and attention does. Marvellous.’
After the pendulum was swung in order to hear the clock’s tick tock, followed by gorgeous little chimes and bells to the sound of a Scottish song, he smiled.
‘You see, such a good sound,’ he marvelled.
He went on to thank everyone who was involved in restoring the item, saying: ‘I can’t thank you enough, it really is wonderful. It will look really special back in Dumfries House.’
Elsewhere in The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit episode, Charles had explained his love of clocks.
‘To me I just love the sound, the tick tock but also if they chime, that’s why I love grandfather clocks,” he said.
‘I find it rather reassuring in a funny way and they become really special parts of the house … the beating heart of it. So that’s why they matter to me.’
He added it was something he ‘learned from my grandmother, she had great fun putting a few together and trying to get them to chime at the same time in the dining room, which made it very enjoyable because everybody had to stop talking.’
Charles was also shown restorations made to a damaged 19th-century piece made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee by British ceramics maker Wemyss Ware, admitting it would be ‘a terrible challenge’ to get it fixed.
After the reveal, Charles told ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay: ‘That is fantastic, it really is. How you do it I don’t know.’
He twisted the piece around to get a better look, adding: ‘I would never have believed that, I really wouldn’t. I was thinking as I was coming “I bet she hasn’t managed it.”
Leaving the Barn, he joked: ‘Now you can all get back to what you’re meant to be doing rather than me getting in the way, so thank you.’
The episode also saw Charles meet students from the Prince’s Foundation Building Craft Programme – a training initiative that teaches traditional skills such as blacksmithing, stonemasonry and wood carving.
The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit is available to watch on BBC iPlayer
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