Latest Repair Shop never fails to raise a smile and warm the cockles of the nation’s hearts

After three increasingly successful series, it was decided the show deserved a slot on BBC One where it’s been ever since, airing in both daytime and primetime slots to great acclaim.

Filmed at the Weald and Downland Living Museum in West Sussex, the show has made stars out of many of the experts, including Steve Fletcher, who has been appearing since the series first began.

A horologist by trade (he learnt his skills alongside his father and grandfather, who were both clockmakers), he can seemingly turn his hand to anything mechanical – and even impressed viewers by showing off his skills as a saxophonist in the famous barn after one arrived for renovation. He joined the show almost by accident.

“The team were looking for a clock maker and found a YouTube film that I made and then contacted me; within a few days I was down at the barn,” he grins.

But repairing timepieces wasn’t Fletcher’s original vocation: “I was always into nature and after watching All Creatures Great and Small on TV decided I would be a vet, so I took all the subjects at school to enable me to do this.

“My teachers should have told me that I wasn’t intellectual enough to be able to do the studying, so after not knowing what I would do decided that I would go into the family trade.”

Some of his children are following in his footsteps by working at his clock and watch repair business in Witney, Oxfordshire. Whether they’re up to being let loose on an item he claims pushed him to his limits just yet remains to be seen.

“One of my most challenging fixes was a clock that the then Prince of Wales gave me to do. It had been in the hands of so many clock makers and I had to work a way round of getting it going, which was really difficult and huge pressure.”

Steve loves the show so much, he encouraged his sister, leatherworker Suzie, to join the team.

“We get on so well and have such fun working with each other,” smiles Steve. “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.”

Make sure you have hankies at the ready for the latest edition – it’s bound to inspire a tear or two.