As one of hit BBC show The Repair Shop’s expert craftspeople, Mark Stuckey is known for restoring old radios and knows better than most how time-consuming this can be
A star of The Repair Shop has complained about one “ruddy awful” aspect of filming the series, as he opened up about an uncomfortable issue on set. Mark Stuckey knows better than most how time-consuming a repair can be. As one of the BBC show’s expert craftspeople, Mark tackles electrical items and is particularly known for restoring old radios.
On The Repair Shop, experts restore beloved family heirlooms using their specialist skills. It’s built a devoted following over the years with its heart-warming, family-friendly format, but viewers may not be aware of how long the repairs actually take.
It can seem like the experts pull off the feat within the span of a single episode, thanks to TV trickery. But, as podcast host Michael Fenton Stevens points out, some of the items look as though they’d take months to fix in reality.
Speaking in a recent interview for the My Time Capsule podcast, Mark said: “It can often. What happens (is) we have to make sure we have continuity, which sounds perfect in the summertime.
“So you start with a t-shirt, and it doesn’t get finished until the middle of winter, then you are freezing. It’s not much fun.”
Mark went on to share a problem with The Repair Shop’s famous barn, adding: “And that barn’s ruddy awful. It was never designed to keep the heat in.”
Mark has been a fan of electronics since he was young. He left school at 15 to start work as a mechanical engineer before changing trajectory. He told the BBC his family was “constantly moving”.
“My father’s work meant that we were constantly moving, and every time I went to a different school, the syllabus was totally different, which wasn’t doing my education any good whatsoever. So the result was I left school at 15.”
He ended up working with his friend at a radio and television shop: “I went down after work to help out, and I did that for six months, and they offered me a job, which was great. I then went to college to learn what was called radio and television servicing.”
Mark says his career in electro-mechanical and electronic design spanned about 25 years and included “high-profile MOD contracts”, including marine detection and nuclear weapons systems.
He and his wife, Linda, once made the news in Norfolk. In 2019, their home was sadly burned down and later burgled. He told North Norfolk News: “Sometimes individuals take advantage of other people’s loss.
“Maybe, at first, they were just curious and looked inside the property, and then greed got the better of them. We have now had alarms fitted, so we will hear anything in the future.”
Catch The Repair Shop: Beyond the Barn on BBC One tonight (September 23), from 8pm to 9pm.
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