Jay Blades has been getting ‘a lot of grief’ for touching King Charles III on The Repair Shop special

The pair hit it off on the programme (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)

Jay Blades has recalled the reaction to his meeting with King Charles III on The Repair Shop, saying he’s had ‘a lot of grief’ for touching the royal.

In October this year, the BBC aired a special episode of the beloved programme to mark the broadcaster’s centenary celebrations.

The episode saw the King – who was Prince Charles when the programme was filmed – put forward two objects to be restored – a piece of Wemyss Ware made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, and an 18th century bracket clock.

The pair got on swimmingly, with Jay touching the royal in a friendly manner, prompting the furniture restorer to later defend himself against claims of ‘breaking royal protocol’.

In a new interview, the 52-year-old explained further that there was plenty of security with the King, and they would have said something had he been acting out of turn.

‘As for the touching – I’ve been getting a lot of grief about that. “Jay, you broke protocol, mate!”’ Jay said.

‘Well, there was plenty of royal security there to say don’t touch the geezer, but they didn’t. He’s only a human and he touched me too. So I think everyone should pipe down.

‘There’s too many people out there who think they’re the Tripadvisor owl. They want to judge everything. Well, I don’t need you, owl.’

The Repair Shop star added to The Times that he believes he brought King Charles ‘out of himself’ when they spent time together on the show.

The then-Prince was left in awe by the restorations (Picture: BBC)

‘There was a moment when I thought he was just going to grab his clock back and I was like, “Nah, mate, hold on. These guys [the repair staff] have done a bit of work ’ere and you have to hear about it. There’s a procedure!”’ he said.

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Jay shut down claims of him breaking royal protocol during their encounter.

‘I was touching him and he was returning the touch as well, so the royal protocol is by the person who is a royal,’ he outlined.

If he didn’t want me to touch him he would have said or someone would have told me, and he would have done that.’

The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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Royal security didn’t say ‘don’t touch the geezer’, he said.