TV presenter Jay Blades, who fronted the BBC's The Repair Shop for seven years, has been charged with two counts of rape, adding to a string of legal troubles that have ended his presenting career.
The 55-year-old, of Claverley in Shropshire, was due to appear in court to enter pleas to the charges. He is on conditional bail and stepped back from presenting last year. Blades, who found fame on the restoration programme which he started presenting in 2017, also appeared on Celebrity MasterChef, Celebrity Bake Off and Comic Relief, and presented the BBC's Money For Nothing until 2020. He was recognised with an MBE in 2021 for his services to craft.
The rape charges follow a separate case in which Blades was charged with engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour towards his estranged wife, Lisa Zbozen, a charge he has denied. He appeared at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court in relation to that charge and was bailed to Worcester Crown Court. His wife announced the end of their 18-month marriage in an Instagram post in May.
The accusations have had severe professional consequences. Blades was removed from The Repair Shop's live theatre tour, Secrets from the Barn, and excluded from related promotional material. Roman Kemp temporarily replaced him as host of the show's annual Christmas special. The BBC also dropped a repeat of David & Jay's Touring Toolshed, in which Blades appears with Sir David Jason, from its schedule, replacing it with a shortened episode of Garden Rescue.
A second instalment of his travel show with Dame Judi Dench, The Odd Couple, was officially cancelled, and the future of his documentary projects, including A Country House Through Time, remains uncertain. The BBC said it would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
Blades had become one of the BBC's most recognisable faces as the warm-hearted frontman of the Bafta-winning series, in which he welcomes members of the public who bring family heirlooms to be restored by craftspeople at a workshop in West Sussex. His fall from one of the corporation's most trusted presenters to a defendant facing serious criminal charges has drawn comparisons with the string of scandals that have battered the BBC's reputation in recent years. Legal observers noted that the sequence of separate cases — the coercive behaviour charge followed by the rape charges — left his television career effectively over regardless of the eventual verdicts, and that broadcasters have become far quicker to suspend and drop talent at the first sign of criminal proceedings than they were even a decade ago.