Posted on January 6, 2026
The BBC has been forced to apologize for the December 26 airing of an episode in its series The Repair Shop, which, while discussing the Kindertransport for 15 minutes, fails to mention the Jews.
BBC fails to mention Jews in one hour The Repair Shop episode about a cello broken by Nazis
The Repair Shop is a BBC show about craftspeople bringing family heirlooms back to life. In the episode, renowned British actress Dame Helen Mirren takes her cello – damaged during the Kindertransport – for restoration.
The cello had belonged to her late friend, the theatre producer Martin Landau, and was broken by Nazi guards when he fled to Britain on the Kindertransport aged 14.
While the episode extensively details the story of the cello and the Kindertransport (for approximately a quarter of its 60-minute running time) it entirely fails to mention the Jews. The fact that Landau was forced to flee due to being Jewish is ignored.