1 day Ago By Fran Winston
The Repair Shop 's pinball and arcade machine expert Geoff Harvey has opened up about his unusual path into television. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.
uk the pinball and arcade machine expert who has appeared on many shows including the beloved BBC programme, admitted the first time he was "discovered" was when he was driving a hearse. Recalling the moment he said: "We had a thing called the Pinball Machine Company, where I used to deliver pinball machines in a 1950s hearse which was great fun. I loved that car so much.
..because where the coffin would go, you just slid a pinball machine in.
"I did have a few people who thought I was doing a sort of psychedelic funeral, or something, with these brightly coloured cabinets in the back. One day I was driving through Golders Green about two in the morning and this car was following me. And wherever I went, it followed," he recalled.
"I pulled in to let it pass and jumped out. They asked: 'Why are you doing a funeral at three in the morning. Is it hippie funeral?' "I said: 'No it's a pinball machine,' and I told them what I was doing.
Then they said: 'We're from Channel 4. We're doing a documentary on eccentrics. Can we please.
have your number please?' "So it was quite good, driving around with the machine in the back of the hearse. It was always a conversation piece," he laughed. Away from his TV work Geoff is kept very busy.
Alongside running his own business supplyng and repairing pinball machines the former social worker also volunteers with an organisation called The Listening Place, which works with suicidal people seeing them face to face, rather than chatting over the phone. He is also curating Pinball Alley at the upcoming Classic Car Boot Sale in Kings Cross London on April 26 and 27. He already does a similar concept for the Galstonbury festival and had been hoping to bring it to this event for some time.
The two day gathering celebrates all things vintage including music, food, fashion, design and classic cars, bikes and commercial vehicles. It's his first time at the event and he admits he is really looking forward to it having hoped to participate for quite some time. "This is actually my first time at the car boot sale but I've heard about it for years, and I've seen pictures of it, and people said, 'Geoff, you must go to the car boot sale.
It's absolutely amazing'." The Classic Car Boot Sale takes place at Kings Cross London on April 26 and 27..
