Jay Blades

“I didn't really know my dad much but I didn't feel I was missing out because there were a lot of single parents where I was growing up.”

“I felt proud of Hackney before but now even more so with the history. Some of the history is dark, but you still understand, 'Okay, there has been a rich history which I am part of.'”

“If I'm not making something, it doesn't feel good.”

“The biggest repair job we have done on 'The Repair Shop' is me.”

“I've met so many people who have dyslexia and just got through life.”

“No matter where you are in life, no matter what you think you can't achieve, there are people ready to support you - and it can take you places that you could never imagine.”

“For years, I'd run community groups. I was the person people would come to when their children were arrested, something was going on at school, there were two gangs fighting: 'Call Jay, he'll sort it out.'”

“I wish I could do everything but sometimes you need a break.”

“A lot of the people that I spoke to, we are all stars in Hackney, and when it is our time to shine, it will happen. And that is all walks of life, and I am proud of Hackney for that.”

“Men can show their emotions and we're not ashamed to do that.”

“My reading ability is that of an 11-year-old. I've had a test. I was alright with numbers, but not reading.”

“If you think of 'The Repair Shop,' we're filming almost about nine months of the year.”

“I didn't like school for a number of reasons. I was bullied and there was a lot of racism, and there's a lot of fighting I had to do at school.”

“My charity lost its funding and my marriage broke down and I felt like a failure and I couldn't go on.”

“Once I got a letter from a doctor and I had to go out into the street and ask someone what it said because I couldn't read it. It was quite strange... but you find loads of coping strategies.”

“Growing up on a council estate in Hackney, you didn't show emotion or vulnerability.”

“Celebrate those mistakes, the mistakes that we make as consumers or the mistakes that we made as a novice at DIY. Those mistakes are brilliant because it teaches you what not to do.”

“That's one of the things is that when I first got into this TV world. It's like, you have to be doing so much stuff and sometimes it's just that you can't do everything.”

“If I'm not in the workshop, it doesn't feel right.”

“I think everything that happened to me with splitting up with my wife, leaving my business and I was quite an influential character in my community. The only thing for me was to get in the car and drive and I had no destination. I ended up when I was in a car park, and I slept in there for about a week because I couldn't see tomorrow.”