Jay Blades has said that revisiting the places he grew up in East London for Channel 5’s No Place Like Home was a “really beautiful experience”.
The Repair Shop star is presenting a three-part documentary, which begins tonight on Channel 5, in which he returns to his childhood neighbourhood of Hackey to discover its history and relive his past.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview, Blades said: “The sad thing is when you’re a kid, you remember things a particular way and then when you go back there, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s different.’
“And obviously the area has to develop, it’s more gentrified now, but things are so different,” he added. “I don’t really see it the way that I used to see it.”
When asked whether he found it difficult when revisiting a flatshare he lived in during tough times on the Peabody Estate in Bethnal Green, Blades said: “No, I tell you what, it was a really beautiful experience.”
He continued: “It was just uplifting. Going back to the Peabody estate, to me, it’s like, ‘You’ve come such a long way from where you were there.’ It just took me a minute. I was like, ‘Let me just pause for a minute and find out how that feels for me.’”
He added that it was then a “surreal” experience to discover that George Peabody – the philanthropic founder of the Peabody Estates – had financial connections to the slave trade.
“There was so much linked to the slave trade and people that had money were doing things, and yes they were doing things for the better but they had got that money from the worst. So it left the taste in your mouth that you’re eating this sweet but you know you shouldn’t because it’s not good for you.”
Jay Blades: No Way Like Home airs on Channel 5 at 9pm on Tuesday 3rd May. Find something to watch with our TV Guide or visit our Entertainment hub for all the latest news.
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