Repair Shop presenter Jay Blades talks to Hannah Stephenson about overcoming racism, a breakdown, and his mission to help others turn their lives around Jay Blades could easily have been drawn into a life of crime. "The reason I ended up on the right side of the law is because I'm destined for something," declares the TV presenter in his East End brogue, "to do something, to achieve something, to then inspire people to go out there and do it themselves." The 51-year-old is a familiar face from hit BBC series The Repair Shop and Money For Nothing. But reading his new memoir, Making It, in which he charts his childhood in Hackney, London and the bullying and racism that he was subjected to during his teenage years, it's clear that his road to success could have easily forked in a very different direction, as he developed a notorious reputation for fighting.