Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Furniture restorer and television presenter, best known as the host of BBC One's The Repair Shop.
On the island
Eight records
Help Me Make It Through the NightFavourite
Helps me remember all the older generation who went through struggles for me.
*Every song he was singing about, especially when he was singing about love, is exactly what I was looking for.*
*Dennis Brown gave me back that identity with the Rasta, the Ferry movement and religion... about coming together, making the world a better place.*
*When I first got introduced to UK Garage by my friend DJ Spooney... every day was a battle, but you can overcome it.*
*I've been raving to this since the '80s... when this song comes on, the whole audience is dancing.*
*Sometimes you go into a state of dreaming and Melody Gardot's voice just takes me there.*
*With all of the influence that I have becoming a quote-unquote celebrity, I would still always want to go to the alley.*
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:47Why has the Repair Shop won the hearts of its audience, do you think?
It talks about stuff that we all want, which is community, people coming together, love, and then also just kindness.
Presenter asks
2:15Did you know at the beginning that the stories and the people would be such an intrinsic part of the show's success?
No, I knew it was going to be special the first day … when I knew all these people were coming together, I was like, this is going to be really special. And I think it was one of the first reveals we did … [the lady] put her hand on the top of the stool, and that was it. She just broke down … I said to her, what are you thinking? She's like, I can feel my grandmother here. That's when I knew this is going to be special.
Presenter asks
9:05When you look at a page in a book, what are you seeing?
It's kind of like the same thing that I get now, where the words, they're like ants. They just run around. It's like giving yourself a headache. Me looking at words, it's a lot of pain.
The keepsakes
The book
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X and Alex Haley
I think I got that book when I was fifteen and I've never read it. So that'll be a perfect time to read it. Or listen to it.
The luxury
I want a chair that has a recline on it and it has vibrating like massage on the back as well.
Presenter asks
9:32How do you remember that time [at secondary school, when you were facing racist bullying]?
Well at that time … I went to secondary school with this kind of naivety … I got called all these names in the corridor … that's a racist name. Because of the color of your skin … it was just constant fighting … I remember coming down the corridor one time [with my friend Iqbal] and he was crying … he said, I can't fix it. And I'm like, what can't you fix? He's like, my glasses, they're broken now. And that kind of also tipped me right over the edge. And I think from that I was fighting until I got kicked out of school.
Presenter asks
12:04Looking back at those experiences [of racist bullying and the Sus Laws], how do you feel about them now?
It hasn't made me bitter. I understand that all those people that were racist to me, they're racist because they don't necessarily know me. It's not for me to hold on to that. They have the problem. So if I then go round believing everybody's racist, the problem is they've won and I can't have that.
Presenter asks
29:51You once said that the biggest repair job we've ever done in the shop is me. How has working on the Repair Shop fixed you?
The repair shop has fixed me because what it's done is actually brought me into another family. That's people in front and behind the camera who have looked after me and understand my kind of … differences and just accepted them.
“I said to him, yeah, I disagree, but what I do agree with is that you've shown me how not to be a father. So I can only thank you for that.”
“That place taught me humanity.”
“It made me realize I wasn't dumb. Once you've got a kind of label that explains your difficulty with words, you feel so much better.”
“I am a failure. I am nothing. And I got in the car. I remember leaving the mobile phone. And my intention was to drive into a bridge.”
“It was for the first time I ever cried in front of a man and especially a black man and just broke down like unbelievably I mean I cried with slight snot coming out of the nose.”