Idyllic childhoods to the Krays, Jay Blades: No Place Like Home reveals a Hackney of two halves

As host of BBC One hit The Repair Shop, Jay Blades has turned the sleepy world of furniture and heirloom restoration into heartwarming TV. In Jay Blades: No Place Like Home he was on a very different journey down memory lane, but the results were equally fuzzy and soothing.

In the three-part documentary, Blades returns to east London to discover its history and relive his own idyllic childhood among a supportive community in Hackney. This first episode lent a storybook quality to his formative years. He and his mum hadn’t been wealthy (and he referred to his father, tellingly, as only “the man who contributed to my birth”) but they were supported by friends and neighbours.

Celebrities have been tracing their roots since the dawn of television. But No Place Like Home was worth watching for Blades’s infectious enthusiasm for history. Looking beyond his own family, he investigated the shadow cast over east London by the horrifying legacy of slavery and the impact of gentrification.

He also looked at the criminal dealings of the Kray twins, visiting their favourite Italian cafe, Pellicci’s in Bethnal Green, where he bumped into Maureen Flanagan, the hairdresser turned model who had tended to the siblings’ dear old mum, Violet. “They were very, very community-spirited”, she said of the twins, hastily adding that she did not condone their violence.

These were dark, difficult subjects. Blades, though, kept the tone breezy and informal. And whether reminiscing about his childhood or voicing concern over soaring house prices, he was never less than agreeable company.

By the time he arrived at his final destination of Ridley Road Market, the Repair Shop guru had applied a fresh lick of paint to the hackneyed genre of the celebrity travelogue.

Jay Blades: No Place Like Home continues on Tuesday 10 May at 9pm on Channel 5