Blades 'goes posh' to tell the story of the West End Through Time (Image: C5) Jay Blades: The West End Through Time teaser clip Step aside Simon Schama. The new history man is Jay Blades, he of The Repair Shop and other TV adventures. The West End Through Time (C5, Sat night) was engaging, informative, and a thoroughly entertaining piece of television for a Saturday night.
I may have learned something, too. Ask me tomorrow. It wasn’t a game show either, a format that is spreading like Japanese knot weed across the channels.
My only criticism: it should have been called, How the West End was Won, with shots of Jay stepping from a carriage on Piccadilly, dressed like dandy Beau Brummell. Jay has a lot going on in his life (so I read), but he concentrated on the task at hand by chatting to a clutch of local historians and experts. He is a very personable chap, which shines through in his frank, interviewing style.
In the ever-so-posh surrounds of Fortnum & Mason’s he was tasting an original flavour of black tea, “Ooh, it smells like dust...
this is lost on me.” Make him a judge on Masterchef immediately! Cockney Jay “has been coming up West for years”, and ironically he sounded more and more like an East End boy as the show went on. Let’s face it, cockney is the new posh.
..ish.
He was most excited about the original tailor from Savile Row, called Henry Poole & Co, where he was given the trusted job of cutting some cherished fabric. After he’d finished, he asked, .
