Blokes 'n' Sheds

Everybody’s got a shed story. And everybody wants to tell it. Mention the subject and people wake up, light up and the tales spill out, like kids from a class at the end of term. 

 

 

– Jim Hopkins in his accompanying book Blokes ‘n’ Sheds (1998), page 8

I think you can be yourself, there's really no bullshit about it in a shed. You come out to a shed and do exactly what you want, when you want to do it, and how you want to do it, and you’re absolutely yourself.

– Neville explains the freedom he finds in his shed, in part two

What triggered it all of I guess was sort of a midlife crisis. You know some guys run away with other people's wives, and some run off to sea. The really stupid ones build aeroplanes.

 

– Aviation hobbyist Bill on what lead him to build his own plane, in clip three

At the office, Nick's the complete executive. But when his day's work is done he comes home to his shed, and to his real passion: building things with his hands which can then take pride of place in his newly renovated home.

– Presenter Jim Hopkins describes Nick’s carpentry workshop, early in clip two

I think you can be yourself . . . there's really no bullshit about it in a shed. You come out to a shed and you just do exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it, how you want to do it, and you’re absolutely yourself.

– Neville explains the freedom he finds in his shed, in part two

[Sheds] come in all shapes and sizes . . . They don't have to be tidy, in fact normally they’re not. They don’t have to be presentable, in fact normally they're not. They don’t have to be polite or civilised, in fact normally they're not. The point is we feel comfortable in 'em, and we feel free in a shed to do what we want to do and be who we want to be. Sheds, I suggest, are one of the last totally free domains in an increasingly regulated, controlled, well- mannered and correct world.

– Presenter Jim Hopkins on the freedom of the shed, late in clip one

It gets to be an obsession after a while, and much to the detriment of a lot of other jobs that should get done. But that’s it. You sort of start on a clock and you just can't put it down until it’s either going, or you know it’ll never go. It's just something you like doing

– Clock repairer, Sam explains what drew him to working on clocks, early in this documentary