Dame Judi Dench names teddy bear after ‘remarkable’ crush Jay Blades-Jess Bacon-Entertainment – Metro

Judi Dench revealed that after Jay Blades ‘stole her heart’ she named a teddy after him (Picture: BBC/Getty)

Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she has named a teddy bear after Jay Blades as she has a crush on the furniture restorer.  

The James Bond actress met Jay in the one-off The Repair Shop sketch for Comic Relief where she went to restore and old China doll and had to pretend that she fancied the host. 

Yet, it turns out very little acting was involved as she has a soft spot for the 52-year-old presenter. 

The actress revealed after the show, the team at the BBC series sent her another teddy bear and she’s lovingly named him after the ‘remarkable’ Jay.  

The actress explained: ‘I collect teddy bears — I have a collection of about 200 — and they had one in the workshop that they had just repaired . . . and I went: ‘Oh that bear!’ And then, we were talking about them.

‘They made a new one for me and it arrived a few weeks later. And he is a proper growler!

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders appeared with Judi in the sketch and said she cried ‘he stole her beating heart’ (Picture: Jordan Mansfield/Comic Relief via Getty Images)

‘All my teddies have names and, of course, I’ve named this one. He’s called JB. After Jay Blades. He is really a remarkable man.’

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders also appeared in the sketch with the legendary actress and Dawn said she heard Judi cry: ‘Oh, he stole my beating heart!’

At the time when the sketch was released for the charity fundraiser in March, Dawn said: ‘I don’t think we’ve ever said no to Comic Relief because it just is too important, and because it’s from our community, and we were there right at the very beginning.

In the Red Nose Day sketch Judi had to pretend to be enamoured with Jay, but little acting was required (Picture: Jordan Mansfield/Comic Relief/ Getty Images)

‘I know that the money is spent correctly and I know that there are projects that are ongoing that need us to be ongoing and I wouldn’t ever want to let anyone down.’

She added: ‘So I think the more that we can do to boost and support, the better!’

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Jennifer agreed: ‘As I watched The Repair Shop, I thought all I could ever see was these characters (from The Extras) going into The Repair Shop, or me and Dawn, pretending to mend something or imitating the characters.

‘You know, I just thought, this is the show for us. Then Comic Relief said we’ve got The Repair Shop and it was like the perfect thing. It was so perfect!’

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