Monster Garage's tough but fair presenter reveals the real man behind the television persona

Let's have the basics? Age, married, children, where do you live, favourite CD?
Age 35. Not married. No children (prefer dogs). Live in Kent.

What's your real name and why are you called Cookie?
My real name is Cookie.

What was your last job before Monster Garage?
Customised bike builder – which I still am.

Your favourite moment on the show? And the lowest point?
Favourite moment? Too many to list. Lowest points were getting ripped off for a supposed re-con water pump for the riot van, and seeing a dysfunctional team that eventually bonded and worked well with each other, failing the task through no fault of their own.

What makes a good Monster Garage team?
A good team is comprised of guys who are professional, able to fit in with strangers and have the confidence to go headlong into the task without having too many mothers' meetings about the smallest thing.

Were there any behind-the-scenes disasters?
During the week, the teams were being filmed the whole time they worked, so any disasters and solutions were on camera for all to see, as I personally hate these shows that have secret work done behind the scenes. On Monster Garage, what you see is how it was.

Top sandwich – bacon butty or prawn cocktail?
Steak in doorstep bread (no more pizza!).

If money was no object, how would you spend your perfect weekend?
The perfect weekend for me, if money was no object, would be to pay for all my club brothers from around the world to come together for a great weekend.

What's the most interesting thing that you've learned on the show?
I have always known there must be someone who designs and builds certain strange machines or objects but never knew what sort of person it would be, so the most interesting thing for me was finally meeting some of these people.

You've customised motorbikes in the past. What was the most outrageous bike you ever made?
People who have seen my bikes know that I like to have one outrageous feature in each one but probably would have to say either the Kawasaki 750 twin chop that had an overall wheel base of 12ft, or my drag bike, which is a GSX 1100 turned into a 640bhp (conservative estimate), 1400cc turbo with three stages of nitrous oxide (100bhp each) monster. However, I have been designing a totally outrageous and long Harley chop for many years, which is just entering the build stage.

Which aspect of each project – design, expert guidance or build – do you think is most important?
Obviously, on the hovercraft challenge, the expert guidance was the most important thing, but on many of the other projects the design would change with the build and in some cases mechanics offered up ideas to the expert for building a preconceived and commonly used design.

Of all the challenges, which one was the best to drive?
They were all an experience in themselves but the milk float drag car was definitely the most fun as a pulse-racer.

If you could adapt any type of machine in the world, what would the donor vehicle be and what would you turn it into?
The coolest thing would be to build a submarine out of an aeroplane for the most shocking role reversal.

You run the garage with a firm but fair style of command. If you were to build one team from all the gangs in the series, who would be in it and why?
Everyone who completed each build brought their own character and professionalism to the garage, so I couldn't pick five individuals from these guys and girls without knowing what the task was.

If there was one piece of advice you could offer budding bashers, what would that golden rule of customising a vehicle be?
For me, as a builder, I would say keeping the lines (flowing design) of the vehicle totally in proportion. But probably the most important thing I would say for anybody customising a car or bike, whether they were doing it themselves or having it built in a professional workshop, would be to decide how you want the vehicle to look and stick to your ideas throughout the whole build, otherwise you will never be satisfied with the finished vehicle.

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