James May

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James May bigraphy, stories - Television presenter, journalist

James May : biography

16 January 1963 –

James Daniel May Top Gear

On Top Gear, May has the nickname "Captain Slow" for his careful driving style. May has presented other programmes on themes including science and technology, toys, wine culture, and the plight of manliness in modern times. He wrote a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph’s motoring section.

Journalism

During the early 1980s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later Autocar magazine, from which he was dismissed for performing a prank. He has since written for several publications, including the regular column England Made Me in Car Magazine, articles for Top Gear magazine, and a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph.

May On Motors Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure Long Lane with Turnings Notes From The Hard Shoulder James May’s 20th Century

Dismissal from Autocar

In an interview with Richard Allinson on BBC Radio 2,BBC Radio 2, broadcast 6 January 2006 May confessed that in 1992 he was dismissed from Autocar magazine after putting together a hidden message or acrostic in one issue. At the end of the year, the magazine’s "Road Test Year Book" supplement was published. Each spread featured four reviews and each review started with a large red letter (known in typography as an initial). May’s role was to put the entire supplement together, which "was extremely boring and took several months".

May’s original message, punctuated appropriately, reads: "So you think it’s really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up; it’s a real pain in the arse."

Radio and television

His past television credits include presenting Driven on Channel 4 in 1998-99, narrating an eight-part BBC One series called Road Rage School, IMDb.com and co-hosting the ITV1 coverage of the 2006 London Boat Show. He also wrote and presented a Christmas special called James May’s Top Toys (for BBC One) exploring the toys of his childhood. IMDb.com James May: My Sister’s Top Toys attempted to investigate the gender divide of toy appeal. In series 3, episode 3 of Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word, May managed to beat Ramsay in eating animal penises and rotten shark (which Ramsay himself couldn’t keep down) and with his fish pie recipe. "The worst ever would have to be James May, with his fish pie. Even though he won, which was extraordinary. He was drinking a bottle of red wine throughout the challenge, so I thought it was in the bag." "This recipe is Gordon’s version of a posh fish pie originally made by James May."

Top Gear

Top Gear Top Gear Top Gear

Science

May presented Inside Killer Sharks, a documentary for Sky and James May’s 20th Century, investigating inventions. He flew in a Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon at a speed of around 1320 mph for his television programme, James May’s 20th Century. In late 2008, the BBC broadcast James May’s Big Ideas, a three-part series in which May travelled around the globe in search of implementations for concepts widely considered science fiction. He has also presented a series called James May’s Man Lab.

James May on the Moon

James May on the Moon (BBC 2, 2009) commemorated 40 years since man first landed on the moon. This was followed by another documentary on BBC Four called James May at the Edge of Space, where May was flown to the edge of space (70,000 ft) in a U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Highlights of the footage from the training for the flight, and the flight itself was used in James May on the Moon, but was shown fully in this programme. This made him one of the highest flying persons, along with the pilot, at that time, after the crew of the International Space Station.

James May’s Toy Stories

Beginning in October 2009, May presented a 6-part TV series showing favourite toys of the past era and whether they can be applied in the modern day. The toys featured were Airfix, Plasticine, Meccano, Scalextric, Lego and Hornby. In each show, May attempts to take each toy to its limits, also fulfilling several of his boyhood dreams in the process. In August 2009, May built a full-sized house out of Lego at Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey. Plans for Legoland to move it to their theme park fell through in September 2009 because costs to deconstruct, move and then rebuild were too highRadio Times 24–30 October 2009 and despite a final Facebook appeal for someone to take it, it was demolished on 22 September, with the plastic bricks planned to be donated to charity.