James May
Birth : 1963-01-16, Bristol - England - UK
History
James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter, journalist and writer. May is best known as co-presenter of the motoring programme Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. May has presented a variety of other programmes on themes including science and technology, childhood toys, cars, food and drink, and the plight of manliness in modern times. In addition he has released a variety of DVDs and books with similar themes, and writes a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph's motoring section. On Top Gear, May has the nickname "Captain Slow", for his careful driving style, a love of small, underpowered cars and habit of getting lost and distracted whilst driving. In a February 2007 episode of Top Gear he carried out a successful top speed test drive of a Bugatti Veyron at the Ehra-Lessien Volkswagen test track, reaching 407 kilometres per hour (253 mph). In July 2010 he repeated the attempt in the updated Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, reaching the vehicle's top speed of 417.6 kilometres per hour (259.5 mph), confirming that it had retaken the title as the fastest road car in production.
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In the remote African country of Mauritania, trio follows in the footsteps of the legendary Paris-Dakar rally. Instead of bespoke Dakar racers, the boys must complete their journey in cheap modified sports cars.
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It's finally time to join The Grand Tour trio as they "drive across Europe's last great wilderness". It's sure to be a cold and chaotic ride, so buckle your seatbelts.
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Top Gear will pay tribute to Queen of the Nürburgring Sabine Schmitz, who died last month aged 51, with a half-hour special reuniting current and former Top Gear hosts and guests.
Top Gear - Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a collection of classic moments featuring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, in a celebration of the most exciting ways to get over land and through the air. A monument to what happens when you put planes, trains and automobiles in the hands of three blokes who aren’t afraid to slam open the throttle…
Oh, the weather outside is frightful... so get out there and start doing some stupid stuff in cars. Yes, whether it's racing a rally car against a bobsleigh, playing ice hockey with tiny Suzukis, or seeing if a Ferrari can get you from Britain to the ski slopes quicker than a plane, Top Gear has always been at the cutting edge of cold-weather, car-based messing about. Can a combine harvester be turned into a snow plough? What happens if you ski-jump a rocket-powered Mini? Does a Jaguar estate make a good ski lift? This collection sees Jeremy, James and Richard - a trio well versed in trading on thin ice - answering these vital questions, and more besides. Uniting, for the first time, some of the best Top Gear winter adventures, it's a snowy, slippery celebration of all things sub-zero. When the temperature plummets, the fun begins...
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Welcome to Top Gear, The Best of the Specials. All the wildest, funniest, exciting-est bits from all the legendary Top Gear Specials, combined into one brilliant DVD. For over a decade, Top Gear’s road trips – and off-road trips – have tackled the biggest questions in motoring. Can cards set us free? Can they bring cultures together? And is it really a good idea to wear denim in tropical climates? So if you enjoy watching middle-aged men, sitting in cars, driving across interesting landscapes while wearing denim – and who doesn’t? – you’ve come to the right place. Pour yourself a pint of Horlicks, kick back, and enjoy the very best of the Top Gear Specials…
Hammond and May host a special episode featuring two films that had been completed prior to the dismissal of their absent colleague. In the first film, the pair and Clarkson each try to live as classic car enthusiasts with a particular classic car - Hammond picks a MGB GT, Clarkson chooses a Fiat 124 Sport Spider, and May drives a Peugeot 304 S Cabriolet - testing out their choices, before modifying and improving their cars, and competing against each other to see who's choice is the best. In the second film, the trio see which is the best second-hand 4x4 SUV on a budget of £250 - Clarkson pics a Vauxhall Frontera Sport RS, May chooses a Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin, and Hammond drives a Jeep Cherokee - facing a series of challenges that concludes with a race in which the loser must conduct an awkward after-dinner speech at their destination.
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Collection of the best moments from the BBC motoring show presented by Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.
The 11th Top Gear Special is a glorious celebration of the V8 engine, or at least, it was supposed to be. In it, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take a trio of V8 powered sports cars for an epic and arduous 1600 mile road trip through the spectacular landscapes of Patagonia. Along the way they encounter swamps, deserts, forests, beaches and snowy mountain passes as the threesome and their often malfunctioning machines press on towards the southernmost city in the world and an impending game of car football. Unfortunately, that's not quite how things turn out...
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In this special Clarkson, Hammond and May don’t just buy three knackered old lorries and drive miles through the beautiful landscapes of Burma. Oh dear no. They actually have to use their lorries to do something useful. They have to build a real, use able bridge over the River Kwai. On their way to the river they almost bring down Burma’s power supply, encounter the world’s least relaxing truck stop, race around the streets of a deserted capital, saddle up a trio of unhelpful horses and attend a completely deranged party.
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Top Gear: Festival Sydney was a special episode of the BBC motoring show Top Gear, featuring the regular presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May alongside Top Gear Australia presenters Steve Pizzati and Shane Jacobson.
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Another expedition for Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. This time around, our intrepid explorers take on the task of finding the source of the Nile in three barely roadworthy estate cars. After surmounting the worst that the local hotels and traffic jams can throw at them, the dynamic trio set off into the heat of the African sun, taking dense forests, the ferocious wildlife, and wheel-sucking mud in their stride - well, almost.
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Jeremy Clarkson and James May travel to the North of England to name and shame some of the worst cars in history, from manufacturers who "should have known better".
Top Gear THE CHALLENGES 6 combines all the meaty goodness of incredible car-based endeavours with all the tasty treats of brilliant star guests and a delicious gravy of pure distilled Stigginess. Counts as one of your recommended five-a-day intake of three silly men arguing, falling over and accidentally setting things on fire.
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Top Gear: Supercars Across Italy
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The gang embarks on a trade mission to India. Equipped with three old British cars and a range of uniquely British products, they set off on an epic road trip across one of the world's most fascinating and challenging countries.
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For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics. With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and James May, Brian shows how diamonds - the hardest material in nature - are made up of nothingness; how things can be in an infinite number of places at once; why everything we see or touch in the universe exists; and how a diamond in the heart of London is in communication with the largest diamond in the cosmos.
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Cars! Film! Cars on film! Film involving cars! You get the idea. It’s basically a DVD involving those two things. Gasp as we find the perfect drift car for a gritty, Bourne Identity-style chase! Cheer as we stage a race for all those unsung heroes of the movie industry! Whoop as we find the car that makes the perfect dramatic exhaust note to dub onto an action sequence! Make some other sort of noise we haven’t thought of yet as we re-attempt the classic Man With The Golden Gun barrel roll, having frankly made a total hash of it when we first tried it on telly! All this plus a vast fleet of sexy supercars and a man with a jet pack racing a Skoda. Top Gear At The Movies. It’s better than an actual movie. Probably. Actually, it depends on which movie we’re talking about. Truth is, you’d be better judging this on a case-by-case basis. Why not write to us with the name of a film and we’ll tell you whether this DVD is better or not. Actually, on second thoughts, don’t.
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Allow us to present yet another challenges bonanza crammed with volcanoes, World speed records, flying caravans, unstable Reliant Robins, jaw dropping races and cars exploding all over the place. No other programme offers so much, for so little of your I.Q. Motorhomes
The Making of the Car Advert
British Sports Cars
Cheap Saloons in Germany
The Dakar Car Versus the Snowmobiles
Topsy Turvy Reliant Robins
The Veyron in Hyperdrive
Airport Vehicles Race
The Caravan Airship
The Twingo in Belfast
May's Volcanic Adventure
Gravity Drop Race
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Some cars have a million horsepower, others have twinkly lights and big shiny wheels. But a rare few have something else; soul. It's found in funny places. In the crack of a rusty sill. Down the back of a torn seat next to an old Smartie. And if you're really lucky, it's found in a screaming V12 or perched on a ludicrous wing, or in the rooftop hinge of a gullwing door. These are the cars that make us happy, mad, insane and inevitably very poor. And no matter how much sense is drilled into our daft little heads, we'll continue to love then. So put your feet up, play this DVD and enjoy some of our favourites. It's a celebration of soul.
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In their not quite biggest adventures yet, the boys visit the good old US of A and former Eastern Bloc Albania for two action packed road trips. In America our trio, armed with the hottest new supercars - the Mercedes SLS, Ferrari 458 and the Porsche 911 GT3RS - head through NASCAR country and enjoy a dancing Mayor, a Stig on a drive by shooting range, and the white knuckle Virginia Raceway, with their adventure climaxing in a race across New York. But that's nothing compared to Albania, where they are summoned by a Mafia Boss to pick a winner from the new Rolls-Royce Ghost, The Mercedes S-Class, and the new Bentley Mulsanne (sort of). Keen to please, the boys embark on their most comprehensive test ever, including the Dead Fat Man in the Boot challenge, and a bank robbery to find the best getaway car. Will James be killed in the resulting car chase? The answer is yes. Definitely.
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The film predates the Syrian Civil War and involves a 1,200-mile (1,900 km) road-trip from Erbil International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan to Bethlehem, nominally recreating the journey of the Three Wise Men. Their journey takes them across the Middle East via southern Turkey, the cities of Aleppo, Palmyra and Damascus in Syria, then Jerash in Jordan and finally the Mount of Olives. The journey includes visiting an abandoned theme park, and a stop at Ein Gev on the Sea of Galilee.
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Just what will motoring be like in a post apocalyptic world that's been blown to bits by nuclear bombs or a massive comet? It's a burning question that's on literally nobody's mind, and we give you all the answers in this brand new, incredibly cheerful Top Gear DVD. Embarking on a terrifying journey into the future, we show you how to drive to work in the perpetual darkness of a Nuclear Winter, how to make motor sport exciting when there's only two racing drivers left alive, and, in a world where all cars are bristling with weapons, how to survive the savage, explosive fury of a Doomsday M.O.T test. And amongst all the nuclear carnage, we also tackle the ultimate petrolhead's dilemma - what cars would you take for a final drive if there was only one barrel of petrol left on the planet? The explosions are huge, the cars are superb, so relax and enjoy. PS. This frightening vision of a post nuclear world is backed up by top scientists, in case you think it's us just cocking about.
Hot places! Cold places! Places where the temperature is quite pleasant! There's nowhere Top Gear hasn't been in the name of temperature based entertainment
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If this DVD contained any more adventure, it would have a snake in it.
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are dropped deep in the Bolivian rainforest armed only with three 4x4s which they bought from the local small ads for a maximum of £3,500 each. They attempt to drive from the heart of Bolivia to the coast of Chile, encountering drug lords and the debilitating effects of high altitude. Without a doubt one of the toughest challenges the `Top Gear' team has ever faced.
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Top Gear presenter James May presents this informative program that examines the historic moon missions. Traveling to America, May meets three of the men who walked on the surface of the moon, learning how it felt and how the now antiquated technology was used to achieve such an historic feat.
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James May at the Edge of Space is a British documentary in which television presenter James May came close to fulfilling his lifelong dream to be an astronaut by flying to the edge of space in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane. It was first aired on BBC Four on 21 June 2009 as part of commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, and tied in with another May documentary an hour earlier on BBC Two called James May on the Moon. The programme followed May's three days of training with the United States Air Force at Beale Air Force Base in which he practised safety drills and learnt how to use a space suit correctly. With training complete, he was taken on a three-hour flight reaching an altitude of over 70,000 feet (21,000 m), piloted by instructor pilot Major John "Cabi" Cabigas.
Jeremy, Richard and James embark on yet more ill-advised attempts to out-do each other in a stinky cloud of tyre smoke, rust and over-ambitious mucking about in Top Gear The Challenges 3.
The boys headed to Vietnam for epic road trip across the country. Each of them were given 15 million dong (about US$ 1000) to spend on buying some wheels and must make it to the north of Vietnam.
As part of Sports Relief 2008, the Top Gear crew tries to revive the TV show "Ground Force" and revamp the garden of Olympian legend Sir Steve Redgrave.
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Races, chases and things on fire; treat yourself to a bucketload of Top Gear's attempts to get melted, hurt or drowned. To more cries of "How hard can it be?", "That’s not gone well" and "You insufferable Oaf!", Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May gallantly risk humiliation in another series of magnificent challenges, where petty rivalries are taken much too far…
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Trains have a place in this world, but no on this DVD, thanks.
'Rockets' it is. Rockets are far more interesting than trains, anyway, especially when their boosters have Reliant Robins strapped to them. That's just one of three challenge films you'll enjoy on this free DVD. You'll also watch a Eurofighter Typhoon blast a mile straight up in a race against a Veyron, and see Jeremy hacking an Espace to bits with a buzz saw. Perfect.
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James May celebrates the toys that made his childhood hell as he opens the lid on his sisters' toy box. Sandwiched between elder sister Jane and younger one Sarah, many of their favourites he couldn't understand - or stand the sight of - or see the point of.
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Jeremy, James and Richard each buy a used two-wheel drive car for £1500 and drive it for 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) across Botswana from the Zimbabwe border across the Makgadikgadi salt plains and through the Okavango Delta to the Namibian border. The Stig's African cousin also makes an appearance.
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Clarkson and May, in a seriously modified Toyota, take on Hammond and his dog sled in a 450 mil race to the North pole as they drive over thin ice to face in-tent hostilities, polar bear fear and desperate food fantasies.
Can a rocket propelled Mini take on an Olympic ski jump and survive? Can an Italian supercar be bought for just £10k and driven round a track without exploding? Can a Volvo beat an Audi in a snow bound biathlon? And can a Triumph Herald be turned into a monstrous cross breed with a dinghy and then sailed across a lake? And more to the point, Why? These are the challenges facing Jeremy, Richard and James. Will they fall at the first, er, hurdle?
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Featuring the most ludicrous stunts ever undertaken on TV. Top Gear doesn't do things by halves, which is completely apparent in Top Gear: The Challenges. Not only does the team attempt to drive on water, send a car into space and race a bunch of jumping French men... only to lose, they also manage to embroil several celebrities.
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The Top Gear team go on a US adventure. Its the ultimate road trip and finds the guys driving $1000 wrecks over 700 stifling miles to New Orleans. In a Chevy, a Caddy and a Pick-Up, their challenges include preparing a road kill feast and baiting rednecks of Alabama without getting shot.
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Le Mans? Not gruelling enough. Indy 500? Too slow. Monaco? No glamour. Forget them all - here are the three greatest races ever filmed. Somebody made the mistake of telling Jeremy that the car isn't a fast enough way to cover distance anymore. He took serious exception. He also took a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, a McLaren SLR and a Bugatti Veyron on three legendary transcontinental blasts to prove his point. The competition? Richard and James driving planes, trains and boats. And not having as much fun...
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Filmed on location on the mountains of Lillehammer, Norway. The presenters of Top Gear test out the cars in their own interepretation of the Olympic Games. Events include the Biathlon with a Volvo XC90 and an Audi Q7, a mini on the ski jump and slalom speed/dance skating using a Jaguar and a Range Rover, a Citroen C1 in the endurance test and a game of Ice Hockey.
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Top Gear: Supercars
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James May presents a celebration of the toys which have survived across the decades, including Meccano, Lego, Scalextric and Airfix. James's all-time number one is the train set.
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Highlights from series three through five of the popular motoring show, alongside out-takes and unbroadcast material. A preview disc, entitled "The Best Of Revved Up", was given away with Top Gear Magazine the previous month.
