
James May
Actor · b. 1963 · Bristol - England - UK
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.
Series22
TV7.2ComedyTalk ShowEach week celebrity guests join Irish comedian Graham Norton to discuss what's being going on around the world that week. The guests poke fun and share their opinions on the main news stories. Graham is often joined by a band or artist to play the show out.
The Graham Norton Show
2007 · 290 votes
TV6.6RealityThe biggest stars, the most iconic performances, the most outrageous outfits – it’s Britain’s number one pop show.
Top of the Pops
1964 · 44 votes
TV4.4Talk ShowA topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One.
The One Show
2006 · 31 votes
TV7.6RealityTalk ShowThis fast-paced and stunt-filled motor show tests whether cars, both mundane and extraordinary, live up to their manufacturers' claims. The long-running show travels to locations around the world, performing extreme stunts and challenges to see what the featured cars are capable of doing. The current hosts are Paddy Mcguinness, Chris Harris and Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff.
Top Gear
2002 · 912 votes
TV7.2NewsComedyBased on the week’s news and fronted by guest hosts, this extended version of the satirical news quiz features more of the stuff that wouldn't fit into the regular programme.
TV7.1ComedyNewsHilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.
Have I Got News for You
1990 · 82 votes
TV8.0RealityComedyJeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back with a show about adventure, excitement and friendship... as long as you accept that the people you call friends are also the ones you find extremely annoying. Sometimes it's even a show about cars. Follow them on their global adventure.
The Grand Tour
2016 · 895 votes
TV7.7ComedyShooting Stars is a British television comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Two as a pilot in 1993, then as 3 full series from 1995 to 1997, then on BBC Choice from January to December 2002 with 2 series before returning to BBC Two for another 3 series from 2008 until its cancellation in 2011. Created and hosted by double-act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, it uses the panel show format but with the comedians' often slapstick, surreal and anarchic humour does not rely on rules in order to function, with the pair apparently ignoring existing rules or inventing new ones as and when the mood takes them.
Shooting Stars
1993 · 28 votes
TV6.2DocumentaryRealityThe F Word is a British food magazine and cookery programme featuring chef Gordon Ramsay. The programme covers a wide range of topics, from recipes to food preparation and celebrity food fads. The programme is made by Optomen Television and aired weekly on Channel 4. The theme tune for the series is "The F-Word" from the Babybird album Bugged.
The F Word
2005 · 22 votes
TV5.2Talk ShowNewsThis Morning features a variety of news, as well as show business, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, home and garden, food, tech, live phone-ins, and competitions.
This Morning
1988 · 23 votes
TV8.0RealityPub Landlord comedian, All Murray hosts an hour-long show quiz show that pits the UK's most passionate pub quiz teams against each other.
Al Murray's Great British Pub Quiz
2019 · 1 votes
TV7.5DocumentaryComedyJames May embarks on a remarkable journey across Japan, from its icy north to its balmy south. He’ll see the sights, meet the locals, and eat the noodles in a bid to truly understand the Land of the Rising Sun.
James May: Our Man in…
2020 · 126 votes
TV10.0DocumentaryDriven was a motoring television programme launched by Channel 4 in 1998 as a rival to the successful and long-running BBC series Top Gear. The style was similar to its rival, but with additional features such as the "Driven 100", a road test of three cars in the same class, where each car would be given marks for qualities such as practicality, desirability and cost of ownership. The car with the highest total score would be the winner. The programme launched with the concept that the presenters should interact with each other rather than present items on their own, as was then the case on Top Gear. The first series also featured a "headquarters", a racing team truck, set on a former air force base at which cars were put through their paces. These concepts resurfaced in the reborn Top Gear soon after.
Driven
1998 · 9 votes
TV7.0RealityComedian, musician and nature lover Bill Bailey takes some famous faces for an amble and a ramble on some of the UK's most spectacular pub walks.
Perfect Pub Walks
2024 · 2 votes
TV8.3DocumentaryDara Ó Briain's Science Club is a British science television series presented by Dara Ó Briain which first aired on BBC Two in 2012. Each week, the team take one subject and explore all possible angles, combining it with studio discussions in front of a live audience, films and on the spot reports.
Dara O Briain's Science Club
2012 · 3 votes
TV6.8RealityRichard Hammond and James May look back at nostalgic clips of The Grand Tour.
The Not Very Grand Tour
2025 · 9 votes
TV6.7DocumentaryJames May is not a chef. But that’s the whole point: you don’t need to be a brilliant cook to make delicious food. Transporting us to the Far East, the Med, and the local pub – all from the comfort of a home economist’s kitchen – he’ll knock up delicious recipes that you can actually make yourself, with ingredients you can actually buy. And all without the usual television cooking format trickery.
James May: Oh Cook!
2020 · 38 votes
TV6.8RealityGathering in the care home where they now live, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May host three special shows looking back at their favourite Grand Tour moments. Or at least the ones they can remember. Their fading memories stretch from California to Mongolia to Italy and everywhere in between, and include classic moments of misery featuring mud, water, and at least two actual injuries.
The Grand-ish Tour
2026 · 12 votes
TV7.2DocumentaryJames May is out to prove why traditional, old fashioned toys are still relevant today when he pushes them to the limit in spectacular, supersize challenges.
James May's Toy Stories
2009 · 22 votes
TV6.7DocumentaryThis compilation show presented by Richard Hammond takes a look back at Top Gear's most famous creations from the past 21 seasons. Relive many of the greatest and boldest endeavors in all their splendor, including the Train-Cars, James' Caravan Airship, the Hammerhead Eagle-i Thrust and the Hovervan.
Top Gear: Ambitious But Rubbish
2015 · 3 votes
TV7.0DocumentaryJames May's Man Lab sees James attempting redeem the reputation of the modern man by teaching them skills that were cherished by their forefathers.
James May's Man Lab
2010 · 28 votes
TVDocumentaryFor 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.
Movies16
Movie8.4DocumentaryComedyClarkson 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.
Top Gear: Polar Special
2007 · 31 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryComedyThe 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.
Top Gear: The Great Adventures 5
2012 · 32 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryFor 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.
A Night with the Stars
2011 · 2 votes
Movie8.8DocumentaryThe 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.
Top Gear: The Great Adventures 2
2008 · 12 votes
MovieComedyDocumentaryKatherine Ryan presents a celebration of one of the biggest comedy talents to ever appear on the small screens – the razor-sharp-tongued first lady of laughter, Joan Rivers.
Movie8.7DocumentaryComedyJeremy 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.
Top Gear: The Great Adventures 3
2010 · 30 votes
Movie7.2As part of Comic Relief 2007, the boys revived "Top Of The Pops" by having performances by Lethal Bizzle, Supergrass, Travis and Mcfly as well as integrating the Top Gear segment with music themes which includes news about upcoming music festivals etc.. In addition, the boys will perform for the very first time (Richard playing the bass guitar, Jeremy on drums and James on the keyboard) with singer Justin Hawkins.
Top Gear of the Pops
2007 · 5 votes
Movie8.4DocumentaryAdventureThe 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.
Top Gear: The Great Adventures 4
2011 · 36 votes
Movie7.8DocumentaryComedyJeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take an Aston DBS Volante, a Ferrari California and a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder to Romania in search of an obscure stretch of tarmac that some hardcore drivers claim is nothing less than the greatest road in the world.
Top Gear: Romania Special
2010 · 5 votes
Movie8.2DocumentaryComedyThe 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.
Top Gear: US Special
2007 · 23 votes
Movie8.5DocumentaryAdventureAnother 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.
Top Gear: The Great African Adventure
2013 · 21 votes
Movie8.1ComedyDocumentaryJeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May road-trip across Italy testing three high-powered supercars—the Lamborghini Aventador, McLaren MP4-12C, and manual Noble M600.
Top Gear: Supercars Across Italy
2012 · 11 votes
Movie7.5ComedyDocumentaryThe Top Gear team hit Norway for a Winter Olympics special in which they attempt Olympic events, but with cars. In a world first, the team fire a rocket-powered Mini off a ski jump, Jeremy and James tackle the biathlon with the latest 4x4s, Richard stages a game of car ice hockey, and the new Jaguar XK races a speed skater.
Top Gear: Winter Olympics Special
2006 · 20 votes
Movie9.0TV MovieTop 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: A Tribute to Sabine Schmitz
2021 · 5 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryAs 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.
Top Ground Gear Force
2008 · 6 votes
Movie8.5TV MovieComedyHammond 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.
Top Gear: The Big Send Off Special
2015 · 13 votes