James May
James May is a TV show on BBC4. James May discovers how the car became an everyday part of normal people's lives. The program has been available since 2025. A total of 13 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in April 2026.
Last episode
50:00
50:00James May
It's back to the future for James May - he asks what happened to the cutting-edge motors our forebears promised, including fanciful steam cars and ludicrous jet turbines.
Catching up on James May?
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50:00James May goes off-road to explore how the 4x4 conquered the world - from Mount Fuji to the Mojave Desert, Captain Slow puts our favourite four-wheel drives to the test.
Series 1
1:00:00
1:00:00Top Gear's hairiest host explores the weird world of the microcar, revisiting Britain's infamous three-wheeled disasters as well as French deathtraps.
1:00:00The one-time Top Gear host reveals how the masses were mobilised, hearing how the car industry in Japan and Germany bloomed after WWII.
Series 3 50:00
50:00James May continues his epic quest to reskill the modern male as he attempts a risky stunt involving an ailing seaside town and a great big monster.
50:00James May goes in search of a wedding ring lost in the 1970s, the team launches its very own pirate radio station, and there are a couple of amazing inventions on offer.
50:00James takes to the air to help an Oxfordshire town with its diamond jubilee celebration and also tests whether it is possible to make your own luck.
1:00:00James's team try to catch a bolt of lightning, and James visits the Rock Paper Scissors World Championships and a Welsh coal mine while also recruiting some feline crime fighters.
Series 2 50:00
50:00James reassembles the past to hear what it sounded like as he pieces together the 195 parts of the 1963 Dansette Bermuda portable record player.
50:00James May reassembles his favourite childhood Christmas present, a Hornby Flying Scotsman with realistic chuffing sounds which he received on Christmas Day 1972.
Series 1 1:00:00
1:00:00James continues his quest with an electric guitar - 147 pieces must be reassembled in a process entailing soldering, precision screwdrivers and fiddly electronics.
Series 2 50:00
50:00James May tries to create a Christmas miracle by making it snow, invents a Christmas tree-decorating blunderbuss gun, and discovers the easiest way to wrap presents.
James May takes a rare and privileged flight 70,000 feet above Earth in a U2 spy plane to a place known in the Air Force as the 'space equivalent zone' or the 'edge of space'.