James May
James May | |
|---|---|
| File:James may presenting top gear.jpg | |
| Born | January 16, 1963 |
| Occupation(s) | Television presenter and journalist |
James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963 in Bristol, England) is a television presenter and journalist. He is best known as co-presenter of motoring programme Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. He also writes a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph's motoring section. On Top Gear, May is often referred to as "Captain Slow" as he regularly finishes last in their high speed track races, as well as for his laconic presenting style.
Biography
May was born in Bristol, but moved around the country in his childhood, spending his teenage years in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where he attended Oakwood Comprehensive School (now Oakwood Technology College). He also regularly attended Whiston Parish Church with his father, where the Rev G. C. Mills was rector. A keen flautist and pianist, he later studied music at Lancaster University. He currently lives in Hammersmith, London, with his cat, Fusker. He is unmarried and has no children.
Journalism career
During the early 1990s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later Autocar magazine. He has also written for several publications, including a regular column called England Made Me in CAR magazine, articles for Top Gear Magazine, as well as a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph. He has written a book titled May on Motors, which is a collection of articles he has written for various publications. In the autumn of 2006, the BBC broadcast Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure, a series in which James, a committed brown beer drinker, travelled around France with wine expert Oz Clarke. May co-authored the book accompanying the series. He has also written the afterword to Long Lane with Turnings, published in September 2006, the final book by motoring legend L. J. K. Setright, and in the same month co-presented a tribute to Raymond Baxter.
Television career
His past television credits include presenting Driven on Channel 4, narrating an eight part BBC One series called Road Rage School, writing and presenting a one-off Christmas special called James May's Top Toys (also for BBC One), and co-hosting the ITV1 coverage of the 2006 London Boat Show. He first co-presented Top Gear in 1999, before it was cancelled by the BBC due to low ratings. He rejoined the show in the second series of the present Top Gear format. On 29 January 2006 he presented Top of the Pops on BBC Two. In August 2006, it was revealed that May is a frequent contributor to the online motoring humor magazine Sniff Petrol.[1] He has also presented a documentary for Sky about sharks. In February 2006 and February 2007, May was a guest on the BBC Radio 3 classical music interview programme, Private Passions.[2]
Trivia
He owns several cars, including a Bentley T2, a Jaguar XJS, a Range Rover, a Fiat Panda, a Porsche 911, a Porsche Boxster S, a Mini Cooper and several motorbikes. He has a penchant for both prestige cars like Rolls Royce and Bentley, as well as simple and basic cars.
He is currently training for a light aircraft pilot's licence at White Waltham Airfield. Although he hasn't yet qualified, he was still able to fly a Cessna 182 in a Top Gear challenge. He lacked the necessary rating to fly at night and was therefore unable to complete the challenge in the aircraft.
He failed his driving test the first time, but passed second time around.
His favourite things include American hard gums, model trains and Scalextric.
Dismissal from Autocar magazine
In an interview with Richard Allinson on BBC Radio 2,[3] May confessed that he was fired in 1992 from Autocar magazine after putting together a hidden message in one issue. At the end of the year, the magazine's "Road Test Year Book" supplement was published. Each spread featured four car reviews and each review started with a large, red, drop capital letter. May's role was to put the entire supplement together, which "was extremely boring and took several months". He went on to say:
So I had this idea that if I re-edited the beginnings of all the little texts, I could make these red letters spell out a message through the magazine — which I thought was brilliant. I can't remember exactly what it said but it was to the effect that "If you flick through the pages of this magazine really quickly you can see my arse." It took me about two months to do it and on the day that it came out I'd actually forgotten that I'd done it because there's a bit of a gap between it being "put to bed" and coming out on the shelves. When I arrived at work that morning everybody was looking at their shoes and I was summoned to the managing director of the company's office. The thing had come out and nobody at work had spotted what I'd done because I'd made the words work around the pages so you never saw a whole word. But all the readers had seen it and they'd written in thinking they'd won a prize or a car or something.
Works
TV shows
- Top Gear (2003-present)
- James May's Top Toys (2005)
- Oz And James's Big Wine Adventure (2006)
- Inside Killer Sharks (2006)
DVD
- James May's Motor Mania Car Quiz (2006)
Books
- May on Motors (2006), ISBN 0-7535-1186-X
- Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure (2006), ISBN 0-563-53900-3
References
- ^ http://www.sniffpetrol.com/issue075.html
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/privatepassions/pip/cvs60/
- ^ BBC Radio 2, broadcast 6 January 2006.