James May
James May | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 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 high speed track races and generally presents with a laconic style. He has, however, carried out some high-speed driving, including maxing out a Bugatti Veyron to its top speed of 253 mph (407 km/h). James also holds the world record for the fastest lap round the French F1 track, "De Garter", in a Ferrari Mastif.
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 regularly attended Whiston Parish Church with his father, where Reverend 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.
Journalism career
During the early 1990s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later Autocar magazine. He has written for several publications, including a regular column called England Made Me in CAR magazine and 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 his published articles. 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. He has a new book 'Notes From The Hard Shoulder' to be published May 2007.
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 humour 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 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. He obtained his licence in October 2006. Although he hadn't qualified at the time, he was still able to fly a Cessna 182 in a Top Gear challenge, as he had a flight instructor with him. During the race they had to land and continue via Eurostar, as Top Gear said that he lacked the necessary rating to fly at night. However as the instructor did have the necessary rating, this part of the race was embellished for television.
He failed his driving test the first time, but passed on his second attempt.
His favourite things include American hard gums (a type of sweet), brown beer, cats, model trains and Scalextric. He also has a penchant for "nice girls in rubbish cars".
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 "You might think this is a really great thing, but if you were sitting here making it up you'd realise it's a real pain in the 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.
Quotes
- "What really does it for me is a slightly dishevelled arty bird with her own breasts driving something like a knackered Triumph Herald convertible. A nice girl in a crap car - it's the motoring equivalent of erotic naked mud-wrestling." (May On Motors)
- "Oh, cock." (his trademark phrase on Top Gear)
- "Watch this!" (another trademark phrase on Top Gear)
- "Hehey!" (just another trademark phrase on Top Gear)
- "Brap brap!" (May on vanquishing a lesser opponent)
- "Permission to say cock for the second time on TV today" (on losing the race with Jeremy in the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti)
- "If you booked a holiday on a cruise ship and it came in upside down, you'd want your money back." (retort to Clarkson on Top Gear after Clarkson tried to claim victory in the Amphibious Cars challenge, even though his vehicle had capsized)
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
- Notes from the Hard Shoulder (2007), ISBN 9780753512029
References
- ^ http://www.sniffpetrol.com/issue075.html
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/privatepassions/pip/cvs60/
- ^ BBC Radio 2, broadcast 6 January 2006.