James May's Man Lab

Last updated

James May's Man Lab
JMMLtitle.png
Series Two Title Card (2011)
Genre Popular science
Created by James May
Written byJames May
Henry Dalton
Will Daws
Directed byTom Whitter
Creative directorSimeon Oakley
Presented byJames May
Theme music composer"Dr James May BMus"
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producerWill Daws
ProducersTom Whitter
Rebecca Magill
Henry Dalton
EditorsHenry Dalton
Alex Sutcliffe
Running time60 minutes
Original release
Network BBC Two
BBC HD (2010–13)
BBC Two HD (2013-)
Release31 October 2010 (2010-10-31) –
25 April 2013 (2013-04-25)

James May's Man Lab is a British television series presented by former presenter of Top Gear and The Grand Tour James May. The first, three-part series was aired on BBC Two between 31 October and 14 November 2010. The second, five-part series was aired between 25 October and 18 December 2011. [1] Repeats of Series 2 continued on late night BBC One with signing for the deaf throughout January 2012.

Contents

Series 3 began broadcasting in March 2013, after Top Gear finished Series 19. Series One was released on DVD on 7 November 2011 by Acorn Media UK, [2] followed by Series Two on 8 October 2012. [3]

Premise

The series explores traditional skills that are being lost by the modern man, and shows how to stop them from being lost forever. Each episode has a variety of themed tasks, including construction, seduction, destruction and more. If science, geometry, maths, logic and explosives can be used in these tasks, so much the better. Tasks include sending a dead pet's ashes into space using a homemade hydrogen balloon, creating one's own smelting furnace, constructing a pool table, felling a tree using explosives, escaping from Dartmoor prison whilst avoiding detection from expert trackers and making a magnetic ceiling panel to throw your keys at so you don't lose them.

The first series also had a celebrity man task, where a celebrity attempted to beat a personal best at a certain 'man task', such as changing a tyre; however, this aspect was not continued into series two. The theme tune was written by May himself and is often played live over the end credits by a variety of different performers, including barber shop quartet, bagpipes and more.

Series overview

SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1 331 October 201014 November 2010
2 525 October 201118 December 2011
3 5 [4] 28 March 201325 April 2013

Episodes

Series one (2010)

No.
overall		No. in
season		GuestDirected byOriginal release date
11
Alexander Armstrong
Tom Whitter31 October 2010 (2010-10-31)
James shows how to defuse a WWII bomb, builds a concrete kitchen worktop, teaches the art of seduction in the style of Thomas Campion (1567 – 1620), learns how to polish a boot, builds a large scale model railway, makes a fish finger sandwich and builds a radio control powered picnic table.
22
John Sergeant
Tom Whitter7 November 2010 (2010-11-07)
James shows how to build your own bar, navigate the seas using the powder of sympathy and a dog, how to duel with percussion pistols, stop running out of toilet paper and build an orchestra composed of grade 1 level musicians.
33
Hugh Dennis
Tom Whitter14 November 2010 (2010-11-14)
James shows how to make an old movie and how to build a cinema, how to duel with sabres and how to act on a first date, and showcases the Grade 1 orchestra performance at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Series two (2011)

  1. ↑ James May's Man Lab [@jamesmaysmanlab] (17 October 2011). "Started work editing the Christmas Ep. James May and Oz Clarke cook the perfect man Xmas dinner with interesting results!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. 1 2 "James May's Man Lab Series One". Amazon.co.uk. 7 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  3. 1 2 "James May's Man Lab Series Two". Amazon.co.uk. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "James May's Man Lab - Episode guide". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  5. ↑ "Transmission – BBC Top Gear James' Man Lab is back – Tuesday 25 October, 7pm, BBC2. Here's the trailer «". Transmission.blogs.topgear.com. 19 October 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  6. 1 2 "James May's Man Lab Official Site". BBC Online . Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  7. ↑ "James May update". Facebook. 9 July 2012. Archived from the original on 29 November 2012.
  8. ↑ James May [@MrJamesMay] (7 January 2013). "News: Manlab will be shown when the next series of TG has ended. So that could mean March. #CouldAlsoMean2020" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ↑ Butcher, Dave. "James May's Man Lab". Radio Times . Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  10. ↑ "James May Gone". 15 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  11. ↑ "Prime TV". Archived from the original on 4 May 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
No.
overall		No. in
season		GuestDirected byOriginal release date
Television
Related
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.