“The BBC still want me to make some documentaries for them, including about cars. I’m not out of making TV programmes about cars and motoring and car history.”
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James May
James Daniel May is an English television presenter, author and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 and the television series The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video from 2016 to 2024. He also served as a director of the production company W. Chump & Sons.
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culture · English television presenter and journalist (born 1963) · television presenter · journalist · writer · musician · broadcaster · presenter · also James May, James Daniel May, Captain Slow, BIM, May
Born 16 January 1963 · Q314504
25 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 7 entries
“It may just be I don’t do anything,”
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“light kicking … not excluding him from the club”
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“It has to be the three of us. You can’t just put a surrogate Jeremy in and expect it to carry on. It would be forced. I don’t believe they would be stupid enough to try that. “It doesn’t mean I won’t go back, we may all go back in the future. It might just be we have a break from it. I don’t know.”
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“It would be a bloody tough call to do Top Gear without Jeremy, that would be a bit of a daft idea. “I don’t think you could carry on with two people and put someone in as the new Jeremy because they are not going to be the new Jeremy. That would be short sighted and I don’t think it would work. Virtually impossible.”
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“I believe in progress, in the modern world”
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Public attention spiked: 7,181 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.6× the usual 1,979, with 1 article edits. Editors noted: Vehicles fixed no-longer-dead (?) Mirai video link
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2025· 2 entries
Autoblog: James May’s Porsche 911 Carrera S For Sale With 31,000 Miles Is Packed With British Charm
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And Clarkson had met during the launch of a new Audi A4 convertible in France and after disagreeing on the car, Clarkson had thought the bickering between them would work on the programme
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2020· 2 entries
May bought half the ownership of a pub in Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire, the Royal Oak, which dates from the early 18th century and is a Grade II listed building
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Jeremy Clarkson claimed that the show's original producers had decided to replace him with May in 1999, though they felt dissatisfied with May as he was soon fired in 2000, shortly before the entire programme was cancell
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2019· 2 entries
May moved on to created videos on a Drivetribe spin-off brand Foodtribe (replacing JM's Unemployment Tube) frequently using a small, bedsit-like kitchen setup called "The Bug-out Bunker"
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“s pre-printing review processes unnoticed, he was found out when readers began calling in to Autocar”
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2016· 1 entry
May launched, with his former Top Gear presenters, a social network for motoring fans called DriveTribe
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2015· 1 entry
After Top Gear was postponed by the BBC following Jeremy Clarkson's dismissal
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2013· 2 entries
May created a life-size, fully functional motorcycle and sidecar made entirely out of the construction toy Meccano
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May narrated To Space & Back, a documentary on the influence of developments in space exploration on modern technology produced by Sky-Skan and The Franklin Institute
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2011· 1 entry
May tried for the record again, proposing a race between German model railroad enthusiasts and their British counterparts
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2003· 2 entries
Where he earned the nickname "Captain Slow" owing to his careful driving style, and his OCD-like obsessions with order
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To rehire May as Jason Dawe's replacement
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2002· 1 entry
May auditioned for the new version of Top Gear but was initially rejected by BBC executives who felt that his background was too similar to Clarkson and Hammond's and had limited appeal
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1998· 1 entry
Narrating an eight-part BBC One series called Road Rage School, and co-hosting the ITV1 coverage of the 2006 London Boat Show
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1992· 1 entry
Was dismissed from Autocar magazine after putting together an acrostic in one issue
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1989· 1 entry
May began working as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later for Autocar magazine in the early 1990s, from which he was dismissed for performing a prank
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1963· 1 entry
Born 1963-01-16.
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