James May squeezes six decades of mass-motoring into six hour-long films that treat the Austin Mini and Lada 1200 with the same reverence other histories reserve for Ferrari. The first three episodes, shot in the lull between Top Gear series 21 and 22, roam from Wolfsburg to Detroit to explain how dictatorships, cheap oil and post-war shortages put the world on wheels. A second run, delayed eighteen months by the Top Gear punch that cost May his day job, arrived quietly on BBC Two in January 2016, pulling 2.2 million viewers against the new primetime lineup that had replaced him.
The programmes look like Top Gear outtakes because they largely are: director Tom Whitter recycles the same tracking shots, test-track gags and studio asides, while May’s scripts riff on his old trio’s running jokes. The difference is the subject matter: a Trabant painted with communist slogans, bubble cars tipped on their sides to prove the handling, and May attempting to cross France in a 2CV loaded with wine and baguettes. International channels still bill the result as Top Gear specials, an irony not lost on the presenter who had already signed with Amazon when the final episode aired.
BBC retains the rights but no further instalments are planned; May has since called the show “a tidy full stop” to his BBC motoring career.
Production Details
BBC Two / 2 Seasons / 6 Episodes / 2014
Created by: James MayTom WhitterHenry Dalton
Writer(s): James MayTom WhitterHenry Dalton
Producer(s): Tom WhitterHenry Dalton
Main Cast
James May as Self - Presenter
