Post by lindenchase on Sept 19, 2008 15:46:01 GMT
Thanks to Glam, salvaged from the remains of james-may.co.uk: an interview by webmaster Lynese. Direct linking doesn't work, so I copied and pasted. Apologies for the length of this posting.
Eastbourne Motorshow - 14th July 2007
At the close of the opening day of the 2007 Eastbourne Motorshow, James May sat on the steps of the motorhome that offered respite from the warm July sun which eventually made an appearance this summer enjoying a Flake 99. For the third year running he had agreed to talk to www.james-may.co.uk about current and future projects once the show visitors had left for the day.
In the week preceding the show on the south coast there had been reports in the media about the Top Gear Team's visit to Botswana for filming. Several of the stories focussed on the environmental damage to the area caused by alleged recklessness.
"That's rubbish, because actually all the time we were there we stuck to the tracks that all the safari organisations gave us and there are marked dust roads through the Okavango Delta. All the places throughout this potentially protected place is what they call the Makgadikgadi salt pans where there are also soft dunes and we did get stuck in one bit. But that's an area where other people get stuck, and we drove across another bit, but that's a very hard bit where we didn't sink in so we didn't do any damage. But the only damage we did do would be repaired by the rain anyway in the next rainy season. It was a lot of bleating by a man with his nose out of joint."
How about the filming trip to the Arctic for the upcoming Top Gear Special?
"We didn't do any environmental damage in the Arctic. We just drove on the snow and most of it melted. In fact most of the time we were actually driving on the sea so it all melts anyway, and we didn't leave any rubbish behind."
It is beginning to appear as though environmental protection organisations are using Top Gear as an unofficial mouthpiece each time the programme makes a film somewhere off the beaten track. Does James agree? He considered his answer first.
"Um, yes. To be honest, it's a very easy target for anybody. If you're the sort of person who likes to object to things it's quite easy to find objectionable things in Top Gear, I don't think it's actually an objectionable programme. I don't think we do anything really terrible. We don't hurt anybody. You know, we tend to only break our own stuff and ourselves, so there's no lasting damage on the planet made by Top Gear." Are we allowed to know what to expect from the next series which returns at the end of September?
"I'm not allowed to tell you specifically, but there are some challenges, some very big driving adventures, some slightly silly cars, Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, Jeremy Clarkson being an arse, Richard Hammond being an arse, The Stig, some modified cars."
James is becoming more recognised in his own right as a personality having presented fun clips for Yahoo Answers at sharewhatyoulove. He admits that he's not yet seen the end result.
"I had to record it in two ways depending on whether you're a girl or a boy."
His visibility on television has increased too with a second series of Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure in the pipeline and James May's 20th Century which is currently being broadcast on BBC2.
"Well, I made a bit of a mistake with that series, because I did my science programme that had originally planned to be on much later, actually it would almost have been on at the same time as Top Gear, but because Top Gear was all messed around last year we made the science series earlier than we were supposed to and as a result of that they've put it on earlier than it was supposed to be on. But I'm doing that, Top Gear and the wine adventure so I've kind of done too much this year and everyone will be a bored with me."
The six part programme is aired at primetime is in conjunction with the Open University who was previously known for late night/early morning programmes for students with no entertainment value. How did the affiliation come about?
"Because they jointly fund educational science and technology programmes with the BBC. So it's sort of an Open University and BBC job but essentially the Open University puts up the money and they just asked me to do it because they thought I'd be interested and I was."
There's been some good reviews for James May's 20th Century in the press, did James take any notice of them?
"I read one that was quite nice about me in, I think the Telegraph, and I read one that was a bit sniffy in The Guardian and then I read one that was pretty damning in a Scottish newspaper and those are the only ones I've seen."
I told James that one I had seen read that the BBC have found a presenting jewel, yet the unassuming gentleman prefers to make light of the positive comment. One thing that nearly all of the reviews had in common was an obsession with James's long wavy hair.
"Well, I don't know what to do about it really because when I was filming the 20th Century I was also doing some bits for Top Gear and something else I was doing, and they all overlapped in such a way that at no point could I have it radically cut other wise there'd have been a continuity issue. In fact there was a bit of one anyway in 20th Century where my hair's going up and down a bit because it was filmed over such a long period but that was why, so I'm sort of boxed in to having my hair sort of long and shaggy but I don't know, I quite like having my hair long and shaggy."
James's most distinguishing feature is becoming an icon in its own right.
"Well, I think the marketing people would say it's part of my brand….rubbish hair!"
The second series of Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure will hit our screens later this year. The first series filmed in France must have made an impact.
"I liked doing it. Oz is excellent company, but I got on his nerves a bit obviously, but we're off to California next, in a big Winnebago."
Who made the decision to go to the United States?
"Again, it was a bit messed up by the scheduling of Top Gear because we would have gone earlier in the year. We wanted to do the New World because its simpler and we wanted to get down to the grass roots of what wine was really about rather than just having a go at the French all the time. And the obvious place to go was Australia but we'd have to go to Australia in our winter, but we couldn't do that because of Top Gear and so on, so we had to do one we could do in the summer which meant the Northern Hemisphere which meant California. We thought California as people know the film Sideways was done there so we could go and take the piss out of everybody."
The first series was very much Educating James so what's going to happen in the second one bearing in mind James has become a bit of wine buff?
"Well, have I though?"
He certainly learned a few wine facts.
"Well, I did learn a few things but I think the gist of the second series will be 'James wasn't really listening very carefully' so we'll sort of have to start again a bit. But there's a bit more of a sense, or at least I hope there will be, me and Oz have sort of come together a bit better because I've decided he's not a complete idiot and he's not such a ponce as I first thought and he's realised that I'm not quite so stupid as he thought."
There were moments in the first series that showed James to be sullen at times, which doesn't seem to go with his usual affable nature and scenes in which he appeared rather petulant. Was this down to the editing?
"Yes, I think they did pick my most petulant bits. I don't think anyone took it the wrong way though, did they? I think it was quite interesting reading some of the... because that got quite a lot of coverage as well, but there was a definite split in the audience between slightly older people who loved Oz because he'd been on the telly you know back in the Eighties and early Nineties doing The Food & Drink Show and stuff, and then there's the slightly younger viewers who obviously identified with me because they'd watched Top Gear I suppose. And all the wine bores were thinking; 'Poor old Oz Clarke who is there with an important message and James May's buggering it up' and all the non-wine people sort of thought; 'Pompous arse Oz Clarke is getting in the way of James' holiday in France'!"
In the last three years there has been a noticeable increase in James's popularity, which can be tracked through a steady increase in the visitors to the website and the number of people who come to see James at events such as the Eastbourne or Croydon motorshows. Having made the observation to James he responded
"Am I? What are you asking? Is it a bad thing?"
The question is how is he coping with fame?
"I don't really think about it very often, to be honest a lot of the time I forget. When I go out and somebody starts talking to me, because I've got such a hopeless memory people are talking to me and I'm thinking 'why do I know you? How do I know this person?' and I'm struggling to think, and then after a while I suddenly realise that they're talking to me because they've been watching Top Gear. Because I forget that I'm on it. I don't really understand these people who go on about 'oh, I don't like being in the limelight and it's so difficult' and if you don't like it why do they bloody do it? Go and work in a dark research laboratory with some rats."
With James's continuing success, it's unlikely that he'll be making a career change to a laboratory anytime soon. There's more in the pipeline some of which is still 'top secret', but we're definitely not going to be missing James from our television screens this year.
Interview by Lynese copyright © 2007. Recording, transcript and photographs by Vikki.
Eastbourne Motorshow - 14th July 2007
At the close of the opening day of the 2007 Eastbourne Motorshow, James May sat on the steps of the motorhome that offered respite from the warm July sun which eventually made an appearance this summer enjoying a Flake 99. For the third year running he had agreed to talk to www.james-may.co.uk about current and future projects once the show visitors had left for the day.
In the week preceding the show on the south coast there had been reports in the media about the Top Gear Team's visit to Botswana for filming. Several of the stories focussed on the environmental damage to the area caused by alleged recklessness.
"That's rubbish, because actually all the time we were there we stuck to the tracks that all the safari organisations gave us and there are marked dust roads through the Okavango Delta. All the places throughout this potentially protected place is what they call the Makgadikgadi salt pans where there are also soft dunes and we did get stuck in one bit. But that's an area where other people get stuck, and we drove across another bit, but that's a very hard bit where we didn't sink in so we didn't do any damage. But the only damage we did do would be repaired by the rain anyway in the next rainy season. It was a lot of bleating by a man with his nose out of joint."
How about the filming trip to the Arctic for the upcoming Top Gear Special?
"We didn't do any environmental damage in the Arctic. We just drove on the snow and most of it melted. In fact most of the time we were actually driving on the sea so it all melts anyway, and we didn't leave any rubbish behind."
It is beginning to appear as though environmental protection organisations are using Top Gear as an unofficial mouthpiece each time the programme makes a film somewhere off the beaten track. Does James agree? He considered his answer first.
"Um, yes. To be honest, it's a very easy target for anybody. If you're the sort of person who likes to object to things it's quite easy to find objectionable things in Top Gear, I don't think it's actually an objectionable programme. I don't think we do anything really terrible. We don't hurt anybody. You know, we tend to only break our own stuff and ourselves, so there's no lasting damage on the planet made by Top Gear." Are we allowed to know what to expect from the next series which returns at the end of September?
"I'm not allowed to tell you specifically, but there are some challenges, some very big driving adventures, some slightly silly cars, Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, Jeremy Clarkson being an arse, Richard Hammond being an arse, The Stig, some modified cars."
James is becoming more recognised in his own right as a personality having presented fun clips for Yahoo Answers at sharewhatyoulove. He admits that he's not yet seen the end result.
"I had to record it in two ways depending on whether you're a girl or a boy."
His visibility on television has increased too with a second series of Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure in the pipeline and James May's 20th Century which is currently being broadcast on BBC2.
"Well, I made a bit of a mistake with that series, because I did my science programme that had originally planned to be on much later, actually it would almost have been on at the same time as Top Gear, but because Top Gear was all messed around last year we made the science series earlier than we were supposed to and as a result of that they've put it on earlier than it was supposed to be on. But I'm doing that, Top Gear and the wine adventure so I've kind of done too much this year and everyone will be a bored with me."
The six part programme is aired at primetime is in conjunction with the Open University who was previously known for late night/early morning programmes for students with no entertainment value. How did the affiliation come about?
"Because they jointly fund educational science and technology programmes with the BBC. So it's sort of an Open University and BBC job but essentially the Open University puts up the money and they just asked me to do it because they thought I'd be interested and I was."
There's been some good reviews for James May's 20th Century in the press, did James take any notice of them?
"I read one that was quite nice about me in, I think the Telegraph, and I read one that was a bit sniffy in The Guardian and then I read one that was pretty damning in a Scottish newspaper and those are the only ones I've seen."
I told James that one I had seen read that the BBC have found a presenting jewel, yet the unassuming gentleman prefers to make light of the positive comment. One thing that nearly all of the reviews had in common was an obsession with James's long wavy hair.
"Well, I don't know what to do about it really because when I was filming the 20th Century I was also doing some bits for Top Gear and something else I was doing, and they all overlapped in such a way that at no point could I have it radically cut other wise there'd have been a continuity issue. In fact there was a bit of one anyway in 20th Century where my hair's going up and down a bit because it was filmed over such a long period but that was why, so I'm sort of boxed in to having my hair sort of long and shaggy but I don't know, I quite like having my hair long and shaggy."
James's most distinguishing feature is becoming an icon in its own right.
"Well, I think the marketing people would say it's part of my brand….rubbish hair!"
The second series of Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure will hit our screens later this year. The first series filmed in France must have made an impact.
"I liked doing it. Oz is excellent company, but I got on his nerves a bit obviously, but we're off to California next, in a big Winnebago."
Who made the decision to go to the United States?
"Again, it was a bit messed up by the scheduling of Top Gear because we would have gone earlier in the year. We wanted to do the New World because its simpler and we wanted to get down to the grass roots of what wine was really about rather than just having a go at the French all the time. And the obvious place to go was Australia but we'd have to go to Australia in our winter, but we couldn't do that because of Top Gear and so on, so we had to do one we could do in the summer which meant the Northern Hemisphere which meant California. We thought California as people know the film Sideways was done there so we could go and take the piss out of everybody."
The first series was very much Educating James so what's going to happen in the second one bearing in mind James has become a bit of wine buff?
"Well, have I though?"
He certainly learned a few wine facts.
"Well, I did learn a few things but I think the gist of the second series will be 'James wasn't really listening very carefully' so we'll sort of have to start again a bit. But there's a bit more of a sense, or at least I hope there will be, me and Oz have sort of come together a bit better because I've decided he's not a complete idiot and he's not such a ponce as I first thought and he's realised that I'm not quite so stupid as he thought."
There were moments in the first series that showed James to be sullen at times, which doesn't seem to go with his usual affable nature and scenes in which he appeared rather petulant. Was this down to the editing?
"Yes, I think they did pick my most petulant bits. I don't think anyone took it the wrong way though, did they? I think it was quite interesting reading some of the... because that got quite a lot of coverage as well, but there was a definite split in the audience between slightly older people who loved Oz because he'd been on the telly you know back in the Eighties and early Nineties doing The Food & Drink Show and stuff, and then there's the slightly younger viewers who obviously identified with me because they'd watched Top Gear I suppose. And all the wine bores were thinking; 'Poor old Oz Clarke who is there with an important message and James May's buggering it up' and all the non-wine people sort of thought; 'Pompous arse Oz Clarke is getting in the way of James' holiday in France'!"
In the last three years there has been a noticeable increase in James's popularity, which can be tracked through a steady increase in the visitors to the website and the number of people who come to see James at events such as the Eastbourne or Croydon motorshows. Having made the observation to James he responded
"Am I? What are you asking? Is it a bad thing?"
The question is how is he coping with fame?
"I don't really think about it very often, to be honest a lot of the time I forget. When I go out and somebody starts talking to me, because I've got such a hopeless memory people are talking to me and I'm thinking 'why do I know you? How do I know this person?' and I'm struggling to think, and then after a while I suddenly realise that they're talking to me because they've been watching Top Gear. Because I forget that I'm on it. I don't really understand these people who go on about 'oh, I don't like being in the limelight and it's so difficult' and if you don't like it why do they bloody do it? Go and work in a dark research laboratory with some rats."
With James's continuing success, it's unlikely that he'll be making a career change to a laboratory anytime soon. There's more in the pipeline some of which is still 'top secret', but we're definitely not going to be missing James from our television screens this year.
Interview by Lynese copyright © 2007. Recording, transcript and photographs by Vikki.
