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Post by Flying Lady on Apr 5, 2016 13:59:13 GMT
One of my absolute favourite 'May-isms' is when he purrs, 'look at tha-aaat!' which he did about half a dozen times through that delightful half hour. I'm a bit disappointed that his Amazon commitments make a second series of Reassembler unlikely. This was really, really good.
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 5, 2016 18:46:35 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 5, 2016 19:44:18 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 5, 2016 21:58:52 GMT
James May assembles 440,000 viewers for BBC4 show
Former Top Gear presenter’s fears that no one would watch him restoring a mower are confounded, but show is outgunned by ITV’s Marcella with 6m
John Plunkett Tuesday 5 April 2016 It was a world away from Top Gear’s high octane car chases, but James May’s latest TV project – in which he spent 10 hours putting together the 331 component parts of a petrol engined lawnmower – was watched by more than 400,000 viewers. Even May himself expressed fears that no one would watch the show, the first of a three-part series on BBC4 called James May: The Reassembler. The 30-minute programme, which will air on three consecutive nights on BBC4, drew 444,000 viewers, a 2% share of the audience, from 9pm last night. A close relative of the “slow TV” phenomenon that won BBC4 two Royal Television Society awards last month, it is May’s last BBC project before he reunites with his former Top Gear colleagues Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond on Amazon. The next two episodes see May reassembles a phone and an electric guitar. www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/05/james-bbc4-show-top-gear-mower
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 5, 2016 22:18:46 GMT
TV Review: The Reassembler James May in a shed with a mower — mesmerising television Mitchell Collins/Plum Pictures LtdJames Jackson Published at 12:01AM, April 5 2016 The Reassembler
BBC Four
★★★★★Halfway through the most tedious-sounding show since One Man and his Dog held sway over eight million viewers, James May mused on the philosophical riddle of whether a falling tree makes a sound if there’s no one around to hear it. “If a man is on TV talking about a lawnmower but nobody sees it, does it happen?” If the answer is no, then perhaps the unwatched dross recycled on obscure digital channels is also an illusion promoted by TV listings guides. Yet I was watching James May: The Reassembler and not only did it definitely happen, it achieved some kind of new state of Zen television (philosophically speaking). For 30 minutes James May did nothing more than potter about a shed putting back together a 1959 Suffolk Colt lawn mower from its 331 parts laid out on a table. A dotty man in a holey jumper drinking tea and explaining about pistons and gudgeon rings while affixing sprockets. Yes, mesmerising! Here’s proof that it’s the simplest of premises (pitch: “the likeable one from Top Gear putting a machine back together; cheap to make”) that often make for the most original, distinctive programmes. Why not rely on the ingenuity of an everyday object such as a lawnmower to stir our interest? Historical trivia (eg, camels were once used to haul heavy mowers) was mixed into the instructional close-ups of May’s oily fingers inserting ball bearings, but the real strengths were May’s ad-libbed burbling and his wry glances to camera (“Doesn’t that look brilliant? If you’re still watching. It’s hard to imagine,” he smiled self-deprecatingly). It might be the zenith of TV presenting. May’s other job is reassembling Top Gear from its constituent parts for Amazon, which will, by contrast, have a budget equivalent to the GDP of Samoa. However, that show won’t make me want to invest in a shed and retreat from the world (well it might, but probably for different reasons). Tonight May will fiddle about with the components of a Bakelite dial telephone — don’t miss it. Does a falling tree exist if no one hears it? If it does, you might argue it has more right to exist than some of the warmed-up leftovers on primetime. www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/tv-radio/reviews/article4727463.ece
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 5, 2016 22:34:44 GMT
The Reassembler: James May lived up to his Captain Slow nickname ★★☆☆☆ James May in The Reassembler CREDIT: BBC Gabriel Tate 5 APRIL 2016 • 7:29AM A man. A shed. A dismantled lawnmower. James May’s final series for the BBC (for now) was about as bathetic as it got. In The Reassembler (BBC Four), Top Gear’s erstwhile straight man adopted the moniker of an underwhelming superhero to rebuild one of the petrol-powered grasscutters invented in 1830 by one Edwin Beard Budding. Budding, May told us, also invented the adjustable spanner. It was that sort of show – a bottomless resource of pointless knowledge and either the apex or nadir of slow TV, depending on your level of interest.  James May in The Reassembler CREDIT: BBCThe sheer tedium eventually acquired a sort of Zen quality, as the 10 hours-plus it took to put the lawnmower back together began to feel as if they were being shown in real time. I tried to follow what he was talking about but, as a man who struggles to put together a Kinder Surprise toy, had to concede that this was not the show for me, but for men exactly like May. Men who grumble about a “strangler flap” being called a “choke butterfly”. Our host was bumbling amiability personified and canny enough to pre-empt the obvious criticisms. “I know there have been some catastrophically unpopular programmes on television over the years,” he mused. “Has it ever got to the point where the only person still interested in what’s happening is the person who’s on the telly?” At least there was a pleasing intimacy to it. While the holes in May’s sensible navy jumper looked as if they’d been created specially for the show, it was very easy to imagine him chuntering away to himself in a similar manner in his real-life shed. Whether anyone needs to see that is a different matter. If BBC Four was once a place to think, it now provides, on occasion, a place to snooze. www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/04/04/the-reassembler-james-may-lived-up-to-his-captain-slow-nickname/
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 6, 2016 0:22:22 GMT
Last night's TV reviews: James May: The ReassemblerBy MATT BAYLIS PUBLISHED: Tue, Apr 5, 2016 The sort of job I dread generally involves a lot of parts and an instruction manual. So I’ve much respect for James May: The Reassembler (BBC4), which is about nothing other than the painstaking putting together of complicated stuff. If you thought cryptograms that come with today’s flat-pack were confusing, you might change your mind when you see what came with the 1959 Suffolk Colt lawnmower, a revolutionary bit of kit that met the needs of a new house-proud suburban generation. To present this bit of engineering history, former Top Gear presenter May had given himself a refit. Gone was the ageing lad look, in its place, white stubble and little round glasses, the shed inventor dissecting at his work bench. I rather liked it and the little snippets of social history that crept in along the edges, like the camels who were favoured to haul heavy mowers across the nobility’s lawns because of their flat, light hooves. Yet I could have done with more camels and less of the lawnmower being reassembled, which was as interesting as watching a lawnmower being reassembled. www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/658101/Last-night-TV-reviews-Marcella-James-May-The-Reassembler A camel drawn lawnmower from the 1910s 
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 6, 2016 0:26:28 GMT
A call from the past - James May: The Reassembler: Episode 2Published on Apr 5, 2016 Programme website: bbc.in/1V6VJZC James May carefully reassembles an old telephone from 211 pieces whilst reminiscing about mid twentieth century illnesses. Reassembling an electric guitar - James May: The Reassembler: Episode 3
Published on Apr 5, 2016 Programme website: bbc.in/1Sy59ri James May is deep into the reassembling of a classic electric guitar - here James explains what makes his guitar electric and not acoustic as he explains how the pickups work.
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 6, 2016 17:31:11 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 6, 2016 18:16:07 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 8, 2016 18:58:50 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Apr 12, 2016 7:26:58 GMT
‘I feel an uncomfortable sensation: I quite like James May’
James May: The Reassembler (BBC Four)BEN MACHELL ON TV April 9 2016  James May prepares to build a Suffolk Colt lawnmower
MITCHELL COLLINS/PLUM PICTURESOne of the hardest things about being a fully paid-up member of the wishy-washy loony left PC Brigade has always been reconciling your feelings towards James May. You’ll be at home, on your own, flicking through the Freeview channels looking for some foreign cinema when you’ll accidentally start watching reruns of Top Gear by total accident, and you’re so appalled by all the amazing cars and cool stunts and jokes about foreign people that you’re literally stunned into ordering a curry and watching five episodes back to back. However, as you emerge from this trauma you’re always left with the same uncomfortable sensation: you quite like James May. You suspect the two of you might, under different circumstances, get along. If the three hosts of the old Top Gear were to hijack an airliner on which you were a passenger, he would be the one you’d try to work on, the one you’d attempt to make eye contact with as if to say, look mate, it doesn’t have to be like this. The other two? No chance. They’re extremists, unsalvageable, probably pull you out of your seat and subject you to some withering banter just to make an example of you. But there’s something about May, with his maiden aunt hairdo and air of genteel nerdiness, that I’ve always warmed to. Plus there was that endearingly weird episode last year when, having found himself briefly unemployed, he posted a video of himself making a shepherd’s pie on YouTube. He drank red wine and talked us through his technique for chopping onions and frying mince. There was more than a hint of Partridge and I enjoyed every second. Come to think of it, the whole shepherd’s pie thing served as a kind prelude to James May: The Reassembler, a three-part series running on consecutive days and by which I was quietly transfixed. The premise was simple: May was handed the components of old consumer products — a 1959 Suffolk Colt four-stroke petrol lawnmower, a 1957 British Bakelite telephone and a Japanese knock-off electric guitar — and then tasked with putting them back together in his workshop. That was it. Initially, I assumed this was aimed at a specific sort of person, that it was conceived as a safe space for men who fantasise about owning a lathe and whose sex dreams always seem to culminate in a Vulcan bomber fly-past. But then I started watching and it was just . . . lovely. May sat there, wearing a jumper with a hole in it, drinking tea and beaming at how he had managed to get a metal ring on to a cylinder. Was it a cylinder? I’m not sure. He seemed happy enough though, and his delight in fiddling with springs (“That’s a lovely spring!”) or small fixings (“Absolutely gorgeous!”) was contagious. “That is the most brilliant screwdriver I have ever seen in my life,” he said at one point, after showing us a screwdriver that did seem pretty good actually, although I can’t remember exactly why. In fact, my own uselessness as a practical man made everything May did seem all the more thrilling. “You wanna see the piston go up and down?” he asked, having assembled the vintage lawnmower engine. “YES I ABSOLUTELY WANT TO SEE THE PISTON GO UP AND DOWN,” I shouted at the TV. So he showed us and it was great. There was a real sense of intimacy. It wasn’t just that May was funny, self-deprecating and occasionally had the mock-curmudgeonly vibe of your favourite teacher struggling with a hangover, but you were also reminded that he has a genuine talent for communicating complex ideas and quiet passions. He is, in short, a man it’s totally fine to like. He’ll be back on telly driving cars with the other two before very long and this will all seem but a distant memory. Still, I’m glad it happened. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-feel-an-uncomfortable-sensation-i-quite-like-james-may-t9qtbht5m
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Post by dit on Apr 12, 2016 18:56:08 GMT
A lovely review from someone who clearly "gets it".
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Post by RedMoon11 on May 18, 2016 15:01:25 GMT
Good news there will be more The Reassembler James did a Q & A on Facebook and somebody asked  Dave McIntosh "Really enjoyed The Reassembler - any more in the pipeline? Thanks!" May 11 at 2:52pm James May "Putting one together for the future." May 11 at 2:56pm facebook.com/JamesMay/posts |
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Post by RedMoon11 on Sept 7, 2016 9:47:49 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Sept 7, 2016 9:56:44 GMT
James May reassembles once again on BBC Four Date: 07.09.2016 Last updated: 07.09.2016 at 09.00 BBC Four today announces a Christmas treat for fans of screwdrivers and rubbish shirts, as James May returns to the channel to give a welcome relief from unwanted gifts and stuffing-induced comas with four more programmes in his series James May: The Reassembler, once again slowly building everyday items from their component parts, and discovering what it takes to actually get them to work.
In each episode, he will focus on one object and carefully put it back together, screwing every screw, tightening every bolt and vigilantly rebuilding the object to its complete form. James says: “Here we go then. More workshop cock-ups and cod philosophy. To be honest, I’d probably be doing this even if no-one was filming it. There’s a lot of false jeopardy in TV, but this is absolutely real; I really do stand there for hours putting things back together. The great thing about reassembling bits of the past is that you’re reminded of how terrible it all was. These are warnings from history - ignore them at your peril. It took me all bloody day to get that old record player back together. I celebrated by going out and buying a new tablet, with a massive memory.” Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, BBC Four, says: “BBC Four has long celebrated passion and expertise and I’m absolutely delighted that James May is coming back to the channel to get to grips with four more engineering marvels from our past. As we discovered last time, if you want to understand what something is, then you have to understand how it works and what makes it work … and James is the man to slowly find out.” In episode one, James will be reassembling the Christmas present we all dreamed of being left under the tree by Santa on Christmas morning: the Hornby toy train and track. In his workshop he will be faced with the object laid out in all its individual parts, and he will have to work out how exactly how the thing will be pieced back together. And if that wasn't challenging enough, he then has the nervous climax where he discovers if it actually works. James will reminisce about his childhood Christmases and the joy of his Flying Scotsman Hornby Train set. Across the series, with every object laid out in front of him, James will revel in the challenge, enjoying every second, giving his memories of the object, his love for it and bringing his usual Jamesesque musings. He will give a potted history on every item he is rebuilding - who invented it, how it came about, why these objects are so important. As well as learning the history of the object, we will get a history of the component parts. The remaining three episodes feature a 1960's Kenwood Chef food mixer; a Dansette (a portable record player with integrated speakers from the 1950s/60s) and a 1976 Honda Z50a mini trail motorbike, known affectionately as the Monkey Bike. James May: The Reassembler, 4x60’, was commissioned by Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, BBC Four, and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual Formats. The Commissioning Editor is Lucinda Axelsson, and the Executive Producer is Will Daws for Plum Pictures. The first series of James May: The Reassembler reached an average audience of more than one million viewers per episode. TD www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/james-may-reassembler
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Post by RedMoon11 on Sept 7, 2016 10:06:19 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Sept 7, 2016 10:43:38 GMT
James May puts the brakes on with second series of The Reassembler
Former Top Gear co-presenter returns to BBC4 for another run of ‘slow TV’, putting together monkey bike, Hornby toy train and 1960’s food mixer James May: The Reassembler returns with the presenter putting back together old products, including a 1960’s Kenwood Chef food mixer. Photograph: -/BBC/Plum Pictures Mark Sweney Wednesday 7 September 2016 10.11 BST James May might be focussed on speed for his new Amazon car show but the BBC wants him to put on the brakes, commissioning a second run of “slow TV” hit The Reassembler that will air at Christmas. The first series of James May: The Reassembler saw the former Top Gear co-presenter take on projects including spending 10 hours putting together the 331 component parts of a petrol engined lawnmower. It was watched by more than 400,000 viewers. “Here we go then. More workshop cock-ups and cod philosophy,” said May. “To be honest, I’d probably be doing this even if no one was filming it. There’s a lot of false jeopardy in TV, but this is absolutely real; I really do stand there for hours putting things back together.” BBC4 has commissioned a second run of the show that will include May putting together a Hornby toy train and track, a 1960’s Kenwood Chef food mixer and a 1976 Honda Z50a mini trail bike, known as a a monkey bike. “The great thing about reassembling bits of the past is that you’re reminded of how terrible it all was,” said May. “These are warnings from history – ignore them at your peril. It took me all bloody day to get that old record player back together. I celebrated by going out and buying a new tablet, with a massive memory.” BBC4 has upped the second series to four 30-minute programmes, from the three that aired in the first run in April. The corporation said that the first series of the show reached an average audience of more than one million viewers per episode. “BBC4 has long celebrated passion and expertise and I’m absolutely delighted that James May is coming back to the channel to get to grips with four more engineering marvels from our past,” said Cassian Harrison, channel editor at BBC4. “As we discovered last time, if you want to understand what something is, then you have to understand how it works and what makes it work … and James is the man to slowly find out.” www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/07/james-may-puts-second-series-reassembler-bbc4?CMP=share_btn_tw
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Post by dit on Sept 7, 2016 22:14:52 GMT
Ah, the Dansette! Mine was cream with a cherry red lid, with tiny gold stars all over it. It was a rite of passage, the Dansette - the sign that you'd passed through childhood and reached teenagerdom. (sigh)
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Post by Flying Lady on Sept 8, 2016 4:56:39 GMT
I am very much looking forward to this upcoming series. BBC knows what we want. The Monkey Bike. I cannot wait. He is going to be geeking out so hard, and that is...very appealing.
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Post by RedMoon11 on Oct 1, 2016 9:48:16 GMT
James May - The Reassembler - Series One [DVD]Price: £19.99 & FREE Delivery in the UK on orders over £20. Details This title will be released on 7 November 2016. Pre-order now.   Format: PAL Region: Region 2 Run Time: 225 minutes Number of discs: 1 Product Description
In this series, James reassembles a whole host of objects which have been carefully taken apart to all their hundreds of individual component parts. Each episode focuses on one object and carefully puts it back together, screwing every screw, tightening every bolt and vigilantly rebuilding the object to its complete form, then testing its competency having gone through the process. As well as learning the history of the objects, we get a history of the component parts. As James rebuilds an engine, he explains the cylinders, what they are, how they came about and what they do. Episodes featured: '1959 Suffolk Colt petrol lawnmower 331 parts', '1957 GPO British Bakerlite telephone 211 parts', '1984 Fender electric guitar 147 parts'. Plus a bonus 45 minutes never seen on TV.
www.amazon.co.uk/James-May-Reassembler-One-DVD/dp/B01KXJQWGS
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 1, 2016 15:19:45 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 1, 2016 15:52:11 GMT
James May: The Christmas Reassembler James May returns for another series, once again slowly building everyday items from their component parts and discovering what it takes to actually get them to work. In each episode, James will focus on one object and carefully put it back together, screwing every screw, tightening every bolt and vigilantly rebuilding the object to its complete form. In episode one, James reassembles and reminisces about the gift that all boys dream of finding under the Christmas tree: the Hornby toy train and track. In his workshop, James will face the object as it is laid out in all its individual parts, and has to work out how exactly how the thing is pieced back together. And if that wasn't challenging enough, James then faces the nervous climax where he discovers if it actually works. Confirmed for BBC Four on 28 December at 9pm to 9.30pmEp 1/4 Wednesday 28 December 9.00pm-9.30pm BBC FOUR www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/52/christmas-reassembler
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Post by slfriend79 on Dec 7, 2016 19:39:49 GMT
James May: The Christmas Reassembler - Trailer - BBC Four
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 8, 2016 17:32:38 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 8, 2016 17:51:57 GMT
James May: Jeremy Clarkson and I will be "too old" to make The Grand Tour in five years
May says he doesn't expect to be "fart-arsing around" on The Grand Tour for ever
 By Radio Times staff Wednesday 7 December 2016 at 8:08AM James May co-hosted Top Gear for over a decade, but says that he can't see himself staying with The Grand Tour any longer than five years, because "we will be too old for it". The Grand Tour presenter said in the Christmas issue of Radio Times that he expected not to stay with the Amazon series he helped establish with Jeremy Clarkson for long, adding "within the next five years I don't want to be fart-arsing around". "We have to accept that fairly soon we will be too old for it," 53-year-old May said. "Richard Hammond [46] is a reasonably fit bloke who looks after himself, me and Jeremy [56] aren't. "Jeremy is particularly decrepit and I find growing within me – I try to fight it for some reason, but I'm giving into it – a much stronger, nesty sort of instinct. Within the next five years I don't want to be fart-arsing around." May, along with Clarkson and Hammond, has signed a deal with Amazon to produce three series of The Grand Tour – 36 episodes spread over three years. However, despite the lucrative pay cheque after leaving the BBC, May doesn't feel trapped into going on longer than he's willing to. "I don't feel trapped because I'm just about in control of it. I'm not beholden to anyone, I'm not waiting for a pension or a carriage clock. But you have to know when to step back, and to be honest I thought it would have happened by now. Eventually I want some other people to do it." May is back on the BBC this Christmas with a special edition of his BBC4 series The Reassembler. The Grand Tour will also have a special Christmas-themed edition on Friday 23 December, with another 'epic journey' planned for Friday 30th December. James May: the Christmas Reassembler airs on Wednesday 28 December at 9pm on BBC4. Read the full interview in the special Christmas double issue of Radio Times, available now www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-12-07/james-may-jeremy-clarkson-and-i-will-be-too-old-to-make-the-grand-tour-in-five-years
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 8, 2016 18:51:49 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 8, 2016 18:56:48 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 8, 2016 18:58:49 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Dec 13, 2016 19:04:23 GMT
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