Over the years James has driven hundreds of the most sophisticated cars ever built on the planet – but for this series he gets the chance to drive one built for another world - one designed to roam across the lunar landscape.
Jay Kay – the lead singer from Jamiroquai - lends James his replica Lunar Rover to test drive. NASA built four to take to the moon in the 1970s, and at $38 million, they were the most expensive fleet cars ever built.
He drives the car to a quiet suburban corner of Chiswick, West London: to Staveley Road, the spot where he believes the Space Age began from Britain's point of view. Here, the first of Hitler’s V2 rockets hit Britain.
It's the start of May's quest to understand what the Space Race really did for the billions of us who never made it into orbit. It takes him to the Kennedy Space centre in Florida, and then to mission control in Guildford, Surrey, where he gets his hands on a satellite to take his own special photograph of a patch of planet Earth.
James May’s 20th Century looks at advances in aviation, warfare, medicine and examines the strange story of how the 20th century invented teenagers.
James has his brain photographed while he’s looking at his favourite cars to see how he reacts to pleasure and the promise of speed.
And, in a life-changing experience, James sits in the co-pilot's seat of the RAF’s latest supersonic jet fighter, the Typhoon, experiencing a full-power takeoff over Lincolnshire. It can go from brakes-off to 35 000 feet in under 150 seconds.
Not quite an Apollo launch, but the next best thing.
James May's 20th Century in more depth:
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - About the series
Production team
Top Gear presenter James May takes a tour of the 20th century- trying out for himself some of the most surprising and influential technological advances... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - About the series
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Big City, Bright Lights
Production team
Each day, 180,000 people move into a city somewhere on the planet. In Big City, Bright Lights, James sets out to discover how we’ve created... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Big City, Bright Lights
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Blast Off
Production team
Like many small boys James May dreamt of becoming an astronaut. Even though he may not have realised his dream he sets off to find... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Blast Off
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Body Fantastic
Production team
James sets out to discover how far he can push his body and finds out about some of the most remarkable medical advances over the... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Body Fantastic
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Honey, I Shrunk The World
Production team
At the beginning of the 20th Century, long distance travel was for the military-minded, the uprooted and the plain rich, but the pioneers of flight... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Honey, I Shrunk The World
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Inventing The Teenager
Production team
In the 20th Century the teenager emerged as a separate species. But how? Was it the promise of sex? The power of pop? Or the... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Inventing The Teenager
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Take Cover
Production team
In 'Take Cover', James looks at how warfare drives ingenuity and gets to fly in the RAF’s latest supersonic jet. It’s an experience that he... Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - Take Cover
OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - John Naughton on The Social Life of Networks
OU
John Naughton delivered his inaugural lecture on The Social Life of Networks. Listen to the lecture. Read more : OU on the BBC: James May's 20th Century - John Naughton on The Social Life of Networks
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Comments on: "About the series"
tonybove has started a thread discussing About the series.
cool I like that