James May has always seemed something like the odd man out on Top Gear. It's not that he doesn't belong on the series — in fact I think that the three men they have as hosts complement each other perfectly — but he comes at cars from a completely different direction from the other two. Whereas Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson will ogle an engine for how large it is and how much horsepower it can deliver, May is the guy entranced with exactly how it manages to deliver so much power. He doesn't love cars based on what they can do, how they look, and how exciting the finished project is, but rather how it was all achieved, the nuts and bolts as it were. He is a man entranced by the notion of the differential and how it makes a car corner more than the actual cornering.
It is for that reason that I was a little trepidatious sitting down to watch James May's Toy Stories last night on BBC America. The concept behind the series seems a simple one – May examines an old-school toy that he quite enjoys and then builds something of a monument to the toy. It all sounds well enough, but my question heading into the show was whether May's love for minutiae would draw in an audience or whether his tendency to delve a little too deeply would alienate all and end up making the show feel more like a lecture.
Last night he was playing with a one-time British but now French toy, Meccano. It's a construction toy, similar to an Erector Set (in fact, though this wasn't always the case, Meccano currently makes Erector products). And that, perhaps, is why I shouldn't have been worried at all.
Let me take a step back and explain. For several years my daughter was in a playgroup in which three fathers would get together with their children (one apiece). There were the usual sorts of kids' toys present, but on a semi-regular basis it would be the fathers who would sit there playing with the Legos or Mega Bloks or marble run sets, building various structures (it's not easy doing nicely curved structures with Mega Bloks). A great time was had by all (the kids had tons of other toys to play with even if the Legos were off limits one week).
Article comments
1 - Debbie
Nice article on also a brilliant programme from a well thought out and broadcast series. I love how Mr May brings what he's interested into his programmes, showing great enthusiasm in them, because of what he loves. It's also great that he is able to still live that inner child as an adult, without coming across as immature. It shows that we all can have an inner child and shouldn't feel ashamed of it. One of the things that I feel is wrong with society today is that kids are either forced to grow up too quick or are as James said brought up on video games which doesn't use much imagination.
The problem with what you said about there not being enough focus on the nuts and bolts is that there's only so much you can put into a one hour programme, and which is aimed at all ages. So might be a bit much for very young kids to take it all in. However if you've not already done so I would suggest to read the accompanying Toy Stories book if you can because it does go more indepth into Meccano (there's a funny sunglasses creation guide in it) and I hope they bring an additional book out like they have for Lego, Scalextric and Airfix. James did cover an amount about Meccano in his Top Toys programme a few years ago.