James May: We were 'stilted' and 'old-fashioned' in the early days of Top Gear
The TV presenter reflects on the BBC show, The Grand Tour, Our Man in India and more with Yahoo UK.
Transcript
00:00 I mean if you look back at the early stuff we did, the early Top Gear, it now looks quite
00:04 old fashioned. Well, I mean we tend to look a bit old fashioned anyway. It looks old fashioned
00:08 and it looks quite stilted because it is a long time ago.
00:11 What first sparked your interest in cars and how did you kind of come to start talking
00:24 about, writing about them?
00:25 Well, I mean I was quite interested in them as a lad and I used to read car magazines
00:31 but we all did to be honest back then. And then I sort of fell into, I did a lot of jobs
00:37 that were unsuitable for me including working at the civil service, during which time I
00:41 produced a brochure for schools on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry. Don't
00:45 ask me how that happened, it's just something that happened. And as a result of that I blagged
00:51 my way into a sub-editing job on a technical magazine and then it went from there and then
00:55 a job came up on a car magazine, Autocar, which I applied for in COP. But I was doing
00:59 sort of production sub-editing. I didn't know anything about, I mean I'd never been into
01:03 that sort of thing when I was young and I didn't really know what I was doing. And I
01:08 learned it as I went along. And then after being fired by quite a few places I had a
01:12 go at writing stuff, which again was something I'd never really done. And then I was given
01:19 a column on a car magazine and it just sort of happened from there. There was no plan
01:24 and there definitely wasn't any ambition. It's just what happened.
01:28 When would you say you first became interested in travelling and exploring other cultures?
01:35 Well not as a child because we didn't really go abroad. Apart from that I went on the school
01:42 German Exchange, which I liked immensely and I'm still very good mates with the bloke I
01:46 stayed with. I think it really started after I'd left university and I went into railing.
01:51 So I did a bit of looking at things in Europe that I'd always been intrigued about in books
01:56 like Italian buildings and art galleries, bits of France, that sort of thing. And then
02:02 early in my working life I never really planned proper holidays with my mates because I was
02:09 too disorganised. So occasionally I would go to a, there was a shop in Kilburn that
02:13 sold what we used to call bucket seats, which were leftover flights on airlines. You could
02:17 go in there and say, "What have you got for 50 quid?" And I ended up going to Croatia,
02:25 I went back to Italy again, I went somewhere in Spain and eventually I made friends with
02:30 some people and I went to the States. So I suppose it sort of comes from there but it's
02:34 not from childhood. In childhood we went to the British seaside and the British countryside,
02:40 that sort of thing. And I knew nothing.
02:42 And how would you describe your experiences in India and how do they compare to what you
02:47 went for in Japan and Italy?
02:50 They are three very different countries. They don't really have anything in common, I wouldn't
02:56 say, apart from you can eat very well in all of them. India I've been to before, I know
03:02 that it can be a bit challenging if you're a British or if you're a Westerner or a European.
03:12 But it's not actually as difficult as people imagine. Maybe it's easier these days. But
03:16 I find India just very stimulating and exciting and it's just a rather remarkable place to
03:25 be even if you're not doing anything in particular, just going about the daily business of existing
03:31 and eating your breakfast and going for a walk to the shops. It all becomes exciting
03:35 in India because it's sort of slightly riotous but not in a bad way. It's just exciting.
03:44 And how would you compare this trip to India compared to when you were there before?
03:51 So when I've done it before, I've either been on holiday or I've done, we did India with
03:56 Top Gear in the old days so that's a little bit more, it's not scripted as such but it's
04:04 a bit more controlled because we're making a sort of sitcom really. This time I suppose,
04:11 I think I learned more in this trip about India than in all the previous ones combined
04:15 because I was sort of forced to by the nature of the job. So this one had more variety and
04:23 it was also more informative.
04:25 How would you describe your experience working with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond over
04:31 the years?
04:32 I don't know. It's just awful.
04:34 How do you think things have evolved between you three in this time?
04:39 Well I think, if you look back at the early stuff we did, the early Top Gear, it now looks
04:43 quite old fashioned. Well we tend to look a bit old fashioned anyway. It looks old fashioned
04:48 and it looks quite stilted because it is a long time ago. It's over two decades and TV
04:54 has changed a lot. I think we've probably got to a point now where we don't quite know
05:01 what the other one is going to say but we've got a pretty good idea because we don't live
05:07 in each other's pockets. We don't all live in a big house like some people imagine with
05:10 all our cars parked outside. We have our separate lives but when we're together making our specials
05:15 and things, it's a pretty intensive, complete, immersive experience apart from when we're
05:24 actually asleep which we tend to do separately. But the rest of the time we're together and
05:30 in each other's pockets and getting on each other's nerves and in each other's hair. So
05:34 yeah, I think I know them pretty well.
05:40 Do you feel like you've learnt anything about presenting with your time with them?
05:44 Yes. Well not just with them, doing the other things as well. I think, yeah, I didn't know
05:49 anything about it when I started. There aren't really any instruction books or courses and
05:56 I don't know that other TV presenters are particularly keen to share their secrets in
06:03 the same way that chefs aren't or painters and decorators. I remember Quentin Wilson
06:07 when I had my first false start on Top Gear in the Pebble Mill days. He was always very
06:11 helpful. I've always loved Quentin for that. He used to say to me, "James, relax, relax."
06:17 He used to give me these little... because I was a complete beginner then. So it's just,
06:24 again, it's something you learn as you go along, like everything else I've done.
06:28 I wonder, what were the movies that you loved as a kid and do you remember your first cinema
06:34 trip?
06:39 I'm not sure... we didn't go to the cinema that much when I was a kid. I went to see
06:44 a few Disney-type things. They may not have been Disney, but kids' things. The first big
06:52 feature film I went to see was Battle of Britain in 1969 because I was already interested in
06:56 aeroplanes so my dad took me to see it and I found it quite scary. I was only six years
07:01 old. It's quite a big, noisy film, but I still watch it all the time because it has a special
07:08 place in my heart. I did like things like that and I liked Where Eagles Dare and The
07:13 Great Escape. I think later I became a bit more sophisticated so I watched Cinema Paradiso
07:18 or some art films and things, but I'm not a movie buff.
07:24 And what kind of were the TV obsessions you had growing up?
07:27 Well, it would have been largely the BBC because that was the only thing I was allowed to watch.
07:32 That was quite normal in British families back then. So I liked Tomorrow's World, the
07:37 Burke Special, anything with Brian Kent and Derek Griffiths in, like Play Away. I liked
07:46 the Cold It series, anything to do with escaping or spying, anything like that. What else?
07:55 I used to watch some programmes about music like The Oscar Peterson Piano Party. I used
07:58 to watch that with my dad. I watched The World at War, The Ascent of Man. You know, that
08:05 was quite boncy stuff for a very young person. I, Claudius. I used to watch that with my
08:10 mum because she loved it so I used to watch it with her.
08:15 Were there any mentors in your life or in your career that you feel had a defining impact
08:19 on you?
08:20 Well, apart from the obvious ones like, you know, some teachers and my parents and so
08:25 on, there were, I mean, two people I have to thank really for the way things turned
08:30 out were first John Pullen, who was the editor of The Engineer magazine. So that was the
08:36 first magazine job I had after I got fired from the civil service, used to get fired
08:39 from everything. And I applied for the job as the sub-editor, not really knowing what
08:43 I was doing. And he gave me the job. I remember ringing him up and pestering him saying, "I've
08:50 applied for this job and I haven't heard anything." Eventually he said, "Right, come in for an
08:52 interview." And to some extent, when I later got to know him, I realised that he actually
08:58 hated interviewing people and he hated that process. And he met me and he decided I was
09:02 okay, I think. So he gave me the job to get it over with. I think there was an element
09:08 of that, but, or maybe he thought, maybe he thought I had some promise. I don't know.
09:13 I sort of have to thank him for that, for being that first break. And then the second
09:18 one is Gavin Green, who was the editor of Car magazine. He gave me my first proper writing
09:22 job because he said, "Come and write a column for Car magazine." And again, that was a bit
09:26 of a gamble on his part because I had no previous, I had no track record. I wasn't a journalist
09:35 in any way, but I'd written a few columns in my spare time whilst working in production
09:40 on magazines and I'd sent them to him. And getting a column on Car magazine in those
09:45 days was quite a plummy job. People wanted that and they gave it to me for some reason.
09:49 He gave it to me and that's sort of where the move into Cars and then TV started. So
09:55 I think those are the two who had the most, the greatest impact.
10:00 If you could go back in time and give young James any advice on how to change his origin
10:04 story, what would it be?
10:06 I can't really remember now whether or not I worried about it, but I suspect I probably
10:10 did. I'd go back and say, "It'll be all right." And the other thing I would do, and I would
10:17 do this, this is a bit of advice I'd give to young people, even though they should ignore
10:21 it, is that you mustn't, when you're a teenager, when you're in your twenties and you have
10:30 that vitality of youth and the energy and the imagination, you mustn't do things that
10:37 you don't really like doing. You mustn't do a job or be in a relationship or live in a
10:40 house that you don't really like because you're wasting the most valuable bit of your life
10:45 and it is pointless thinking you have to do something because that's what's expected of
10:49 you or that's what you're supposed to do or that's what you are meant to do. I suffered
10:54 from that. I thought there were things I, you know, I wouldn't have believed I was allowed
10:58 to work in magazines or newspapers. I would have believed I was supposed to work in something
11:05 quite square and quite administrative and you shouldn't do that. I think I did waste
11:09 some years of my life doing things that are fundamentally completely, I was completely
11:16 uninterested in them and I would have been better off going and getting a job in a vibrant
11:20 bar or pub or shop or something where I met more people and had more interaction. You've
11:28 got to do, if you're not doing what you like you will never be very good at it. You can
11:33 only be good at things that inspire you. So whatever that is, do that. That's what I would
11:39 have told me.