James May: ‘I didn’t really belong on Top Gear or Grand Tour’

James May opens up on the odd chemistry of the shows that made him a star - and why the achievements of Captain Cook should never be forgotten.

James May.

You’re about to embark on a very different kind of tour with a live lecture series on history’s greatest explorers. How have you prepared? What’s tricky about this is that it’s not a lecture, it’s not like something you’d get at a university. It’s an entertainment show. It’s supposed to be enjoyable! I’ve hit a few books and a few research papers, and then started panicking because it’s a massive subject.

Do you have a favourite explorer of the past? I always knew a bit about Shackleton, Scott and Columbus from school, but later on I became a fan of Captain James Cook – and to be honest, it was because of his nerdiness. He was a very meticulous bloke, and his map-making was spectacularly good, especially given the equipment that he had.

In modern times, Cook has become a controversial figure. Do we celebrate Western explorers of the past as much as we should? Well, it’s interesting because there’s quite a bit of resistance to Cook, what with statues thrown in the sea and what have you. But I do believe [Western explorers] are worth knowing about because they had a huge impact on the way we live. As far as Europe is concerned, Captain Cook completed the view of the world. He told us about everything on the other side!

May with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond in the TV series The Grand Tour.

What’s the next great frontier in exploration? Space is the obvious one. We also know less than we like to imagine about the bottom of the ocean. But it could be that the future of exploration is not a physical thing. Perhaps it’s more of a philosophical thing about how humanity will live in harmony and maintain its resources such that it doesn’t all degenerate into apocalyptic horsemen, war, famine and pestilence, and so on. We probably have to explore ourselves rather than the place where we live. That sounds very deep.

You once studied music and metalwork simultaneously; you’ve also worked on food programs, motoring programs, and have a long list of hobbies. Why are you broadly interested in so many things? It’s just chronic indecision, really. I’ve ended up being one of those people who know a bit about a lot of things. I can sort of play the piano, and I can sort of make things out of words, and I can sort of write haikus, but I can’t do any of it well. It’s a terrible failure in a man to be a dabbler.

A dabbler can usually hold up a lot of conversation at dinner parties... Well, yes, I mean the opposite has happened to me. I once sat next to somebody at a dinner party whose life was totally devoted to a specific strain of plant needed in the perfume business – that was all he knew about, and that was all he was interested in. It was a bit of a struggle.

Driving the Bugatti Veyron on Top Gear

You once said the chemistry between you and your Top Gear and Grand Tour co-hosts Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson was “creatively fuelled by mutual loathing”. Did you mean it? I was overstating it for comedic effect, but I definitely think we’d have been in different gangs at school. We’d have been rivals. There definitely needs to be a bit of needle and tension to make those things [on TV] work. Three people is a crowd. I often believe I didn’t really belong on those shows, but that’s exactly why I was on it.

What’s it like to drive a Bugatti Veyron at 400km/h? Weirdly, it feels ... I mean, I have to think of it in miles per hour, but 249 miles per hour [400km/h] feels a lot faster than 200. The sensation of speed is such that it increases exponentially. But to be honest, it’s not that difficult to do in a car like that on a test track. As long as you hold your nerve and don’t panic and don’t do anything twitchy, you’ll be OK.

You own a pub, The Royal Oak, in rural England. Why? It’s a form of conceitedness. I wouldn’t recommend it as a business venture; It’s absolutely foolhardy. But the thing I do get out of it is quite a nice, warm feeling. It’s nice to be able to say, “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a pub.”

Explorers: The Age of Discovery With James May tours nationally from July 29