James May's 20th Century/(2007)

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 were to change all that. To find out how, James May gets his hands on a Vickers Vimy aircraft that in 1919 carried two intrepid Brits, Alcock and Brown, across the Atlantic for the first time. But it wasn’t just flying that changed our perception of the world. The motor car offered us a new sense of freedom, but when James tries out a 1908 Model T Fo

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 out what space exploration has done for him, and the rest of us. And he’s got just the right motor to begin the journey - a moon buggy… "The moon buggy, or ‘Lunar Rover Vehicle’ to give it its proper name, has to have been the most expensive car ever made. It cost 38 million dollars. And that didn’t include delivery". His first stop is Staveley Road, Chiswick, West

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 last hundred years. He begins by testing himself in a centrifuge – a machine that can make fighter pilots and astronauts break out in a cold sweat. He wants to find out what would happen to his body when it is subjected to high forces. As he reached 4.4 g – he passed out: "There was no doubt that I’d clearly reached my limit. The blood was forced from my head to my

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 describes as "the most amazing thing I have ever done". The film begins by looking at the early days of air war at the start of the 20th Century. James flies in a biplane to get to grips with how difficult it was for the early aviators to hit any targets. Using flour bombs, he tries to hit a target on the ground. It’s a lot more difficult than he imagined. H

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 pull of a 50cc Japanese two-stroke? James May is on a journey to find out. First up is fashion. The 20th century introduced fantastic new fabrics in fantastic new colours thanks to synthetic materials like Nylon. James tries his hand at making some for himself with some success. Close to James’s heart, of course was teenage transport, offering liberation from parents and

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 this high-rise, 24/7 experiment in urban living. He heads for New York – to the top floors of the Woolworth building, once the tallest building in the world. It’s being renovated, but how strong is it? To find out he decides to drop a 1982 Mini 1000 onto a plate of skyscraper glass. At the start of the 20th Century there was no national grid, no agreed sys