James May's Man Lab

Looks like BBC America doesn't even know this show exists...:mad:

If they do pick it up, it won't be for quite a while yet. Standard operating procedure with them, really.
 
I've found some links (not mine):
Code:
FileServe: [url]http://www.fileserve.com/file/mB5d4RT/james.may.man.lab.s01e01.ws.pdtv.xvid-ftp.avi[/url] (Just got it - nice).
Hotfile: [url]http://hotfile.com/dl/79640998/eb9874f/james.may.man.lab.s01e01.ws.pdtv.xvid-ftp.avi.html[/url]

Rapidshare is rapidly becoming friendless, so nothing on that front.:(
 
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Credits chuckle moment:

'Theme from Man Lab'
Composed by
DR JAMES MAY BMus

Heh.

On the whole, however, I felt it was rather uneven as a programme. IMHO, obviously... But then, Toy Stories is quite a tough act to follow, to be sure.
 
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They sure do know how to fit a lot of stuff on a program. Toy Stories is a tough act to follow but I thought the first episode of Toy Stories felt a little uneven as well, it seems most first episodes of any new series are like that.
 
From BBC:
Man Lab's Theme Tune
Man Lab's very own presenter James May wrote the show's theme tune. James recalls his inspiration, "I was having a beer in the Man Lab bar and the melody suddenly erupted in my head, and so, theme from Man Lab was born." :)

From Credits:
Flat Pack Furniture Consultant ? Alexander Armstrong.:D

I think James May is fab but this show was disappointing.

All the trails led me to expect a ?grown up? Blue Peter. What we got was some kind of unwanted child of Blue Peter & Monty Python, lacking the information of the former, and the humour of the latter. The ?choppy? comment is valid, and the link device was annoying. There must be ?in the can? all the material to make a great show, and I hope the editor / director re-cut it to what it could be.
 
I was a little disappointed by the first show too. It is an excellent (and original) concept, and one which I find great resonance in, but it seemed to fall short in a couple of segments .. almost like Jeremy Clarkson was watching over his shoulder (or maybe it was health and safety). Don't talk about wiring a plug .. wire it! ... and the serenading bit seemed to end without a satisfactory conclusion. Having said that .. I'm popping down to the local hardware store tomorrow for a self-tapping needle .. just in case.
 
Agree with everyone re the programme being a bit episodic. I imagine it will pick up the pace a bit next week - it's the scratch orchestra auditions, which should be a laugh.

I was a bit concerned when James and Sim both agreed that old appliances were wired up with black live and red neutral. I'm pretty sure it was the other way round. Ready to be corrected by anyone old enough to remember.
 
Not bad of a show, allthough

you can't tell me the bomb wasn't scripted/remotely detonated. That explosion in May's face and Ep1 is the only one we will ever see....
As well, that romance part was just...errr...no.
I laughed the most at the unscripted failures (banana, glass). I hope we see more of the useful stuff (how to wire stuff, how to build stuff that you might actually need)........I liked the concrete build f.e. and looking forward to bar next week!

As well, for the love of god, someone rip it in a quality that doesn't look like a bad youtube video:

james.may.man.lab.s01e01.ws.pdtv.xvid-ftp
 
I was a bit concerned when James and Sim both agreed that old appliances were wired up with black live and red neutral. I'm pretty sure it was the other way round. Ready to be corrected by anyone old enough to remember.

I know the US is possibly different, but I recently had to rewire some switches in my house. One was circa 1940s and didn't follow modern conventions (which in the US is White = Not, Black = Hot, Green/bare copper = Ground). It was a 3-way switch, which meant it had 3 wires going to it: Black, Red, Brown. Black was the hot wire, Red was the neutral wire and brown was the "signal" wire.

I too was a little confused since electronics and cars generally have the colors reversed (Black = Ground, Red = Live). I'm guess it must have something to do with the fact that cars and electronics are mostly DC circuits and a house is an AC circuit.

EDIT: Apparently James did get it wrong, the old UK codes had it set with red being the live wire and black being neutral. (http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_5/chpt_2/2.html)
 
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One thing I learned from working with wiring: It all depends how the guy who installed it first wired it up. Not always the "correct" way, I mean hey, I have a ceiling lamp that connects with 3 green/yellow wires :D (Multimeter ftw)
 
I might be in the minority here, but I like this better than the toy thing, which consisted mainly of James travelling all around badgering people into doing his bidding. And I'm just not that crazy about shows (radio or TV) that rely on audience participation. (Yes, don't care for reality TV either.) And personally, the subject matter is more interesing to me, so I'm looking forward to seeing the rest.

:)
 
Ok I am old enough to have wired an old round 3 pin plug (both 5 and 15 ampes) - I always treated Red as live, Black as neutral and green/Bare Copper as earth - and I am still here and so is my old house so can not have been too wrong - still. ... May be wrong.
 
I liked it. Yes, it was choppy, but I think I noticed it more because I spoilered myself by looking at the forum's reactions before watching myself. They did cram waaaay too many segments and jumped around quite a lot, but May saves it with flawless presenting skills. I just kept getting distracted by the changing shirts :lol:

The banana was a gem. I thought it would end up in another 24 hour edurance race moment :lol:

The participant recruitment was not what I expected. I thought they'd just round up some random man volunteers with various (hilarious) results, but instead we just got some predetermined guys the studio picked earlier (?), and only one contestant per segment. I expected some more chaos and mayhem.

And imagine if they found a few REAL guys looking to get interest from a girl and making them serenade her. (Her face would have to be blurred out initially, but it would be worth it).
 
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I agree, do not just talk about wiring a plug, wire a plug too.

Too much stuffed in IMHO, drop one or two items and make other bits more in depth - I blame the director. Still I did enjoy it overall - James is very personable.
 
Not his greatest show but still very entertaining :)

I think this might always be a result of May having waay too much he wants to tell, and waaay too little time to do it in. They should have focused it more, the first show could have been just doing up the Man Lab for instance. They've got a lot of awesome "blokish" ideas. I sort of want to build a kitchen out of cement now.. :D And put a train in it.
 
Ok I am old enough to have wired an old round 3 pin plug (both 5 and 15 ampes) - I always treated Red as live, Black as neutral and green/Bare Copper as earth - and I am still here and so is my old house so can not have been too wrong - still. ... May be wrong.

I'm 21 and I know how an old plug is wired, having done quite a few over the years, so I'm quite surprised that they got it wrong jointly.
Remembering the wiring for a trailer, now that's a challenge.
 
I?m a big fan of James May, but this was disappointing. I echo the comments regarding the choppiness and the lack of information/resolution. I felt all the material was there, just needed editing correctly. In the time spent arguing about the broken glass to make the worlds most unpalatable tartare sauce, and all the time wasted on the vitruvian May, we could have been shown how to wire a plug, how to build a kitchen bench etc.
 
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