I?m not sure how to say this but [John] Sergeant could learn some things about presentation from James May?s Toy Stories, which may be a tiny bit selfindulgent at an hour, but which is also inventive and unexpected and unobtrusively instructive about British social history. This week, May set out to construct a bridge large enough to carry him across a canal, using only Meccano, a relatively easy task if they?d gone for a dull design, butmade much harder by the fact that he chose a bascule bridge with a rotating swing arm. It seemed a little odd to me that you could make an hour-long programme about Meccano with only the briefest of mentions about its lacerating effect on childish fingers, but it successfully captured the appeal of a toy that wasn?t really a toy at all, but a calculated plan to create the next generation of British engineers. And ? I?m not sure how to say this either ? his script (both impromptu and prepared) made Sergeant?s look decidedly underpowered.