''James May's Man Lab'' is a

British television Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...

series presented by former Top Gear presenter James May. The first, three-part series was aired on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

between 31 October and 14 November 2010. The second, five-part series was aired between 25 October and 18 December 2011. Repeats of Series 2 continued on late night BBC One with signing for the deaf throughout January 2012. Series 3 began broadcasting in March 2013, after James May's other co-hosted TV show (''Top Gear'') finished Series 19. Series One was released on DVD on 7 November 2011 by

Acorn Media UK RLJE International Ltd, d/b/a Acorn DVD, a British company that publishes and distributes DVDs, as well as selling home-video products and streaming videos with a particular focus on British television. History Launched in 1997, Acorn Media U. ...

, followed by Series Two on 8 October 2012.

Premise

The series explores traditional skills that are being lost by the modern man, and shows how to stop them from being lost forever. Each episode has a variety of themed tasks, including construction, seduction, destruction and more. If science, geometry, maths, logic and explosives can be used in these tasks, so much the better. Tasks include sending a dead pet's ashes into space using a homemade hydrogen balloon, creating one's own smelting furnace, constructing a pool table, felling a tree using explosives, escaping from Dartmoor prison whilst avoiding detection from expert trackers and making a magnetic ceiling panel to throw your keys at so you don't lose them. The first series also had a celebrity man task, where a celebrity attempted to beat a personal best at a certain 'man task', such as changing a tyre; however, this aspect was not continued into series two. The theme tune was written by May himself and is often played live over the end credits by a variety of different performers, including barber shop quartet, bagpipes and more.

Series overview

Episodes

Series one (2010)

Series two (2011)

Series three (2013)

On 9 July 2012, May announced on his Facebook page that filming had started on the third series. In January 2013, May announced via his Twitter that Man Lab was due to air in March, after the next series of '' Top Gear'' had finished. The series began at 8pm on 28 March 2013.

International

''James May's Man Lab'' was broadcast on BBC America in the U.S., where it is periodically rebroadcast. It has also been broadcast in Australia on SBS One. However, SBS stopped showing series three after just two episodes in June 2013. In New Zealand it used to air on

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

for first 2 seasons. From series 3 it will now air on Prime.

Home media

Series One was released on DVD by Acorn Media UK on 7 November 2011. Series Two was released on 8 October 2012.

References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, id=1750269, title=James May's Man Lab Man Lab 2010 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings BBC high definition shows BBC television documentaries Documentary television series about technology English-language television shows