James May's Big Ideas

Latest Episodes

• Season 1 Episode 3: Power to the People

  The motoring enthusiast searches for the smartest ways to fuel the planet for future generations. He visits the world's first solar power station in Seville, Spain, meets a former astronaut who is attempting to harvest the powerful winds of a high-altitude jet stream, and travels to the deserts of New Mexico where a group of scientists are hoping to conjure petrol out of thin air, with the help of only a few mirrors. Last in series

• Season 1 Episode 2: Man Machine

  The Top Gear presenter investigates modern robotics to see if technology has caught up with his childhood expectation of seeing androids taking on domestic tasks. After a disturbing encounter with a robot designed to look and act exactly like its creator, he finds the world's most advanced model still has some way to go before it is generally available. Plus, the science behind a real-life bionic woman

• Season 1 Episode 1: Come Fly with Me

  The motoring enthusiast searches the globe for the latest, most promising and often bizarre technologies. In the first programme he explores better and bolder methods of transport, including the ekranoplan, a flying machine capable of skimming above sea and ice at high speeds, as well as the world's smallest helicopter, a rocket pack and a flying car capable of vertical take off