Once the final episode of The Grand Tour fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May airs later this year, it’s likely each of the three presenters will go their own separate ways in terms of what they get up to on our TV screens.
We already know something May won’t be doing – any more of his Prime Video cooking show, Oh Cook! – and now we know something he will. He’s been announced as the host of a new show on UK Freeview TV, James May & The Dull Men’s Club.
If you’re not familiar, the Dull Men’s Club began as a small movement in 1988, but is now centred around a Facebook group, approaching a million members at the time of writing. It describes itself as “celebrating the ordinary” and “a place for all people who avoid glitz and glam, are not constantly moving on to the next big thing.”
Subjects of recent posts in the group include ceiling fans, manhole covers and steel toe cap boots. Sounds right up May’s street, then (oh, and in case you were wondering, the DMC also accepts women, and reckons it has a roughly 50/50 membership split).
The show will see May team up with the DMC “to solve the essential conundrums you didn’t know you had”, which apparently include whether or not a washing machine can double up as a cooker. In some ways, then, it seems like it’ll almost be a spiritual successor to Man Lab, a BBC show May hosted between 2011 and 2013 that saw him build similar unusual contraptions.
Not much else is known about James May & The Dull Men’s Club at this point, but it’s being produced by Plum Pictures, which also worked with May on Oh Cook! and his Our Man In… travel series. It’s set to air later in 2024 on TV channel Quest.