Airdate: James May’s Man Lab

Top Gear‘s James May returns to SBS with a new series, James May’s Man Lab, that showcases the skills modern man is forgetting.

In the first episode, he learns how to defuse an unexploded bomb, build a kitchen out of concrete, transform a fish finger sandwich, serenade a potential date, and create the world’s first motorised picnic table.

James May is on a mission to save modern man. Thirty years ago men were a resourceful, practical and dependable band of brothers, but today they are a pale imitation of the men of yesteryear.

The once-familiar skills all men possessed such as: building, making and mending have gone. But with James at the helm it’s time for man to become useful and resourceful once again.

At the heart of the series is James’ Man Lab itself. This is the headquarters where James and his team spend the backbone of the series perfecting their man skills through a raft of challenges such as building a home cinema and constructing a bar and kitchen. James and company also make their own ‘boys toys’, including an aerial fly and wasp killing machine and a toilet paper alarm.

In each episode there is a celebrity D.I.Y. strand, in which stars attempt a tricky practical test of their manhood, such as hanging wallpaper and changing a flat tyre on a car. James also ventures away from the Man Lab to set an example to his team by facing breathtaking tests of courage and skill, including, navigating the English Channel only by the stars and challenging a male rival to a duel.

8:30pm Monday, 27 February. SBS ONE.