James May gets lost in translation in his new Italian travel series – but it’s a Scot who baffles him rather than the local lingo.
In one episode of Our Man in Italy, he seems not to know who Paolo Nutini is – but puts it down to being “confused” after necking five pints.
James, 59, left his Grand Tour co-stars Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond at home as he went solo for the second helping of this travel series.
There is a distinctly tartan theme, with James having a go at bagpipes and visiting Barga, which claims to be the “Most Scottish town in Italy”.
Dozens of townsfolk moved to Scotland in the 19th century for work but many returned.
They are very proud of Paolo, whose family in Paisley come from the town.
But when a local asks James if he knows who the singer is, he looks blank.
In a Zoom chat with the Record, he insisted: “I do know who he is.
“Part of the problem was I arrived early when the crew were setting up and had about five pints before we even started filming so that explains the glazed look rather than because I didn’t know what they were going on about.”
For the new show he went to Il Bar del Paologas, which was adorned with Saltires and Celtic flags. The football links continued when he met Juventus star Giorgio Chiellini on a trip to Turin.
James admitted he was confused in Barga as some locals wore kilts and had names like “Jock Montovani”.
But in the fourth episode of his latest series, he manfully gives the Address to the Haggis for the bar’s Burns Night in his best Scots accent.
He said: “I’ve read it many times. I do like poetry but I’ve never read it out loud. I wasn’t sure how. It’s a bit like reading medieval English. Are you supposed to do it in a Scottish voice?
“We don’t know what Rabbie Burns actually sounded like so I was a bit confused and I’d already had a few whiskies. I think I made a fairly terrible job of it overall.
“But since they’re Italian-Scottish people I’m not sure they recognised the bad job I did.”
As usual James is belittling himself... and hiding his Scottish links. James has actually been visiting Scotland since childhood and tried haggis on holiday.
“I had it the first time when I was 10 or 12,” he revealed. I do like a haggis and a white pudding.”
And there’s more. He added: “I’ve cycled the length of Scotland which is why I know how big it is.
“A lot of people in England think England goes up and there’s a little bit of Scotland at the top. They don’t realise Carlisle is exactly halfway between Land’s End and John O’ Groats because Scotland on the A9, especially on a bicycle, goes on for bleedin’ ever.”
Scotland is well placed for a new Our Man series. James said: “There are lots of things to get baffled by, not just Rabbie Burns and his wonky spelling.
“There’s plenty of stuff other bits of the world would find strange.”
Top of James’s list would be deep-fried Mars bars. “It’s disgusting,” he said. “I don’t really believe it. I think someone did it once as a joke and now everybody else in the world believes Scots eat deep-fried Mars Bars. You don’t do you?
“It’s just b*****ks. You don’t think on a Friday night, ‘Och aye I’ll have chips and a deep-fried Mars bar.’”
He’s not wrong.
THE Bristolian has been making us all laugh as a petrolhead since 1998 when he presented Driven before jumping to Top Gear until 2015.
James, Jeremy and Richard then devised The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video.
The butt of the others’ jokes, on his own James is a warm, insightful host.
And that’s why he’s carved out a solo career doing documentaries on such things as the Apollo moon landings, reassembling old tech and cooking.
In 2020 he debuted James May: Our Man in Japan for Prime Video and was due for the US in 2021 but when that was bumped through Covid he went to Italy instead for the second series.
Searching for la dolce vita, the first episode starts in Sicily.
And there he discovers in the hilltop village of Castelmola that Italians have their own version of bagpipes, the zampogna, with four chanters. The bags are made of goat or sheep skin.
This being James, the producer made him not just try the bagpipes but got him to dress up in a historic costume and play it for the public. He said: “I’m rare among English people, I like the sound of bagpipes.”
The series, streaming from July 15, sees James dressing up in traditional outfits a lot and basically acting a prat.
It’s not his idea.
He said: “It takes quite a lot to get me to do the daft stuff.
“Occasionally I do get slightly bad-tempered about it because I’m not convinced people want to see me dressing up and making an a**e of myself but they think people do.
“There’s a trade-off. I say I’ll do that but you’ve go to let me go and look at the woodworking shop or the gunmaker or the Ferrari factory. So it’s a deal.”
A new Grand Tour has been filmed with Jeremy and Richard, although James is sworn to secrecy.
James is happy to carry on although he cackled: “There will come a day where we will either agree we’re past it or one of us will just die.”
He does like solo presenting but understands he probably gets “a little bit too immersed” in his passions.
He laughed: “You would have got six episodes of me making bagpipes if I was left to my own devices.”
He is hoping to do Our Man in America and more and admitted: “As usual with my life the future beyond next week or so is a bit of a grey fog.”
● James May: Our Man In Italy launches on Prime Video on July 15.
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