James May's Things You Need to Know

James May's Things You Need to Know is a British television series presented by Top Gear presenter James May. The first, three-part series was aired on BBC Two between 20 June and 4 July 2011. A second, six-part series was aired on BBC Two starting 13 August 2012.^[1] The show answers key questions on aspects of everyday life, including what makes up the human body, what a cloud is and what makes the universe work so effectively. The first series has yet to be released on DVD.

James May's Things You Need to Know
Title card
Genre	Science
Directed by	James Gray, Emma Parkins
Presented by	James May
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	9
Production
Executive producer	John Farren/Elliot Halpern
Running time	29 minutes
Production companies	360 Production, Yap Films
Original release
Network	BBC Two & BBC HD
Release	20 June 2011 (2011-06-20) – 17 September 2012 (2012-09-17)

Episode list

Series One (2011)

#	Title	Director	Airdate
1	"The Human Body"	Emma Parkins	20 June 2011 (2011-06-20)
2	"The Universe"	James Gray	27 June 2011 (2011-06-27)
3	"The Weather"	Elizabeth Trojian	4 July 2011 (2011-07-04)

Series Two (2012)

#	Title	Director	Airdate
1	"Einstein"	David Starkey	13 August 2012 (2012-08-13)
2	"The Brain"	Catherine Ross	20 August 2012 (2012-08-20)
3	"Evolution"	Alex Mcintosh	27 August 2012 (2012-08-27)
4	"Speed"	Catherine Ross	3 September 2012 (2012-09-03)
5	"Engineering"	David Starkey	10 September 2012 (2012-09-10)
6	"Chemistry"	Robin Bicknell	17 September 2012 (2012-09-17)