James May sets out to help modern man relearn some of the vital skills that are now in danger of being lost forever. Each week the star of Top Gear, attempts to teach a forgotten skill that he thinks men should be good at. In 2011 the series was aired in the UK on BBC2 and has attracted a large audience. In the second series of James May’s Man Lab, James and his partner in crime Oz Clarke escape across Dartmoor with a team of trackers in hot pursuit. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ld1l5 click for a video. In this episode he mentions map reading skills and how useful they are.
The show has been so popular in the UK that the producers have created a pilot for BBC AMERICA. For the American version the team wanted to do something similar to escaping from Dartmoor but with more instruction involved. They tasked James with teaching an American presenter to read a map.
Orienteering being one of the largest map based sports, the producers contacted me to ask for my advice on how to run a short session to teach basic navigation skills.
Using my Sport Ident Kit, a compass and a very basic map, I designed a small course for the presenter to navigate. He was given a map with controls on and a set of compass degrees. Using the SI as evidence he had to successfully navigate the course and visit the correct controls. The key was to keep the map orientated and to take a correct compass bearing…
As this was a pilot for BBC America I cannot show the entire clip but the producers have kindly allowed me to show some stills – See below
Opening credits
American presenter and James showing an Ordnance Survey map.
My Sport Ident timing kit.
A compass.
Attempting the course.
Start.
On the course
The map had just the red circles and the arrows indicate where the presenter should have gone.
Lost!
joshjenner.wordpress.com 