
James May's Great Explorers (2025- )
There was a time, before football and rock'n'roll, when explorers were the A-listers of their day. Death-defying antics and tales of daring made them the stuff of legend: names like Columbus, Raleigh, and Cook, who sailed off over the horizon to discover new lands and bring home treasures unimaginable to those sitting at home in dark, damp Europe.
Intrepid explorers they may have been, but ‘great' might be pushing it. Across the seven seas, they spilled blood and spread disease. They enabled the destruction of civilisations and the growth of slavery. And many of their ‘discoveries' weren't quite what you'd think...
Christopher Columbus - who stumbled across the Americas, but insisted he was in Asia.
Sir Walter Raleigh - who didn't discover potatoes, tobacco, or El Dorado, but hustled his way into the history books.
Captain James Cook - who failed in his search for Antarctica but charted a third of the world map along the way.
James will discover what really happened - and how. There'll be hands-on experiments, technological wonders, and plenty of messing about in boats, as he explores the science, engineering, and sheer stubbornness that allowed these extraordinary explorers to sail to every corner of the earth.
Recent Episodes
| Episode | Name | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| S01E03 | Captain Cook | févr. 27, 2025 |
| S01E02 | Sir Walter Raleigh | févr. 20, 2025 |
| S01E01 | Christopher Columbus | févr. 13, 2025 |
Cast
View all castCharacters
View all charactersAlso known as
- The Great Explorers with James May
Recently Updated Shows

Survivor
Eighteen to twenty castaways will compete against each other on Survivor. All castaways will compete to outwit, outplay, outlast and ultimately be crowned Sole Survivor.

The Testaments
The Testaments is based on Margaret Atwood's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, which was published in 2019 and takes place in the dystopian theocracy of Gilead. Years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments is a coming of age story that finds a new generation of young women in Gilead grappling with the bleak future that awaits them. For these young women, growing up in Gilead is all they have ever known, having no tangible memories of the outside world prior to their indoctrination into this life. Facing the prospect of being married off and living a life of servitude, they will be forced to search for allies, both new and old, to help in their fight for freedom and the life they deserve.

Criminal Record
Criminal Record is a powerful, character-driven thriller set in the heart of contemporary London. An anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives into a confrontation over an old murder case – one a young woman in the early stages of her career, the other a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy. The series touches on issues of race, institutional failure, and the quest to find common ground in a polarized Britain.

Gold Rush
Gold Rush follows six men who, in the face of an economic meltdown, risk everything - their families, their dignity, and in some cases, their lives - to strike it rich mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska. Inspired by his father Jack, Todd Hoffman of Sandy, Oregon, leads a group of greenhorn miners to forge a new frontier and save their families from dire straits. While leasing a gold claim in Alaska, Todd and his company of newbies face the grandeur of Alaska as well as its hardships, including an impending winter that will halt operations and the opportunity to strike gold. In an effort to keep the operation running, the team takes fate into their own hands with a make or break venture that will change their lives forever.



