Karl Puschmann: James May's Shed Load of Ideas and Make That Movie

James May’s Shed Load of Ideas  

James May takes on humanity's biggest bugbears one ingenious invention at a time. With his trusty engineer, Sim and carpenter, ‘Tony the Tool’ in tow, there's no problem too big or small for this tenacious trio! (TVNZ+) 

Make That Movie  

Created by and starring stand-up comedian Sam Campbell.  

Hotshot director Sam scours the country looking for everyday people who have an idea for a feature film. Sam and his elite crew of filmmakers then race against the clock to transform these chaotic ideas into hit movies (Neon). 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talk ZEDB twenty.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Six past ten on News Talks EDB. Carl Pushman is
our screen time expert. This time every week he picks
a couple of shows to recommend for watching or streaming
at your place. Good morning, car Jack Collo. Let's begin
this morning with the show streaming on TV and Z
plus James May's shed load of ideas.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
He of course, remember James May as part of that
core top Gear trio. He had a more considered approach
compared to Jimmy Clarkson in his exaggerated borishness or Richard
Hammond's sort of excitable enthusiasm. And you know, since Splitting
Hammond went off and said a podcast, Clarkson somehow turned
farming into brilliantly entertaining TV, which we spoke about maybe

(00:52):
a month ago. And James May has sort of been
potting around putting out small shows based around his interests
and that's what this is. It's a lot smaller in
scale than something like top Gear or even Clarkson's farm,
and it's basically just taking that challenge aspect of top
Gear and stretching it out for you know, forty five
minutes an hour for the show. He's replicating the format

(01:15):
a little bit. He's teamed up with two mates, but
he's very much the star of the show. And having
watched I can't even tell you what those guys' names are,
but they do have various shared based abilities to tackle
the small problems. The idea is they're solving the big
problems of the modern age. And of course, in typical
top gear fashion, these are very small annoyances that are

(01:36):
being completely overblown. So you know, it's triped me as
a kind of fellow that would ever leave his car
park for longer than one hour if you've paid for
one hour's.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Parking, No, I don't think I would.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
You have a responsible chap. On the other hand, I've
had my fair share of parking tickets. So they're solving
the problem of getting a parking ticket in the ten
minute grace period, which in the UK is actually law.
You're allowed to have ten minutes after your designated time
to get back to your car and move it. So
you know, in top gear style, they go completely overboard
with the thing. They construct this wooden tribuchet that's attached

(02:09):
to the top of the car. It's got senses, loud speakers,
all sorts of crazy contraption inventions going on, and that's
sort of the gist of the show. They do a
couple of other things. They fix an antique clockwork boat.
They find a way to make homemade chips using an
air cannon in a tennis racket, so you know, it's
that kind of harmless, bloky japery. So you know if

(02:32):
you have to buy into it because it's you know,
quite ridiculous. And obviously when the warden comes in at
the end of the show for the big climax to
see if this thing actually works, it's clearly fake. And
you know, top gear sometimes would sort of fudge reality
a little bit and the same thing's happened here. But
it's a relaxing watch, you know, if you're just like
watching guys tinkering around fixing clockwork boats or constructing tribuchets.

(02:55):
You know, yeah, he's got like that nice gentle humor, right.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I think it's I mean, it's just a bit of
it's a bit of you know, breezy entertainment, but it
is quite fun. Some of the creative ideas they come
up with it. You know, it's good, it's clever.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
That's the main thing, is like just watching this thing,
like coming up with the idea of like how do
we make homemade chips better? Oh, let's get an air cannon.
You know, it's ridiculous, but it's fun to see them
trying to make it work. And then it works. They
go to the pub, they cook them up and they
eat them grass. And also it's quite funny.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
No nice, Okay, cool. So that's James May's shed load
of ideas. It's on TV and Z plus on Neon
make that movie now.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
This is a mockumentary spoof of makeover TV shows, like
you know those Renault shows where they burst into someone's
house and renovate their kitchen in twenty four hours, Except
here they're turning ordinary people's movie ideas into feature films
in just three days. Now. It is mockumentary. Everything is scripted.
There's no real people with a real movie idea that's

(03:55):
being made here. I just have to make that very
clear in case there's any confusion. But it shows from
Ozzie comedian Sam Campbell, who you might recognize. He's doing
really well in the UK at the moment. He's on
that sort of comedian TV circuit, so he's popped up
on Task Master and Last One Laughing, and you know,
they sort of keep cycling the same people around and
he's gotten to that loop, so you probably do recognize them.

(04:16):
But he's also because he's Australian, he's pops up in
New Zealand shows quite often as well, like The Very
Good Inded Spy which is on TV and Z and
Guy Montgomery's spelling B. So chance if you don't know
the name, chances are you probably do recognize them. And
he always has a baffled look on his face and
that plays into his comedy style of absurdism with deadpan delivery,
and that's what the show is like. Are you a

(04:38):
fan of cult movies and B movies and bad movies?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Ah?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean to a certain degree yes,
and I mean like the worse the better. I was
going to say the bader the better, but yes, yeah, So.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
It's very much if you like that kind of thing,
I think you'll like the show. Because they are making
these movies as they're an E liked filmmaking team, which
you know that's the jargon, and they're making these movies,
which is just almost like a love letter homage to
that B movie cult film that is Durable. One of
the movies they make is about a couple that can
turn into snakes, but one can only ever be a

(05:13):
human and one can only ever be a snake. They
can't both be human or snake at the same time.
And then that gets involved with a big spy plot,
so it's ridiculous. Yes, when you see the movie, it's
a chase scene and they're both transforming like crazy, and
it's very funny and very absurd and very bizarre. I
think they could have pushed the boat out into that
bizarre surrealism a little bit further, because I'm a big

(05:35):
fan of things like Auntie Donald's Big Old House of
Fun or The Mighty Bush, which are just completely bonkers.
But that skit shows this is a narrative, so it's
a bit more Raindom, but there's still he still finds
plenty of room to do bizarre non secreteurs and just
random random joke and stuff. So and it's cramming in
like a behind the scenes production. Plus you get to
see the finished movie, so there's a lot in its
little twenty five minute run time. But you do need

(05:58):
to like cult films and be films, I think to
get the most out of it.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Nice, okay, cool, So that's make that movie that's on
theon Carl's first pick for us this week, James May's
shed load of ideas, all of the details for those
of course newstalks, HEIDB dot co dot nz Ford slash Jack.
If you want to get in touch, ninety two. Ninety
two is our text number this morning. I'll get to
more of your messages in a couple of minutes. Right now,
it has just gone twenty eight minutes to eleven.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalk s dB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio