James May's Great Explorers | Preview (Channel 5)

Long before football and rock'n'roll, the A-listers of the day were explorers. They risked their lives to sail over the horizon, seek new lands, and bring home unimaginable treasures to dark, damp Europe.

In a major series debut for Channel 5, James May charts the journeys of Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Captain James Cook, through hands-on experiments, examining technological wonders, and plenty of messing about in boats - and investigates how these extraordinary explorers changed the world forever.

But James soon learns that ‘great’ explorers might be pushing it, and that some of these national heroes were absolute chancers whose reputations might need a closer look.

We all know the cheerful little ditty, ‘In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...’ - but after that, things get a bit confused... Christopher Columbus may be celebrated as a national hero for ‘discovering’ the USA - but he never actually set foot there.

In episode one, James May is diving headfirst into history, and getting hands-on with science, to understand how this stubborn young sailor with a dream of sailing to Asia ended up stumbling across two continents completely unknown to Europeans.

James starts by travelling to south-west Spain, from where these world changing voyages began. He takes the helm of his own sailboat to test the cutting-edge sail technology that allowed ships to travel further than ever before – and the rudimentary navigation techniques that Columbus had to rely on.

Crossing vast oceans required more than just ships... James cooks up some of the not-so-delicious meals Columbus’s sailors could expect to enjoy, and visits a science lab to test how these provisions would have lasted on a month-long voyage.

In beautiful Seville, James visits the Alcazar to examine the motives of greed and religious fervour that drove the quest. And in London’s jewellery quarter, he gets hands on with the stuff that powered the voyages - gold.

Columbus’s voyages may have brought exotic goods and untold wealth back to Europe – but to the Americas they brought wholesale destruction. James visits St Bart’s Hospital in London to study the diseases that would be unleashed on the Americas - and meets Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock to learn about the human cruelty that set in motion centuries of horror.

It’s an extraordinary tale of daring, greed, and downright stubbornness. Columbus’s voyages shaped all our lives, from the food we eat to global wealth and politics - and James unlocks the complex history for us in his playful, curious, insightful, way.

James May's Great Explorers airs Thursday 13th February at 9pm on Channel 5.