Clueless men let side down

James May. Photo / Supplied

A new generation of men are useless morons incapable of basic tasks such as ironing their shirt or putting up a shelf, says British television star James May.

He believes even the laddish show that he co-hosts, Top Gear, does not portray men in a favourable light - and has instead turned its male presenters into "characters in a sitcom".

The Sun reported that May, 47, predicted if men did not return to more masculine roles, women would no longer have a use for them except as sperm donors.

May told Radio Times: "I think women are getting a bit bored with blokes being useless.

"I keep reading women are better at school and now better at parking, better at navigating. We are sort of laughing at it going, 'Ho ho ho, I'm just a bloke', but really in my lifetime men only will be required to keep sperm at operating temperature and they will have no other function."

The television presenter has decided to lead the way for men to fight back and regain lost skills.

His new British series, Man Lab, is aimed at helping modern men relearn vital skills once cherished by their forefathers.

He said: "The decline of practical skills, some of them very day-to-day, among a generation of British men is very worrying - they can't put up a shelf, wire a plug, countersink a screw, iron a shirt."

He went on to attack Top Gear, the show that made him famous, saying it was no longer about cars and more about the trio of presenters - May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond - getting themselves into a pickle.

He said: "It's really almost a sitcom now, so we are characters.

"When I started, Top Gear was a car show about cars, and I was interested in the technology but also the sociology and the artistry of them ... the shapes and the colours. But it's a different programme now, it's turned into something else."

THE MAN TEST

Can you...

1. Iron a shirt?
2. Change a car tyre?
3. Barbecue a steak?
4. Build a fence?
5. Jumpstart a car?
6. Explain football's offside rule?
7. Tie a double Windsor?
8. Mow the lawn?
9. Catch and gut a fish?
10. Survive manflu?

How do you rate?

0-3: Moron
4-6: Man up more
7-9: You're a man
10: Fibbing