Richard Ayoade takes over as host on the second series of this humorous tech-products program broadcast on Channel 4 in England. The previous series had been hosted by Stephen Fry and it aired late 2012. The 2nd series started airing in September of this year. Both series averaged just under 2 million viewers per episode. Richard is a comedian who is also an actor and I'd seen him on some of the British game shows that I watch on YouTube. I'd also seen him in parts of a few episodes from the 1st season of The IT Crowd. I borrowed the dvd from the library and the disc was so fucked up it would hardly play. Those library customers sure are a bunch of shits, huh. They ruin just about everything they touch. I put the series on my NetFlix queue and hope to see them sometime in the future.
Here's the episodes of the second series of Gadget Man on YouTube.
S02E01 The Great Outdoors Richard isn't much interested in camping and I sure can understand that. Against his own advice he goes on an overnight camping trip with guest Stephen Mangan. Richard brings all sorts of mod cons to keep them from getting too close to the outdoors. I did like the tablet video projector and the inflatable screen.
S02E02 Rise & Shine Sara Cox and John Humphrys join Richard as he explores gadgets for the kitchen and the bathroom. Richard's team build him a Rube Goldberg like machine to get him cleaned up, dressed and ready for work. It doesn't quite work as well as he hoped.
S02E03 Child's Play Denise van Outen and Hugh Dennis join Richard to play with some of the gadgets he's brought around for child rearing and entertaining. Richard has his builders create a kid's park playground that uses kid power to power part of itself.
S02E04 Summer Holiday Richard and Noel Fielding go on a holiday. I really like Noel Fielding. I've got his series The Mighty Boosh on my NetFlix queue and will see those some day. One of the travel gadgets they mention on their trip is the fart absorbing cushion. That would be good for home use too. Richard has his team build a miniature sun because they don't have any sun in England. The fake one is so powrful they can tan on the beach at night. Wow, huh. I wonder what the electrical bill is.
S02E05 Home Improvement Anna Ryder Richardson, Andy Kane, and Charlie Luxton are the guests and they all look at gadgets to make home work easier. Robot lawn mowers, gutter cleaners and demolition machines are featured along with the expected variety of power tools. Richard has a robot painter paint his dining room and his team builds a wall paper hanging machine. After the room is done he has a dinner party with 3D printed dinner wear. They really liked the 3D printers. That's the future.
S02E06 Smaller Is Better Alex James spends time with Richard looking at small gadgets. Richard has his team build a tiny house and Jimmy Carr comes over to visit.
I found them to be quite entertaining. Richard plays himself, if he was more like the guy he plays in The IT Crowd, who, for all we know, could be more like Richard is in real life. I don't know. I laughed at his droll delivery and enjoyed the guests.