With the 40 year anniversary of the first moon landings coming up fast, I'm sure there won't be much getting away from that historic day in mid July, 1969 over the next few weeks. The countdown starts with the BBC's Moon Season, and this first documentary in which James May explores what it takes to walk on unearthly ground...

Related: Coming Soon... The Moon Season

This is a documentary of three parts. On one hand, James undergoes some of the brutal training required of astronauts, including an incredible trip up in the 'vomit comet' and a "little spin" in a centrifuge chamber which looks frankly horrific. On another, James explains some of the history and mechanics behind the moon landings, and on, er, another, he meets some of the special (very) few who have felt lunar rock beneath their feet. What was it about these men that meant they had what it takes to go beyond normal expectations and experience?

He met Alan Bean, fourth man to walk on the moon, whose house James approaches with genuine and obvious nerves. Inevitably, he seems super-cool ("That's what's missing from current space operations" says James, "a sense of swagger and theatre") but not too cool to have a huge room dedicated to NASA and moon-related memorabilia. "We had the greatest job in the world!" Alan says. Now Alan spends his time trying to express his unique experience through paintings.

He also meets Charlie Duke, who spoke directly to the Apollo 11 crew as they made their final descent to the surface of the moon, and got to make the life-changing trip himself in 1972. This guy, of course, had to have nerves of steel, as there were several last minute hitches, such as Neil Armstrong drifting a couple of miles of course, and fuel quickly running out... There were no such problems when he landed three years later, though working out whether rocks were big and far away or small and close was an issue. But not such a big one.

The big finale comes as James gets into a space suit - to keep him alive, not for show, he stresses - and boards a craft that will take him thirteen miles up, or 70,000 feet. Not quite in space, but high enough to look down and see the curvature of the earth. It's emotional, and, I'm not ashamed to admit, not just for him.

There must be a hundred ways to make a good documentary about the moon landings, but the reason this one works so well is that is clearly means such a lot to James himself. I thought that the personal perspective might be a bit superfluous - there's plenty of material to go on without the presenter getting involved - but in fact it's the making of the programme. He offers lovely memories of that night in July when he was just six years old, and acts as a wonderful prism through which to see the earth from above for ourselves.

"We chose to go to the moon not because it was easy, but because it was hard" said Kennedy. Yes, humans can be rubbish some of the time. A lot of the time. But every once in a while, we're pretty darn cool.