I love Top Gear. It’s Pommy goodness. Pom’s have the absolute ability to take the piss out of themselves even while telling you something you never wanted to know (and managing to make that seem interesting).
For me the best doco’s are British, the best comedies are British…combine the two, it’s gold (not that Top Gear is a doco but it is informative!).
Jeremy Clarkson is a Pommy god 
(Richard is not far behind)
It’s worth mentioning that the ‘Top Gear’ as raved about in this thread took time to evolve. There has been a show called ‘Top Gear’ on the BBC2 schedules for many, many years, but for a long time it was just a slice of niche programming aimed fairly and squarely at petrol heads. It was mainly serious reviews of cars and car stuff, with the occasional report that had a slightly funny or irreverent edge to it. Some times they had proper TV studio segments (as opposed to taping the show in what looks like a big shed) and sometimes they seemed to be trying to diminish the role of the presenters altogether (e.g. presenters rarely seen, mostly just heard on voice-over).
Slowly but surely, the powers that be noticed what people liked, and the bits that were generating good word of mouth and bigger viewing figures. First and foremost was Clarkson. Love him or lathe him, his contribution to the transformation of the show cannot be over-estimated. It was also clear that people liked the humour, the not taking anything very seriously, the banter and camaraderie of the main three, and the ‘special’ reports that involved insane stunts, mad challenges, and laddish messing around - all things that can be enjoyed as entertainment whether you know anything about cars or not.
And so the show gradually became ‘Top Gear’ as we know it - very much a show shaped by viewer demand and preferences. There’s also a strong fantasy fulfilment element - it’s three guys with a big telly budget getting to do all the things that prankish petrol heads might think of doing, but never could. The Hammond crash last year also helped to make the show even more popular. It put the show on the front pages for a few weeks, bringing it to the attention of many who might not be fans. And also the incident was so magnificently well handled on the show itself that I’m sure it won many admirers.
I love how they dealt with the Hammond crash. I also love the way they have agreed to act if one of them ever die.
They have said it will go like this…
So Richard died last week… Anyway, on to the new Aston…
Here’s how they dealt with it BTw for the people who don’t know what we’re talking about
Actually here’s the beginning of the show. This is really good.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Top Gear is the dog’s bollocks and if it wasn’t for torrents I would have to move back to the UK.
If you are into cars, it is mandatory viewing. If you are not a petrol-head, it is still a great show. Mrs Floppy loves it and her car knowledge is limited to what pedal does what.
OTOH, Fifth Gear is only marginally more interesting than Motorweek. Tiff is entirely too annoying.
www.finalgear.com has all the episodes of both series.
Man…I know I’d seen that before, but that is still really hard to watch. Especially all of his creepily prophetic comments before the crash. “But I don’t want to go upside-down!”
I subscribe to a UK TV industry thing (don’t ask - I don’t even work in that industry), and here is the list of the most downloaded shows in 2007 from a medium-sized torrent tracker (don’t ask):
I won’t give the numbers except to say that they are in the seven figure range. Heroes has twice the number of downloads that Top Gear has, BSG is half again and the rest of the list is close to the BSG numbers. Word is that the genuinely big trackers (don’t ask) have similar results and much higher numbers.
So what are the Beeb going to do about it: iPlayer or streaming across all platforms quickly leading to an integrated platform with the other UK broadcasters and access to certain programs via subscription or advertising to non-UK residents.
I’d expect most of that in 2008. And then the jewel in the crown: opening up the vast archives - I took part in a (recently closed) limited trial of the BBC Archive. They only put up 3000 or so radio and TV programmes, largely to test the interfaces, but my goodness one would be able to spend days there. They will have to charge for non-UK people to try and cover the cost of digitising everything, but it’ll be worth it.
I don’t know how to drive but I still watch it.
As others have said, the chemistry is excellent.
Also each item is not too long, and it really seems like fun.
Some say he can change gear by telekinesis - we call him the Stig!
I agree. My friend, Zoltan (a writer), and I (photographer) used to do some of these features for Car & Driver. (Minesweeper in Kosovo, Autobahn cops, Carjacking in South Africa, converted Russian T-72 tank that put out oil fires in Iraq, etc…) Unfortunately, the editorial push was toward more serious and more technical articles, even though C&D has enough of that already, in my opinion.
That said, they still seem to have some of that irreverence, but it’s not as forward as it used to be. If you like that kind of stuff, Top Gear Magazine is worth a read. The Brits do seem to have more fun with their car magazines.