NEW New new new New top gear ON HOLD, RIP?

[inconsistant]

Top Gear off you fuck.
Chasing Classic Cars FTW. 

[HMC]

11 hours ago, ETCHY said:

Thing is car reviews are now all over Youtube so i don't see that format working.

The blokey geezer stuff has now definitely run its irritating course.

I think the BBC should save a few quid & just let it die.

At least toward the end of the clarkson era, rather than costing them it was their biggest global money spinner, possibly explaining why those concerned kept wanting to have more seasons laid down.

[cort16]

It is amazing how influential it is on youtube thought.  The basic format of Top Gear/Wheeler dealers must make up about 50% of car channels on youtube. 

I also see the BBC are trying to turn the top gear youtube channel into a Hagerty/Motortrend with different series being made and shown on the channel. That guy Tom Ford is presenting some of them, I like the stuff he writes but he's a god awful TV presenter. 

[Bradders59]

It was never the same after William Woolard went. 

[cort16]

On 27/11/2023 at 10:30, Bradders59 said:

It was never the same after William Woolard went. 

Apparently for the latest now never to be seen series of Top Gear there was an episode filmed with Woolard, Ripon and Goffey. 

[Bradders59]

I would actually have liked to have seen that. Just need keep the remote handy for when McGuiness open his gob.

If my memory serves though, the original presenters were Noel Edmunds and Angela Rippon.

[flat4alfa]

1st series (1978) was Barrie Gill and Angela Rippon, introduced by Tom Coyne from the Midlands Today programme (because a BBC Pebble Mill production)

It was the 2nd series (1979) that they were joined by Judith Jackson and Noel Edmonds

The 3rd series (1980) was Noel and Frank Page, both Barrie and Angela had left

The 4th series (1980) was when Sue Baker joined

Paddy was with us from Series 27 (2019), crikey has it been that long

[wesacosa]

3 hours ago, cort16 said:

Apparently for the latest now never to be seen series of Top Gear there was an episode filmed with Woolard, Ripon and Goffey. 

I think it was Edmonds, Ripon and Goffey rather than Woollard but yes would have been good to see

EDIT: It was actually Goffey, Needell and Ripon

 

 

[Zelandeth]

Have to admit that I largely stopped watching it a long time ago unless someone told me there was something particularly notable in an episode because I largely found Clarkson and his infantile humour to be so grating.  I know it's all about personas on TV, but based on his usual part and a couple of other things I've seen him in , I reckon that James May is someone that if I bumped into them in a pub I could easily spend an extremely enjoyable afternoon nattering about all manner of automotive and technical nonsense.

I guess my biggest hope with the current lot being disbanded is that Chris Harris goes back to doing more of his own thing again, as his channel going silent on YouTube was one of the biggest downsides of him having got swept into TG.  He's a bit of an over-caffinated nutter at times (albeit orders of magnitude less so than Hammond), but comes across as a decent enough bloke and clearly really loves cars for what they are whether it be a multi-million pound hypercar or a 40s 2CV. 

I wouldn't be surprised if it gets dredged back up in a few years time in some shape or form, but I think it had really run its course long before Clarkson and Co left as it really felt that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel to try to come up with anything new to do to keep people interested for several series before then - at least to me.  As several folks have said though, I think the days of scheduled broadcast television are probably numbered and the BBC needs to figure out what it needs to do to survive as the industry evolves, an issue which stretches far beyond the success or otherwise of TG.  Between the likes of YouTube for more subject specific viewing and the plethora of streaming services out there now, live TV at least *in our house* has really become quite irrelevant.  The only thing I think it's been switched to for in the last 12 months has been the most recent episode of Dr Who - and that was purely because the timings happened to work out, otherwise that would have been streamed through iPlayer at a time that suited us anyway.  I know that's not going to be the case for everyone, but it's surely becoming more of a widespread normality as time goes on.

[warren t claim]

Beki Adam was fucking hot back in the day. It's a shame she went batshit crazy.

[Muniphobia]

10 hours ago, wesacosa said:

I think it was Edmonds, Ripon and Goffey rather than Woollard but yes would have been good to see

EDIT: It was actually Goffey, Needell and Ripon

 

 

With the Pantera, noticable they didn't get Quentin Wilson to drive it...

[Metal Guru]

12 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

1st series (1978) was Barrie Gill and Angela Rippon, introduced by Tom Coyne from the Midlands Today programme (because a BBC Pebble Mill production)

It was the 2nd series (1979) that they were joined by Judith Jackson and Noel Edmonds

The 3rd series (1980) was Noel and Frank Page, both Barrie and Angela had left

The 4th series (1980) was when Sue Baker joined

Paddy was with us from Series 27 (2019), crikey has it been that long

Edmonds is almost as irritating as Paddy IMO.

[cort16]

It looks like the grand tour is finished too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67572414

Between Grand Tour and Top Gear they ran that format for 20 years as new Top Gear started in 2003.  It's probably wearing a bit thin. 

Both James may and Clarkson are in their 60's so they've probably had enough.  I don't imagine any of them is short of a quid or two either.

 

I also heard Chris Harris saying he's now full time on Collecting Cars and they're going to go back to doing Chris Harris drives type videos on youtube under the Collecting Cars channel. 

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

All the series of the 2003 onwards Top Gear are now on iPlayer.

I watched the first episode the other day as the Jason Dawe series was never shown on Dave. It is quite interesting to see how much production and filming has come on since 2003. By the way, Richard Hammond looks like he is just out of nappies, Clarkson makes a little quip about moving from 5th Gear to Top Gear whilst ragging a Pagani Zonda about, black stig drives the Zonda and a Murcielago round the track and Harry Enfield is the Star in a Reasonably Price Suzuki Liana.

BBC iPlayer - Top Gear

I might watch the first episode of series 2 to see how awkward James May looked in his first TV appearance.

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

All the series of the 2003 onwards Top Gear are now on iPlayer.

I watched the first episode the other day as the Jason Dawe series was never shown on Dave. It is quite interesting to see how much production and filming has come on since 2003. By the way, Richard Hammond looks like he is just out of nappies.

BBC iPlayer - Top Gear

I might watch the first episode of series 2 to see how awkward James May looked in his first TV appearance.

Not his first appearance... James May was on 'old' Top Gear briefly. Possibly without the spaniel hairdo. 

[flat4alfa]

Yes James May is an old mate of John Bentley, who produced Top Gear in later years.

It was John who ported the format, with presenters, to Fifth Gear

[HMC]

I did go back to new top gear episode 1- 2003 ish - you can see the format developing. The ‘hangar’ only has about 20 people in and clarkson goes on a trip to france in a berlingo.

[cobblers]

Just now, HMC said:

I did go back to new top gear episode 1- 2003 ish - you can see the format developing. The ‘hangar’ only has about 20 people in and clarkson goes on a trip to france in a berlingo.

back then he was only giving staffers the occasional dead leg or chinese burn, its amazing how far he's come

[colino]

I seem to remember Clarkson saying in the early days that with TG you wouldn't see him lifting a bonnet because he didn't understand what the oily bits did and the audience didn't care.  He was right and the trio evolved well into a light entertainment show involving three mates cocking about with cars as a common link. As can be seen by recent imitators, they pulled it off bloody well and nothing else on council telly comes close. 

[martc]

So where will the German car industry get their free advertising from now?

[cort16]

On that Smith and Sniff podcast Richard Porter who worked on Top Gear said that Clarkson wasn't much of a helmsman in the early days, He realised that he needed to get better at it to show off the cars on telly so got Tiffany Needles to teach him how to drive in a show off manner. 

[Spiny Norman]

Don't know if anyone's noticed or cares but Dave has just started showing the very first season of 'New TG' with Jason Dawe instead of James May. Never seen them before.