Top Gear (2002-2015) Phase II (2016-)

She sounds the right person to take the BBC on the right course and we wish her the best of luck.

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Erica Ambler wrote:

Zero percent for comprehension, Hilly, she's just left the BBC. Really, d'you think she'd dare say all that if she was still working there? The BBC has a gulag in Shepherd's Bush for employees who speak out of turn.

Didn't know. Too right though about the Beeb Beeb Ceeb (copyright Peter Sellers) though. And as I was in Shepherd's Bush last night (in a bar called the Defector's Weald curiously) I will say the whole place is a gulag. Sort of Siberia but with a motorway through it.

A new thread isn't worth the effort, not until the Great Adventure or whatever it's called gets going but the 'new' Top Gear starts Sunday at 8.

I'll give it a bash. But, well, you know.

'The Grand Tour' ... dull title, IMHO. The rumoured 'Gear Knobs' would've been bloody perfect.

Still, I don't have Amazon Prime and have no intention of getting it. So I too will be giving the under-new-management Top Gear a go.

I ditched Prime as I somehow got it without realising -think when I was ordering stuff they said do you want Prime for delivery and I figured it, er, meant express. Ripper Street's post-BBC first season was Amazon Prime then the Beeb aired it. Now...I don't see them doing that for Clarkson, Hammond & May but then they did run TG repeats on BBC3 forever and a day.

In short, I think when it comes to it...I'll find a way to watch the boys in action one more time.

I'm not mad on it straight off the bat but will press on with it regardless to see if it settles. It's kind of funny, it's Top Gear but not -but then again it's what it is. General consensus online is against the new version but Matt LeBlanc isn't too bad and probably could do the show alone. Initially it was like a TFI Friday.

Having a look at this social media consensus via the Telegraph et al, people seemed to be asking when the Grand Tour kicked off and is it soon?

I enjoyed it but the formula screams for the original trio rather than the laboured/enforced camaraderie of Evans and LeBlanc...maybe it will come with time but I think the show might be playing it a bit too safe atm and that vital missing ingredient needs an original substitute.

Will be iPlayering it tonight. From what I hear your TFI Friday comparison is well-made, Hilly ... apparently Evans shouts a lot, as if he was still presenting TFI and trying to make himself heard above a rowdy crowd.

Agree on your comment Lachesis about them playing it safe. I see though that James May likes it which made me imagine the other two looking at each other in a knowing way and groaning: "May!"

And yes, Blunty, Evans was...far too excitable. They also have an upper tier for the audience now. All we need is some novelty games in the studio followed by Noel Gallagher sliding down a mudchute and performing a song whilst Evans gets his son to ask questions afterwards.

Having now watched it, I can say that I thought it wasn't too bad. Certainly not the crime against broadcasting/humanity that the online vitriol would suggest.

I will watch Sunday and see if I don't keep getting up during it. Not exactly vitrolic but I ended up gardening. As such. And Youtubing old TG clips.

Gardening? Wow, that's bad.

New Top Gear is at any rate continuing to make use of John Barry and bumping up royalties: Girl with the Sun in Her Hair last week and YOLT last night (though probably just the song's instrumental, sounded more the variation used in film when Bond and Kissy go it alone). David Arnold's "I'm the Money" made an appearance also.

Otherwise, in recent weeks the show's ratings have plummeted to Top Gear series two levels (in 2003) when presumably the show adjusted (with Hammond brought in replacing Auto Trader guy) and somehow went on to claim 9-10m viewings. Last week TG dropped to 2.7m.

It has its moments but uberfan I am of the gang, it just feels a bit odd and off but I'm sticking to the end if but for Sabine Schmitz.

Sunday night's was probably the best of this series so far ... the 'cars with chefs vs. the Orient Express' race was good fun, as was Prof. Cox vs. Bear Grylls in the rallycross segment.

I could honestly take or leave Rory Reid and whoever that other bloke was.

Overall the series is just about ok, in many ways though it reminds me more of Channel 5's Gadget Show than Top Gear, yes we have a good subject base, yes the presenters are doing stuff you imagine would be fun and yes they seem to be having fun.....but whereas with Clarkson, May & Hammond having fun or otherwise in adversity was oddly engaging and actually fun to watch here you are just watching other people's fun, the very best moments ironically coming from the guests.

Speaking of Gadget Show shame ol' Suzy Perry didn't make the new TG line-up. I think you summed it up in a nutshell, Lach'. Shame really it's gone this way, supposedly the ratings slipped even further but you have the catch-up services to boot.

As for the challenge, it was good though I couldn't help but picture a Clarkson reaction to Matt LeBlanc on his bike if he had been there. That bike was a beast and the CHiPs music perfect. Did he actually turn up? Some say a cursing American roamed the waterways of Venice for days until chased off by a metal-toothed leviathan.

Well, despite his 'you have to take the viewing figures from the catch-up services into account' defiance Chris Evans has announced his departure ... after a single 6-episode series. Dunno how much truth there is in the rumour that LeBlanc refused to return unless Evans was fired ... what is true (it would seem) is that police are investigating a recently-made claim of historic sexual assault against Evans.

Supposedly figures have slipped below two million but then there was Euro 2016 as well. Wimbledon's cited but even with the extra Middle Sunday that coverage finished ahead of nTG.

Rumour has it that LeBlanc could take centre now. Some say that all for a hot piece of food.

All we know, is that the BBC has a vacancy and though I can't drive, I can do a passable Clarkson impression. To a point.

Something I wasn't aware of at the time is that Oisin Tymon didn't even report the incident to the BBC himself. Which is kind of sad considering he was very much blamed at the time for the end of the Hammond/May/Clarkson version of the show.
Apparently other members of production pressured Clarkson to admit to the incident himself. Tymon had kept silent about it.
I don't think this was ever properly reported at the time. Though admittedly I did not follow the story that closely.

I wasn't aware of that either.

At the time I remember feeling like the three of them doing Top Gear couldn't last much longer. Maybe it was just feeling the show had gone stale somewhat.

Grand Tour was never quite the same, but it has had its moments. I remember thinking the first series was much fresher than the last couple TG series.

I just saw the next GT special is coming out in a week or so. Usually watch those quickly after release.

I will admit I am looking more forward to the next series of Clarkson's Farm. That first series was the most entertained I've been by him in some time and overall one of the better show-watching experiences I've had in years.

Top Gear is, for me, back to being a really fun (and at times, poignant) watch with the current trio of presenters (Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, Chris Harris).

Haven't watched since Clarkson, May, and Hammond. It looked pretty unappealing straight after but it's nice to hear it has improved. I guess I should check in on it.