[Closed] New Top Gear series...

stumpy01 - Member

they edited out any scenes involving the cenotaph, as far as I can remember.

It was actually made up bullshit- they drove past the cenotaph but the doughnut was a fair way down the road. Evans issued this wonderfully phrased apology:

"It doesn’t matter what actually happened, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances were that could explain this away, what is important about this is what these images look like and they look entirely disrespectful which is not and would never be the intention of the Top Gear team or Matt (LeBlanc).

“On behalf of the Top Gear team and Matt, I would like to apologise unreservedly for what these images seem to portray."

y Clarkson, I've watched the recent three shows, and have to say that I find it infinitely better now that the belligerent racist has gone. Good riddance. Very pleased that our licence fee no longer funds his boorish attention seeking. I really don't think the 'brand' has been damaged at all, and I'm pretty sure it will gain popularity once people realise Clarkson is totally unnecessary. Those needing to continue seeing him on their screens can subscribe to that exciting new digital service, Amazon Prime. So they've not lost anything at all, and the rest of us have gained a programme that's now watchable.

+1

Studio guests/rallycross waste of time.

I actually quite enjoyed even that bit. The reactions at the end when the times were announced were well worth the wait.

Nah, watching average drivers driving slowly around a placid 'safe' course is now officially dull irrespective if its on tarmac or gravel with a little puddle to splash through. I quite fancy having a go myself but watching me do it would be about as interesting as watching paint dry. It matters not one jot if they are a media luvvy or have a film to promote. I think it's time to find another 'vehicle' to get them on the show if having recognisable guests is an important element.

Drac it was reported that the car was doing doughnuts around the cenetaph.

Telegragph reporting that Evans will take more of a back seat, as/when he's not on the show at all I'll take a look.

As for licence fee funding of Clarkson without him and the other two the BBC is going to be £10's millions pa worse off. What was a very popular and profitable programme sold internationally is a now a dud.

Drac - Moderator

The cenotaph was never involved the press try to make it look that way.

Northwind - Member

It was actually made up bullshit- they drove past the cenotaph but the doughnut was a fair way down the road. Evans issued this wonderfully phrased apology:

Yep. I was aware that it was a case of using a long lens to foreshorten the scene & make it look like they were on top of the cenotaph, when actually they were down the road from it, but he still ended up having to 'apologise'.

There has definitely been en effort to discredit/smear the new TG show with constant tales of how the team aren't getting on, Chris Evans being a diva, the show being late etc....

Anyhoo - you can see from this pic how people might be lead into believing they were 'at the cenotaph'...

[img] [/img]

Agree with many of the points above. Having watched 20 mins of the first episode and thought 'oh dear', missed episode 2 altogether I managed to catch the latest and enjoyed it. Liked the new presenters and the fact they all got a section to present. I also like the fact it's leaning back to the car nerds after going too far the other way.

I used to enjoy watching old top gear with my boy (which is who it was aimed at), but new top gear is just dull, dumbed down TV without the funny bits.
No more for me until they replace Evans.

Yup they did apologise but there were no donuts around the cenotaph.

I enjoyed Sunday's. Ken Block feature needed more commentary on the car but it was fun.

I hated the first episode, the second one had me laughing a bit so looking forward to the third episode given the feedback I have heard so far but that won't be until I have finished watching Happy Valley.

And I've just watched the latest episode,

Clearly I'm no longer the demographic because I'm now using the Fast FWD on the Sky box.

Don't like Chris Harris, didn't like the race around London, mildly enjoyed the R8, hated the Star in a Rally Car and no interest in RS Fords (though thought the A45 was interesting)

That's pretty much it, I've watched about 10mins all in.

I like the fact that I'm no longer in the demographic that the programme is aimed at.

Anyhoo - you can see from this pic how people might be lead into believing they were 'at the cenotaph'...

[img] [/img]

^^^ Drac

Yup they did apologise but there were no donuts around the cenotaph.

Yes I know the lens foreshortens things but OMG !

That'll be what caused the marks on the road on that you can see on the previous photo. It's not donuts and not exactly on the cenotaph.

My mate works at Ford Dagenham, they filmed a bit where the car drove out of the hovering helicopter. Must not have made it into the edit for the show.

My mate works at Ford Dagenham, they filmed a bit where the car drove out of the hovering helicopter. Must not have made it into the edit for the show.

Some of that made it into the Extra Gear show on t'iPlayer.

Top Gear was a parody of itself. That was part of it's appeal. The problem with the new Top Gear is that there is a seriousness to it.

There was always a sense in the old Top Gear that the presenters took the piss out of the show and themselves. This is what made a group of millionairres driving cars that cost more than the houses the viewers lived in entertaining, as opposed to gauling.

The new Top Gear is extremely earnest. They have too much respect for the "format", an overblown format that only worked because the old presenters actively took the piss out of it.

When you have such an overblown show you need presenters to bring it back down to Earth. That's what the old team did so well. An over-exiciteable, over-the-top guy like Chris Evans just creates a rather, weird, manic atmosphere. Matt le Blanc is OK, his dead pan style actually works pretty well to bring things back to Earth. Evans on the other hand really needs to go soon if the show has a future beyond this series.

They have too much respect for the "format", an overblown format that only worked because the old presenters actively took the piss out of it.

In fairness to the BBC I don't think they had (have) any choice. You take away the three presenters and the format too you have a blank canvass or more likely nothing and that's too big a risk.

Chris Evans is a marmite character, where the BBC have failed is that there is IMO very little audience crossover between the other work he does and TG

In fairness to the BBC I don't think they had (have) any choice. You take away the three presenters and the format too you have a blank canvass or more likely nothing and that's too big a risk

Yeah I can understand this. I think it was always going to be trial and error. I think the show can work, but it needs rid of Evans. His presenting style jars with the show. They need someone a bit more down to earth, a bit less "showbizz". You don't need someone as manic as Evans to push it along. The cars, the locations and stunts do very well to keep it going, what you need ia presenters to glue it together and give it some sort of context. Evans doesn't give it a context.

That'll be what caused the marks on the road on that you can see on the previous photo. It's not donuts and not exactly on the cenotaph.

You wouldn't make a very good Detective, Drac!

Have another (closer) look!

What is with the echo in the studio? Did Clarkson's paunch absorb any stray reverberations in the old days?

You're going have to give me a clue Columbo.

The Star in a Car bit was dull, the Ken Block bit was utterly pointless and not remotely entertaining and the Audi / Ferrari bits were very average.

The only piece I enjoyed was the Focus RS section.

I'll keep persevering with it but I am not that impressed overall.

Getting better each episode .

Sundays went by in a flash , had to check my watch to check an hour had passed .

Enjoying to Extra show also .

Funny, the Ken Block bit is possibly one of my favourite top gear bits ever. That car, utterly bonkers.

PrinceJohn - Member

Funny, the Ken Block bit is possibly one of my favourite top gear bits ever.

Yep. Agreed.

"That car, utterly bonkers."

I thought it was some sort of mad souped up Ford Granada. Would have been nice to have had a bit about the car itself.

clodhopper - Member
"That car, utterly bonkers."

I thought it was some sort of mad souped up Ford Granada. Would have been nice to have had a bit about the car itself.

Would have been nice to have had a bit about the car itself.

The format of the piece seemed to be:

'Cool RAF drop in intro'

"Scream, screech, howl, growl, rah'

'Cool Apocalypse Now style outro'

No explanations (ie, I had no idea who Ken Block was), no plot (ie, the format was just 'let's race around', rather than 'we need to get to X to beat Y on his Z').

Ohh, and we have a red button.

Utterly weird as a piece of television.

Just watching Extra Gear from last week, and as per episode 1, it's better than TG (IMHO).

Fortunately each episode is better than the last... Still not a big fan of Chris Evans, but to be honest Jeremy Clarkson was getting a little tedious over the last few seasons anyway, so no worse off there. I do miss James May though!

I watched Fifth Gear on Quest last night. It was ace 😀

VBH/Plato/TIFF/Jony have a weird sublime chemistry when they are all together at once.

"Some say...... He thinks Brexit is a laxative"

I fell off my chair

Very good again this evening

I just want Brian Cox's Star Wars Tshirt!!!

Well I laughed 🙂

Most entertaining TBF

I just want Brian Cox's Star Wars Tshirt!!!

I've got that t-shirt.

Get yours here:

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The new format is in it's stride, really good TV I thought. Loved the harris Vulcan feature and I think they have improved the star in a car format a lot.

Gave episode 3 a go mainly due to favourable reviews on here.

It is awful, I dont like Evans but the rest of the presenters were so wooden.

It is just like they are all trying to be the other 3

Best yet, still not as funny as some of the old ones but getting better.

Star in a car is getting better, TBH i think some of why it didn't work the last few weeks is just unfamiliarity with the new track, hard to get excited if you can't see what's fast/slow. Still hate the bloody autocue.

TOO
MANY
GUESTS!

Otherwise, fun.

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I see what you have done there.

Well that was..

[img] [/img]

I watched American Werewolf in London instead. Sunday night is now film night.

Eddie Jordan needs to be dumped from the show ASAP, otherwise not bad, it's only telly

Mmmm Jenny Agutter in a shower.

Agreed re. Eddie Jordan and not keen on Sabine either.

Matt Le Blanc is doing pretty well though.

For me tonight's was better than last week. Just.

Vulcan is a GT race car so why not talk about its abilities as such rather than the usual whooping, gurning and drifting shots?
The Tesla article should have been good, but introducing it by comparing it to the Model T when it's a £90k car was silly.
The challenge was the usual hackneyed crock. Celebrity chefs FFS? Looking forward to next week's challenge where Mary Berry darns a pair of socks in the boot of a Morris Oxford.
The rest I fast forwarded through.
Shit.

I don't think this episode was anywhere near as good as last weeks. Evans adds nothing and needs to disappear. Star in a reasonably priced car was too long and boring. The challenge was also rubbish. That Vulcan was something else though.

Thank you beamers

Thought tonight's was quite good if you discount the EJ bits, the SS bits, the CE bits and the challenge. It's getting there.

I'm won over that the show has a future. EJ & SS I could live without and the fake race element of the challenges seem even more of a weak inessential strap on than on the old show but it's growing on me as light work avoidance iplayer viewing.

Really dull - again.

I do like Matt and Chris. The others are just boring.

Once again the challenge was a total waste of time as it lacked any car journalism, other than a single line about the cars/bikes at the start, there was no information about what it's like to buy or run a (relatively) old and cheap luxury car/bike. I find EJ uncomfatble to watch and SS can drive, but is shite at presenting (they'd have been better off giving SS the stig's job)

Worst episode so far 😕

Vulcan is just a virtual racing car 😯 Like lots of other similar cars.

Any program with cooking\food\chefs is a big turn off for me. Fast forward 😥

Star in a car is far too long as well.

The Aston Vulcan section was excellent, if a bit short and dumbed-down compared to Harris' own videos. The Tesla part was good too, although a little cringey in places.

Skipped through the challenge and SIARC parts which just looked dire.

Oh and I think I've figured out what is so off putting about Evans (apart from being 50 and dressing like a teenage rent boy)....it's his hair. He must be dying it to retain his trademark gingerness. Just looks creepy and weird. Weirder.

Can't be doing with the high fives and hugging!
Star in a rather overpriced mini is too long, get rid of the two personalities, get rid of the car history and just have a celeb hooning around the track plus a bit of chit chat.
Otherwise it seems to be settling down.
Still can't stand Evans though.

It also annoyed me that they put the time up for the Vulcan but didn't say what the fastest 'legal' time is as a point of reference.

Anyone know?

1:13.8 or something (it was on the board) - not 'that' quick.

[unless I've got your question wrong]

This thread amuses me, half the people disliking the show because it's too much like old top gear, with no serious motoring journalism and the other half disliking it because they are trying to keep to the same formula
They couldn't win whatever they did

I find it inoffensive light entertainment with an under running car theme and some characters I like more than others (not fussed by Evans, don't like Jordan, quite like Sabines 'germanness', the friends guy and Harris are both good)
In other words, pretty much the same format as this forum
If I wanted serious reviews of cars Top gear would never have been my first port of call, likewise if I wanted an hour of belly laughs I would look elsewhere but as a way of passing an hour on an otherwise lazy Sunday evening, distracting myself from thinking about the return to work the next day it's pretty much fine, and certainly more watchable than it had become with Clarkson and Hammond (May excluded he was good and I think would still fit well into the new show)

I quite like the 'new' version and thought that the last episode (4) was the best so far. It is a harmless hour of TV with a car theme. if you don't like it, don't watch it.

May excluded he was good and I think would still fit well into the new show

i think it would be better if they dropped all the old and frankly tired catchphrases, 'some say....' be new presenters, bring their own personalities, indent try to be clones of the old guard. watchable, but i record it so i can skip the shit.

I watched the show for the first time last night. I did try, but I just can't watch it with Chris Evans. He's like a 60yr old man dressing, and oddly sounding, like a schoolboy. Rest of the show seems fine, but with him front and centre it just won't work for me, ymmv of course.

Watching it now. Chris Harris impression of James May presenting was better than his dull style last week,

I watched it last night and it entertained me for an hour - so job done! 😀

Part of the problem is the old show evolved from brand new and exciting into comfy trainers. Then the new shoe is new trainers trying to be comfy trainers so I find it awkward to watch. Evans is not right as nothing he says is original, he is best when he is original, and he looks daft too. The US chap sounds daft, get rid of Evans and the US chap and I reckon it would work way better with the German and the two others whose names Ive no clue. I think the German lass is/has been the stig before?

The Vulcan is to be sold in limited numbers according to the show which I guess makes it a production car? Maybe that would mean AM could race a 'race version' at Le Mans and have give Ford/Ferrari etc a proper battering?

The final straw for me was when they changed the challenge trip into a full on race at the last minute, seemed weak and desperate.

Biggest disappointment is the show being a re-tread of the old TG and Evans struggling to stop impersonating Clarkson. Evans made stupendous millions when he was young by taking on tired enterprises and breathing new life into them (and then selling them for 10 times what he'd paid for them). I don't listen to his radio show but it looks like he's either lost his golden touch or bottled it with such a big brand.

I've suffered the three episodes - if this was a brand new show with no history still wouldn't like it! There's no chemistry between the presenters, essential on these shows with multiple staff. The scripting is dire and the ad libs awful. When you put it up against the previous three middle aged men cocking around with some car content its woeful as they try and ape the relationship built over 21 series. I know it makes (made) shed loads of cash for the BBC but they really should have put it down quietly when Clarkson decided to resign in an unorthodox manner!

I'm warming to it. To be completely fair, the chemistry between Clarkson, May and Hammond took years to develop so you can't expect the same camaraderie after four episodes with new hosts.

Chris Harris is absolutely bloody brilliant though, he is the star of it all for me.

Sabine...well, as I mentioned once before I had a Teutonic fling in my mid teens so a tall, blonde lass who says "Jah!" a lot automatically gets my approval. However, she's beginning to get on my tits. I've found some of the early TG extra dialogue between her and Rory Reid to be excruciating - I swear she told him that if she took him around the track, she'd "make [him] pale". I sucked air through my teeth at that.

And there's Eddie. At least we know he's good with spoons.

Evans made stupendous millions when he was young by taking on tired enterprises and breathing new life into them (and then selling them for 10 times what he'd paid for them).

But Top Gear was at the top of its game financially, hence the caution, I don't watch it but if they manage the decline that will produce a decent financial result - foreign sales being the key rather than UK audience.

It's an hours car based entertainment. Which is fine by me. Done bits better than others, same as a lot of shows.

Not convinced Eddie Jordan is needed, and not sure why but somewhat disappointed with Sabine. Seems to be playing the token female/German too much perhaps? Not as natural as her previous appearances.

Loving Matt taking over the lead from Evans though. Always the plan perhaps?

2.3m viewers. I forsee substantially below 2m (heading for 1.5m?)) by end of series then another rehash. I can't see foreign broadcasters taking up expensive options, they'll want to renegotiate lower on price.

Mefty- agree which is why it made Evans an odd choice if you're going for cautious continuity. Like hiring Heston Blumenthal to cook a microwave meal.

The size of the team always seemed to be hedging their bets, if say Sabine or Eddy J prove unpopular they can be quietly phased out with minimal impact.

Evans suggested the Aston segment was the best track segment ever. It wasn't even the best hyper car on a foreign F1 circuit, it had nothing that the bonkers Lambo in Monaco hadn't done. Nice noise though.

^^^ imho the right move

Any film recommendations for my film night on Sunday night?

They can cut his role as much as they want, it still has a weird, dull feel to it.

hora - Do agree with you there, I mainly watched top gear for the comments made by Clarkson, May and Hammond and loved watching them winding each other up.

I get it'll take a while for the new guys to build that chemistry, but don't think it will ever be as good as it was.

More Chris Harris?

I'll be like watching 80s repeats of Top Gear without the bad fashion.