TV Live Forum

Well, that's a wrap on the latest 4-part series. What did you think? A valiant effort in the circumstances, I thought, but I did sorely miss the elaborate overseas shoots.

Given the circumstances, I think it's been excellent overall. (Has anyone really missed the Star in a Car segment? It didn't really work without Clarkson as the interviewer).

It's a shame that the move to BBC One coincided with them being severely hampered production wise, but I think at the moment the show is the best it's been for a long time. It was sad that Matt LeBlanc left but the current team work a lot better chemistry wise.

Paddy, Freddie and Chris have really hit it off from Day One. I don’t think they’ve missed going abroad as being in the UK for this series has been just as enjoyable. The first episode with the Dad cars was certainly the best episode in a long time, which they admitted to really enjoy filming. As said, it’s a shame the BBC One move has been hampered by COVID, but they’ve done well to get some decent films in the can in the circumstances.

Matt LeBlanc was someone you could tell who enjoyed doing the films and the trips, but he wasn’t a good presenter. The lads now are far better, whilst Paddy isn’t the biggest Petrol head, he’s certainly the strongest presenter out of the three.

I notice that a Top Gear tribute to Sabine Schmitz has popped up on iPlayer a few days ahead of being aired on TV - things obviously regularly get put on iPlayer before they're shown on TV these days but it's still not often a one-off/individual episode of a show gets posted beforehand. I might be mistaken, but I think it's also the first time Clarkson, Hammond and May have all appeared in something Top Gear-related since they left the show.

I’ve enjoyed it. This current lineup works really well. I gave up with the Clarkson era long before they left. I don’t even think the show is hampered by having to stay in the UK this year, nor by the lack of the celebrity based feature. They do, however, now rely a lot on either one big recorded event or two events per episode but I think this still works well.

I think the trio they have now are the strongest since CHM. Whilst I still prefer The Grand Tour overall, Top Gear is finding its own identity in "the new era" finally - and with TGT now devoted to infrequent specials, it's no bad thing that TG is doing the "classic" format.

I think with hindsight it was simply unfortunate that because of how it happened, Top Gear weren't able to run a proper succession plan - the lads would have inevitably retired at some point anyway.

Although the minimising of the "studio" sequences during the last two series was clearly born of necessity due to the pandemic, I would be happy for the show to stay like this (more or less) permanently. For me, the "Star In A Car" type stuff has not been missed.

The single Chris Evans series in particular made the mistake of trying to be "the-same-but-different" from the CHM era (e.g. Star In A Reasonably-Priced Car becoming Star In A Reasonably Fast Car, along with the lap itself being partly off-road/"rally-fied").

Things like the continuation of the "Some say that he... (insert surreal nonsense here)... but all we know is he's call the Stig" introductions inevitably made things come across in a "Poor Man's Clarkson" way, rather than finding a totally new way of doing things.

The LeBlanc/Harris/Reid era of course improved things considerably (hardly a big ask...). Things like LeBlanc's daft "tests" of random non-car vehicles (e.g. tractors, winnebagos, JCBs, or whatever) was exactly the kind of genuinely new element that the Evans series had spectularly failed to come up with. I'm sure that no tears would be shed if the original mastertapes of the Evans series were "accidentally" destroyed.

It goes without saying that the show has really hit its stride under the current line-up, evidenced by its promotion to BBC One. More of this, please.

Critique post_id=2934 time=1617576253 user_id=867 Wrote:I notice that a Top Gear tribute to Sabine Schmitz has popped up on iPlayer a few days ahead of being aired on TV - things obviously regularly get put on iPlayer before they're shown on TV these days but it's still not often a one-off/individual episode of a show gets posted beforehand. I might be mistaken, but I think it's also the first time Clarkson, Hammond and May have all appeared in something Top Gear-related since they left the show.

I think the BBC One showing might have been a last minute decision, when the programme was announced a few days ago there was no mention of it being on TV, just iPlayer from 9pm on Sunday.

A lovely tribute.

I daresay there's an element of people on both sides "holding their noses" in the interests of making a tribute to a colleague, but I wonder if enough water has now passed under the bridge for a Top Gear Vs Grand Tour challenge (like the Top Gear Vs Top Gear USA one) in a couple of years once things are back to normal?

I think the new Top Gear with Flintoff, Harris & McGuinness really is excellent and matches or maybe even surpasses the original trio at times, the first episode about the Dads car was one of the best episodes of Top Gear for a long time and looking forward to the next series. While not many Grand Tour episodes are about any more it is great we have 2 excellent car based entertainment shows on television and if you asked me to pick my favourite at the minute it would probably be Top Gear.

I also have a question as Jeremy Clarkson & Andy Wilman resurrected Top Gear in 2002 do they get money from its current success?

ulsterman post_id=3005 time=1617615684 user_id=1436 Wrote:I also have a question as Jeremy Clarkson & Andy Wilman resurrected Top Gear in 2002 do they get money from its current success?

I believe BBC Worldwide (as it was at the time) became sole holder of the rights when they bought Bedder 6 from Clarkson and Wilman in 2012.

The tribute to Sabine was very well done - good to see the old guard putting aside any differences to celebrate her life. No Chris Evans though.

adamiow post_id=3132 time=1617647469 user_id=1277 Wrote:The tribute to Sabine was very well done - good to see the old guard putting aside any differences to celebrate her life. No Chris Evans though.

I recently watched an interview with Chris Harris on YouTube, he mentions he still talks with Matt LeBlanc, but not Chris Evans.

I will agree that it does seem disappointing that he wouldn’t appear for a tribute.

To be fair he was only there a year and at that point both Harris and Sabine were part of a team of I think 7 presenters who probably each filmed just a couple of items with Chris, and Chris Evans has paid tribute to her on air during his radio show.

We don't know if he was asked to appear but there is far more to her story than being an occassional member of the Top Gear team.

Brekkie post_id=3148 time=1617652784 user_id=976 Wrote:We don't know if he was asked to appear but there is far more to her story than being an occassional member of the Top Gear team.

Having just finished watching the documentary, I didn’t realise how much she was in the programme between 2016 and 2018. I guess most people remember her time from the show in its earlier years. But the documentary did mention her life outside of Top Gear.