How fake is Top Gear?

First topic message reminder :

Top Gear have admitted staging a traffic jam    http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-17364742

I'm sure regular viewers of the show will know certain situations in the show are staged, but to what extent?

I would be surprised if 100% of the races weren't faked in some way. A veyron racing a plane 1000 miles and there only being a few minutes in the difference?? Gimme a break!!!

Clarkson breaking his target time round the Nurburgring by 1 second on his last go?? yeah right!!

there are many, many similar examples of this type of fakery being employed in order to up the entertainment value of the show.

Does this ruin the show for you in any way?

Clarkson wins again.

No end to the man's unerring brilliance.

Netflix next, or Sky?

I used to watch Top Gear, back when it was a half-hour show and they reviewed cars you could actually afford. It was a useful programme. I don't know why it morphed into a show that sent its presenters on jollies around the world, paid for in part by the licence-fee payers.

I consider the pointlessness of Clarkson being paid all that money to be on a par with the pointlessness of Robson Green and Ross Kemp

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I used to watch Top Gear, back when it was a half-hour show and they reviewed cars you could actually afford. It was a useful programme. I don't know why it morphed into a show that sent its presenters on jollies around the world, paid for in part by the licence-fee payers.

Because it is no aimed at younger people who like fast cars and want to see supposed humour. Nobody wants to watch a review of a Renault Clio these days.

hampo171 wrote:

Because it is no aimed at younger people who like fast cars and want to see supposed humour. Nobody wants to watch a review of a Renault Clio these days.

Why two 'dinosaurs' (Clarkson's own words) and a middling-getting-there dinosaur presenting it, if it was all about youth and flash?


I think the most serious point about the show though is the attitude of lawlessness on the road.  The Pretend breaking of speed limits on what were in reality closed sections of roads for filming, undoubtedly in my mind added to some of the boy racer road deaths that follow on from so many young guys (and older ones who should know better!) not being able to work out that the show was strictly Fantasy not Real.  These old codgers were breaking no rules... but their actions did goad real young guys to do so.

Chris Evans is the new presenter of Top Gear

I can live with that just depends who surrounds him tbh. If their crap they it be like David Moyes Man Utd Reign doomed to failure..

Evans to host Top Gear....even less reason to watch it now...unless he decides to try and go one better than Hammond and actually kill himself.

ShahenshahG wrote:Always enjoyed it myself, just switch your brain off for an hour and get to see interesting places/people/challenges with mildly (mostly) to very (rarely) funny jokes.

With you on that. Clarkson is the ultimate WUM. Lefties fall for it hook line and sinker

It's basically Evans & Jodie Kidd. Awful

LiamB wrote:It's basically Evans & Jodie Kidd. Awful

Evans is a good choice but Jodie Kidd won't work. TG is at its best when the 3 lads act laddish and just have a bit of fun as they travel around. Don't think a woman is the right chemistry for the show unles they want to go in a different direction.

It'll be another 5th gear....

Former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will be reunited in a new show after signing a deal with Amazon Video.

It's Chris Evans, Chris Harris & Sabine Schmitz presenting the new show. Failed.

Matt LeBlanc has joined as co-host.

That's a good move, fairly popular and a very big car fanatic.

May watch it again to see what he's like on it

Cant be worse than Clarkson from what i saw before.

Yeah, anyone would be better than Clarkson.

Is it just me... but Matt Le Blanc looks incredibly tired and jaded. I got a shock when I saw how much weight he has put on and how he has aged!
I hope he can bring some energy into the mix.

desperate attempt from the BBC to salvage this, given the reports that the show is in a shambolic state, producers leaving & Evans struggling to cope. Le Blanc presented 'Top Gear - The Races' & it was corny as hell. It's a move to get the femail audience, but he's approaching 50 now & just a bit past it, for me. Never be the same show, end of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDtgCnRjztw

Maybe it's just that a car show - heavily staged and scripted (even the ad-libs) - about middle aged men breaking speed limits and talking to camera as they drive along empty public roads - is dated, old hat, long in the tooth, not remotely believable (except to the petrol heads that have just siphoned a gallon of petrol from their lawn mower to put into their daddy's car) and a dead parrot?

Does it really matter whether it's Evans failing, Le Blanc failing or Clarkson failing?  The show itself is 'canned-laughter' cool and a rusty heap of old men reliving their youth by holding a gear stick substitute for parts of themselves they've long lost interest in

Lots of good TV shows had the dignity to just end.  Top Gear doesn't have a lot of it.

I've probably said this before, but I preferred Top Gear when they just reviewed cars people could actually afford. I have no desire to watch people drive supercars across the Serengeti.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I've probably said this before, but I preferred Top Gear when they just reviewed cars people could actually afford. I have no desire to watch people drive supercars across the Serengeti.

I dunno what show you were watching, but they actually drove old bangers across the Serengeti and the other African show, where they tried to find the source of the Nile, they had decent but affordable normal cars.

In fact, if memory serves, the majority of their challenges involved them buying old second-hand cars, be they normal or classic supercars. There were also quite a few where they drove small cars, e.g. the one where they went round the Monaco GP circuit, or where they compared various modes of transport for getting around e.g. the London race between car, public transport, bike and boat.

Only the USA, Italy and Romania shows immediately spring to mind where they all drove brand new supercars.


TG stopped being a consumer-oriented review show years ago, after Channel 5 launched Fifth Gear and become more of an entertainment show...which I think was a smart move on their part.

How "staged" the challenges / races were I have no idea, but they were still inventive and immensely enjoyable IMO.


As for the new show, I won't dismiss it out of hand. I like Chris Evans as a presenter and am willing to give it a shot. Obviously it won't be the same but change isn't necessarily a bad thing.

dyrewolfe wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I've probably said this before, but I preferred Top Gear when they just reviewed cars people could actually afford. I have no desire to watch people drive supercars across the Serengeti.

I dunno what show you were watching

None of them.

Anyway...if Top Gear were just a live action version of the Whacky Races, with storyboard already pre-written, with a written script (even the ad-lib dead pan moments of 'genius' from Clarkson ), stunts rehearsed, public roads closed by the police as the boyo's pretended they were evading the police..... if it was all just a fictional drama cum comedy show, why didn't they just admit it and get on with it.

I think it's the pretence of authenticity that always irritated me - the Reality Show falseness....  anytime I watched bits of it, and that's all I've ever done, I just found myself cringing with embarrassment as grown man Clarkson did his best acting pretending to be waiting for a lost little Hammond somewhere where local drug lords might find him.  

"Where is Hammond?  I thought he was with you?"  

And the Pantomime fans shout at their TV screens: "Oh no you didn't, Clarkson!!!  He's behind You!!!"

.. waiting for his bit to camera:  "I think I'm lost here guys.  I really do.  Okay...this is - getting scary now - seriously"  

"CUT!!!  The line is: 'this is seriously getting scary now'!  Get it right Hammond!"

Clarkson must be pouring himself an extra large glass tonight. Evans is pretty dire.

This is horrifyingly awful

I kinda like LeBlanc.

But Evans is just so awkward its kinda cringey.

I see promise with LeBlanc, but Evans is abysmal

I had to turn the volume down, why is he shouting

Did not watch it, was there any misogyny or lazy xenophobia? Those used to be my favourite bits.

Matt Le Blanc looks like he doesn't want to be there. He actually looks bored. At least Chris Evans brings some energy to the show but maybe he is trying too hard and could calm it down a bit.

Having seen the series so far, all I can say is that Evans is awful. He's simply not needed. The format is pretty samey & the celebrity section is actually quite boring & the 'news' section is a big miss, with Clarkson. The more the series has gone on, I actually feel LeBlanc has got stronger & stronger, even his reviews have been quite decent. I've also been very impressed with Rory Reid, I actually think he's bloody brilliant, engaging, cool & if I had my way, he'd be bloody running the show.

If you like Rory id watch the extra gear bit on the Iplayer. It's just him & Chris Harris it's the thing ive enjoyed most so far They showed how an Rolls Royce was made on the last 1 was interesting.

Chris Evans ‏@achrisevans 8m
Stepping down from Top Gear. Gave it my best shot but sometimes that's not enough. The team are beyond brilliant, I wish them all the best.

Button, Le Blanc & Rory Reid would be my three

Wasn't it a bit of a witch hunt? Be honest people. It's a bit like those campaigns to dislike Youtube Movie Trailers - a display of power by the disgruntled masses.

Poor auld Chris takes the bullet so that the Clarkson cult followers can chant "We did it for You, My Lord!"