Matt LeBlanc announced as Top Gear co-presenter

[deadslow]

r11co said:

That is exactly the trend the BBC thought they could buck by dispensing with Clarkson.

You do know that Clarkcon's contract was not renewed after he made his own position utterly untenable by assaulting a producer?

[Adam Ansel]

The line up is the typical BBC politically correct selection.
But which one is the token homosexual?


It is really amazing that Clare Balding didn't get selected, from a BBC perspective she is nearly perfect.

[confused_buyer]

Isn't this basically a return to the pre-2002 Top Gear idea with a large roster of presenters doing various different film sequences and one or two occasionally being replaced by someone else series to series without anyone really noticing?

[HighwayStar]

Scuffers said:

HighwayStar said:

Scuffers said:

I also suspect that when it's launched, Amazon will have a free month offer they will be pushing hard, so that everybody watches the first episode.

The Amazon free trial offer is always there!

yes, but I bet they start offering free Amazon Fire sticks too... (or some other free access method)

Maybe but you can access lots of stuff, including Prime, without a stick. Apps on Smart TV's, tablets and phone. To be as cynical as those say new Top Gear will fail, I could say Amazon wouldn't be showing much faith in their investment by giving away sticks free to, em, stoke the Amazon Fire

[Scuffers]

HighwayStar said:

Maybe but you can access lots of stuff, including Prime, without a stick. Apps on Smart TV's, tablets and phone. To be as cynical as those say new Top Gear will fail, I could say Amazon wouldn't be showing much faith in their investment by giving away sticks free to, em, stoke the Amazon Fire

remember what the prize is for Amazon, it's not so much about the show as to get people to sign up for Prime.

[r11co]

deadslow said:

You do know that Clarkcon's contract was not renewed...

Yes, that is why I didn't say they'd 'sacked' him.

deadslow said:

....after he made his own position utterly untenable by assaulting a producer?

That is a matter of opinion. The entire course of events was co-incidentally a handy way to fatally weaken Clarkson's bargaining position.

When the dust settles on all of this I'm betting my house the BBC will be the big losers.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 15:34

[Guvernator]

r11co said:

That is a matter of opinion. The entire course of events was co-incidentally a handy way to fatally weaken Clarkson's bargaining position.

When the dust settles on all of this I'm betting my house the BBC will be the big losers.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 15:34

Ohh are you saying you think the whole Clarkson-gate thing was a setup to get him out??

I love a good conspiracy theory me.

[crostonian]

Adam Ansel said:

The line up is the typical BBC politically correct selection.
But which one is the token homosexual?


It is really amazing that Clare Balding didn't get selected, from a BBC perspective she is nearly perfect.

Yes it does seem very white and heterosexual for the BBC, maybe it was Harris' complexion that got him the job......

[marshalla]

crostonian said:

Yes it does seem very white and heterosexual for the BBC,

As far as we know. I wonder if someone is about to be "outed" ?

[unrepentant]

r11co said:

deadslow said:

You do know that Clarkcon's contract was not renewed...

Yes, that is why I didn't say they'd 'sacked' him.

deadslow said:

....after he made his own position utterly untenable by assaulting a producer?

That is a matter of opinion. The entire course of events was co-incidentally a handy way to fatally weaken Clarkson's bargaining position.

When the dust settles on all of this I'm betting my house the BBC will be the big losers.

Richard Porter is a long standing friend and admirer of Clarkson but even he says in his book that the thing was totally Clarkson's fault and the BBC had no choice but to bin him.

[r11co]

Guvernator said:

Ohh are you saying you think the whole Clarkson-gate thing was a setup to get him out??

Not a set-up, but certainly an event that could have been handled differently if the BBC had been so minded.

Just recently read an article about the return of the X-Files, where Gillian Anderson admitted that arguments on-set during the original run often ended up coming to blows. It's not an unusual occurrence apparently, and I don't recall Christian Bale being dropped from Terminator Salvation when he did something similar.

unrepentant said:

Richard Porter is a long standing friend and admirer of Clarkson but even he says in his book that the thing was totally Clarkson's fault and the BBC had no choice but to bin him.

That's because the BBC play by their own set of rules and standards. The comparison between Clarkson and Saville in the days following the incident tell you all you need to know about BBC corporate mentality.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 16:04

[Guvernator]

r11co said:

Not a set-up, but certainly an event that could have been handled differently if the BBC had been so minded.

Just recently read an article about the return of the X-Files, where Gillian Anderson admitted that arguments on-set during the original run often ended up coming to blows. It's not an unusual occurrence apparently, and I don't recall Christian Bale being dropped from Terminator Salvation when he did something similar.

I think in Clarkson's case though, it was probably the straw that broke the camels back as I believe it wasn't an isolated incident plus he did like to publicly court controversy a bit often. OK you could say it was all part of his persona but probably a bit too much for the tastes of the ultra PC BBC. I think the only reason he lasted so long was the oodles of money he brought in or he'd have been gone much sooner. I expect quite a few at the BBC were glad to see the back of him.

[anonymous-user]

Scuffers said:

remember what the prize is for Amazon, it's not so much about the show as to get people to sign up for Prime.

And the larger Amazon evil empire

[Adam B]

r11co said:

That's because the BBC play by their own set of rules and standards. The comparison between Clarkson and Saville in the days following the incident tell you all you need to know about BBC corporate mentality.

What a load of crap!

Not sure where you work but in my office if I punched anyone, including themost junior contracted-out cleaner, I would be fired immediately - and quite rightly too

[r11co]

Adam B said:

r11co said:

That's because the BBC play by their own set of rules and standards. The comparison between Clarkson and Saville in the days following the incident tell you all you need to know about BBC corporate mentality.

What a load of crap!

Not sure where you work but in my office if I punched anyone, including the most junior contracted-out cleaner, I would be fired immediately - and quite rightly too

Yeah, right, whatever..



I suspect your statement is an oversimplification, and in reality the full circumstances of the event would be looked at before a decision was made either way.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 16:20

[limpsfield]

Adam B said:

r11co said:

That's because the BBC play by their own set of rules and standards. The comparison between Clarkson and Saville in the days following the incident tell you all you need to know about BBC corporate mentality.

What a load of crap!

Not sure where you work but in my office if I punched anyone, including themost junior contracted-out cleaner, I would be fired immediately - and quite rightly too

Agreed. It's like a timewarp on here rehashing this old argument again.

[r11co]

limpsfield said:

Agreed. It's like a timewarp on here rehashing this old argument again.

Sorry, was Clarkson not compared to Saville by a BBC exec in the days between the story breaking and a decision being made on his future?

Talk about priming the public and influencing the jury.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 16:31

[limpsfield]

r11co said:

Sorry, was Clarkson not compared to Saville by a BBC exec in the days between the story breaking and a decision being made on his future?

Talk about priming the public and influencing the jury.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 16:31

Let's say he did, I do vaguely remember something along those lines. That was a really stupid thing to say.

What Clarkson did was really stupid. They don't cancel each other out. As mentioned above, in the Porter book the author is very scathing of the incident and he has worked with the man for years.

[unrepentant]

r11co said:

Guvernator said:

Ohh are you saying you think the whole Clarkson-gate thing was a setup to get him out??

Not a set-up, but certainly an event that could have been handled differently if the BBC had been so minded.

Just recently read an article about the return of the X-Files, where Gillian Anderson admitted that arguments on-set during the original run often ended up coming to blows. It's not an unusual occurrence apparently, and I don't recall Christian Bale being dropped from Terminator Salvation when he did something similar.

unrepentant said:

Richard Porter is a long standing friend and admirer of Clarkson but even he says in his book that the thing was totally Clarkson's fault and the BBC had no choice but to bin him.

That's because the BBC play by their own set of rules and standards. The comparison between Clarkson and Saville in the days following the incident tell you all you need to know about BBC corporate mentality.

WTF are you on about? Porter is Clarkson's mate and he said that JC had to go. Nothing to do with Savile (learn to spell if you quote a name) and nothing to do with BBC mentality or standards, just common sense. You punch a colleague you get fired, period.

[r11co]

limpsfield said:

Let's say he did, I do vaguely remember something along those lines. That was a really stupid thing to say.

It definitely happened.

limpsfield said:

What Clarkson did was really stupid. They don't cancel each other out. As mentioned above, in the Porter book the author is very scathing of the incident and he has worked with the man for years.

People do stupid things all the time for all sorts of reasons. Porter is commenting after the fact with all the fallout that ensued (I'm sure he was pretty sore about being caught in it).

Had the incident been handled differently then his opinion would probably have been different too, the book would probably never have been written, and we would not even have got to hear about it as it wouldn't have been newsworthy.

unrepentant said:

You punch a colleague you get fired, period.

If you believe that then you have a very simplistic world view.

Edited by r11co on Thursday 11th February 16:51