RE: Top Gear comes 'to rest' indefinitely

[Trebor1970]

Don Roque said:

Probably because Flintoff lived, so there was no public hearing about the case as there would have been if it had a case for a Coroner to deal with. With all the legal wrangling behind the scenes (he has secured a massive payout), it makes sense that neither party would comment on the crash in any detail.

Reports suggest it was a low-speed flip in a Morgan three wheeler and Flintoff wasn't wearing a helmet. I can imagine he might be quite embarrassed about it and not wanting to comment publicly on the matter. Unlike say, Chris Harris, he wasn't really a 'driver' but always seemed comfortable with taking risks.

I hadn't watched the show in quite a while (I prefer the more analytical content available on YouTube), though I feel sorry for those who enjoyed it that have now had it taken away (again). I hope Chris Harris can go on to find similar work.

Er, I think Hammond lived too...

It wasn't a low speed accident and FF was a little more than embarrassed - he was critically injured.

[KarlMac]

CarlosSainz100 said:

Why is there a big mystery still over the actual 'incident'?

When Hammond crashed we got to find out exactly what happened, but with this everyone seems to have taken up the code of omerta.

I assumed there is an element of protecting Morgan as well, if anyone was to suggest the car was at fault or contributed in anyway it could leave BBC Studios in a sticky situation if Morgan decide to take issues with the comments.

It’s a shame it’s gone. I have a strong dislike of McGuinness but felt that Harris and Flintoff were good enough to get me to ignore just how irritating and cringeworthy Paddy was.

[Angelo1985]

Boo-urns said:

Still off-topic, but I’ll bite anyway.

The BBC is supposedly impartial. Granted, that isn’t always 100% assured, but it’s most definitely one of the most reliable sources of mainstream news in the UK. Compare it to any of the daily national newspapers, for example, and it comes off smelling of roses.

To suggest that its state news is moronic and veering into tin foil hat territory. It frequently reports news that exposes government corruption/incompetence etc. Here are three examples live on BBC news right now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67479548
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-67451423
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-674...

Thank you very much, Sir. You summed it all up perfectly.

Also, being myself a foreigner, I can say that people that criticise the bbc (which is far from perfect) have never seen news in other countries. To me (and I definitely don’t come from some third world dictatorship) the bbc is great journalism with some minor issues.

[Angelo1985]

pb8g09 said:

Last comment I'll make on it as I don't want to derail this topic, but we have to remember why the NHS existed in the first place- to keep people alive and get them back working. It was never set up as a service for mental health, fertility treatment, gender changes, sexual health teaching, treating overweight or pissed up teenagers etc. and so forth. As a result, it means cost of running it is significantly higher than the business case it originally sat on. I won't go into the merits of all the aforementioned treatments, but there has to be an acceptance that if you want to 'offer' all these 'products', it's going to create big issues on affordability- that maybe only privatisation can fix.

Mate, this comment is so ignorant that trying to explain you why it is would have the same effect as explaining nuclear physics to a rock. As if mental health, sexual health, substance intoxication etc were not worth of being part of modern medicine.
Go trolling elsewhere.

[RonnieHotdogs]

Benny Saltstein said:

Chris Harris is heavily involved with the Collecting Cars auction platform which also has loads of content on YouTube including a fantastic weekly podcast which is well worth a listen/watch.

He’s also just released an autobiography.

His recent M2 video review is definitely worth a watch.

[donkmeister]

je777 said:

(TV detector vans simply don't exist: nobody's ever seen one, nobody's ever been caught by one, nobody's ever worked in one. Plus they've been telling us that they have that technology since the 80s.)

Well that's rubbish, I've seen one. Council estate in the North East as a kid. Around 1990ish. Maybe you're just too posh so they didn't need them round your way.

Unless your argument is "they drove vans around pretending they could detect TVs". No idea. However it's really not difficult to pick up a signal from a receiving TV, especially an old analogue jobby. Van Eck Phreaking, if you want to see working examples. Or just find an Electronic Engineering undergraduate and say "receivers do not transmit", then retreat to a safe distance as they mentally run through every time they got screwed over by spurious emissions. There's a risk that their head will explode, mind.

[TameRacingDriver]

RonnieHotdogs said:

Benny Saltstein said:

Chris Harris is heavily involved with the Collecting Cars auction platform which also has loads of content on YouTube including a fantastic weekly podcast which is well worth a listen/watch.

He’s also just released an autobiography.

His recent M2 video review is definitely worth a watch.

Agreed, that was really good.

[BigRobbo]

The show had lost its way, Flintoff and McGuiness weren't car people they were just people who could afford flash cars. The best line up after Clarkson May and Hammond was Chris Harris Rory Read an Matt Leblanc.

[carlo996]

The last few episodes with flintoff, Harris and shouty were better than the last two series with those old blokes.

It’d be good to see it return but in a car hating woke world I won’t hold my breath

[Bradgate]

Very few people outside Freddie’s family and his close mates in cricket knew of the extent of his injuries until he re-appeared in public during the Ashes series this summer. It’s obvious that he had a very rough time, both physically and mentally.

The decision to bin TG is not a surprise. A non-PC bloke’s car show isn’t exactly a good for in today’s ultra-woke, green-obsessed BBC. The Clarkson, Hammond, May era was obviously its golden period, and it should never have moved to BBC1. In retrospect, we were lucky that JC managed to make so many episodes before the inevitable happened and he overstepped the mark one time too many.

[Leins]

At last, time to get Driven back on the box now instead

[donutskidmark]

Towards the end Top Gear was extremely tedious and not very entertaining imho.
Chris Harris is obviously a great driver but I seriously went off him after following his Instagram account for a while- if anyone dare be critical or slight him in a post he would sometimes slaughter them in response- he came across as a bully and not very pleasant.

[smilo996]

NicoG said:

Got a notification on my phone about this and made a rare visit to the BBC News site to read the article.
Photo of FF seems to show pretty clearly that he suffered serious (at least) facial injuries. I had no idea it was so bad....

£9M settlement though? - I guess they'll be launching even more investigations into me now, with that to recoup from somewhere other than licence fee income...

not a great reader of articles then. It is made by BBC Studios which is the commercial arm, nothing to do with the license fee. Studios have paid, likely via insurance.

[smilo996]

seems like a very W1A decision. Especially as they are "excited about new projects being developed with each of them".
Given his injuries, can understand that FF would not want to continue. Given all the ludicrous amount of s**t thrown at the show after Thumper was rightly sacked and they shuffled off to work for the yankee dollar, this seems like a typically shot in the foot from the BBC. It was back on its feet and Monkey is the best motoring journo out there.

[pb8g09]

Angelo1985 said:

Mate, this comment is so ignorant that trying to explain you why it is would have the same effect as explaining nuclear physics to a rock. As if mental health, sexual health, substance intoxication etc were not worth of being part of modern medicine.
Go trolling elsewhere.

No you’ve just chosen to read what I said with your own set argument already prepared. I never said any of those things were not part of modern medicine. I simply stated that when the NHS was set up those treatments did not exist, and now we are in a position where perhaps to offer the best health service on a breadth of modern medicines may require us to explore privatisation.

Don’t seek offence where there isn’t any being dished out.

[fantheman80]

TameRacingDriver said:

RonnieHotdogs said:

Benny Saltstein said:

Chris Harris is heavily involved with the Collecting Cars auction platform which also has loads of content on YouTube including a fantastic weekly podcast which is well worth a listen/watch.

He’s also just released an autobiography.

His recent M2 video review is definitely worth a watch.

Agreed, that was really good.

I felt the swearing added to the piece and was a little wink to camera of what he’d like to have naturally liked to say on top gear. First reviewer I’ve heard that likes the manual though. Black is defo the best colour for M2

[hidetheelephants]

JakeT said:

MajorMantra said:

je777 said:

We mock other countries for having state media news. And if you ask any foreigner who has come to this country, you'll find that they have the same opinion of BBC News.

Not to distract from the topic of the article, but so what if they do? The BBC is not an arm of the government. If it were, members of the government wouldn't constantly be complaining about its coverage.

Channel 4 is State owned, and has the only news programme worth watching, should one be so inclined.

C4 News is produced by ITN, a commercial news production company.

[rallye101]

Seems a real shame, was running around tge aerodrome today....seems a graveyard for ba jumbos and a lot of building going on....

[Wren-went]

After Clarkson Hammond & May left it went from been the best motoring show ------ in the world as Clarkson would say to been a joke.it was litterally crap.

I didn't mind le Blanc Harris and McGuiness but when Evans stepped in Christ did it get bad, when he leaves then Matt does Flintoff joining was the last straw, he should stick to cricket infact how did I know he was a cricketer as a football and F1 fan because never did an episode go by without him telling us.

Clarkson Hammond & May at the wheel the Show was pure comedy motoring journalism without them it's pointless it's just not the same.

[castex]

Wren-went said:

After Clarkson Hammond & May left it went from been the best motoring show ------ in the world as Clarkson would say to been a joke.it was litterally crap.

I didn't mind le Blanc Harris and McGuiness but when Evans stepped in Christ did it get bad, when he leaves then Matt does Flintoff joining was the last straw, he should stick to cricket infact how did I know he was a cricketer as a football and F1 fan because never did an episode go by without him telling us.

Clarkson Hammond & May at the wheel the Show was pure comedy motoring journalism without them it's pointless it's just not the same.

As expected, it's like Daily Mail generate-a-comment. CBA to read the rest of the thread but I'm sure there's some original thought in evidence.