BBC Top Gear Thread 2021/2022

Author
Discussion

Dashnine

1,287 posts

49 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
suffolk009 said:
Widely reported that they have cancelled the rest of this series. And then a handful of opinions from people in the industry that it won't return at all.
Cancelling the rest of this series is somewhat different to axing the show completely!

Langweilig

4,301 posts

210 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
RC1807 said:
The Daily Wail is “reporting” the BBC are axing TG due to Flintoff not returning after his accident.
Never take the Daily Mail seriously. However, I heard on Radio 5 Live that Freddie Flintoff had been traumatised by the accident. Yes, I can relate to that. In 1980 I was in car which was t-boned by an amber gambler. I love cars and I love driving but I still get flashbacks.

Personally, I think Top Gear died when Clarkson wrecked a Ford Mustang, racing it on a dried-up lake in Patagonia.



cobra kid

4,906 posts

239 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Langweilig said:
Never take the Daily Mail seriously. However, I heard on Radio 5 Live that Freddie Flintoff had been traumatised by the accident. Yes, I can relate to that. In 1980 I was in car which was t-boned by an amber gambler. I love cars and I love driving but I still get flashbacks.

Personally, I think Top Gear died when Clarkson wrecked a Ford Mustang, racing it on a dried-up lake in Patagonia.
Out of interest, was that someone going through on amber before it turned to red, or through on amber before it went to green?

Voldemort

6,087 posts

277 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
NuckyThompson said:
Think he was knocked unconscious for a while and broke a few ribs.
Why do you think that?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
People are actually complaining about a TV show they have just invented, that doesn't exist, is highly unlikely to ever do so, but still don't like it.... Bunch of fking snowflakes.

Caddyshack

10,605 posts

205 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Dashnine said:
suffolk009 said:
Widely reported that they have cancelled the rest of this series. And then a handful of opinions from people in the industry that it won't return at all.
Cancelling the rest of this series is somewhat different to axing the show completely!
People read something and just believe it.

JagLover

42,265 posts

234 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
I didn't bother with the latest series.

Chris Harris was good when he wasn't trying to be a comedian or pretend laughing. FF grew on me as time went on while Paddy McGuinness grew more and more annoying.

Some of the things they were doing, like rallying with people strapped to the roofs, looked very dangerous to me.

MDifficult

2,019 posts

184 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Somewhat unrelated to the current Flintoff focus but…

It’s amazing how things change with time. I happened to re-watch that series that was mainly Chris Harris and Matt LeBlanc doing things together while Rory Reid did his own bits.

It was actually pretty good! Yes SIARPC was still st. And yes, both Matt and Chris’s banter in front of the studio audience was excruciating. And yes, the wonderful Sabine (RIP) made me want to claw my ears off.

But! Both Matt and Chris seemed like genuinely good friends, had moments of unscripted and unforced ‘banter’, both can really drive and lots of the films of them apart and together were really good. Again, in hindsight, Rory is excellent - an actual car journalist! He really did get a raw deal being binned for the new lot.

I suspect that we may not see TG reappear in its current guise any time soon - Chris is open that he’ll milk it for as long as he can but has lots of money-making opportunities with his growing CC empire. Clearly Freddie is having second thoughts and will always have other work, and Paddy always comes across as a presenter/entertainer rather than a passionate car guy and he’ll be off doing other things.

Should it be re-born or just quietly die? Don’t really mind either way.

toasty

7,441 posts

219 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Won’t somebody think of the children?!!!!

Seriously though, even if Freddie wasn’t that affected, I imagine his wife and kids would be urging him to give it up before something more severe happened.

RC1807

12,482 posts

167 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Langweilig said:
RC1807 said:
The Daily Wail is “reporting” the BBC are axing TG due to Flintoff not returning after his accident.
Never take the Daily Mail seriously. However, I heard on Radio 5 Live that Freddie Flintoff had been traumatised by the accident. Yes, I can relate to that. In 1980 I was in car which was t-boned by an amber gambler. I love cars and I love driving but I still get flashbacks.

Personally, I think Top Gear died when Clarkson wrecked a Ford Mustang, racing it on a dried-up lake in Patagonia.
I don't, hence I said ' The Daily Wail is “reporting” ' smile

pquinn

7,167 posts

45 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
HTP99 said:
Freddie always seemed to have a cavalier attitude to safety and what he wanted to do, maybe this accident has made him reflect on this and realise his mortality and his family and what could happen if he carried on with that outlook.
That's fine, in which case he can always quit.

Or they could always do what plenty of other shows do and either just not include the temporarily unavailable person for a while, or sub someone else in. Not like it's the FF show or people are that keen to see him.

Halting over an incident, and being in no great rush to carry on or even do the H&S investigation isn't exactly pointing at this being a BBC priority. Well that, and the little detail of how short the series have become; it's a vestigial afterthought of a production.

pquinn

7,167 posts

45 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
pablo said:
People are actually complaining about a TV show they have just invented, that doesn't exist, is highly unlikely to ever do so, but still don't like it.... Bunch of fking snowflakes.
What are you on about??

toasty

7,441 posts

219 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
pquinn said:
That's fine, in which case he can always quit.
According to the front page of the Times, he has.

ch37

10,642 posts

220 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
The BBC said "We have sincerely apologised to Freddie and will continue to support him with his recovery."

That struck me a bit as I don't recall seeing statements like that in the past (but I may be wrong), where they explicitly apologised following an accident. Very strange.

pquinn

7,167 posts

45 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
ch37 said:
The BBC said "We have sincerely apologised to Freddie and will continue to support him with his recovery."

That struck me a bit as I don't recall seeing statements like that in the past (but I may be wrong), where they explicitly apologised following an accident. Very strange.
Where there's blame there's a claim.

RC1807

12,482 posts

167 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
ch37 said:
The BBC said "We have sincerely apologised to Freddie and will continue to support him with his recovery."

That struck me a bit as I don't recall seeing statements like that in the past (but I may be wrong), where they explicitly apologised following an accident. Very strange.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65056723

TTmonkey

20,911 posts

246 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
I don’t get the radio silence from Freddie.
It’s almost as bad as when Schumacher was hurt, the lack of knowing and levels of secrecy.

I’m going to guess at facial injuries given the type of vehicle he crashed. He’s too big a guy to roll one of those and not get serious head trauma of some kind.

toasty

7,441 posts

219 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
TTmonkey said:
I don’t get the radio silence from Freddie.
It’s almost as bad as when Schumacher was hurt, the lack of knowing and levels of secrecy.

I’m going to guess at facial injuries given the type of vehicle he crashed. He’s too big a guy to roll one of those and not get serious head trauma of some kind.
Possibly on advice from his legal team?

Red 5

1,021 posts

179 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
Dashnine said:
Red 5 said:
the BBC isn’t a business so profit is less of an issue.
Really? Given all we hear about budgets, TV licences and costs you think it’s not a business? Off topic I know.
ETA: Also the recent cuts announced in BBC musical meaning quite a lot of people will be losing their salaried jobs is pretty much business like.

suffolk009 said:
I'm sad that the BBC appear to have decided to axe the show completely
Where’ve you heard that? TG is a huge earner for the BBC overseas as well as still popular in the UK. We even got so see what was in the can after CHM had left, I imagine a reboot or presenter change is on the way again and we’ll get to see whatever’s been filmed so far for Series 34 at some point too, maybe even the Morgan sequence too.

Edited by Dashnine on Friday 24th March 06:54
Correct.
The BBC is effectively a Gov.Dpt and is funded primarily by us lot paying the TV licence.
This has been an advantage in a lot of ways, as the BBC has been able to spend on projects that whale have social and entertainment value, that no commercial entity would embark upon. Just ask David Attenborough.

Yes, they have a finite amount of this money, to like any organisation, have to budget and adjust the size of their workforce to suit conditions.

The fact that TG earns profit for the BBC in other territories, does NOT mean they have to keep it about, if it doesn’t’ suit their political (somebody mentioned woke) agenda.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Friday 24th March 2023
quotequote all
MDifficult said:
Somewhat unrelated to the current Flintoff focus but…

It’s amazing how things change with time. I happened to re-watch that series that was mainly Chris Harris and Matt LeBlanc doing things together while Rory Reid did his own bits.

It was actually pretty good! Yes SIARPC was still st. And yes, both Matt and Chris’s banter in front of the studio audience was excruciating. And yes, the wonderful Sabine (RIP) made me want to claw my ears off.

But! Both Matt and Chris seemed like genuinely good friends, had moments of unscripted and unforced ‘banter’, both can really drive and lots of the films of them apart and together were really good. Again, in hindsight, Rory is excellent - an actual car journalist! He really did get a raw deal being binned for the new lot.

I suspect that we may not see TG reappear in its current guise any time soon - Chris is open that he’ll milk it for as long as he can but has lots of money-making opportunities with his growing CC empire. Clearly Freddie is having second thoughts and will always have other work, and Paddy always comes across as a presenter/entertainer rather than a passionate car guy and he’ll be off doing other things.

Should it be re-born or just quietly die? Don’t really mind either way.
YES!!!!!!Chris and Matt searching for Bigfoot was the bromance we never knew we needed….

Thee have been some brilliant episodes since ChM left. Ethiopia in their “first cars”, the HGV episode, the Eddie Kidd tribute, the mid life crisis with the TVR/MR2/Monaro at Combe, the James Bond tribute, the LeBaron, India in that Renault 4, the Jaguar hearse…..

Problem is people will hate it simply because it’s not ChM, forgetting that there were some truly terrible episodes in that era, just because they need another thing in life to be angry about….