BBC Top Gear Thread 2021/2022

Author
Discussion

trooperiziz

9,456 posts

251 months

Friday 19th July 2019
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Johnspex said:
It's amazing, all the 'it's all scripted types on here have absolutely nothing to back it up.
They're all just pretending that they're in the know when actually they have no idea.

If they said CHM were just mates and having fun it would be much closer to the truth.

So sad that people on here have to pretend that they know something nobody does.
Please, please stop going on about this, it's all you ever post on here. Nobody cares.

bartelbe

92 posts

79 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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I have had a look at a few episodes and have been pleasantly surprised, they have managed to get a presenting team together that actually have chemistry and know how to make something interesting/funny. For the last few series it has felt like a bad remake of Clarkson era Topgear, they seem to be moving away from that.

Still not as good, the missing X-factor is that Clarkson and May were both journalists before becoming TV presenters. There is an article by Clarkson about leaving Old Topgear, in which he said he was asked by people how to become a Topgear presenter and his answer was you had to love writing. You had to love being up at 1am in the morning crafting the perfect simile to describe a car.

The depth that brought shone through all the silliness, whereas the new version is more a couple of lads and guy who actually knows about cars, mucking about in cars. Fun but not quite as good.

DonkeyApple

54,781 posts

168 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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bartelbe said:
I have had a look at a few episodes and have been pleasantly surprised, they have managed to get a presenting team together that actually have chemistry and know how to make something interesting/funny. For the last few series it has felt like a bad remake of Clarkson era Topgear, they seem to be moving away from that.

Still not as good, the missing X-factor is that Clarkson and May were both journalists before becoming TV presenters. There is an article by Clarkson about leaving Old Topgear, in which he said he was asked by people how to become a Topgear presenter and his answer was you had to love writing. You had to love being up at 1am in the morning crafting the perfect simile to describe a car.

The depth that brought shone through all the silliness, whereas the new version is more a couple of lads and guy who actually knows about cars, mucking about in cars. Fun but not quite as good.
There will also always be a difference between the person who creates the format in the first instance and those rented to carry it on. The creator builds the entire structure around what they what they are best at and what they want, whereas the hired employees have a far less natural and harder path in that they have to fit themselves into the format rather than create the format around themselves.

I had a feeling that the tried and tested BBC formula of North v South, State v Public school would work for what is really a show about three fools being fools with some more intelligent stuff thrown in, but not too much to scare away the viewing numbers needed to justify the slot and budget.

And I think it has worked well. They aren’t actors, one is a journalist, they aren’t creating the product around themselves. They are three blokes with enough cultural and professional differences to allow for plenty of piss taking but who have to fit in to a format created by someone else for someone else, typically a role best achieved by actors.

I think they’ve done a good job. I think they will get better and I even think there are signs that some on PH are calming down as I would wager money that Flintoff threw Harris into the mid at the end of that show but it was cut in the edit but I’m surprised that it wasn’t raised as a stick to beat the show with.

Carl_Manchester

12,071 posts

261 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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my family thought this series was brilliant, well done to the TG team.

i had a bottle of wine last night and it allowed me to spot Toby Maguire on the show.


ChocolateFrog

24,748 posts

172 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
quotequote all
bartelbe said:
I have had a look at a few episodes and have been pleasantly surprised, they have managed to get a presenting team together that actually have chemistry and know how to make something interesting/funny. For the last few series it has felt like a bad remake of Clarkson era Topgear, they seem to be moving away from that.

Still not as good, the missing X-factor is that Clarkson and May were both journalists before becoming TV presenters. There is an article by Clarkson about leaving Old Topgear, in which he said he was asked by people how to become a Topgear presenter and his answer was you had to love writing. You had to love being up at 1am in the morning crafting the perfect simile to describe a car.

The depth that brought shone through all the silliness, whereas the new version is more a couple of lads and guy who actually knows about cars, mucking about in cars. Fun but not quite as good.
I don't think most people release how hard Clarkson works because of the lazy lad persona he gives off.

He always used to comment when the show won various best unscripted tv shows because he'd agonize over the script for hours.

Wonder if the current lineup write their own stuff.

cerb4.5lee

30,041 posts

179 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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I watched Paddy's piece on the Supra again the other night and I very rarely do that. I love the new presenters and I've thoroughly enjoyed this series, I've watched every minute of it and I've never done that in the past.

Looking forward to the next series now for sure.

Down and out

2,700 posts

63 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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cerb4.5lee said:
I watched Paddy's piece on the Supra again the other night and I very rarely do that. I love the new presenters and I've thoroughly enjoyed this series, I've watched every minute of it and I've never done that in the past.

Looking forward to the next series now for sure.
Same here, leagues ahead of The Grand Tour which I ffwd 75 percent plus.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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Just watched the last episode (iceland etc). Bloody superb - how they all should be (and used to be a long time ago) - about cars, and not dicking around for the sake of it.

S1KRR

12,548 posts

211 months

Saturday 20th July 2019
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This was the episode of this McHF series that I've enjoyed the most. (with a caveat*)

Iceland trucks. Good. Best Ive seen of Flintoff! (not a high watermark to beat laugh )
Supra. Good solid review. I think the proportions are wrong on the new Supra. the cabin "bubble" particularly. PmG is correct though, not many standard cars left I wouldn't have thought.
Will Young - Didn't watch. But tbh I imagine they only invited him on after his twitter spat with Clarkson...
Lotus - Harris at his best.


* The caveat being that tbh, the rest of it has been at best patchy, at worst felt like a cheap Chinese knock off Top Gear. Even LeBlanc, Reid and Harris never felt this bad! It's taken me 6 days to bother watching it, whereas I've never felt that way about TG or even remarkably, TGT.

I don't know what it will take to get it back to its best. But IMO they need to really think about what makes Top Gear. Top Gear. And come back with a better series than that one!

The Moose

22,818 posts

208 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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Why can’t McGuinness talk properly? What’s wrong with the letter ‘H’?

Sir Bagalot

6,458 posts

180 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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philcray said:
Like most on here, i really thought that the BBC and TG were scraping the barrel with PMG & FF.
I didn't even know as lost interest in TG years ago and gave up watching it.

The early Clarkson era was top TV.... they all then disappeared up their own arses and it became unwatchable. I thought it would change with Evans.... but it didn't.

By pure accident I caught part of episode 3 and though these guys were well together, yes, as you say Freddie is a bit wooden. Caught up with rest of episodes and thought vast improvement.

V8covin

7,181 posts

192 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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Been looking for extra gear on the iPlayer and can only find episodes from the previous series

cuprabob

14,380 posts

213 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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V8covin said:
Been looking for extra gear on the iPlayer and can only find episodes from the previous series
I don't think there was any episodes of Extra Gear this series.

V8covin

7,181 posts

192 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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cuprabob said:
I don't think there was any episodes of Extra Gear this series.
Well they said if you wanted to see the timed laps go on the internet.
What did they mean if not extra gear ?

cuprabob

14,380 posts

213 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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V8covin said:
Well they said if you wanted to see the timed laps go on the internet.
What did they mean if not extra gear ?
YouTube
https://youtu.be/j2H5l7SgIN4
https://youtu.be/CjTB7Po38Jw


V8covin

7,181 posts

192 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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cuprabob said:
Oh right, cheers

DoubleD

22,154 posts

107 months

Sunday 21st July 2019
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They should have found a few minutes to fit in these laps.

Zad

12,695 posts

235 months

Monday 22nd July 2019
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DoubleD said:
They should have found a few minutes to fit in these laps.
They can't even find a camera crew to record it! They just slap on a couple of fixed GoPros and bugger off for the day. I've seen better camera work on amateur YouTube videos.

The Moose

22,818 posts

208 months

Monday 22nd July 2019
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V8covin said:
cuprabob said:
I don't think there was any episodes of Extra Gear this series.
Well they said if you wanted to see the timed laps go on the internet.
What did they mean if not extra gear ?
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-tv

S11Steve

6,374 posts

183 months

Tuesday 23rd July 2019
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The Moose said:
Why can’t McGuinness talk properly? What’s wrong with the letter ‘H’?
He's from Bolton, in the north. It's their thing.

So don't be racist! smile