RE: Top Gear TV gains McGuinness and Flintoff

[BlackPrince]

Audemars said:

No idea if the new guys will do well but at least Rory is gone.

No more chavs please who can't speak English.

Rory can speak English perfectly well. Perhaps you should go to some English as a second language courses if you can't understand him?

[BlackPrince]

Davey S2 said:

Henry Catchople and the Carfection vids are the best car reviews / features on 'tinternet IMO but he's not right for TG.

It's an entertainment show based on cars not for serious car tests. That went out with Quentin 'Dracula' Wilson and Tony 'Chipmunk' Mason.

Someone suggested Harris, Guy Martin and Jodie Kidd which I thought would have been good.

That said I watched very little of the last few series. If there was anything on there I wanted to see I'd watch it on iplayer but skip the rest.

TG being essential Sunday night viewing ceased years ago for me.

I love Catchpole's writing but find him an absolute personality vacuum - this would be fine if his video reviews were as detailed, and eloquent as his car reviews but I haven't yet found that to be the case. I much prefer Alex Roy as far as Carfection goes

[anonymous-user]

I've really started to enjoy 5th Gear. It's about cars. And mostly, cars I can afford.

[BlackPrince]

DeejRC said:

I’m glad some are mentioning Harry’s Garage.

It pretty much confirms you as one of the 50 most boring blokes on earth. Dear God but they are deathly dull ste, he makes Harris YouTube stuff look animated!

Harry's Garage is interesting! Catchpole on Carfection is absolute death to watch even if he is a talented driver and writer. Granted, Harry is no Clarkson as far as hyperbolic "entertaining" car segments are concerned, but I find his videos fascinating

[BlackPrince]

Mr Tidy said:

I thought Top Gear had got pretty good towards the end - Matt and Chris seemed to be starting to gel pretty well. (Even if Rory looked a bit lost at times).

Then I saw this thread and thought, oh - John McGuiness might be alright! But it's a different McGuiness!

I'll record it and see what it's like before I judge it - that way I can skip the rubbish bits!

Which is what I do with 5th Gear - what's the point of timing parking a hot hatch or a track weapon like an Atom, Caterham, etc? Or track testing a Bentayga against an RR? Who is vaguely interested in that? And why do they get a "petrolhead" snooker player to review a Nissan Leaf - it's an EV! Then VBH reviews affordable sports cars and says you can get a BMW Z4 for about £8K - yes, but not the mint Z4MR she was driving. Then you get Jimmy fitting an LSD to a BMW Z3, but it looks like a 1.9 litre one - couldn't they at least find a 2.8i?

But I wouldn't want reviews of Ferraris from Clarkson & Co - Chris Harris ones on YouTube were so much better.

Rant over!

I saw what I can only presume is a part of their Atom v Caterham v Zenos v Radical test this morning. I really like Karun Chandok, and of course both Chandok and Plato are knowledgeable, competent presenters - but why the hell are they doing an autocross/gymkhana type test of these cars? I don't care how well these hyperfast track cars do at relatively slow speed 'agility' tests.

[Francis85]

I haven't watched Top Gear since the 3 best friends left, but I might watch it in the future to see how the hell Paddy is going to do it and because I find him funny.

[lord trumpton]

Yeah I think it will be OK with those two.

I think a good bit of banter and natural humor will emerge and the serious reviews and techy stuff covered by Harris will work OK.

[Nickbrapp]

[redacted]

[DoubleD]

Wacky Racer said:

Bring back Chris Goffey and William Woollard.

Let's have some in depth road tests of 1.0l Kia Picanto's etc.


Leave the Ferrari stuff to Clarkson and his sidekicks.

Lol

[sgtBerbatov]

Mr Tidy said:

Which is what I do with 5th Gear - what's the point of timing parking a hot hatch or a track weapon like an Atom, Caterham, etc? Or track testing a Bentayga against an RR? Who is vaguely interested in that? And why do they get a "petrolhead" snooker player to review a Nissan Leaf - it's an EV! Then VBH reviews affordable sports cars and says you can get a BMW Z4 for about £8K - yes, but not the mint Z4MR she was driving. Then you get Jimmy fitting an LSD to a BMW Z3, but it looks like a 1.9 litre one - couldn't they at least find a 2.8i?

Well, if it's pissing with rain and you're rushing to do the shopping at 3:50pm on a Sunday, knowing how fast you can park your car is quite beneficial.

Being shown how fast you can drive some Ferrari on an airstrip being chased by a Porsche? Not sure what the real world applications are for that to be honest.

[williamp]

lord trumpton said:

Yeah I think it will be OK with those two.

I think a good bit of banter and natural humor will emerge and the serious reviews and techy stuff covered by Harris will work OK.

Freddie will get his paychecks confused and keep talking about things fitting "like a suit from jacamo".
Paddy will over-use the phrase "let the pedal see the metal" and talk about dashboard light clusters a lot '"no like-ee, no light-ee"
Chris harris will deliver every piece whilst wistfully thinking back out his time on autocar, when the car was the star, rather then the person shouting over it.

Still, 5th gear is enjoyable at the moment..

[Gary29]

It's ironic that most of this forum are up in arms about the appointments, but this demographic is probably the lowest priority on the producer's list to please.

It's not a factual car programme, it's an entertainment show based around cars.

The adenoidal geek voice Clarkson used to put on is based on YOU/us, the rest of the 'normal' people that watch the show are laughing at us.

We are Harry's Garage, we are not Top Gear.

So let's all just calm down and make a nice Bovril, carry on with putting our spanners in order and let the BBC appoint whoever they want for their light hearted entertainment show.

[pb8g09]

sgtBerbatov said:

Being shown how fast you can drive some Ferrari on an airstrip being chased by a Porsche? Not sure what the real world applications are for that to be honest.

+1

I also think the point of using a petrolhead like Ronnie is perhaps a good similarity to most people's attitude to electric vehicles. I'd rather see someone like minded about cars be swayed by an EV than someone who's pretending to be in awe of it.

[DanielSan]

I could be alone with this but the line-up now sort of resembles the original TG USA style line-up, you've got the well known TV personality in Flintoff, in the style of Rutledge Wood, the comedian/ slightly lesser known TV fella in Paddy Mcguiness, in the style of Adam Ferrara and the least well known of the 3 but well known to the petrolheads in Chris Harris, ala Tanner Foust in the US.

If at least one or two of the challenges aren't these 2 together against Chris Harris I'll be surprised. And to be honest once they got half way through the first series and onwards TG USA was pretty good imo. They got the ideal mix of challenges and new cars mostly by binning off the studio part of the show and focusing more on the challenges either by using old cars and the challenge winner testing a new car as a reward or by using the new cars to do the challenges in.

[trails]

J4CKO said:

I know someone who had some dealings with Paddy McGuiness and his opinion turned me against what I already thought was a bit of an annoying character.

Spill the beans please; I need some empirical evidence (well gossip will do tbh) to support my unconditional dislike of the bloke

[aeropilot]

r11co said:

Red 4 said:

yonex said:

Red 4 said:

Oh well, on the plus side at least Jay Kay didn't get a look in.

He may be a petrolhead but that doesn't stop him being a massive throbber with an even bigger ego.

No, not with you on that. He’s just a very normal car geek who happens to be really famous. He had a lot of time at Kop Hill for everyone, didn’t have to bring his GTRS, then go back and get the la Ferrari out for a small charitable event.

If you've met Jay Kay in person and he comes across as a decent bloke, fair enough.

My opinion was based on his appearances on TV (and Top Gear) when, in my opinion, he came across as an arrogant bighead and was very full of himself.

I've never met him.

I have (in a situation where he wasn't playing to a crowd) and your assessment is accurate.

And I have as well (a couple of times unfortunately) and agree.

[greenarrow]

BlackPrince said:

Audemars said:

No idea if the new guys will do well but at least Rory is gone.

No more chavs please who can't speak English.

Rory can speak English perfectly well. Perhaps you should go to some English as a second language courses if you can't understand him?

Totally agree. Most of the comments made against Rory have been race related, pure and simple. People had in for him because he was a youngish black guy who was trying to present in a way that would connect with younger viewers.

Anyway, I think TG is probably dead. I get my motoring content from U Tube now. Some fairly entertaining stuff out there in fairness. I quite like Car Throttle..they've done some interesting stuff. Car WOW can be ok, although their reliance on drag races is a bit tedious.

Also agree with the comments about 5th gear and I have a general gripe with car programmes in general. Why is everything thrown around a race track? Plato slated the new Kia Stinger based on its track performance. Its a heavy RWD saloon designed for comfortable road use...what relevance is its lap time? How many Kia Stinger Owners will track it?

[E65Ross]

pb8g09 said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Being shown how fast you can drive some Ferrari on an airstrip being chased by a Porsche? Not sure what the real world applications are for that to be honest.

+1

I also think the point of using a petrolhead like Ronnie is perhaps a good similarity to most people's attitude to electric vehicles. I'd rather see someone like minded about cars be swayed by an EV than someone who's pretending to be in awe of it.

You are aware it's am entertainment show first, and a car show second, right?

[hornmeister]

The new line up doesn't fill be with confidence but will give it a go, but I did think the previous line up had started to do well.

Fith gear is excellent now but it serves a different purpose to Top Gear. I went right off the Grand Tour towards the end and not fussed if it comes back or not.

My Fantasy top gear line up is

James Martin & Chris Harris as main presenters.
Then a guest each week that fills in for the third position and also participates in the weekly challenge. Convertible for 5K or build a car challenge. The celeb can then do a track time as well.

I'd like to see the third guest as people like:
Mark Webber,
Murray Walker
Sabine Schmit
Jenson Button
Guy Martin
Dick Strawbridge
Susie Woolf
Jay Kay
Nigel Mansell

Etc...

[shaunroche]

Uncle_Dave said:

The Snowflake generation, the 'me me me' generation, the entitled generation. They are the 'snowflakes', considered as being more prone to taking offense and are less resilient than previous generations, or as being too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own and suffer more with mental health issues.

Born from the mid-80's onwards, it's basically the Millennial or Generation Y - but Snowflake is a derogatory term that has been coined recently. It stems from Fight Club, "You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."

The type that positively hates the Clarksons of this world.

A beautiful description and wholly accurate - well done that man!


I do get the impression that the new line up smacks of they're the only people it was offered to who said yes.

Totally agree about Chris Harris, peerless on youtube and, I think, a brilliant driver and racer. All round a very entertaining chap.

I do wonder though who Rebecca Jackson has to shag though to get a decent gig as I think she's a class act and worthy of a place on merit and not because she's a bird.

Edited by shaunroche on Tuesday 23 October 12:51