So how many have you watched Top Gear since Jeremy, Richard and James we’re gently shoved into the arms of Amazon Prime by BBC? Well, if you have, you won’t have failed to notice the prolific number of presenters it’s already chewed up and spat out. Big names like Chris Evans, Eddie Jordan and Matt LeBlanc have all bitten the dust since the golden trio went on a Grand Tour of their own. Are the BBC now regretting their decision to sack Jeremy Clarkson?
The spark that ignited the departure of James May and Richard Hammond to join their long term colleague and form their own rival show. Twenty-one years of uninterrupted presentation of a British favourite TV show, in fact, it was so popular under their stewardship that in series 5 one episode had overnight TV ratings of 19.3 million viewers. Now in the years under Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc it’s been in the region of 2 – 4 million. So, for series 27 it’s all change again, how will it fare and how have I felt watching it?
The first thing to state are the facts, it’s viewing figures have grown from the 2 – 3 million watching Joey from friends’ last efforts to a 4 million, so facts speak for themselves, it’s clawing it’s way back slowly under the new guys, and I have heard two people utter the words, “I’m almost ashamed to say it, but I watched Top Gear last night and actually enjoyed it.” There’s the good news out of the way.
So who has taken over, well it seems centre stage is comedian Paddy McGuiness, with wingmen former England cricket player Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and the only mainstay in the post-Clarkson Top Gear, Chris Harris. Now Paddy is a funny bloke from Bolton and to be fair he can present too, so those are good ingredients to start with, but where does his car knowledge come from? So far he hasn’t struck me as a major petrol head but we are only 3 episodes in as I write this. What about Andrew ‘How the hell is Freddie short for Andrew’ Flintoff, he does have some presenting experience, but I find him lacking in that quality, it kind of feels unnatural in a way, forced somehow, I don’t find him engaging, it’s like he’s trying to hard.
Then there’s Chris Harris, well he’s certainly a petrol head and the fact he’s survived through the many sackings/resignations in recent Top Gear history is a testament to the job he’s doing. Personally, of the three current presenters, he stands out a mile. One of the most painful things for me to sit and watch is the constant bullying of Chris Harris by the other two, whether Chris is ok with it, I’m not sure, but I’m certainly not.
We are supposed to be teaching young and impressionable people that bullying is a bad thing, yet Paddy and Freddie consistently gang up on the smaller of the trio. Some may say that it happened all the time on old Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May, and you’d be right, it did, but it was equalled out, it wasn’t always directed at one of the trio. There is a huge difference between three middle-aged men goofing around, playing tricks on each other compared with ganging up on one person.
They’ve stopped showing the Stig’s power lap times, they’ve come up with daft extensions to the ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ (yes I know it’s now called ‘reasonably fast’ car now), which was a good enough piece in itself, where has the news gone too? For me, this new series of Top Gear may have increased its ratings slightly, but it must still be having the producers pulling their hair out, wondering why they ever rocked a boat that was sailing well.
The new Top Gear has a mix of sensible road tests like the Dallara one in episode three and stuff that’s…..well…..just feeling a bit like a poor effort of trying to be like the old guard. So whilst Clarkson, Hammond and May continue to light up viewing figures over on Amazon Prime, the Top Gear producers need to come up with a new formula that works and they need to do that soon before they kill off what was once a British favourite.
The new Top Gear has a mix of sensible road tests
Name: Top Gear Series 27
Description: The hosts talk about everything car-related. From new cars to how they're fueled, this show has it all.
Comedy writer with Steve Smith. Author of the book & Satire Website, ‘The Daily Skid – The best bits’ also Beat About the Bush
