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Top Gear is back, again

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here
DrFfybes
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Top Gear is back, again

#281546

Postby DrFfybes » February 1st, 2020, 8:10 am

I noticed TG was on over the weekend, then realised my Sky- box had missed the series link.

Caught up late last night with episode 1, and MrsF (who normally thinks these things are a bit puerile) was laughing along to bits of it.

The last segment with Flintoff's stunt was truly awesome, you knew it had to end OK but even so he has really gone up in my estimation.

Paul

bungeejumper
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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281574

Postby bungeejumper » February 1st, 2020, 11:49 am

Just caught it on iPlayer. I never thought I'd say this, but there's no doubting it, the new boys are finally getting some of the old team's mojo back. They've taken some of the gorilla out of McGuinness, and the comic ideas are good. Also the camera work and production. Which was always a key selling point for the old programme, although we rarely noticed that at the time.

The last sequence was one of those stunts that leave you in awe of anyone with the cojones to attempt it. The handbrake gag was especially nice. As were the side-swipes at Ben Stokes. :lol:

They'll have a job to follow this opening episode, that's for sure. Against my expectations, I might just tune in to watch. Good work.

BJ

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281579

Postby Clariman » February 1st, 2020, 12:17 pm

I haven't watched Top Gear for years or the Netflix/Amazon one with the old Top Gear team. I tire of the blokeishness of the whole thing. Why can't there be a decent car programme that tells you about every day cars without the stunts etc. And with female presenters?

C

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281588

Postby Mike88 » February 1st, 2020, 1:10 pm

As people are now starting to buy electric and hybrid cars it would be nice if a motoring programme reviewed cars the public can at least afford and not stupidly ridiculous vehicles that sell in very small numbers. That Ariel car reviewed on the programme was a joke and I doubt whether they will sell in any number approaching three figures.

bungeejumper
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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281589

Postby bungeejumper » February 1st, 2020, 1:13 pm

Clariman wrote:I haven't watched Top Gear for years or the Netflix/Amazon one with the old Top Gear team. I tire of the blokeishness of the whole thing. Why can't there be a decent car programme that tells you about every day cars without the stunts etc. And with female presenters?

Well, there used to be Fifth Gear, co-hosted by the intriguing Vicki Butler-Henderson. It used to spend a fair bit of time doing basic family cars, but sadly Channel 5 couldn't make it pay. So Tiff Needell left, although I think she stayed on. It's now broadcast on something called Quest, which isn't on my Freeview service unless I haven't been looking hard enough?

https://twitter.com/fifthgeartv?lang=en .

The bottom line is that nobody does their own car repairs and maintenance any more. Too many electronics, too many sealed-for life units that your garage just swaps out when they break down. The game has changed, and the only questions that most everyday motorists ask these days are about space and reliability, and price of course. Not very glamorous really. :(

BJ

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281592

Postby tea42 » February 1st, 2020, 1:18 pm

Bring back William Woolard....

bungeejumper
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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281595

Postby bungeejumper » February 1st, 2020, 1:25 pm

Mike88 wrote:That Ariel car reviewed on the programme was a joke and I doubt whether they will sell in any number approaching three figures.

The original Ariel was just for showing off on the track - it wasn't road legal at all in the UK unless the owner had built it himself from a kit. But they still sold nearly 2,000 of them in (wait for it) 22 years. Mostly - as one of the TG presenters says - to people who weren't brave enough to buy a motorbike. :lol:

BJ

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281607

Postby tea42 » February 1st, 2020, 2:18 pm

Bring back William Woolard.... :lol:

Gone off TG as it no longer chimes with me particularly in these days of environmental armeggedon. But I can see the laddish humour appeals to many younger folk.

I have a 2 year old Eurobox, quiet, quick, smooth economical and totally boring :| . Cant see a motoring programme focussed on modern Euroboxes being very interesting.

The vehicle that gives me most pleasure is my 1980 T25 VW Camper. Its called Rusty because that is what it was... Every year I spend at least a grand on it doing something to make it better. This year its a new carb to replace the knackered original twin carbs a big scource of trouble, the usual bit of welding and unseizing the heater cables which garner hot air from heat exchangers on the exhaust. When the welding was going on a flake of rust fell away from the RH rear trailing revealing a massive hole. It was hanging on by a small slither of metal. :o I have already done one interior refurb, might be tempted to do another more comprehensive one next winter. On April 23rd its 40 years old so it will be tax and MOT free :D Might be tempted by a 4WD VW Synchro Camper if I can find one. They look like TG type fun.

The motoring programmes that I watch tend to be things like Bangers and Cash and Wheeler Dealers. There are some great all motors out there.

T42

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281612

Postby Breelander » February 1st, 2020, 2:44 pm

bungeejumper wrote:Well, there used to be Fifth Gear ... sadly Channel 5 couldn't make it pay... It's now broadcast on something called Quest, which isn't on my Freeview service unless I haven't been looking hard enough?


It's on my Freeview (channel 12, Crystal Palace transmitter)
https://www.freeview.co.uk/get-freeview ... nels/quest

It should be available in all regions bar the Channel Islands.
https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/pl ... l-listings

I watched the new series a few months ago.

WE'RE BACK! Tune in for our latest series from 3rd October at 9pm on Quest.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6xsp ... pPUGc57ZGA

DrFfybes
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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281669

Postby DrFfybes » February 1st, 2020, 10:37 pm

tea42 wrote:Bring back William Woolard....


... and Noel Edmonds.

Now dropping him off a dam would put the viewing figures up :)

Paul

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281673

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 1st, 2020, 10:59 pm

Clariman wrote:I haven't watched Top Gear for years or the Netflix/Amazon one with the old Top Gear team. I tire of the blokeishness of the whole thing. Why can't there be a decent car programme that tells you about every day cars without the stunts etc. And with female presenters?

C

Yes. Jeremy Clarkson put forward a great rebuttal in "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire".

"When they allow four blokes to host "Loose Women" then it would be equally acceptable to allow three women to host Top Gear.

I'm assuming your are of course referring to three middle aged women with grey hair, baggy jeans, trainers, beer belly's and more or less no make up?

The Amazon Grand Tours are, in my humble opinion pure brilliance.

AiYn'U

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281676

Postby JohnB » February 2nd, 2020, 12:07 am

Fully Charged on Youtube is a straight electric car (and battery stuff) show. 2 male, 2 female presenters

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281686

Postby Clariman » February 2nd, 2020, 7:25 am

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Yes. Jeremy Clarkson put forward a great rebuttal in "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire".

"When they allow four blokes to host "Loose Women" then it would be equally acceptable to allow three women to host Top Gear.

Except doesn't that miss the point a bit? At least Loose Women's title makes it clear that it is aimed at women, whereas Top Gear was ostensibly about cars which both men and women might find interesting. If it was called Loose Men go Mad in Cars it would be a more honest title.

For the record, I'm no fan of Loose Women as a TV programme.

bungeejumper
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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281689

Postby bungeejumper » February 2nd, 2020, 9:08 am

Clariman wrote:Except doesn't that miss the point a bit? At least Loose Women's title makes it clear that it is aimed at women, whereas Top Gear was ostensibly about cars which both men and women might find interesting. If it was called Loose Men go Mad in Cars it would be a more honest title.

It always used to strike me that Top Gear in the Clarkson era was happy to set up sexist (and sexual) giggles among the ladettes and Essex girls who wanted to show the world that they were up for a bit of old-style macho behaviour, and never mind what the po-faced politically correct brigade were saying.

That particular type of sexist humour was never going to go down very well with core Guardian readers - or with the Telegraph's either - and I think the BBC used to cut that sort of stuff out of the programmes that they sold to bible-bashing Americans. :lol: But it did seem to strike a chord with other (non-Essex) couples who knew each other really pretty well, and who could share a bit of a dodgy laugh in the privacy of their own homes. (Like me and the wife.) When Sabine Schmitz used to let loose with those orgasmic whoops while lapping the Nurburgring at 160 mph in a Transit van , it was all very forced but also quite funny in its way.

I haven't seen enough of the new Top Gear to know whether that sort of risque stuff is still happening, but I sense that the new team have been reined in a bit on some fronts. (Plenty of borderline bullying and physical macho, though.) I've never seen Loose Women, so I'm sure I wouldn't know where the two programme concepts intersect. Or not. ;)

BJ

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281704

Postby airbus330 » February 2nd, 2020, 10:59 am

The problem for TG and all of the presenters involved, is that they can't quite get the recipe correct to re-create the 'feel' of the programme in its heyday.Old TG had 3 personable presenters who clearly had a connection with each other. They are also journalists who knew about cars and clearly loved them, it was more than just a gig. Overarching this was clever production and,at the time, very novel filming techniques. They even recognised when the series had gone over the top on the humour and reigned it back in again on late series. New TG has the production values, but adding a comedian and a sportsman with a shouty car expert just doesn't cut it. It feels too much like a light entertainment show. In the same way, the Old TG presenters can't get the production values right on the Grand Tour, so it feels leaden and forced. Funny enough, the latest version of 5th. Gear on Quest nearly cuts it right and reminds me a bit of early TG. I think A League of Their Own is going down the tubes in a similar way, the loss of Jack Whitehall from the quartet of James Corden, Freddie Flintoff and Jamie Redknapp crippled it. The departure of James Corden will be another nail.

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281755

Postby DrFfybes » February 2nd, 2020, 4:40 pm

Clariman wrote:
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Yes. Jeremy Clarkson put forward a great rebuttal in "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire".

"When they allow four blokes to host "Loose Women" then it would be equally acceptable to allow three women to host Top Gear.

Except doesn't that miss the point a bit? At least Loose Women's title makes it clear that it is aimed at women, whereas Top Gear was ostensibly about cars which both men and women might find interesting. If it was called Loose Men go Mad in Cars it would be a more honest title. .


Next thing you'll be expecting Blakes Seven to be about seven people lead by someone called Blake or Blue Peter to be about a rude stangup comedian :)

Paul

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281762

Postby ffacoffipawb64 » February 2nd, 2020, 5:38 pm

DrFfybes wrote:
tea42 wrote:Bring back William Woolard....


... and Noel Edmonds.

Now dropping him off a dam would put the viewing figures up :)

Paul


They did try a bungee jump on his Late Late Breakfast Show, with disastrous consequences.

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281818

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 2nd, 2020, 9:35 pm

Clariman wrote:
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:Yes. Jeremy Clarkson put forward a great rebuttal in "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire".

"When they allow four blokes to host "Loose Women" then it would be equally acceptable to allow three women to host Top Gear.

Except doesn't that miss the point a bit? At least Loose Women's title makes it clear that it is aimed at women, whereas Top Gear was ostensibly about cars which both men and women might find interesting. If it was called Loose Men go Mad in Cars it would be a more honest title.

For the record, I'm no fan of Loose Women as a TV programme.

Hmm ... TG was first aired in 1977, Loose Women in 1999. A difference of 22 years. The Stig was a woman in the 2011 series.

Ironically the two largest fans of both Top Gear new and old and Grand Tour are the two ladies of our household. Neither make comments suggesting that they wish there were more female presenters. Indeed they have binge watched TG and GT. Neither would warm to Loose Women, in my somewhat humble opinion.

AiYn'U

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#281891

Postby bungeejumper » February 3rd, 2020, 10:54 am

ffacoffipawb64 wrote:
DrFfybes wrote:... and Noel Edmonds.

Now dropping him off a dam would put the viewing figures up :)

They did try a bungee jump on his Late Late Breakfast Show, with disastrous consequences.

Blimey, I'd forgotten that one. https://www.bungeefinder.com/2013/01/mi ... mping.html. And then Edmonds had the helicopter crash, which damn near killed my parents' next door neighbour (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/166159.stm). He was never the same again. :( Perhaps Mr Edmonds is safer on terra firma.

BJ

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Re: Top Gear is back, again

#284595

Postby stooz » February 15th, 2020, 8:06 pm

JohnB wrote:Fully Charged on Youtube is a straight electric car (and battery stuff) show. 2 male, 2 female presenters

I have found this on my face book recently.

Isn't the presenter or owner of the company the robot from red dwarf?


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