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Top Gear - Time to put it out to graze?

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Strathclyder

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Agreed. He can be a marmite character. Some of his earlier books on cars contained plenty of political views of whilst generally funny, did contain aspects that some would take offence to. I suppose this contrasts with the number of right on comedians who just aren't funny.

He was generally very good in his early top gear days, serious but adding flashes of the obvious wit and humour that was to come. I seem to recall those documentaries on engineering. Again... generally serious presentation but with measured flickers of humour that added real value. Didn't he describe himself as a hideous gargoyle on the front of a super tanker?
That he did (at 0:24 in the attached vid), on the bow of the Jahre Viking (one of a few names she had during her roughly 31 year career), the largest moving man-made object ever built and the longest/heaviest self-propelled ship ever built. Fully laden, she was incapable of navigating the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal and the English Channel.

 
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johntea

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His farming show is worth a watch on Amazon, it’s basically Top Gear on a farm! (but you do learn about farming at the same time weirdly)

Also a very good replacement for Chris Tarrant on Millionaire as he certainly likes to just crack on with the questions
 

GS250

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His farming show is worth a watch on Amazon, it’s basically Top Gear on a farm! (but you do learn about farming at the same time weirdly)

Also a very good replacement for Chris Tarrant on Millionaire as he certainly likes to just crack on with the questions

That farming show showed him totally out of his comfort zone. His usual swagger had gone completely. However he still managed the usual dry wit and self depreciation. Some of his detractors actually took to him during this series.
 

ABB125

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That farming show showed him totally out of his comfort zone. His usual swagger had gone completely. However he still managed the usual dry wit and self depreciation. Some of his detractors actually took to him during this series.
Clarkson's Farm was an excellent programme. As well as the reasons you mention, it highlighted some of the problems faced by farmers to a large audience, most of whom have never thought about farming before. Whilst undoubtedly there were some scripted moments of silliness (or perhaps more likely, discovering a problem then exaggerating it a bit, the "tractor train" when he got stuck at the bottom of a wet muddy slope springs to mind), it did seem a much more genuine programme that Top Gear or The Grand Tour.
 

Bald Rick

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Personally I think the current incarnation is as good, and in some ways better than the latter years of Clarkson / Hammond / May. Last Sunday’s programme was very good.

It’s about the only thing I make sure I watch on TV.
(Although obviously I have to check to see what Tess is wearing on Strictly every Saturday. Today - not great).
 

MotCO

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Clarkson's Farm was an excellent programme. As well as the reasons you mention, it highlighted some of the problems faced by farmers to a large audience, most of whom have never thought about farming before. Whilst undoubtedly there were some scripted moments of silliness (or perhaps more likely, discovering a problem then exaggerating it a bit, the "tractor train" when he got stuck at the bottom of a wet muddy slope springs to mind), it did seem a much more genuine programme that Top Gear or The Grand Tour.

One of Clarkson's neighbours also produces a Youtube series on farming, giving the real as-it-is view without the silliness, and in a very watchable way. Check out 'Harry's Farm'.
 

Enthusiast

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Can we put out "Strictly Come Dancing" whilst we are at it. :lol:
"Strictly" has probably done more to increase the business of pubs and restaurants on a Saturday evening than any other TV show. And there have been a lot in that category including "The X-Factor", "Britain's Got Talent [or usually not]", et al.
 

Energy

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The problem with the original style Top Gear now is that there arn't really any bad cars anymore, the base line is pretty decent and indeed enough technology is shared that many cars are pretty similar. A road test comparing a Sandero, Clio and a Juke for example would be basically the same car three times.
If you look at car reviews on YouTube you'll notice that the spend a lot of time on the interior, boot etc. since most cars drive good enough now that there is less to talk about. With EVs we are going to see platforms being shared more since they are so expensive to develop, VW and Ford have already got an agreement to share on their vans and some of Ford's future cars. If you look at some of Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and Toyota's vans you'll notice its the same van 4 times.
 

richw

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Personally I think the current incarnation is as good, and in some ways better than the latter years of Clarkson / Hammond / May. Last Sunday’s programme was very good.
This is about the only post in this thread I agree with about Top Gear.
When they review cars, that’s my nip to the loo or kitchen for a drink.
I enjoy the silliness of the challenges. The pick up feature I enjoyed. At the end of the day it’s an entertainment show not a consumer advice show. The current set of presenters appeal to me as entertaining, I watch many of their other shows too.
 

Spamcan81

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Top Gear is good at being a light hearted bit of silliness.

That Croatian built electric car blew me away.
The Hamster managed to crash its predecessor in a previous Top Gear - or was it a Grand Tour? Either way the current Top Gear wasn’t the first to feature a Croatian electric super car.
 

Bald Rick

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The Hamster managed to crash its predecessor in a previous Top Gear - or was it a Grand Tour? Either way the current Top Gear wasn’t the first to feature a Croatian electric super car.
Grand Tour, series 2.

the car he crashed was a Rimac Concept One, of which 8 were built.
 

GS250

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This chap reviews cars on youtube in a fairly watchable manner. Whats good is that he reviews a lot of older cars from the 80s and 90s too. Was nice to see the long forgotten Opel Monza there especially as I owned one for 6 years in the 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JayEmmonCars
 

E27007

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Top Gear has gone the path of Top of the Pops prime Thursday evenin,g Tommorrows World science and inventions programme, then ToTP, both were TV highlights in their prime years Top of the Pops long gone, the public lost interest.
 

Geezertronic

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Is this another Top Gear isn't as good since Clarkson left thread?

I quite like the current incarnation.

Took them long enough :) The couple of series after Clarkson, Hammond and May left are not even worth discussing, and I've never seen the Evans episodes being repeated on Dave which must say something as well. The current line-up must be getting comfortable with each other as Flintoff has not told Harris to not call him Andrew for a while :)
 

GS250

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I do too. It's not the same as the "original", but it is good in its own right.

I actually thought the last series or two with Clarkson was pretty tedious really. Bleeped out F words and smutty humour may have the hand picked hipster audience in apparent stitches. Doesn't do anything for me though.
 

Pete_uk

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I liked the little cars in last week's episode. I felt there were a few good bits of spontaneous moments between the three of them.
 

JohnMcL7

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I actually thought the last series or two with Clarkson was pretty tedious really. Bleeped out F words and smutty humour may have the hand picked hipster audience in apparent stitches. Doesn't do anything for me though.
I thought it had been going downhill for some time and largely stopped watching it before it finished with Clarkson as I was fed up with the three of them playing the idiots with blatantly scripted and unfunny events constantly happening. Which I thought was a shame as they could do genuinely fascinating segments on subjects that interested them and they were entertaining just doing stuff together, I wasn't too sorry when it finished and had hoped they'd go for something new and different which might be worth watching.
 

WatcherZero

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Really confused by the people on here saying they 'havent seen it since it did proper reviews' The last proper series was 2001, 21 years ago!
It was 2002 the entertainment reboot launched. And yes I am old enough to remember Quentin Wilson doing reviews of boot space.
 

birchesgreen

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I don't know about that, they still did proper reviews in the Nu Skool era, remember when they showed that a Ford Fiesta could be used in a Royal Marine amphibious assault :lol:
 

DarloRich

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there are clearly several people here who continue to miss the point of Top Gear! It isn't a car show. It is a 3 blokes dijking about show that features cars.
 

GS250

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what, boring? ;)

:lol:

I guess to the modern audience the old top gear would have been like watching paint dry. Even though cars were a lot more interesting and varied back then, I don't think your average easily distracted 'Strictly come' viewer would last long watching a BMW 3 series facing off against an Audi A4. Enthusiasts aside, general attitudes to cars have probably changed a bit in today's environment. There was always quite a fervour back then when a new model came out. Manufacturers were pretty independent of each other and there were always a lot more competition to win buyers over. There were some titanic mass market battles back then, usually Ford v Vauxhall with Rover sometimes thrown in. Fiesta v Nova, Escort v Astra v Rover 200, Sierra V Cavalier, Granada V Carlton v Rover 800. It was serious stuff back then. You only really considered a prestige German car if you were a) better off, b) a criminal of sorts or c) an enthusiast who wanted to treat themselves to and older 2nd hand model. Nowadays people tend to look at 'what car' surveys, get talked into whatever Dexter at Car Giant sells them, or peer over into next doors front garden and decide to try and better it.

So yes...I guess we've reached a pretty robust collective conclusion as to why it had to change.
 

DarloRich

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I guess to the modern audience the old top gear would have been like watching paint dry.
it was. It was like Watchdog. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have no interest is cars. I don't care if they have a nice seat or good pedals or a big boot. I don't care what MPG they have or how big the wheels are or how many cylinders it has, or how many torques it has or how many horsepower. A show droning on about that kind of stuff is for motoring train spotters!

So yes...I guess we've reached a pretty robust collective conclusion as to why it had to change.
Times change. What was an acceptable format for the 1980's isn't one for the 2020's.
 
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