Top Gear is a BBC television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style. Th May, and also features a test driver known as The Stig. The programme is estimated te show is currently presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have 350 million viewers worldwide.
First run episodes are broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two. Top Gear is also shown on Dave, BBC America, BBC Canada, RTÉ Two in Ireland, SBS in Australia (until 2010), and a number of other television channels around the world. The popularity of the show has led to the creation of two international versions, with local production teams and presenters for Australia and Russia. Episodes of the Australian version premiered on 29 September 2008 and NBC was holding the American version for broadcast in February or March 2009, as a possible mid-season replacement, but later dropped it from their schedule before production resumed.
The show has received acclaim for its visual style and presentation, as well as considerable criticism for its content and comments made by presenters. Columnist A. A. Gill described the show as "a triumph of the craft of programme-making, of the minute, obsessive, musical masonry of editing, the french polishing of colourwashing and grading".
Jeremy Clarkson, who helped the original series reach its peak in the 1990s, along with producer Andy Wilman, successfully pitched a new format for Top Gear to the BBC, reversing a previous decision to cancel the show in 2001. The new series was first broadcast in 2002. Top Gear's studio is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome and business park in Waverley, Surrey. Top Gear uses a temporary racing circuit which was designed for the show by Lotus and is laid out on parts of Dunsfold's runways and taxiways. A large hangar is used for studio recording with a standing audience.
The new series format incorporates a number of major changes from the old show. The running time was extended to one hour and two new presenters were introduced: Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe, with James May replacing Dawe after the first series. The Stig, an anonymous, helmeted racing driver, was introduced as the test driver. New segments were also added, including "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car", "The Cool Wall", "The News", "Power Laps", and one-off features such as races, competitions and the regular destruction of caravans and, more recently, Morris Marinas.
In early 2006, the BBC had planned to move the filming site from Dunsfold to Enstone, Oxfordshire for filming of the eighth series of Top Gear, but the move was rejected by West Oxfordshire council due to noise and pollution concerns. Filming of the series went ahead at Dunsfold in May despite not having a permit to do so, with a revamped studio set, a new car for the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment, and the inclusion of one of Hammond's dogs, named "Top Gear Dog", in a few studio and film segments of that series.
On 20 September 2006, Richard Hammond was seriously injured while driving a Vampire turbojet drag racing car at up to 314 miles per hour (505 km/h) for a feature in the show. The BBC indefinitely postponed the broadcast of Best of Top Gear and announced that production of the show would be delayed until Hammond had recovered. Both the BBC and the Health and Safety Executive carried out inquiries into the accident. Filming resumed on 5 October 2006. The ninth series began on 28 January 2007 and included footage of Hammond's crash. The first show of the ninth series attracted higher ratings than the finale of Celebrity Big Brother[10] and the final episode of the series had 8 million viewers — BBC Two's highest ratings for a decade.
A special programme, Top Gear: Polar Special, was broadcast in the UK on 25 July 2007 and was the first episode to be shown in high-definition. It involved a race to the North Magnetic Pole from Resolute, Nunavut, Canada, with James May and Jeremy Clarkson travelling in a 'polar modified' Toyota Hilux, and Richard Hammond on a dog drawn sled. All three presenters had experienced explorers with them, and Clarkson and May became the first to reach the 1996 North Magnetic Pole by car, using the vehicle's satellite navigation. Since 1996, the North Magnetic Pole had moved approximately 100 miles (160 km). The recorded 1996 location is the target used by Polar Challenge and was used by the Top Gear team as their destination; the Geographic North Pole is approximately 800 miles (1,300 km) further north.
On 9 September 2007, Top Gear participated in the 2007 Britcar 24-hour race at Silverstone, where the hosts (including The Stig) drove a race prepared, second hand diesel BMW 330d to come 3rd in class and 39th overall. The car was allegedly fuelled using biodiesel refined from crops shown during a tractor review in the previous series.
In 2008, the show was adapted into a live format called Top Gear Live. The tour started on 30 October 2008 in Earls Court, London, moving on to Birmingham in November then at least 15 other countries worldwide. Produced by former Top Gear producer Rowland French the events were described as an attempt to "bring the tv show format to life... featuring breath-taking stunts, amazing special effects and blockbusting driving sequences featuring some of the world’s best precision drivers".
On 17 June 2008, in an interview on BBC Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show, Hammond and May confirmed that in Series 11 there would be a new "occasional regular host". This was revealed to be Top Gear Stunt Man. The series' executive producer, Andy Wilman, has also revealed that future programmes will have less time devoted to big challenges:
"We've looked back at the last two or three runs and noticed that a programme can get swallowed up by one monster film — a bit like one of those Yes albums from the 70s where side one is just one track — so we're trying to calm down the prog-rock side. We'll inevitably still have big films, because it's the only way you can enjoy the three of them cocking about together, but they'll be shorter overall, and alongside we'll be inserting two- or three-minute punk songs."
Broadcasts
New episodes of Top Gear are broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on Sunday evenings at 8:00 pm (Series 14 is currently being broadcast at 9:00 pm in order not to clash with The X Factor Results show).[16] Each show is an hour in length with no interruptions for advertisements as the BBC is funded by the annual TV licence.
Repeats of earlier series are currently shown on Dave, cut to 46 minutes to allow it to fit in an hour-long slot while leaving room for advertisements. Since mid-October 2007 the channel Dave has begun showing new episodes of Top Gear only three weeks behind BBC Two. The new episodes are also shown in an edited 46-minute version. Top Gear has been broadcast in other countries either in its original format, in a re-edited version, or with specially shot segments in front of the UK audience. For example, Canvas, the Flemish public broadcaster, picked up the show after the success of the Top Gear: Polar Special programme. The BBC version of the programme is broadcast by RTE Two in Ireland.
The BBC also broadcasts edited Top Gear programmes on its international BBC World TV channel. Episodes are shortened to 30 minutes, often leaving dangling references and inconsistencies. Additionally, the original transmission order is sometimes not adhered to, so references to un-aired events are common. The only footage specially shot for the international version is for the end of each episode, when Clarkson bids his goodbye to BBC World viewers, instead of BBC viewers. BBC America also broadcasts repeats of Top Gear, with two episodes shown back-to-back, but with segments edited to allow for commercials.
Recently, BBC World has changed from showing edited versions of the current series to "best of" collections of the previous series. In both cases the BBC World edition mainly features the challenges and races from the normal episodes, with Clarkson's 'stronger' remarks removed. Interviews and "Car of the Year" are generally not shown.
The show's episodes from Series 11 and Series 12 are also available on iTunes. They are edited for content, often pixelating swear words and "bleeping" them out, but the timing indicates they match with the full BBC2 version.
On 22 September 2009, the BBC confirmed that future episodes of Top Gear would be filmed in high-definition and available to view on BBC HD.
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