TOP GEAR

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BBC TV PROGRAM ABOUT CARS, GOOD AND BAD POINTS, ETC.

Top Gear is a long-running BBC television series about cars, motorcycles and motorsport. When it started in 1977, it was initially not networked throughout Britain, hosted by BBC anchorwoman Angela Rippon. Early presenters included Noel Edmonds and William Woollard.

Originally a fairly middle-of-the-road magazine show reviewing new car models and other car-related issues, such as road safety, it saw a massive boost in its audience in the early 1990s when it became more controversial, unashamedly petrolhead-oriented programme, fronted by Jeremy Clarkson. Among Clarkson's contemporary presenters were Quentin Willson, a former used car salesman, Tiff Needell, a keen racing driver, and Vicki Butler-Henderson, also a racing driver.

THE battle to have Top Gear scrapped and replaced with a programme promoting sensible driving in sensible vehicles today reached a new level with Transport 2000 writing to BBC2 Controller Roly Keating to seek a meeting to discuss campaigners’ concerns.

Jeremy Clarkson

In a letter arriving at the BBC today, Director of Transport 2000, said: “As a programme put out by a public service broadcaster, Top Gear should be in the public interest, not just the interest of a small section of the public, and promote responsible motoring. At at time when everyone is talking about how to reduce car use, cut climate change emissions and make the roads safer, Top Gear has become outdated and irresponsible. It is in danger of undoing good work elsewhere towards making the roads safer and reducing the impact of transport on the environment.”

While recognising that Top Gear is seen by many of its viewers as entertaining, Transport 2000 argues that it has a number of serious faults that cannot be ignored in the name of ‘entertainment’:

... It glamorises speed and fails to make the connection between speed and danger on the roads.

... It encourages an obsession with unnecessarily powerful and therefore heavily polluting cars.

... It is in danger of promoting a ‘yobbish’ attitude on the road and inconsiderate behaviour towards other road users.

... It does not focus enough on ‘greener’ cars, the need to cut car journeys or the alternatives to car travel.

... Through its recurring ‘macho’ themes of speed and power, it fails to include the interests of many women in its programmes.

The programme’s excesses are well catalogued:

... Following complaints made to the BBC, the programme team had to be sent back to Oxford twice to refilm a piece about the closure of the High Street to through traffic because it failed to present a balanced view of the scheme.

... To test the claims made for a 4x4, the programme really did try to take the vehicle to the top of a mountain in Scotland, through a sensitive peat bog causing substantial ecological damage and encouraging irresponsible off-roading.

... In a race against colleagues using public transport and plane, a presenter drove a Ferrari more or less non-stop from London to Switzerland, regardless of fatigue, and was stopped by police for speeding on the way.

Jeremy Clarkson - Burns the Planet

... A presenter deliberately drove a vehicle into a mature tree in a car park in Somerset to test the strength of the vehicle in a crash. The programme ended up apologising and paying compensation to the local parish council for the damage caused.

Transport 2000 would like to see Top Gear taken off the BBC schedules and replaced with a new programme devoted to encouraging responsible motoring based on less environmentally damaging cars, considerate and safety-conscious driving, and exploration of alternatives to the car.

Stephen Joseph said: “It should be perfectly possible to make a responsible programme on motoring that’s entertaining or even funny. A new-look ‘Third Gear’ programme could even still include Jeremy Clarkson but let’s see a softer, more caring Jeremy, one who’s willing to slow down for old ladies crossing the road and perhaps even stop to help a cyclist mend a puncture.”

For further information or interviews contact Steve Hounsham in the Transport 2000 press office on 020 7613 0743 extn 106 or 07984 773468.

It just goes to show how little publicity this Transport 2000 campaign has been given by our ICE-fundamentalist "corporate service" BBC and our ICE-devoted media in general.

( ICE="Internal Combustion Engine" )

Note the ever more ferocious 2-fingered salute from the BBC who have now allocated TWO hours of family primetime (7 pm) TV to Top Gear every week.

This is uniquely bullish, defiant child-targeted pro-ICE propaganda (get 'em hooked young when they're sitting on the sofa bonding with ICE-addicted dad...).

No other programme in the BBC TV schedule gets to be repeated primetime on the BBC's main terrestrial channels. Let alone a one hour programme. Even the Jonathan Ross show is only repeated on BBC3 digital - and at 10 pm.

And in the name of fair and balanced "equal time" public service TV - when will our corporately embedded BBC finally relent and provide viewers with a TV programme devoted to the environment - to all aspects of eco-innovation and green technology in the UK and around the world? And for TWO hours a week please - family prime time!! EVUK has of course written to the BBC many times on this - we've even given them (with no consultation fee...) a programme title to run with : "Action Planet" - and have contacted three household name TV production companies who'd love to produce it!

Top Gear, please note, is not a motoring programme - it is an ICE programme, a show for ICE-fundamentalists that exists to defend the Internal Combustion Engine on behalf of corporate (Oil/ICE) vested interests, the government (specifically the Treasury) and male (or at least would- be "masculine") crank 'n' piston addicts.

Jeremy Clarkson - Anti Environment?

And on behalf of the rest of the ICE/ oil / fossil-fuel food-chain. When has the programme ever taken the carmakers to task for dragging their feet and failing to move to ZEV / EV technology as promised for so many years? Top Gear presenters - and motoring journalists in general - love to paint themselves as the cardriver's champion and best friend - so why are they not challenging carmakers and pressuring them into at last producing ultra-high fuel-efficient plug-in (able) hybrids - not to mention extremely cheap-to-run pure battery EV's?

When have they ever used their considerable power to pressure carmakers into delivering ZEV alternatives?

Never! The ICE is almost a religion to these people. They are ICE- fanatics, technological and environmental muttheads - and immensely proud of it! And these people populate the media and call the shots at our increasingly corporately correct BBC (BBC TV especially).
You see, the BBC love to defend Top Gear by saying (quote):

"The BBC can't be politically correct in all its programming".

(Yes, that's also one of ultra right-wing Fox News' favourite put-down phrases - ie. invoking over-zealous "political correctness"...)

You might therefore like to ask our corporately correct BBC why there is no show called "Top Burger" or "Top Fag" or "Top Booze".

After all, millions of people enjoy these politically incorrect products (burgers, fags,booze) every day - products which, what's more - unlike petrol and diesel engines - only pose a threat to human health.

Yet it is the Internal Combustion Engine - which threatens both human health AND the health of the planet - that is allocated TWO hours of "public service" family (-indoctrination) prime TV time every week.

Why the execrable double standards from the BBC? Why do the public and consumer groups let them get away with it?

Where is the equivalent "amusingly" politically incorrect, in yer face..er.."public service" programming for burger, cigarette and booze fans? (Come on BBC - we can't be politically correct all the b***dy time, now can we...hmm?)

As we've said before, Top Gear is where the BBC wears its heart on its sleeve.
The BBC is (ostensibly) a "public service" TV company that scrapped Tomorrow's World (a show focused on innovation and the future...) and has subsequently quadrupled the weekly air-time given over to Top Gear and shifted it to peak family primetime.
And Top Gear is a programme that is now deliberately using B-list celebs as part of its relentless ICE-mindset reinforcement armoury and has also regularly invited clerics/vicars into the studio as audience members to tell us(on a Sunday...) that (quote) "the petrol engine shows us man's god-given ingenuity and inventiveness".

And this is a programme that took three climate-killer "supercars" into two primary school playgrounds(Gigmill Primnary and Ridgehill Primary, Stourbridge, W.Midlands) and commented in the subsequent Top Gear report about it that, when they did so, the(quote) "kids were incredibly excited..which just goes to prove that when kids see cars like this they don't go on about the environment all the time as some people would have us believe."

And this supercars-in-the-playground edition by the way was aired in the week(Nov 2002) of the massive Prestige oil spill off the coast of N.East Spain/S.West France.
We of course asked the BBC and Top Gear why they didn't take some schoolchildren instead to look at some dead and dying oil-drenched birds in S.W. France...then show them the stunningly fast, long-range, highly energy-efficient all-electric TZero sports' car being recharged from renewable energy - and thus teach the kids(and the adults) the sort of lesson they should - urgently - be learning.

Contact Top Gear: top.gear@bbc.co.uk or BBC complaints/feedback at: www.bbc.co.uk/complaints , pov@bbc.co.uk, feedback@bbc.co.uk, youandyours@bbc.co.uk, info@bbc.co.uk

Jez likes fast cars

Despite enduring criticism that the show is overly macho, encourages irresponsible driving behaviour, and ignores the environment, under Clarkson's presentation it pulled in huge audiences. It became hugely influential with the motor manufacturers, since a critical word from the Top Gear team can spell disaster in the sales department; this was most memorable in the case of the Ford Ka, whose sales plummeted when Clarkson declared that "it looks like a frog". However, even more critical statements have not affected sales of the Toyota Corolla; and praise did not help the Alpine Renault A610.

Every year since the early 1990s, the team has named and shamed the worst (and the best) of the year's new cars in the J. D. Power Top 100 survey.

Top Gear has used the Allman Brothers Band instrumental hit "Jessica" as its theme tune for many years, so much so that many viewers are unaware that the track exists as a separate entity from the show. Originally the show used part of the original recording of the song, although in recent years (and as of the previous series in 2004) it has used a different recording which has different instruments and is not performed by the original artists.

After Clarkson left to pursue other aspects of his TV career, the show became more toned down, but still retaining something of its influence. The show's format has been widely imitated since the huge success of the mid-1990s, for example by Channel 4's Driven show, and ITV's Pulling Power. However, without Clarkson its audience fell from six million to under three million. In 2002, the show's remaining presenters moved to Channel Five with a virtually identical show called 5th Gear when the BBC decided to discontinue the show.

Top Gear revived

After a period of doing other programmes, Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman pitched a new format for Top Gear to the BBC, who consequently brought it back. Two new presenters were introduced, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe, before James May replaced Dawe after the first series. The credits also mention The Stig as a presenter, although he never speaks a word.

The new format show, made at Dunsfold Park in Surrey, involves a standing studio audience with whom the presenters interact and with whom Clarkson often good-naturedly argues. There is also a "chat show"-type segment where Jeremy talks to a different guest each week and the video of their on-track performance in a Suzuki Liana is viewed (the subsegment being entitled 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car'). The show is famed for its outrageous races, for example Clarkson racing the TGV train against Hammond and May from Surrey to Monte Carlo in an Aston Martin DB9, racing a plane from Surrey to Verbier in a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, racing a boat from Surrey to Oslo in a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

A trait exhibited by Top Gear producers is an apparently pathological hatred for caravans. Various stunts have seen caravans destroyed by using them as conkers while suspended from cranes, dropping one onto a Toyota Hi-Lux diesel light utility to prove the truck's indestructibility and towing one example to aerodynamically induced structural failure using a high powered Jaguar saloon car. Though many of these "tests" are often pointless and silly, they are marvelously entertaining to the audience.

The sixth series of Top Gear began on May 22, 2005.  Due to the good viewing figures of the new format show, it also seems to have been awarded an increased budget as there are several expensive experiments and trips into Europe and to America. In July 2005 the Discovery Channel (America) started showing a version of the relaunched show using the original location reports/reviews intercut with new linking sequences by the British presenters.

Star in a Reasonably Priced Car

This is a section in the show where a celebrity guest does a lap of the Top Gear track in a Suzuki Liana.  Currently, the top three celebrity laps are:

• Comedian and TV presenter Jimmy Carr with 1:46.9s

• Music expert and TV presenter Simon Cowell with 1:47.1s

• Snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan with 1:47.3s

The two slowest laps are held by the late TV presenter Richard Whiteley with 2:06.0s and Broadcaster Terry Wogan with 2:04s. They were later humourously beaten by a completely blind man Billy Baxtor with a time of 2:02s. In June 2005, previous Formula 1 racing driver Damon Hill took the lead with a time of 1:46.3s, but his time was recorded separately from other celebrities since he was a former F1 driver, and there is now a separate board for such drivers.

POWER LAPS

The top ten power laps, or laps where a car is driven round the track by the Stig are held by:

• Maserati MC12 with 1:18.9s

• Ferrari Enzo with 1:19.0s

• Ariel Atom with 1:19.5s

• Porsche Carrera GT with 1:19.8s

• Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren with 1:20.9s

• Ford GT with 1:21.9s

• Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale and the Porsche Carrera GT3 RS, both with 1:22.3s

• Ferrari 430 with 1:22.9s

• Lamborghini Murcielago with 1:23.7s

HIGHLIGHTS

2002

• The programme launched a search for the fastest faith, with representatives from different religions each driving a lap of the test track. The winner was the Church of England.

• October - A motorcyclist caught speeding at 137mph has been banned in the week Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson encouraged motorists to have fun on Welsh roads.  Ross Curwell was banned by Flintshire magistrates from driving for a year after admitting dangerous driving on a road at Treuddyn between Mold and Corwen, in north Wales.  The 38-year-old hairdresser was caught during North Wales Police's Arrive Alive campaign last July.  North Wales Police have denied that since Clarkson's gaffe on the programme - heard by millions of viewers - there has been a clampdown on motorists.

   

2003

• In May 2003, Richard used a drag racer with a rocket engine to blow up the car he considered to be the worst of all time, the Nissan Sunny. At the end of the show he also used the racer to blow up a caravan.

• Jeremy tested the Koenigsegg which, with a top speed of 245mph is the world's fastest production car. He couldn't resist a speed run on the test track. The record was 170mph set by the Pagani Zonda. This was smashed, with the Koenigsegg managing 174mph. Jeremy later commented how he felt nervous before the run because engineers from Koenigsegg had asked him if they could put tape around the windscreen. Jeremy thought that the tape was to keep the windscreen from flying off.

• Supermodel Jodie Kidd managed to knock Jay Kay off the top spot of the celebrity laps. He had been there since the second ever programme.

• The team visited the Isle of Man to test four BMW sportscars, the M1, M3, M5 and M3 CSL.

• Richard Hammond demonstrated the dangers of being in a car which is sinking in water.

2004

• Richard Hammond proved that it was safe to sit in a car struck by the lightning by sitting in Volkswagen Golf in a huge lightning generator.

2005

• The first episode of series 6, Jeremy tested the new Mercedes CLS AMG, Richard and James played football using the new Toyota Aygo and Jeremy took up the gauntlet to see whether a Challenger 2 tank could lock its main cannon onto a Range Rover Sport.

• In the second episode of series 6, Jeremy tested the Maserati MC12, which costs a staggering £412,000. The team also decided to buy a 2-door coupe each for less than £1,500 that wasn't a Porsche (mirroring a competition they had last series where they had to spend £1,500 to buy a Porsche). They were then set a series of challenges to see which had got the best deal, scoring points for each challenge. The winner turned out to be James, with a Jaguar XJS. Richard bought a BMW 635CSi, while Jeremy went for a Mitsubishi Starion.

• A new world record was set for the number of complete sideways rolls in a car. A stuntman managed to make a Ford Sierra estate complete 6 rolls - and survived.

Car of the Year

Every year, the show presents a "Car of the Year" for the best new car in that year. Winners have included:

• 2001: Ford Mondeo

• 2003: Ford Focus RS

• 2004: Aston Martin DB9

• 2005: VW Golf GTI

External links

• Top Gear magazine The 'Top Gear magazine' website

• Flixvault.org Top Gear video downloads - via server not bittorent

• Jabbasworld.net Top Gear fan site

• FinalGear.com Top Gear and Fifth Gear community.

BBC TOP GEAR HOME | NEWS | FEATURES | TIME TO BURN | WIN STUFF | BUY GUIDE

Contact Top Gear

LINKS

• Witness Describes Crash

• Willson: 'This Shows The Risks'

• Car Can Reach 370mph

• Video Top Gear Man Critical

• Pictures Presenter Seriously Injured

Top Gear star 'serious but stable' after crash
Times Online, UK - 1 hour ago
By Adam Fresco and agencies. Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson was this morning joining family and friends at the hospital bedside ...

Family vigil as crash star improves
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 1 hour ago
Family and friends of Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond were at his bedside as doctors confirmed his condition had showed some improvement overnight following ...

Top Gear man shows some improvement after 300mph jet-car crash
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 2 hours ago
Doctors have said Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond made some improvement overnight, but is still seriously ill after his 300mph jet-car crash. ...

Top Gear host 'serious but stable' after 300mph crash
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 2 hours ago
BBC Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was in a stable condition in hospital today after a jet-propelled car in which he hoped to break the British land speed ...

BBC Top Gear Host Hammond Seriously Injured in High-Speed Crash
Bloomberg - 2 hours ago
By Brian Lysaght. Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Richard Hammond, a host of the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Top Gear television program ...

BBC presenter Richard Hammond in stable condition after crash in ...
International Herald Tribune, France - 3 hours ago
LEEDS, England BBC TV presenter Richard Hammond was in serious but stable condition Thursday following a crash in a rocket-powered dragster, the hospital ...

Richard Hammond in land-speed car crash
Life Style Extra, UK - 3 hours ago
LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Well known Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was yesterday involved in a high speed car crash, while trying to break the land-speed ...

Top Gear presenter in high-speed smash
RTE.ie, Ireland - 3 hours ago
'Top Gear' presenter Richard Hammond has been seriously injured after the jet-powered car he was filming in was involved in a high-speed crash. ...

TV host 'improving' after crash
BBC News, UK - 3 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is improving but remains seriously ill in hospital after he crashed a jet-powered car during filming for the BBC show. ...

300mph record broken, then Hammond crashes
Times Online, UK - 3 hours ago
By Fran Yeoman and Ian Evans. THE Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was in a critical condition last night after a high-speed crash ...

Top Gear's Hammond badly injured in jet-car crash
Reuters.uk, UK - 4 hours ago
LONDON (Reuters) - Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was seriously ill in hospital on Thursday after being badly injured after a high-speed crash in a jet ...

TV presenter stable after high speed crash
RTE.ie, Ireland - 5 hours ago
The condition of Richard Hammond, who is a co-presenter of the BBC motoring programme, Top Gear, is said to have improved overnight after he was injured in a ...

Hammond badly injured in jet-car crash
Reuters.uk, UK - 4 hours ago
LONDON (Reuters) - Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was seriously ill in hospital on Thursday after being badly injured when he crashed in a jet-powered car ...

TV presenter critically injured in record bid
ITV.com, UK - 5 hours ago
Television presenter Richard Hammond is critically ill after crashing a jet propelled car at 280mph. Hammond was attempting to break ...

Top Gear presenter critical after crash
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 7 hours ago
Richard Hammond, a presenter for BBC television's motoring program Top Gear was airlifted to a British hospital in critical condition after being involved in ...

Hammond stable after 300mph crash
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 8 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is in a stable condition in hospital after being involved in a high-speed car crash while filming an apparent attempt to ...

'Top Gear' presenter's condition improves to stable
Ninemsn, Australia - 8 hours ago
Richard Hammond, a presenter for the BBC's Top Gear automobile television series, has improved to a stable condition after being involved in a car accident ...

`Top Gear` host injured in record stunt
Monsters and Critics.com, UK - 8 hours ago
ELVINGTON, England (UPI) -- The host of the BBC`s 'Top Gear', Richard Hammond, was seriously injured Wednesday while trying to break the British land speed ...

British 'Top Gear' presenter badly hurt in crash
Reuters - 8 hours ago
LONDON (Reuters) - A presenter on the BBC's "Top Gear" motoring programme was seriously ill in hospital on Thursday after a high-speed crash while filming the ...

Top Gear presenter badly injured in crash
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 9 hours ago
The Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was critically ill in hospital last night after a jet-propelled car in which he hoped to break the British land speed ...

Top Gear's Hammond critically injured
The Age, Australia - 10 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was critically injured on Wednesday after crashing in a jet-powered car while filming for the program, the BBC announced. ...

Top Gear presenter in serious crash
New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - 10 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is in a critical condition in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the British television programme ...

'Top Gear' presenter in 300mph jet-car crash
Independent, UK - 11 hours ago
By Geneviève Roberts. Richard Hammond, the television presenter for BBC2's Top Gear, was in a stable condition last night after ...

TV star critical after jet-car crash
Scotsman, United Kingdom - 11 hours ago
Key quote "He has brought an awful lot to the programme and his indefatigable energy, the fact that he tries absolutely anything once, may have been the reason ...

Top Gear host badly injured
Advertiser Adelaide, Australia - 11 hours ago
TV PRESENTER Richard Hammond - co-host of SBS show Top Gear - is seriously ill in hospital after a crash in a rocket-powered car while filming for the ...

Top Gear host critical after crash
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 13 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was in a critical condition in hospital after he was involved in a high-speed car crash while filming for the programme. ...

Profile: Richard Hammond
BBC News, UK - 14 hours ago
TV presenter Richard Hammond is in a critical condition after he crashed in a jet-powered car while filming for Top Gear. Hammond ...

Top Gear' presenter in critical condition
Daily News & Analysis, India - 15 hours ago
LONDON: Richard Hammond, a presenter for the BBC's Top Gear automobile television series, was airlifted to hospital on Wednesday in critical condition after ...

Top Gear presenter 'critical' after crash
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand - 15 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is being reported as in a critical condition after an accident involving a jet-powered car. The ...

Top Gear presenter critically injured
ITV.com, UK - 15 hours ago
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has been critically injured in an accident while filming an edition of the programme. Hammond ...

Richard Hammond - get well soon

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LINKS

BBC web pages

• bbc.co.uk: BBC Homepage

• bbc.co.uk: About the BBC

• BBC Editorial Guidelines

• News: BBC News

• BBC Motion Gallery

• BBC Press Office - Broadcasting House

• BBC Programme Catalogue - "Details of 949,181 BBC radio & TV programmes, dating back 75 years"

• BBC Test the Nation

• bbctraining.com: BBC Training & Development - training for the broadcast industry

• History of the BBC - Broadcasting House

• Copy of Royal Charter 1

• Morris Telford's Blog – BBC Shropshire

Articles from news websites

• Evolution of bbc broadcasting languages

• Sunday Herald: The BBC's war ... caught in crossfire (Mark Damazer, Deputy Director, BBC News) — 13 April 2003

• Wired: BBC to Open Content Floodgates BBC's Creative Archive project — 16 June 2004

• Media Guardian: BBC renews conflict of interest guide for staff — 11 July 2002

• Media Guardian: Tories go to war over 'leftie' BBC — 27 February 2005

• The Independent: Blair tells Murdoch: 'gloating' BBC is 'full of hatred for America' — 18 September 2005

Personal sites

• Broadcasting House - a potted history

• Broadcasting House in 1932

• Historical Television Website: This is the BBC

• TV Ark - The British Television Museum

• Essay examining the reasons for and against the licence fee

• The TV Room

• An article on the creation of the original BBC logo.

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