Top Gear

[HappyHour@TheBreweryOfLife]

The show is getting better but what is really cracking me up are all the idiots on FB, Twitter and news sites who are all bitching about it.

They all appear to be watching a programme they have already decided to hate more than Hitler beforehand, and then are posting how much they hate it on a/m sites.

I'm already losing faith in humanity reading the Brexit rants and thsee are not helping.

[Earl Grey]

My thread on Top Gear not good enough for you then, HH?

http://www.thepompeychimes.net/forum/vi ... =2&t=76139



Seriously, it's like a new James Bond.....unless you're REALLY good, people will pan you.

So George Lazenby got panned....Roger Moore less so because he was good....etc.

Once the show settles down then the real verdict will become clear.

Those who were ready to pan it on the flimsiest evidence will grow to 'put up with' its 'faults' and those who were so desperate for Top Gear to return and so bigged it up will begin to realise that it WAS maybe better before but it's still OK.

[Weybridge]

I watched most of the first one, and it was ok - nothing special. Didn't deserve the panning it got.

I'm not sold on Chris Evans, but let him grow into it. I've not seen anything of Chris Harris yet on TG, but he's brilliant on /Drive. Knowledgeable, and charismatic and just a hint of the laddish tone which gave Top Gear its charm.

[pompeygunner]

Problem for me & its a biggie. I just cannot abide Chris Evans, his whole demeanour & manner sets my teeth on edge. As far as I can see he's a talentless twerp. TBH they may as well have got Ant n Dec to present it, the difference is marginal.

[Locky_McLockface]

Apropos of nothing, I met Chris Evans on a train once. It was during his "out of the limelight" phase, after he got kicked out from the R1 Breakfast Show, and he looked more like a tramp than a multi-millionaire. He was quite happy to chat to a total stranger (ie, me) for a few minutes, then he got off at Farncombe.

[pomp 'n circumstance]

I neither like nor dislike Chris Evans - I don't really know that much about him. The main problem the Beeb have with this venture is the fact that Top Gear was always a cash cow for them. Annually world sales to other countries were around £50 million and that's a hell of a lot of gravy that is likely to go missing from the bottom line, should the new version fail - it was also an expensive programme to make, so they don't have too much time to get it right. At present the format doesn't look or feel right....it hasn't changed enough from the original to make it fresh and frankly we may not like Clarkson, Hammond or May, they had the show down to a fine art and technically they were sharper in their presentation.

They are all extremely good journalists and there was also an extremely good programme director who jumped ship with them when Clarkson was dismissed and although they wanted Hammond and May to continue, they weren't lured to re-join the new Top Gear. So the Beeb is left with a Top Gear without the front men who created it - rather like doing the Morcambe & Wise Show without Eric and Ernie. It will be interesting to see how Clarkson's new motoring show 'The Grand Tour' will do when it launches on Amazon in the Autumn - my feeling is that there will not be room for both!

[pompeygunner]

Pomp, Top Gear has been running as far back as 1978 iirc. Clarkson didn't appear until around '89. By the mid 90's his segment involving a car test was slowly developing into what until recently was his format. Ott effects & lighting & general comedy delivery. Basically when he bought the rights it became a pisstake of what it once was.
It certainly came a long way since the days of Val Singleton (iirc) & Noel Edmunds. Ijust wonder whether the beeb would've been better off axing it completely, wa s getting a bit stale imo.

[No Shot Sherlock]

I've quite enjoyed the first two shows. Sure some of the 'banter' has been a little less natural in its delivery, sure Chris Evans is trying a bit too hard (doesn't he always?), but I bet if you looked back to the first shows Clarkson, Hammond and May made they'd have suffered similarly. I particularly loved the Viper ACS piece in the first show, and thought both the 675LT and the Jag/Porsche/Mercedes SUV pieces in the second show were very entertaining (though I suspect all three of those will have needed a small fortune spent on repairs on their return!).