Honestly, I think the BBC should just interview groups of presenters.
Interview as a 3, don’t try and force 3 people to be chummy. It won’t work.
Original show worked, because Clarkson was the head, and he picked who he brought in.
The BBC didn’t do that with the new show. There was no leader of the 3.
BBC producers, just picked 3 random presenters, and told them to act like friends, which is always doomed to fail. You can’t force friendship.
With the original show Clarkson interviewed people, and picked people he liked and thought he could get on with and would be good on camera. And he still had to go through a few.
Big difference.
So interview for a group of 3 friends, who want to take on the job.
Only way you will get that comradery and genuine banter again, imo.
Karting and other forms of amateur racing has a big community around it, somewhere in the UK there will be 3 people who are funny, and good mates, and know how to drive.
Probably many such groups.
It’s harder in an age where people on YouTube are doing car reviews, even James and Hammond are on YouTube reviewing cars. Harry’s garage is where I go for serious reviews, or I’ll just rewatch the trio on iPlayer!
Chris Harris by himself reviewing cars and then doing an interview with a celeb and have them do a lap in a reasonably priced car that doesn’t change season to season.
Chris Harris going to local and international car races where he competes in all disciplines and speaks to the locals and fellow competitors, absolutely win.
No need for this forced camaraderie of three people who have never met each other before, and will leave in seperate cars after the show end. The only reason that worked with Clarkson’s lot is because we actually saw them become friends over time on the show.
I’m still wondering what actually went on there.
Hammond had a major accident with arguably worse injuries (Flintoff was never close to death) and it was ruled an accident, the show came back, footage was shown on TV, they even later joked about it like blokes do.
The fact this is so hush hush and any details are a total secret, suggests it’s a combo of a serious safety breech, and it largely being Flintoff’s own fault.
It would be nice if they made it an actual car show, rather than idiots twatting about in cars.
At the end of the Clarkson, May, Hammond era, it was the same stale joke repeated endlessly – let’s give Captain Slow the hot hatch to review, Clarkson can tell us how much he hates the car he’s got, but he loves it, and Hammond crashing something. What they needed were new script writers, not new presenters.
Maybe something that doesn’t feed people ideas that dangerous machines are toys?
The May/Clarkson/Hammond era worked so well because they were best mates and that came across in the series.
Then BBC decided to throw three random people together, headed by a smarmy twat who nobody likes very much, and expected it to be the same.
They should have picked a leader, like say, Rowan Atkinson, and said “get two mates to join you”
Top gears dead, it’s sad but true. But James May is right. The amount of good content on YouTube prove that it can be done. The only issue is how and what format. These YouTubers had next to know budget and now make quality content off their own back. The BBC can have a huge budget, but now it just fall on the creative minds to conjure something up.
Why not just keep most of the current format but get rid of the dangerous stunts.
I am so hopeful that one day the BBC can snag Sebastian Vettel to be a Top Gear host. He would be absolutely perfect. Not only is he obviously an insanely good driver, but anyone who watched F1 knows [how legitimately hilarious he is](https://youtu.be/Yq8ppUAVny8?si=wYl-ANDq-TizKx5Z) and how well he gets on with others
He even came on the show before and talked about how much he likes British comedy, and came back later to take part in a skit
I had actually started to enjoy top gear again, and I enjoyed the newest format more than The Grand Tour. Freddy, Paddy and Chris are far closer to me in age, opinions and humour than the original 3.
It worked, it was funny, they had great chemistry. I got the feeling they were all decent, nice blokes.
The wish they had done more actual road tests though, for cars that I might actually even SEE on teh road, let alone drive.
Arguably Top Gear shouldn’t need to return now, no one will ever get it right again
BBC don’t and won’t understand what people want, so leave it be
YouTube has enough motoring shows now
I remember thinking even by the end of the Clarkson/May/Hammond era of Top Gear that it was losing its way and needed to decide whether it wanted to be a car show or a ‘specials’ show – ironically that’s where they’ve ended up now and frankly I think they’re better for it. Problem for modern Top Gear is, between the Grand Tour specials, and everything on YouTube from very much TG inspired channels, can Top Gear actually offer anything meaningfully different? As a publicly funded show I feel it needs to have a better USP than ‘because this show used to be popular’, and right now I’m honestly not sure there’s anything obvious.
Just make Matt watson single presenter with different guests every week
Actually liked the last trio. The format itself has run it’s course though but they weren’t the issue.
I can only imagine that Top Gear is completely dead.
The pre-2002 magazine style show had run its course and the reboot, it now turns out, existed pretty much during the last days when the internal combustion could still be said to have a future.
That gave the production team plenty of scope for features across the entire lifetime of the combustion engine, while still keeping things current and also with a future to look forward to.
As EVs take over, everything else to do with cars will be a history lesson with no current relevance. No one’s going to be doing a comparison between a Shelby GT500 and a Mustang Mach E.
I don’t see there being enough variety amongst EVs to prompt any interesting content. Not unless there’s a swerve away from cars as a white good, with every feature as a subscription service.
I can still remember watching the episodes with the sound of the Lexus LFA’s V10 and the supercharger whine of the VXR8 Bathurst S. I can’t see anything like that in an EV future That likely makes me sound like a bit of an out of touch dinosaur, which is exactly my point.
Top gears changed few times depending on presenters if I’m remembering it right.
The last format with Hammond, May and clarkson sort of evolved around them and how they worked together. Before them it was a different show. Fitting a new group into the same format is kinda never going to fit the same. Better to find new presenters and work to their strengths which might mean changing format of the show over time
Thing with YouTube is when someone gets popular it’s because they made their own show in a way that matches their passion or delivery
I think car culture has ultimately died.
In the 80’s and 90’s, teenagers and young adults were into cars, modifying them, racing them. Getting a car was a right of passage.
However, I don’t think todays youth share that interest in cars. I recently gave a Gen Z person a lift in my car and I was talking about BHP and the fact it has different driving modes. His first question was “does it have a comfort mode?”. For my generation, it’s the sort of question a 70 year old would ask.
Without car culture, I feel Top Gear will continue to become irrelevant until it dies completely. The void will most likely be filled with a Youtube channel that compares cars based on their charging range, creature comforts and infotainment system.
18 comments
Honestly, I think the BBC should just interview groups of presenters.
Interview as a 3, don’t try and force 3 people to be chummy. It won’t work.
Original show worked, because Clarkson was the head, and he picked who he brought in.
The BBC didn’t do that with the new show. There was no leader of the 3.
BBC producers, just picked 3 random presenters, and told them to act like friends, which is always doomed to fail. You can’t force friendship.
With the original show Clarkson interviewed people, and picked people he liked and thought he could get on with and would be good on camera. And he still had to go through a few.
Big difference.
So interview for a group of 3 friends, who want to take on the job.
Only way you will get that comradery and genuine banter again, imo.
Karting and other forms of amateur racing has a big community around it, somewhere in the UK there will be 3 people who are funny, and good mates, and know how to drive.
Probably many such groups.
It’s harder in an age where people on YouTube are doing car reviews, even James and Hammond are on YouTube reviewing cars. Harry’s garage is where I go for serious reviews, or I’ll just rewatch the trio on iPlayer!
Chris Harris by himself reviewing cars and then doing an interview with a celeb and have them do a lap in a reasonably priced car that doesn’t change season to season.
Chris Harris going to local and international car races where he competes in all disciplines and speaks to the locals and fellow competitors, absolutely win.
No need for this forced camaraderie of three people who have never met each other before, and will leave in seperate cars after the show end. The only reason that worked with Clarkson’s lot is because we actually saw them become friends over time on the show.
I’m still wondering what actually went on there.
Hammond had a major accident with arguably worse injuries (Flintoff was never close to death) and it was ruled an accident, the show came back, footage was shown on TV, they even later joked about it like blokes do.
The fact this is so hush hush and any details are a total secret, suggests it’s a combo of a serious safety breech, and it largely being Flintoff’s own fault.
It would be nice if they made it an actual car show, rather than idiots twatting about in cars.
At the end of the Clarkson, May, Hammond era, it was the same stale joke repeated endlessly – let’s give Captain Slow the hot hatch to review, Clarkson can tell us how much he hates the car he’s got, but he loves it, and Hammond crashing something. What they needed were new script writers, not new presenters.
Maybe something that doesn’t feed people ideas that dangerous machines are toys?
The May/Clarkson/Hammond era worked so well because they were best mates and that came across in the series.
Then BBC decided to throw three random people together, headed by a smarmy twat who nobody likes very much, and expected it to be the same.
They should have picked a leader, like say, Rowan Atkinson, and said “get two mates to join you”
Top gears dead, it’s sad but true. But James May is right. The amount of good content on YouTube prove that it can be done. The only issue is how and what format. These YouTubers had next to know budget and now make quality content off their own back. The BBC can have a huge budget, but now it just fall on the creative minds to conjure something up.
Why not just keep most of the current format but get rid of the dangerous stunts.
I am so hopeful that one day the BBC can snag Sebastian Vettel to be a Top Gear host. He would be absolutely perfect. Not only is he obviously an insanely good driver, but anyone who watched F1 knows [how legitimately hilarious he is](https://youtu.be/Yq8ppUAVny8?si=wYl-ANDq-TizKx5Z) and how well he gets on with others
He even came on the show before and talked about how much he likes British comedy, and came back later to take part in a skit
I had actually started to enjoy top gear again, and I enjoyed the newest format more than The Grand Tour. Freddy, Paddy and Chris are far closer to me in age, opinions and humour than the original 3.
It worked, it was funny, they had great chemistry. I got the feeling they were all decent, nice blokes.
The wish they had done more actual road tests though, for cars that I might actually even SEE on teh road, let alone drive.
Arguably Top Gear shouldn’t need to return now, no one will ever get it right again
BBC don’t and won’t understand what people want, so leave it be
YouTube has enough motoring shows now
I remember thinking even by the end of the Clarkson/May/Hammond era of Top Gear that it was losing its way and needed to decide whether it wanted to be a car show or a ‘specials’ show – ironically that’s where they’ve ended up now and frankly I think they’re better for it. Problem for modern Top Gear is, between the Grand Tour specials, and everything on YouTube from very much TG inspired channels, can Top Gear actually offer anything meaningfully different? As a publicly funded show I feel it needs to have a better USP than ‘because this show used to be popular’, and right now I’m honestly not sure there’s anything obvious.
Just make Matt watson single presenter with different guests every week
Actually liked the last trio. The format itself has run it’s course though but they weren’t the issue.
I can only imagine that Top Gear is completely dead.
The pre-2002 magazine style show had run its course and the reboot, it now turns out, existed pretty much during the last days when the internal combustion could still be said to have a future.
That gave the production team plenty of scope for features across the entire lifetime of the combustion engine, while still keeping things current and also with a future to look forward to.
As EVs take over, everything else to do with cars will be a history lesson with no current relevance. No one’s going to be doing a comparison between a Shelby GT500 and a Mustang Mach E.
I don’t see there being enough variety amongst EVs to prompt any interesting content. Not unless there’s a swerve away from cars as a white good, with every feature as a subscription service.
I can still remember watching the episodes with the sound of the Lexus LFA’s V10 and the supercharger whine of the VXR8 Bathurst S. I can’t see anything like that in an EV future That likely makes me sound like a bit of an out of touch dinosaur, which is exactly my point.
Top gears changed few times depending on presenters if I’m remembering it right.
The last format with Hammond, May and clarkson sort of evolved around them and how they worked together. Before them it was a different show. Fitting a new group into the same format is kinda never going to fit the same. Better to find new presenters and work to their strengths which might mean changing format of the show over time
Thing with YouTube is when someone gets popular it’s because they made their own show in a way that matches their passion or delivery
I think car culture has ultimately died.
In the 80’s and 90’s, teenagers and young adults were into cars, modifying them, racing them. Getting a car was a right of passage.
However, I don’t think todays youth share that interest in cars. I recently gave a Gen Z person a lift in my car and I was talking about BHP and the fact it has different driving modes. His first question was “does it have a comfort mode?”. For my generation, it’s the sort of question a 70 year old would ask.
Without car culture, I feel Top Gear will continue to become irrelevant until it dies completely. The void will most likely be filled with a Youtube channel that compares cars based on their charging range, creature comforts and infotainment system.