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The Offical Top Gear Thread


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Why were they watching?

 

Posted by Jeremy Clarkson at 3:10PM on Monday 29 January, 2007 20 Comments

 

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On Sunday morning, I wrote, in a national newspaper, the following prediction about how Top Gear would be reviewed...

 

You just know that the hippies and the communists won't turn over or tune out.

 

They'll be watching with their beards peeled, ready to fire off an angry email should we even look like we're going to mention gays, speed, Muslims, gypsies, polar bears, global bloody warming, breasts, disabled people, immigrants, or how jolly nice it is to be middle class.

 

And sure enough, the following morning the Scottish Green Party launched an official complaint saying we were wrong to sign off by saying 'Speed Kills' since we obviously didn't mean it.

 

What I want to know is this: why were they watching? What possible entertainment did a Scottish environmentalist think he was going to get from a show called Top Gear? They must have known they would find something to complain about. And they have.

 

But frankly my dear...

 

http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear/019-why-were-they-watching/?text

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"We perform a public service by smashing a really big train into an aging French people carrier. Trust us, it’ll all make sense when you see it."

 

Wasn't on the show :(

 

Don't let it be like the bullet-proof fiat Panda and Top Gear's Top Bus feature and become lost in the edit :(

 

Hugh Grant was okay.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Top Gear will return, BBC insists

Top Gear will return in the summer, the BBC has said - despite host Jeremy Clarkson declaring that it will not.

 

At the end of latest series last week, the BBC Two announcer assured viewers the show would be back in the summer.

 

But in his newspaper column in The Sun, Clarkson said: "Can I just say, here and now, it won't be."

 

A BBC spokesman responded by saying: "Top Gear will be back. A summer special is planned." A new series would reach screens in the autumn, he added.

 

"We're expecting all three boys to present the programmes."

 

But he refused to give any further details or explain the confusion.

 

The show made a successful comeback in January, four months after co-host Richard Hammond was involved in a serious high-speed crash while filming.

 

An estimated eight million people tuned in to see the last episode in the series on Sunday - BBC Two's largest audience for 10 years.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/6439449.stm

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  • 2 months later...

Clarkson rapped over 'gay' jibe

 

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Five people complained about Clarkson's terminology

 

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been criticised by the media watchdog Ofcom for using a term which was "capable of giving offence to homosexual people".

The Top Gear host described a vehicle on the BBC Two show last July as being "very ginger beer", taken to be rhyming slang for the term "queer".

 

Ofcom said there was "no justification for using the word in this way".

 

In December, the BBC complaints unit said there has been "no editorial purpose" for the remarks.

 

Ofcom said the complaint had been resolved because the BBC had already warned the production team and producers not to repeat the offence.

 

The regulator decided the use of the word "gay" was not necessarily offensive, but Clarkson's use of the term was "clearly linking the reference to homosexual people".

 

Clarkson used the phrase during a discussion with the studio audience about the two-seater Daihatsu Copen.

 

Last year, he was cleared of making a racist slur about Germany because this was adjudged to be amusing rather than offensive.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=h9NUKwHEWEg

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6676839.stm

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But 5 people out of 8 Million Viewers in the UK (1.5 Billion Viewers world-wide), is tiny.

 

And i bet it's those people who watch top gear for anything to moan about to try and get it replaced by repeats of it's not easy being a greenie.

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  • 1 month later...

BBC 'failings' over Hammond crash

Investigators have identified failings by the BBC over the Top Gear crash that nearly killed host Richard Hammond but found no grounds for prosecution.

 

The Health and Safety Executive spotted failings in "risk assessment and the procurement of services from others".

 

But the HSE also identified safety precautions in place that "almost certainly saved Mr Hammond's life".

 

A BBC spokesman said the lessons from this and its own forthcoming report would be applied across the BBC.

 

Richard Hammond crashed while driving a jet-powered car at speeds up to 300mph at Elvington airfield, near York, last September.

 

"The immediate cause of the accident was a catastrophic failure of the Vampire's front offside tyre at 288mph on the seventh high-speed run of the day," reported the HSE.

 

It said that the tyre had been damaged on the previous run, but that this was not visible immediately before Mr Hammond drove again.

 

The HSE found that Mr Hammond's life had "almost certainly" been saved by safety features including:

 

* the build of the Vampire car, which survived the crash intact

* the "driver restraint arrangements", and choice of crash helmet worn by Mr Hammond

* emergency services on site

 

The safety regulator also highlighted precautions including the decision not to deploy camera crews along the side of the runway.

 

The failings and other recommendations were being pursued with the parties involved, the HSE said.

 

It identified a failing on risk assessment by Primetime Land Speed Engineering, the company which owned the car and trained Mr Hammond.

 

"However, when viewed against HSE's enforcement criteria, none of these failings merit prosecution," it added.

 

The BBC spokesman said: "The BBC places the highest priority on safety.

 

"We intend to ensure that all the lessons learned from both the HSE report and the BBC's own internal investigation are applied across the whole of the BBC production community as soon as possible."

 

A statement from Primetime said that while it did not agree with all of the HSE report, it was a "fair view of the events".

 

"The HSE's recommendations have been noted and will be actioned accordingly," it said.

 

The statement added: "The report reveals lessons to be learned by all, and we are delighted to see that the BBC's driver appears to have made a complete recovery. We wish him and his family well."

 

The investigation also identified issues for the industry as a whole "about the preparation and training of presenters for such activities", the HSE said.

 

Richard Hammond suffered serious brain injuries in the crash, but doctors hailed a "remarkable" recovery that enabled him to leave hospital five weeks later.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/6230382.stm

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