Fifth Gear

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Fifth Gear

The Fifth Gear logo
Genre Motoring
Directed by Phil Hawkins
Mark McQueen
Presented by Tiff Needell
Vicki Butler-Henderson
Tom Ford
Jason Plato
Jonny Smith
Tim Shaw
Composer(s) David Lowe
Country of origin Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of series 16
No. of episodes 153 (to 13 July 2009) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Richard Pearson
Producer(s) James Woodroffe
Editor(s) Mike Bloore
Mike Brown
Martin Dowell
James Hay
Steve Killick
Leigh Nicholls
Tony Quinsee-Jover
Peter Shannon
Running time 23 mintues originally
46 minutes currently (excluding adverts)
Production company(s) North One
Broadcast
Original channel Five
Picture format 16:9
Original run 8 April 2002 – present

Fifth Gear (formerly 5th Gear) is a motoring television magazine from the United Kingdom. The programme started its sixteenth series in June 2009. Originally shown on Five, Fifth Gear has also aired on the SPEED Channel in the USA for a short period in 2004 to early 2007. Repeats of Fifth Gear also started airing on UKTV channel, Dave in April 2008.

Fifth Gear first aired in 2002 as a replacement to the original incarnation of the BBC show Top Gear, which was cancelled in 2001 due to low ratings. Five originally wanted to carry on using the Top Gear name, but the BBC refused. Several of Top Gear's ex-presenters, including Quentin Willson, Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson were hired by Five to present Fifth Gear. [1]

Contents

[edit] Show format

The original format consisted of a 31 minute programme, including approximately 7 minutes of adverts.[2] The eighth series returned in the autumn of 2005 in a longer format of 45 minutes, and the ninth series (which went to a 13-week run) was increased to a one hour airtime slot (approximately 46 minutes excluding adverts).

[edit] Location

At the start of series 10 the show introduced between-feature links filmed at the Ace Cafe in London. In previous series these links were filmed at the production company offices in Birmingham. Originally produced by Chrysalis Television, the Birmingham offices were situated on the top floor of the headquarters of 100.7 Heart FM (also, at that time, a Chrysalis Radio company), near Birmingham's Five Ways area. The team moved out when Chrysalis sold their Television Division to All3Media in September 2003 (the section which currently produces Fifth Gear is now known as North One Television, part of the All3Media group).

In series 14, a location change from the Ace Cafe meant link sequences were filmed instead at the Millbrook Proving Ground, along with some of the vehicle testing features.

[edit] Presenter Line-up

For series 10 Tim Lovejoy was introduced as a main presenter, this was short-lived when longtime presenter, Tom Ford replaced Lovejoy alongside Vicki Butler-Henderson for series 11 onwards. Ford and Butler-Henderson join regular presenters Jason Plato, Jonny Smith and Tiff Needell. Needell and Plato are predominantly used in performance car features where Smith and Ford cover lifestyle and general motoring issues. Previous presenters have included ex-Top Gear presenters Quentin Willson and Adrian Simpson as well as ex-Top Gear editor (and Fifth Gear producer) Jon Bentley who presented safety and scientific features. Tim Shaw was added to the line-up for the 14 series starting in the August 2008.

[edit] Canadian version

Fifth Gear started Canadian broadcast on Discovery Channel Canada in 2008, began with 2006 series. This version ran in half-hour format.

[edit] Series List

See also: List of Fifth Gear episodes
Series Episodes Originally aired
1 9 8 April 2002 - 3 June 2002
2 8 7 October 2002 - 25 November 2002
3 9 12 March 2003 - 21 May 2003
4 10 + Special 26 September 2003 - 15 December 2003
5 10 29 March 2004 - 3 May 2004
6 10 11 October 2004 - 13 December 2004
7 10 21 March 2005 - 23 May 2005
8 10 10 October 2005 - 19 December 2005
9 13 10 April 2006 - 24 July 2006
10 13 25 September 2006 - 18 December 2006
11 10 30 April 2007 - 2 August 2007
12 8 3 September 2007 - 22 October 2007
13 10 21 January 2008 - 24 March 2008
14 8 11 August 2008 - 29 September 2008
15 8 5 January 2009 - 23 February 2009

[edit] Accidents

During Series 12 Episode 7[3] two accidents took place during filming.

  • Tom Ford broke his foot and several toes[4] when he crashed a modified Bedford Rascal van. Ford was recording a piece about drifting. He and co-host Jonny Smith were racing each other in a D1 Grand Prix style around a private track. After winning the event, Ford was performing a victory drift that went wrong, put his van (painted to resemble the A-Team GMC Van) up on two wheels and sent him into a safety barrier.
  • BTCC driver Jason Plato suffered multiple burns when a Caparo T1 he was driving at Bruntingthorpe proving ground burst into flames[5]. The car, capable of 200 mph (320 km/h), burst into flames at an estimated 150 mph (240 km/h). Plato said: "There was a slight loss of power, I looked in the mirror and saw some smoke, there was a slight smell of oil and then suddenly there was this intense heat. The car spontaneously erupted into a ball of flames and I was sat in the middle of a fireball." The presenter was initially taken to Market Harborough and District Hospital by former BTCC driver Phil Bennett before being treated at Kettering General Hospital. He later received specialist burns treatment at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The incident was mentioned during Top Gear's discussion of the Caparo T1 the next year.

[edit] The Fifth Gear awards

Each year, the programme gives out various awards:

[edit] 2004

[edit] 2005

[edit] 2006

[edit] 2007

[edit] Shoot outs

Fifth Gear claims to be 'world renowned' for their 'infamous' shoot outs, between similarly priced, similarly powerful cars, or, recently, cars versus bikes. These shoot outs take place at the Anglesey Circuit on the Isle of Anglesey close to Aberffraw. During the refurbishment of Anglesey, shoot-outs were switched to Castle Combe Circuit.

[edit] 2002 (Series 1 and 2)

[edit] 2003 (Series 3 and 4)

[edit] 2004 (Series 5 and 6)

[edit] 2005 - Series 7

[edit] 2005 - Series 8

[edit] 2006 - Series 9

[edit] 2006 - Series 10

[edit] 2007 - Series 11

[edit] 2007 - Series 12

[edit] 2008 - Series 13

[edit] 2008 - Series 14

  • Week 1:
  • Week 2:
  • Week 3:
  • Week 4:
  • Week 5:
  • Week 6:

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Top Gear team switch lanes". BBC News Online. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2001-11-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1657807.stm. 
  2. ^ Gallagher, William (2002-04-09). "Top Gear finds a new home". BBC News Online. British Broadcasting Corporation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/reviews/1918330.stm. 
  3. ^ Fifth Gear: Behind the scenes Accessed 28 May 2008
  4. ^ Fifth Gear star Tom Ford hurt in crash Autotrader.co.uk News - Accessed 10 October 2007
  5. ^ Plato injured as Caparo T1 bursts into flames Crash.net News - Accessed 10 October 2007
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