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Top Gear (2002 TV series)

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Top Gear
File:TopGearLogo.jpg
The Top Gear logo
StarringJeremy Clarkson
Richard Hammond
James May
The Stig
Production
Running time60 minutes (in current format)
Original release
NetworkBBC2
Release1978 –
present
Related
Fifth Gear
For other uses, see the television series.

Top Gear is a long-running BBC television series about cars and motorsports. The programme completed its seventh series in December 2005 under its current format and is expected to return in May 2006.[1] Top Gear is estimated to have over 350 million viewers worldwide, 5 million of which view the programme each week in the UK. [2] There is also Top Gear magazine, a publication produced by the BBC in conjunction with the TV show and sharing some common editors and features between them.

Top Gear is currently hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The show was relaunched in 2002 with two new presenters and a new format, with each programme consisting of at least one review of a new car, automotive news highlights, and a Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment where a celebrity guest is interviewed and performs timed laps, the best of which is posted on a leader board. Following most car reviews on the show is a Power Laps segment where Top Gear's resident test driver The Stig sets a lap time to be posted on the Power Laps board.

History

1977 to 2001

Top Gear started in 1977 and was originally hosted by BBC anchorwoman Angela Rippon, although the show was initially not networked throughout Britain. Early presenters also included Noel Edmonds and William Woollard. The programme was 30 minutes long.

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

Despite enduring criticism that the show was overly macho, encouraged irresponsible driving behaviour, and ignored the environment, the show under Clarkson's presentation pulled in huge audiences. It became hugely influential with the motor manufacturers, since a critical word from the Top Gear team could spell disaster in the sales department. One such example is the original Vauxhall Vectra where Clarkson explained "I know it's the replacement for the Cavalier. I know. But I'm telling you it's just a box on wheels"

However, even more critical statements have not affected sales of the Toyota Corolla, and extreme praise did not help the Renault Alpine GTA/A610.

Since the early 1990s, the team has named and shamed the worst (and the best) of the year's new cars in the annual J. D. Power Top 100 survey. This feature is now restricted to the magazine format, and the survey now uses Experian.

Following Jeremy Clarkson's departure in 1999 the Top Gear audience fell from six million to under three million, resulting in the BBC's cancellation of the programme in 2001. The remaining presenters moved to Five to launch a similar show, Fifth Gear, which continues to this day. After Top Gear's huge success in the mid-1990s, a number of similar programmes were also produced including Channel 4's Driven, ITV's Pulling Power and BBC World India's Wheels. [3]

2002 to today

File:TopGearNews.jpg
James May, Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson during a news segment

After a period of doing other programmes, Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman successfully pitched a new format for Top Gear to the BBC, and a new series began airing in 2002. At one hour long, the new show was twice the length of the old Top Gear. 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, the show's masked racing driver, although he never speaks a word.

The new show, made at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, involves a standing studio audience with whom the presenters interact and with whom Clarkson often good-naturedly argues. The revised format introduced the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment, where Clarkson talks to a different guest each week and the video of their on-track performance in a Suzuki Liana is viewed. The show has featured a number of outrageous races where Clarkson pilots a car against other forms of transport: an Aston Martin DB9 and the TGV train from Surrey to Monte Carlo, the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti against a plane from Surrey to Verbier, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren versus a boat from Heathrow Airport to Oslo, and a Fiat Panda against a runner on a modified London Marathon route on a weekday morning rush hour. A recent race pitted Clarkson in the 250mph+ Bugatti Veyron against a light aircraft piloted by James May, with Richard Hammond as his nervous passenger. Clarkson had won all of the above races, except for the one against the marathon runner.

Top Gear's new format is much more social. The presenters often banter with the studio audience and between themselves, particularly during the news and Cool Wall segments. Each host's persona is paid almost as much attention as the cars they review. Hammond is often chided for being short and supposedly having his teeth whitened, and was dubbed by Clarkson as Top Gear's "resident hamster" - more recently, he has been accused of having acquired an interest in "oddly-shaped vegetables", following the launch of Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show on ITV1. May earned the nickname "Captain Slow" because of a lighter foot as compared to his colleagues, his refusal to run on camera, and a tendency to lose any competition where speed is the measure of victory. Clarkson is noted for his inconsistent yet strong opinion and massive ego.

A trait exhibited by Top Gear producers and presenters is an apparent pathological hatred for caravans. Various stunts have seen caravans destroyed by using them as conkers suspended from cranes, dropping one onto a Toyota Hi-Lux diesel to prove the truck's indestructibility, and towing one example to the point of aerodynamically-induced structural failure using a powerful Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution saloon in an attempt to set the world record for towing a caravan. Though these segments are often pointless, they are marvellously entertaining to the audience. Richard Hammond also uses this treatment of caravans when presenting another television show, Brainiac: Science Abuse.

Theme music

Top Gear has used the Allman Brothers Band instrumental hit Jessica as its theme song for many years. Initially the show used part of the original artist's recording of the song, but later seasons of Top Gear use updated cover tracks. As part of a segment in the August 7, 2005 episode, James May recorded a version of Jessica (download available) using engine sounds from cars including a classic Bugatti, Mazda RX-8, Honda S2000, Fiat Panda and a Ferrari Enzo. Richard and Jeremy ridiculed the effort, with Clarkson telling May "You've taken a car and made it sound like a fat, talentless shop assistant farting."

For much of the original series' lifespan, Elton John's instrumental Out Of The Blue (from the Blue Moves album) played over the closing credits.

Nominations and awards

In November 2005, Top Gear won a 2005 International Emmy in the Non-Scripted Entertainment category. [4] In the episode where the presenters showed the award to the studio audience, Clarkson explained that he was unable to go to New York to receive the award since he was too busy writing the script for that episode.

Top Gear was also nominated twice, in 2004 and 2005, for the British Academy Television Awards in the Best Feature category. In 2004 and 2005, Top Gear was also nominated for a National Television Award in the Most Popular Factual Programme category. [5]

Criticism

Top Gear has come under fire on more than one occasion for promoting irresponsible driving [6], causing ecological damage, and favouring performance over fuel efficiency and conservation.

Jeremy Clarkson has spurred several controversies in his capacity as a presenter for Top Gear. During the November 13, 2005 episode a news segment featuring BMW's MINI Concept from the Tokyo Motor Show showcased what Richard Hammond quoted as a "quintessentially British" integrated tea set. Clarkson responded by mocking that the German designed-and-owned MINI Cooper should be fitted with "a quintessentially German... sat-nav that only goes to Poland" in reference to the Nazi invasion of Poland that started WWII, and saying "[one] fan belt will last a thousand years," a pun of Adolf Hitler's propaganda slogan of "the thousand-year Reich". These statements gained negative attention in the British and German news media, such as the UK Daily Mail article which noted that the BBC would follow a formal investigation of any complaints made on the matter.

The BBC compensated a Birmingham local parish in 2004 after Clarkson rammed a Toyota Hilux into a landmark tree[7] during a segment on proving the sturdiness and reliability of the truck through a series of "torture tests". Worse, the parish had no idea the damage had been caused by a major television show, believing that it was the work of vandals.

The road safety group Transport 2000 have asked the BBC to replace Top Gear[8] with a tamer, more environmentally-friendly "Third Gear." The group's reasons for this demand include claims of "substantial ecological damage" to a peat bog during an off-roading segment and disregard for speed limits in another segment where Clarkson was cited by police.

Top Gear was in negotiations to move to Enstone but has so far been unable to negotiate a deal and has had their initial application blocked after much opposition by local citizens because of fears that Top Gear would create pollution and noise. [9]

Clarkson has been critical of the BBC. In the February issue of Top Gear Magazine, Clarkson voices his opinion that the BBC does not take the Top Gear seriously. He also appears annoyed with BBC bosses for often replacing the show with snooker, despite Top Gear having considerably higher viewer ratings, and the show's shortening season runs.[citation needed]

Influence

Top Gear has had a history of playing a role in factoring the sales of some cars. If a car is disliked by the presenters, such as in the case of the Vauxhall Vectra, it can have a tendency to adversely affect sales. [citation needed] Top Gear, through its magazine, also conducts an annual survey (website), in order for people to make recommendations of cars based on their own experiences.

Top Gear was cited in the media as partly to blame for the closure of British car maker Rover,[citation needed] suggesting the programme claimed that the Rover 75 was not a good car. When Jimmy Carr appeared as a guest with David Walliams, host Jeremy Clarkson said that Carr had unprecedentally gone backwards from a Rover 75 after buying a Mini. However, James May's first 1999 report on the car was complimentary of many aspects, and even Clarkson gave a good report to the 75-based MG ZT. In the news segment of the 22 May 2005 episode of Top Gear, James May announced that "Rover is over" after the company closed down, said that it was Jeremy's fault. May ended that piece of news saying "...buy a Rover! Now that they've gone bust.", referring to the leftover Rovers on sale after the closure of the company.

International versions

Main article: List of Top Gear broadcasters and video releases

In June 2005, the American Discovery Channel started airing a modified version of the show, with heavily edited studio segments, and the complete removal of the news and Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segments. This version of the show is now currently airing on national television in Denmark and Norway, and on BBC's pan-European cable channel. The Discovery Channel stopped airing Top Gear in October 2005, though on 9 Feb 2006, they aired a mini-marathon of the half-hour episodes. This version was also aired in Canada on BBC Canada and Discovery Channel Canada. In late 2005, BBC Canada began airing a one hour version of the show. Though longer, this version was still somewhat modified in order to fit ten minutes of commercials into the timeslot.

In December 2005, Top Gear started airing on Australia's SBS channel, although much to fans disappointment, the episodes shown where over a year old.

In late 2005, Discovery Channel decided to produce a pilot for an American version of the show, to take place in the Mojave Desert, with different hosts, named John, Johnny, and Bruno.[10]

Segments

Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car

File:TopGearDamonHill.jpg
Damon Hill appearing as the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car

In each programme, a celebrity – usually of British fame – is interviewed by Clarkson and usually includes the guest's car history and the logic behind it. After the light-hearted chatter is done, Clarkson, the guest and the studio audience watch the guest's fastest lap on the Top Gear test track in a Suzuki Liana. The Liana used is stock, except a rollcage and racing seats with harnesses have been added as safety measures for the celebrities. Each celebrity guest first practises with The Stig and is then allowed a set number of attempts to make his or her way around the test track in the fastest time, and that corresponding lap is then presented for the audience to see. However, the Star doesn't learn of his or her lap time until they are interviewed, so guests are often visibly anxious awaiting their results while in the studio. The two slowest laps on the celebrity list are held by Terry Wogan and the late Richard Whiteley, both of whom were beaten by a completely blind man, Bosnia war veteran Billy Baxter, who wrenched the Liana through the track under nervous directions from Clarkson in the passenger seat.

In one famous incident, actor Michael Gambon clipped the final corner in such a spectacular fashion that the corner was henceforth named Gambon Corner. Both Lionel Richie and Trevor Eve pushed the car so hard that they each knocked a wheel off the vehicle. British transport minister Stephen Ladyman added further injury to the Liana by denting the boot when he lost control during practice and slid backwards into a tyre wall. Christopher Eccleston was the only celebrity to use a Liana with an automatic transmission, because a hesitant Eccleston admitted he was "only qualified to drive an automatic". To accommodate his needs, Top Gear succeeded in "borrowing" a Liana in automatic form, of which only 40 existed in the UK.

In July 2005, a Formula One driver appeared on the show for the first time as the Star. All Formula One drivers are put into their own list with regard to lap times because of the exceptional skill level. The drivers (and their lap times) in order of appearance are Damon Hill (1:46.3), Mark Webber (1:47.52) (in very wet conditions), and Nigel Mansell (1:44.6).

  1. 1:46.7 – Ellen MacArthur
  2. 1:46.9 – Jimmy Carr
  3. 1:47.1 – Simon Cowell
  4. 1:47.3 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
  5. 1:47.8 – Ian Wright
  6. 1:47.9 – Chris Evans
  7. 1:47.9 – Rory Bremner
  8. 1:48 – Justin Hawkins
  9. 1:48 – Jodie Kidd
  10. 1:48 – Jay Kay
  11. 1:48 – Paul McKenna
  12. 1:48 – Trevor Eve
  13. 1:48 – Patrick Kielty
  14. 1:48.6 – Rob Brydon
  15. 1:48.8 – Stephen Ladyman
  16. 1:49 – Neil Morrissey
  17. 1:49.6 – Roger Daltrey1
  18. 1:50 – Jeremy Clarkson
  19. 1:50 – Patrick Stewart
  20. 1:50 – Martin Clunes
  21. 1:50 – Gordon Ramsay
  22. 1:50 – Jamie Oliver

1 Moist track 2 Wet track 3 Very wet track

Note: Aside from driver ability, the Top Gear hosts estimate a wet track as yielding an average time four seconds slower than a dry track surface. "Moist" and "very wet" can be estimated accordingly. Most drivers drive the car alone. However, Clarkson carried two passengers during his timed run. Trinny and Susannah were both present in the cars during their respective laps, as well as Johnny Vaugn and Denise Van Outen. Clarkson also rode along with Billy Baxter, navigating for him.

Power Laps

File:TopGearStig.jpg
The Stig driving a Pagani Zonda-F

In the Power Laps segment, The Stig completes a lap around the Top Gear test track to gauge the performance of various cars. The Stig is the mystery-shrouded, masked driver who never says a word. Over the course of the show, there have only been two Stigs, who can be differentiated by the color of their jump suit, black (for series 1-2) or white (from series 3 onward). The black Stig was "killed off" in a James Bondesque stunt aboard the HMS Invincible in the first programme of series three. According to an article in the British newspaper, The Times, written by Clarkson, the origin of the name of the Stig derives from his school years: we started to think about reviving Top Gear in a new format, with a track, special guests and the Stig — new boys at Repton were always called Stig — and we thrashed it out over a couple of years.[11] For series one and two, the black Stig is credited as Perry McCarthy in a book he wrote, though the presenters themselves have not confirmed this.

The car raced by The Stig is usually a car that was reviewed by one of the presenters that episode, but sometimes it is a car reviewed from a previous programme. There are two separate lists, one for production cars and one for non-production cars. For comparison, it is interesting to note that the current record lap time for the Suzuki Liana is 1:44.6 by Nigel Mansell.

There is a separate board of times for non-production car times. The four times include Sea Harrier (0:31.2), Renault R24 Formula 1 Car (0:59.0), Aston Martin DBR9 (1:08.6) and the Radical (1:19.0).

Note: The following laps were clocked with the tested vehicle configured for maximum performance. That is to say, all adjustable suspensions were set at their most efficient, all gear shift maps were at their most aggressive, and driving aids such as traction control were deactivated. These lap times do not offer entirely reliable comparisons between the cars - the conditions are far from controlled. For instance, the BMW M3, a 343hp sports car, measured exactly the same time as the BMW 535d, a heavy sedan with only 272hp.

  1. 1:18.4 – Pagani Zonda C12 F
  2. 1:18.9 – Maserati MC12
  3. 1.19.0 – Ferrari Enzo Ferrari
  4. 1:19.5 – Ariel Atom 2
  5. 1:19.8 – Porsche Carrera GT
  6. 1:20.7 – Ascari KZ1
  7. 1:20.9 – Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
  8. 1:21.9 – Ford GT
  9. 1:22.3 – Ferrari Challenge Stradale
  10. 1:22.3 – Porsche 911 GT3 RS
  11. 1:22.9 – Ferrari F430
  12. 1:23.2 – Ferrari F430 Spider
  13. 1:23.7 – Lamborghini Murcielago
  14. 1:23.8 – Pagani Zonda C12 S 7.31
  15. 1:23.9 – Koenigsegg CC8S
  16. 1:24.8 – Mitsubishi Evo VIII MR FQ400
  17. 1:24.8 – TVR Sagaris
  18. 1:24.8 – TVR Tuscan Mk 2
  19. 1:25.0 – Noble M12
  20. 1:25.6 – Audi RS4
  21. 1:25.8 – Lamborghini Gallardo2
  22. 1:25.9 – Morgan Aero 8 GTN
  23. 1:26.0 – Mitsubishi Evo VIII FQ320
  24. 1:26.2 – BMW M5
  25. 1:26.7 – Porsche Cayman S
  26. 1:26.8 – Chevrolet Corvette
  27. 1:26.8 – Ferrari 575M GTC
  28. 1:26.9 – Lotus Exige1
  29. 1:26.9 – Mercedes CLS55 AMG
  30. 1:27.1 – Aston Martin Vanquish S

1 Moist track 2 Wet track 3 Very wet track 4 Foggy conditions

Note: The most powerful production car ever featured on Top Gear, the 1001 bhp Bugatti Veyron, has not yet been taken around the track by The Stig.

Car of the Year

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

The Cool Wall

The Cool Wall is a board where Clarkson and Hammond decide which cars are cool, and which aren't, and has nothing to do with how good or bad a car is. The categories are Sub Zero, Cool, Uncool, and Seriously Uncool. Initially, part of that "coolness" factor rested on the extent to which the presenters believed each car would impress English actress Kristin Scott Thomas. More recently, BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce has replaced Scott Thomas as their notional judge, after Kristin Scott Thomas said in a converation with Clarkson that she owned the Honda Civic, which was deemed "uncool".

The Aston Martin DB9 has been put in a fridge of its own next to the wall as it was deemed just too cool for the wall. The Aston Martin V8 Vantage has since joined it. The 2005 BMW 3 Series (E90) was judged to be the first that the presenters couldn't be bothered to put it on the wall, described as just "a lump of car" and being like "mild cheddar". The Toyota Prius was deemed so uncool that it was put in a zone "outside the cool wall" as the wall was deemed too small to show how uncool the Prius was.

One rule is that cars owned by any of the Top Gear presenters are to be placed on the "uncool" or "seriously uncool" sections of the wall.

Clarkson often puts the cars he likes (or more often doesn't like) at the top of the wall if Hammond disagrees with him, so that the much shorter Hammond cannot reach to change it. For the first time, on the November 27, 2005 programme, the presenters came to blows over the placement of a car on the Cool Wall (the BMW M6) and it led to Hammond eating part of the picture.

Highlights

2002

  • The programme launched a search for the "fastest faith", with representatives from different religions, such as ministers of various Christian denominations, a Jewish Rabbi, Buddhist monk and a Muslim Imam, each driving a lap of the test track. The winner was a Church of England bishop, but during a continuation he was beaten by a Rastafarian.
  • A Radical was raced around the track against an aerobatic plane.

2003

  • In May, Hammond 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.
  • Clarkson tested the Koenigsegg which, with a top speed of 242mph was at the time 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. Clarkson later commented how he felt nervous before the run because engineers from Koenigsegg had asked him if they could put tape around the windscreen; he thought that the tape was to keep the windscreen from flying off.
  • Using a swimming pool, Hammond showed the dangers of being in a car that is sinking in water; and demonstrated that you should open the car doors as soon as it strikes the water, rather than the perceived wisdom of waiting for the car to fill with water and the pressure to equalize.

2004

  • Clarkson undertook a challenge to see if he could evade being caught in missile lock from an AH-64D Apache anti-tank helicopter while driving a Lotus Exige. The helicopter failed to lock in on the Exige when remaining within the confines of the test track. However, when allowed to move further away, the helicopter acquired lock within seconds.
  • Hammond demonstrated that it was safe to sit in a car struck by lightning by sitting in Volkswagen Golf in a huge lightning generator.
  • The team participated in two experiments in the form of races to test whether public transport could beat a car. The format is that Hammond and May take public transport while Clarkson attempts to beat them in a car. In the first race they used France's TGV Atlantic trains in an attempt to beat him to Monte Carlo. Clarkson drove the Aston Martin DB9 and won by a significant margin. In the second race they attempted to get from London to Verbier in Switzerland using a plane while Clarkson drove there in a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. He won again but this time only just, passing his colleagues barely 100 metres from their destination.
  • After much practice, Clarkson took a Jaguar S-Type Diesel around the Nürburgring in just under ten minutes. His instructor, Sabine Schmitz, promptly took the same car out and did it almost a minute quicker on her first try. When Schmitz heard Clarkson's time, she retorted, "I could do that in a van". In the following series she was given the opportunity to do so and was roughly ten seconds slower in a standard Ford Transit.

2005

  • In the first episode of series 6, Clarkson tested the new Mercedes CLS AMG, Hammond and May played football using the new Toyota Aygo and Clarkson 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, Clarkson tested the Maserati MC12, which costs a staggering £412,000. The team also decided to buy for less than £1,500 a 2-door coupé each that wasn't a Porsche, mirroring a competition they had last series where they each had to spend £1,500 to buy a Porsche. They were then set a series of challenges to see who had got the best deal, scoring points for each challenge. The winner turned out to be May, with a Jaguar XJS. Hammond bought a BMW 635CSi, while Clarkson went for a Mitsubishi Starion. May, however, offered to give the title to Clarkson if he admitted "I'm a clot and I ruined my car", as he had tried to install a turbo in his Starion that boiled his coolant in a matter of minutes and ruined his engine. The challenges included trying to get to 140 mph, having to drive at 30 mph over Belgian cobbles with a bucket of water on their lap, and doing an endurance race on a farm.
  • In the ninth episode of series 6, yet another grand race was held, this time racing from Heathrow Airport to Oslo. Jeremy drove the Mercedes SLR, while James and Richard took a flight to New Castle, and then a ferry. It proved to be disastrous for them, with a series of breakdowns causing them to arrive more than five hours after Jeremy.
  • In the final episode of series 6, Hammond tested the Vauxhall Monaro VX-R and was taught how to drift in the same car by D1 Grand Prix driver Yasuyuki Kazama, despite being unable to speak English, he had to teach using hand signals (the making of this segment can also be seen on JDM Option vol. 18 & Video Option vol. 138). Hammond also participated in the Pamplona Bull Run in Spain, where he was shoved into the path of a bull by a participant, before a segment in which he road tested the Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster.
  • 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.
  • All three presenters created a traffic jam in Paris attempting to leave a car park in a Pagani Zonda, a Ford GT, and a Ferrari F430; the problem was that, owing to the angle of the slope onto the road combined with the low bodies of the cars, the fronts were scraping the ground. May defied his "Captain Slow" nickname and drove the Ferrari F430 faster than Hammond in the Pagani Zonda and Clarkson in the Ford GT on a twisting mountain road, all while driving across France in the three aforementioned supercars to reach the Millau Viaduct.
  • On the 11 December 2005 episode, Hammond and May once again attempted to beat Clarkson in a race across Europe using transport other than a car. This time, as May had earned himself an almost fully-fledged pilot's licence, their chosen mode of transport was a Cessna 182 light aircraft. However, his license did not cover night flying, and they were forced to make an early landing and travel the remainder of the journey by Eurostar. Once again, Clarkson won by a whisker (or so it seemed), aided by his 1001bhp Bugatti Veyron supercar, reaching the top of the Natwest Tower minutes prior to the other two.
  • Clarkson traveled to the race course Laguna Seca in Monterey, California to compare racing a lap in real life versus a video game (Gran Turismo 4). Clarkson's time of 1:41.148 for the video game was substantially faster than the 1:57 time that he was able to do on the real course. The car he used was a Honda NSX.

2006

See also

References

  1. ^ "Clarkson's right on cue." TopGear.com. 1 February 2006. Accessed 20 February 2006
  2. ^ "Ellen on BBC TWO’S Top Gear." Team Ellen. 2 December 2005. Accessed 28 December 2005.
  3. ^ "Road shows." Jason Deans. 24 November 2004. Accessed 1 January 2006
  4. ^ "BBC picks up two International Emmy Awards." BBC. 23 November 2005. Accessed 28 December 2005.
  5. ^ "Awards for "Top Gear"." IMDb. Accessed 1 January 2006.
  6. ^ "'Petrolheads' under attack." BBC. 12 April 2005. Accessed 28 December 2005.
  7. ^ "BBC stumps up for tree stunt." BBC. 21 February 2004. Accessed 9 January 2006.
  8. ^ "Campaigners say scrap Top Gear and replace it with ‘Third Gear’ version promoting sensible driving." Transport 2000. 11 April2005. Accessed 9 January2006.
  9. ^ "Villagers put the brake on Top Gear." Telegraph. 20 February 2006. Accessed 20 February 2006.
  10. ^ Porter, Richard (January 2006). "In Top Gear we trust". Top Gear, p. 55.
  11. ^ "The backroom boy who put Top Gear on top of the world." Jeremy Clarkson. Accessed 10 January 2006.
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