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Fifth Gear

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This article is about the British TV show Fifth Gear. For the Brad Paisley album, see 5th Gear (album).
Fifth Gear
The Fifth Gear logo (2005 - present)
GenreMotoring
Directed byPhil Hawkins
Mark McQueen
Presented byTiff Needell
Vicki Butler-Henderson
Jason Plato
Jonny Smith
Ben Collins
Opening themePrize Fight by John F Calone
ComposerDavid Lowe
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series17
No. of episodes165 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerRichard Pearson
ProducerJim McMullan
Production locationAce Cafe
EditorsMike Bloore
Mike Brown
Martin Dowell
James Hay
Steve Killick
Leigh Nicholls
Tony Quinsee-Jover
Peter Shannon
Running time23 minutes (excluding adverts)
Production companyNorth One
Original release
NetworkChannel 5
Release8 April 2002 –
Present

Fifth Gear (formerly 5th Gear) is a motoring television magazine from the United Kingdom. The programme started its seventeenth series in June 2010. Originally shown on Channel 5, Fifth Gear has also been broadcast on the Speed Channel in the USA for a short period in 2004 to early 2007. Fifth Gear began broadcasting in Australia in November 2009, on Seven Network's free-to-air digital channel 7Two. Repeats of Fifth Gear also started being broadcast on UKTV channel, Dave in April 2008.

Fifth Gear was first broadcast in 2002 as a continuation of the original incarnation of the BBC show Top Gear, which was cancelled in 2001 due to low ratings. Channel 5 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 Channel 5 to present Fifth Gear.[1][2]

In October 2009, the Mail Online reported that the show would end due to declining audience figures. Fifth Gear's cancellation was also mentioned on rival programme Top Gear in a show first broadcast in November 2009. Presenters Tiff, Vicki and Jonny Smith, however, later denied these rumours at Autosport International and via Twitter; the show returned in spring 2010.

Show format

The first seven series consisted of a 23 minute programme, not including approximately 7 minutes of adverts.[3] 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). For series 17, the show has reverted back to the original format of 23 minutes, which including adverts, takes the show to half an hour.

Locations

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.

Presenter Line-up

The current presenters are Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jason Plato, Jonny Smith, Ben Collins.

When Fifth Gear was launched in 2002, the presenters were Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Tom Ford, Adrian Simpson and Quentin Willson. Willson and Simpson left Fifth Gear a few years later and were replaced by Jason Plato, with the program's producer, Jon Bentley, also becoming a presenter around 2005. Bentley later stopped being a presenter and went back being the producer. Jonny Smith later joined the show, with Tim Lovejoy for series 10 who was very short lived on the show. In August 2008, Tim Shaw became a presenter on the program for series 14. In 2009, both Shaw and long-time presenter Ford did not return to series 17. In October 2010, Ben Collins, formerly The Stig on BBC's Top Gear, came to Fifth Gear.[4]

Canadian version

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

Series List

See also: List of Fifth Gear episodes
Series Episodes Originally broadcast
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 - 31 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
16 8 8 June 2009 - 27 July 2009
17 10 3 June 2010 - 12 August 2010
18 10+ 3 Special 8 October 2010 - 10 December 2010/ 11 February 2011 - 4 March 2011
19 Best of Fifh Gear Shown On Friday 25 February 2011

Accidents

During Series 12, Episode 7,[5] two accidents took place during filming.

  • Tom Ford broke his foot and several toes[6] 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.[7] 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.

The Fifth Gear awards

Each year, the programme gives out various awards:

2004

2005

2006

2007

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.

2002 (Series 1 and 2)

2003 (Series 3 and 4)

2004 (Series 5 and 6)

2005 - Series 7

2005 - Series 8

2006 - Series 9

2006 - Series 10

2007 - Series 11

2007 - Series 12

2008 - Series 13

2009 - Series 14

2010 - Series 16

2010 - Series 18

  • Week 1: BMW 3 Series M3 vs. Mercedes C63 AMG

Cancellation rumours and series 17 confirmed

On 18 October 2009, the Mail Online reported that the show had been cancelled.[8] Up to then there had been no official announcement or confirmation. Although, Channel 5 executives had been quoted as saying, “Five is proud of Fifth Gear’s contribution to the channel but after 16 series, feels it’s time to try something new.”[9]

On 27 November 2009, Jeremy Clarkson mentioned on the Chris Moyles Show that it was a shame that Fifth Gear had been cancelled.

In late December 2009, however, presenter Jonny Smith suggested via Twitter that the show could return for another series early in 2010.[10] On 8 January 2010, Smith tweeted: "Fifth Gear IS coming back!", and in his next tweet, he said "Wow, such quick responses! Basically, we all know there's room for 2 car TV shows. FG will simply be a reviews based visual car magazine." Tiff Needell also tweeted saying "Home to the news that, after much negotiating Fifth Gear looks like it will after all be returning to your screens sometime in the Spring!" and also hinted the show will have a new format in his next tweet "Glad so many of you are delighted by the Fifth Gear news - and, yes the format will be moving away from the stupid ... but still having fun!".[11]

On 17 January 2010, Vicki Butler-Henderson and Tiff Needell confirmed at the Autosport International Show that Fifth Gear will be returning in Spring 2010. The pair featured a car shootout in Fifth Gear style in the live arena show and said several times to the audience that the show would be back on air in Spring and to ignore the cancellation rumours.[12]

The new series started on 3 June 2010. The series ran for 10 episodes and the first one had Lewis Hamilton as a guest. On 1 October 2010, it was announced that Ben Collins would join the show as a presenter.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Timms, Dominic (15 November 2001). "Top Gear drives over to C5". Broadcast. Emap Media.
  2. ^ "Top Gear team switch lanes". BBC News Online. 15 November 2001.
  3. ^ Gallagher, William (9 April 2002). "Top Gear finds a new home". BBC News Online.
  4. ^ a b Sweney, Mark (10-01-2010). "'The Stig' joins Channel 5's Fifth Gear". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 October 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Fifth Gear: Behind the scenes Accessed 28 May 2008
  6. ^ Fifth Gear star Tom Ford hurt in crash Autotrader.co.uk News - Accessed 10 October 2007
  7. ^ Plato injured as Caparo T1 bursts into flames Crash.net News - Accessed 10 October 2007
  8. ^ Goslett, Miles (18 October 2009). "Vicki's career stalls as Five's Fifth Gear is driven off television". Mail Online. Associated Newspapers. Retrieved 7 January 2010. Fifth Gear host Vicki Butler-Henderson has been forced into the pits, with TV bosses confirming the show [Fifth Gear] has been axed.
  9. ^ AUSmotive.com "Fifth Gear cancelled - CONFIRMED". AUSmotive.com. 19 October 2009. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  10. ^ "Fifth Gear looks set for 2010 comeback". AUSmotive.com. 29 December 2009.
  11. ^ "Breaking news: Fifth Gear is coming back". AUSmotive.com. 8 January 2010.
  12. ^ "Fifth Gear: Web TV - Behind the Scenes at Autosport International". youtube.com/fifthgear. 26 January 2010.
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