BBC Top Gear - Series 23 discussion thread

Merlin5 · 4 Jul 2016 at 22:31

mrk said:
Really the only people who carry the new show are MLB and Harris. Sabine is a bit of a forced character in the studio, Eddie is a bit of a blank wall.. It should really be like this, put Matt with a suitable sidekick host, and let Harris do all the cool video segments in his style. That would be almost perfect.

On another note, if we are talking about binning all the hosts and re-re-starting fresh, then this chat came up elsewhere today and I think it would be fantastic. Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry. They are all petrol/gadget heads and they are all friends who have that banter going between them. Plus, everybody loves them.

The problem with that is they're all equal superstars.

With Clarkson and Co, Clarkson was clearly the real star and the other two pretty much sidekicks who became famous just for that show. I can't see Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie being sidekicks to Rowan Atkinson. Perhaps in the Black Adder days, but not now.

adam cool dude · 4 Jul 2016 at 22:39

Harris, Matt and Rory is what they should do. Get them to do an epic adventure and you are back in business. After all having two motoring shows is better than one.

Tute · 4 Jul 2016 at 22:47

Merlin5 said:
The problem with that is they're all equal superstars.

With Clarkson and Co, Clarkson was clearly the real star and the other two pretty much sidekicks who became famous just for that show. I can't see Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie being sidekicks to Rowan Atkinson. Perhaps in the Black Adder days, but not now.

Plus the BBC would rather than send TG down the toilet than go back to three middle aged blokes.

Quartz · 4 Jul 2016 at 23:04

Merlin5 said:
With Clarkson and Co, Clarkson was clearly the real star and the other two pretty much sidekicks

Yes, they were Clarkson's Straight Men.

Nevakonaza · 4 Jul 2016 at 23:16

Dont know what they were expecting with Chris Evans on top gear tbh,Knew it was goin to be a load of crap with him in it,I mean why would you watch Top gear now when The Grand Tour is out soon.

Top gear doesn't have a chance of been good again imo,Not on any level with The Grand Tour when it comes with good old team.

p1RATE · 4 Jul 2016 at 23:31

Chris Evens and Jason Dawe should make a show together now

Combat Fighter · 4 Jul 2016 at 23:41

easyrider said:
I think Sabine is uncomfortable....so get rid

Keep the others after Jordan and Evans have gone

And get the dude out of life on Mars in...

Philip Glenister

That would be good choice, I like him.

Rotty · 5 Jul 2016 at 00:10

Best episode for years by a country mile and it was the last one

Scania · 5 Jul 2016 at 01:48

Merlin5 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the beeb sell the show to channel 4 or 5, like they sold F1. They need money badly and with poor ratings, it might be better for them to cut their losses. Or at least, one more try without Chris Evans to see how it goes.

I believe they've sold this to more countries than they did with the old presenters so doubt they'll kill the cash cow just yet.

Last nights episode was very good I thought and even thought Evans was finally finding his place, I suspect his sudden leaving is more to do with allegations against him being raised and it tipping the BBC into giving him a jump or be pushed option.

Now he's gone I hope they keep the rest and they develop the show further, even Eddie Jordan was good on the train episode I thought, it has more potential now the miss placed annoying Evans has gone, he was a poor choice from the start no matter how much of an undoubted car enthusiast.

acemastr · 5 Jul 2016 at 03:04

I can't stand Rory, annoying accent, just can't like him.

Harris rocks but I worry the every day audience who don't know who he is won't get his way of reviewing.

Eddie makes me cringe, Sabine is a good driver but that's about it.

Angilion · 5 Jul 2016 at 04:08

Itchytrigg said:
Thank you, great video and have also subscribed, I suspect I know where my evening is going tonight!

I think the "Hot Rod Garage" videos on that channel impress me the most because they've done such a good job of something that sounds like it would be dreadful - videos that are extremely heavy on product placement and very overt advertising of sponsors. Really very overt indeed, to the extent that every video would contain a segment that was a straightforward advert for the sponsor. I watched the first one partly out of curiosity regarding just how bad it would be. It wasn't bad at all. It was good. It was as surprising as opening a jar of ultra cheap coffee powder and finding that it contained decent quality beans instead of what you'd been led to expect from the label. A couple of slightly shaky episodes after they changed presenters but the new guy got up to speed very quickly.

winwin · 5 Jul 2016 at 04:49

clarkson must be just laughing at all this now

Guerrilla · 5 Jul 2016 at 07:43

I thought the first episode was absolutely awful... But! Having watched a few others I've actually quite enjoyed some of it, there's no denying Chris Evans spoils it and him going can only be a good thing, he brings nothing to the show.

I like the other hosts, I think Sabine is actually quite funny and even EJ

(who I normally cannot stand) works in small doses as he's used as foil against the others.

Jonnycoupe · 5 Jul 2016 at 08:05

Its still better than the winter 2015 Top Gear that was on our TVs.

pepsilol · 5 Jul 2016 at 09:17

Rroff said:
I'm absolutely not a fan of Evans but giving him **** after he did the decent thing and stepped down is poor form IMO.

The way he was banging on Twitter about his ratings FACT type rubbish means I am totally fine for him getting utterly trolled online for stepping down ( getting sacked.)

Mr Jack · 5 Jul 2016 at 09:19

Scania said:
Last nights episode was very good I thought and even thought Evans was finally finding his place, I suspect his sudden leaving is more to do with allegations against him being raised and it tipping the BBC into giving him a jump or be pushed option.

There was a rumour that Matt le Blanc told the BBC that he'd quit if Evans stayed. With Matt being the clearly better presenter they may have pushed Evans out on that basis.

Twirlywoos · 5 Jul 2016 at 09:23

Great news now get rid of them all and start the show again.

I still think that the line up should have been Jodie Kidd, Jay Kay, Sabine Schmitz (Stigg) and some comedian like John Bishop. The current list of presenters are just an after thought and what I'd consider scraping the bottom of the barrel.

ChrisD. · 5 Jul 2016 at 09:27

I'm sure Chris will get over the trolling with his reported 1.6 million salary. Yeah he did the right thing, but you can't put something online and expect to not get trolled.

Uncle Petey · 5 Jul 2016 at 09:42

Twirlywoos said:
Great news now get rid of them all and start the show again.

I still think that the line up should have been Jodie Kidd, Jay Kay, Sabine Schmitz (Stigg) and some comedian like John Bishop. The current list of presenters are just an after thought and what I'd consider scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Jay Kay is an even bigger nob than Evans and Sabine really isn't a good presenter, not that I dislike her.

Fr0dders · 5 Jul 2016 at 10:31

keep rory reid, keep mlb, keep chris harris. Work on those 3 as a formula and give them time to develop.

The chemistry between the 3 top gear hosts wasn't there from the first season, especially since may wasn't even in that 1st season ! With time, it can work.

Observe the way they set up the "characters" in the end compettion. Chris harris the serious racing driver tinkering with aerodynamics, matt the american not wanting the stig to drive off with his sandwich, etc...

They are finding their top ger personas the same way james may was always the grumpy captain slow, and clarkson the shouty loud one. it can work. mark my words.