Series 10? It's up to you...
Posted by Jeremy Clarkson at 6:00PM on Friday 13 April, 2007 36 Comments
As Top Gear finished its much-delayed run a few weeks ago, the cheery continuity announcer said that the show would be back in the summer. Well, I'm sorry, love, but it won't be.
Not unless someone from the Greenwich Observatory suddenly decides that we need a new month between May and June.
The fact is that it takes four months to film enough material for a run of Top Gear. And then another couple of months to turn the miles of tape we generate into something you might actually want to watch.
But assuming we do come back to BBC2 at some point in the future - October, if we're lucky - our problems will be far from over. Because as I write, no one has much of a clue what the programme should look like. I'd therefore like your help.
The series that's just finished was full of us three cocking about, and almost completely devoid of anything you might fairly call 'a road test'. You had us growing petrol, getting stuck in Fulham, being hounded out of Alabama and resurfacing roads. And about two seconds of a Porsche going round corners in Lincolnshire.
This has gone down very badly with the people in internet land. After every show, they dived into their forums and moaned like Nigel Mansell stuck in a jet engine that their beloved car show had become an entertainment show for the terminally childish. They're right too. Perhaps we should have changed the name to Last of the Summer Petrol.
All these people want to know why there aren't two or three proper car tests a week. And not car tests where I drive around shouting "poweeeeer", but proper ones done by James where every nut, bolt and torque is taken out and examined.
What they want, secretly, is Chris Goffey back. And I'd love to oblige. I'd love to spend the day hooning around in a 599 or a lightweight Gallardo. I'd love to make those cars live for you on the screen. It'd be great.
I'd even love to take that little Fiat Panda 100HP for a spin and wonder out loud how many Nurofens you'd need to take before the headache it generated went away. And whether that many Nurofens will actually kill you.
But galloping like a huge, shit-stained horse over the horizon comes the problem: is that what the vast majority of the viewers want? Not you. Not your mates in cyberland. But the vast swathe of people who just want to flop down on a Sunday night and watch entertaining telly. I suspect the answer is a Thatcheresque "No. No. No."
We always knew that when Richard Hammond made his triumphant return to the programme, the viewing figures would be enormous. And they were. We even beat the final of Big Brother into a cocked pig. And then we sort of thought they'd tail off again, when people realised the Hamster wasn't going to suddenly fall to the floor and start dribbling.
But they haven't. Apart from a slight blip for the America special, the figures climbed like an F-15 on combat power, until we finished with 8.6 million people watching the end of the final show.
To put that in perspective, it's pretty much twice what a very successful programme could dream of getting on BBC2 or Channel 4. It puts us on level terms with Eastenders. It means we are, give or take, the most watched show on the BBC. And that's just in Britain. Factor in the rest of the world, and TG is effing massive.
You may say that, as a public service broadcaster, we shouldn't care about viewing figures; and it's true - we shouldn't. We can take them to the lavatory for a little moment of pleasure, but we can't skew programmes to make them as big as possible or we'd end up with Jade Goody and The Hamiltons being loaded into the cars before they were pushed out of the transport plane...
Anyway, although we won't chase figures, we still have to give the audience something you want and like. Which means we should make Top Gear an entertainment show featuring cars, rather than a car show, that isn't as boring as your wife and kids feared.
Or have I got that all wrong? I'm stuck on this one and would love to hear your views.
For the full version of Jeremy's column, read this month's issue of Top Gear magazine.
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36 Comments for "Series 10? It's up to you..."
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There is a balance to try and achieve. An hour each week should allow time for a story/adventure/challenge, which any normal person loves, coupled with some cars being driven around on roads and your circuit. Entertaining and informative, like the TG magazine.
Racing a rock climber or a boy on a bike does little to illustrate anything, but comparing similar cars, like the AMV8 v 911 v M6 test, was fantastic.
I watch your show from Canada. While we are a couple of seasons behind you on the telly, I download episodes from fan sites across the internet.
While watching the 3 muck about on the show is all fun, I think the show go back to its roots a little by showing more cars that are coming out and the racing where you constantly beat james and richard are hilarious!
Please, please, PLEASE stop the celebrity arse kissing. We all like seeing the guests do a lap round the track, but what's with all the plugging of their latest book/film/DVD/album/play in the recent series? TG may be more of an entertainment show than a car programme nowadays, but it's bloody well not Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
I'm not even what you'd call a 'petrolhead' either...old school TG didn't appeal to me at all, but for three blokes who are so passionate about cars, I'd have thought you'd have kicked up more of a fuss about the increase in celebrity guest screen time and less cars.
I think the mix is right. I don't watch Top Gear to help me decide what car to buy (there is no shortage of car reviews available elsewhere), I watch it to be entertained, which it does for ame and the whole family.
As somebody who has little to no interest in cars but who adores Top Gear, I'd say that the 'cocking about' element of the show is the best bit.
The interaction between all the presenters and the chemistry is (in my opinion) the reason Top Gear is so huge.
If I wanted to know the horsepower of a Porsche 911 GT3, I could look in any car magazine. I want to see Hammond/Clarkson/May's face as they nearly lose it on a corner and see them tease each other about the other's poor driving skills. I loved the American special and I was genuinely excited by the rocket.
In summary if something ain't broke, don't fix it. The car nuts are going to whine but the rest of Britain will tune in to see what crazy stunt is going to go wrong this week.
Thou shalt not listen to internet forums.... they always find something to complain about, anyway. As for series 10, TG is always primarily going to be a car show - but its universal appeal is always going to be helped by the obvious fun the three presenters are having.
I mean the world and his wife (who isn't really into cars..) watch the show these days. As much as I enjoy drooling over the latest spanking supercar being hurled around the track by The Stig, and the fantastically honest car reviews - I think the 'cocking about' factor plays a big part in the show's overall appeal.
I'd like to see a mixture of everything - to lose the cocking about entirely would be to the show's detriment. As long as the BBC's Points of View Messageboard (The When Oh When brigade) continue to post week after week after watching a show that they clearly dislike anyway, that they object to their license fee being spent on turning cars into rockets and sending 'those three overgrown schoolboys' to America - I'll be happy.
It's a fair question to ask. I've been watching old episodes quite a bit, and apart from little blips like the old Insider Trading segments that James May completely ruined once he took over, you have maintained certain definitively TG elements very well.
The road tests, Stiggy bits, dicking about and stunts, plus the stars in your reasonably priced cars are all great, but by season 8 you can see that as a format they were wearing a little thin.
That''s why the Winter Olympics episode was so great - it incorporated a lot of those elements but in a "special" format which was really appealing. In contrast the American road trip episode was hit-and-miss, because it wasn't really much "fun" to watch. I think the program may have outgrown itself, when in earlier seasons the audacity of the stunts, the cars and the humour worked well because it was all on a BBC program.
Now there's clearly a temptation to grow bigger, more audacious, but then it will become, as you say, Jade Goody and God knows what else.
I'm going to sound a bit of a philistine here BUT, my Clio diesel has probably given us our best drives. Ok, I've had big BM's and some V8 cars but leaving Spain after breakfast and getting home to Swansea early the next morning is etched in my memory as a classic 'mile muncher'.
The journey down to Spain will live with me forever for more worthwhile reasons. Watching the sun come up in the early hours with Pink Floyd wafting quietly through the car (lest it wake my family, )while catching glimpses of the deep blue Atlantic coast off Biaritz to my right, with the car sitting at a business-like 100mph for hour after hour... good times.
If it's not too much to ask, I would really love for Top Gear to remain what it has mostly been: a balance between the cocking about and the slick dream car reviews.
The cocking about is what makes it so special and very watchable, but so do the uniquely and beautifully filmed car reviews. Oh, and maybe some more of your fun look at "normal" cars, like when you put your mums in the kind of cars some of us would be likely to actually buy.
My main objection to the last series was actually the overly drawn-out and shameless plugging opportunities of the star in the reasonably priced car'. It became the moment I went to put the kettle on and you guys really don't need the celebrity names to draw an audience.
In the long run I can't see much more mileage in the really crazy stunts (like Alabama or the daft Reliant Rocket oddity) because, let's face it, you'll never top a 300mph, jet powered dragster wipeout.
A little bit more relevence might be just the ticket. So put a few old masters round the track if anyone will let you. A 325i here, a Supra there - it would be nice to know if these cars were as fast as they felt back then. Some kind of 5 minute weekly feature on old, iconic (but cheap) motors makes sense as they are very green (dust to dust and all that).
You could wind people up by bullding up the green angle and then proceeding to hoon about in 6.9 SELs and the like.
Also I reckon it would be funny to enter one of those idiotic, Gumball type races in a Focus diesel. Better still enter in a Yaris diesel or turn it into a challenge, racing each other in some some old nail bought for your usual thousand pounds... perhaps getting another presenter in as well may change the show's dynamics...
I am definitely a car nut, but I'm also a big fan of cocking about. The last series wasn't quite the mine of information about the fast cars I can't afford as it used to be, but it was still the best thing on TV by a huge margin.
I did notice that my girlfriend, who must be the only woman in Britain who doesn't fancy Richard Hammond, watched most of the last series - previously her comment had always been that Top Gear was "OK until they started going on about cars".
So, in short, cars good, cocking about good, just whatever you do, don't stop making the show.
It's true, I would love some more road tests, but frankly I don't want to be put through the sincere pain and torture of watching a Renault Megane road test, and I'd fall asleep in a second if you decided to pick through a 'new' Volvo or show me the new Mondeo.
,p> Those kind of road tests are for the website, if I want to read it or look at it, I can search for it in the 'Drives' section.The TV show should incorporate current news, races against cars and any other form of transport, the usual road tests of cars that most of use will never get our hands on. The new series should be just as fun and informative as the last one. Or how about a show following Jeremy, James and Richard in the Paris-Dakar?!!
I agree that series 9 was more of an entertainment show than a car show. I was expecting 599-vs-LP640-vs-997 Turbo or 911 C4-vs-Audi R8 something like that, but instead i got just the 997 Turbo with mixed feelings about owning one and a bit of LP640. No 599 or R8 at all.
No offense, I've watched the show since 1998 but there needs to be less explosions and crashing tractors and more like it was, more road tests and showing pictures of 10-foot spoilers, etc. Although I would like to see how the petrol turns out.
I'm expecting the whole nine yards on important things the new Nissan GT-R when it comes out in Octoberish, like, is it deserving of all the GT-R's 40-year heritage? Can you live with it? Is it utterly fabulous to drive properly? Is it better than the more expensive 911 Turbo that it's been benchmarked against? And so on.
But hopefully you get what I mean. More TopGear, less dicking about in fields. Please.
Remember series 3 to 5? That's what we want back.
I think everyone enjoys the mucking around bits and I can't say I didn't enjoy the limo feature, or the resurfacing of the D5481 (a sterling effort, I might add, having visited the road since!)
If someone claims they only want road tests and comparisons of cars, they don't really 'get' Top Gear. It should be a car show, first and foremost, but it's always been imaginitive and innovative, finding interesting ways of comparing and reviewing cars, and often with a few epic features (the races in particular). A lot of people saw the 9th series as pandering to the figures but I suggest it was more down to Richard's recovery and because of that, road tests were removed from the series because a wider audience would have been likely to enjoy the How Hard Can It Be, cocking-about features (which many viewers feel are becoming far too scripted - bring back the days of "let's see what happens and film it"). That's fair enough. But now the I-Was-Watching-Before-It-Was-Cool faithful, of which I am a proud member, want to be reassured that the 10th series will be a return to form.
I have great faith in the Top Gear team and the BBC to bring back Top Gear as the show we know and love, and to have the self-control to resist turning it into an entertainment show that has some cars in it, rather than the widely accessible motoring magazine of previous series.
Come on Clarkson! Bring back the car reviews, take away the film plugs, and don't so obviously script the features, and it'll be a triumphant return to form all round.
Are you effin serious?
Have you seen how badly Fifth Gear have cocked up this year trying to change their format, when Top Gear has had possibly their BEST EVER series? Keep up the good work, you have the perfect combination, don't mess with it.
How do I want to Top Gear to be? Just like the season 1 - 8 probably. I want test drives like the Carrera GT, SLR, Koenigsegg and races betwen car and train, climber.
I want same sense of humour and political incorrentness. I want the Stig. I want to see what you can buy for 1000 pounds and chalenges you can put them through. I just want regular Top Gear, not any "show". Just take a look what happened to Fifth Gear last season and you might know what danger lies ahead.
I enjoy all aspects of the show, particularly the more childish parts. I also believe that the hammond, may and clarkson are extremely enjoyable to watch. However I feel it lacks a few road tests and proper cars. Cars like the lotus eupora have gone unmentioned.
If it was my choice, I would personally, include more races such as monaco in the aston, verbier in the ferrari and the buggati race. Also the purchasing of the second hand cars are interesting and enjoyable to watch. I'm not really interested in the very technical attributes of cars, just the comments of the presenters on how they find the car to drive, such as the item with the bmw, porsche and jag on penine sands.
,p>I think that features such as the stig's lap time can just be reduced to telling the time in which the lap was done unless something spectacular has happened, as i believe that the viewer has got the gist of the track and it would take a trained eye to notice a difference between cars. Also from seeing the presenter driving the car about the airfield gives the view the impression of the cars performance.To sum up my comments, I believe that there is room to have a blend of all of the current features but it would be good to see a touch more cars.
The big problem with a lot of the segments last year, especially the "road surfacing" and the "growing petrol," was that they were more about the co-presenters than they were about the cars.
The U.S. segment was alright because a good portion of it was about the cars. The Reliant Shuttle segment worked because it was about the engineering and the car.
I agree that there should be more car reviews, especially new or re-made models - reasonably-priced cars, if you will. (A head-to-head comparison of a Suzuki vs. Chevrolet vs. Hyundai four-door saloons, for example, would be useful for people considering buying a car.)
I don't mind seeing more challenges involving models in the same type for comparison (i.e. Range Rover vs. Jeep vs. Toyota Highlander in puddle-splitting), or races (NYC to Orlando using a caravan on the Interstate vs. a Ferrari on the backroads).
We certainly do not need to have segments where the focus is on Jeremy's working habits and opinions (road-building) or James' obsession with procedure and directions (seeding a field) - those types of details are best on the periphery, enhancing the main assignment of seeing whether the car does the impossible.
I think the mix in season 8 was about right. I do enjoy all the comedic missions/ escapades, but the car lover in me wants to see 500hp exotics I will never be able to afford, fanged around a track, prefferably sideways while Clarkson screams: "POWEEER!"
For a kick off, 8.6 million people can't be wrong. As it lives and breathes today, Top Gear is an entertainment phenomenon, and I sincerely hope it continues in its current direction. Let's be honest, everyone loves watching three blokes making pillocks of themselves - it's perfect sunday viewing.
However, even I - one of Top Gear's most rigourous defenders - would agree that it is a shame you don't pootle around back lanes in Hyundais enough, telling us why we'd be stupid if we bought one.
The trouble is that all these daft shows that have sprung up to mimic Top Gear and leech of its success, just don't cut the mustard. Top Gear should and does monopolise, so why not give the people what they want?
How about half an hour of farting around in Zondas and turning spanners to things you have no idea about, then half an hour of indulging in the utter respect people have for your opinions by driving groups of hatchbacks around Scotland?
When I think back over the past near-decade of Top Gear the parts I always remember are the bits that aren't about lap times, or power, or any proper petrolhead stuff. Don't get me wrong, I do like my cars, I just think where Top Gear has left the competition for dead (5th Gear, many Sky motor shows etc) is the other stuff.
Who can forget the lads messing about on the Penine Sands? Or the Races, the Winter Olympics, the Aygo 5 a side, driving a Disco where no car has been, Ranger Rover Sport vs Tank , the indestructable Hilux, all of the last series - any bit that got people talking in the office the next day was this stuff - not how quick a 911 GT3 did a lap.
Now I'm not saying to ditch the fast stuff, and I do enjoy this too, but when the imitators are also doing this sort of thing, let's keep Top Gear that bit better.
I love Top Gear whatever format it comes in, but I can see your point. I personally feel that the strongest aspect of the show is the chemistry between the three presenters. The challenges and 'cocking about' emphasise this, which for me gave us one of the best pieces of TV in the last 10 years with the American special.
I think it just comes down to a balance of car reviews/challenges/cocking about. People aren't going to switch over just because you squeeze a review of the new Astra between 'goat Vs Ford Ka' and 'Top Gear runs for Government'.
I don't want to sound like another internet nerd but I think that it would be good for Top Gear to keep to cars and make it entertaining, rather than a light entertainment show with cars in.
I think the balance that the last full series achieved (the one BEFORE Hammond had his crash) was brilliant. My friends seem to agree with me and no, we're not a bunch of old farts, we're all students!
Just watch Clarkson's introduction to the first series of 'new' Top Gear from 2002... let's see some more of that poky motoring programme on BBC2!!
You could settle somewhere in the middle. I loved the last series, but a few more road tests would have made it even better.
As for tips for improvement, you guys have never let me down when it comes to orginality or fun-factor. Although sometimes you could test cheap Korean cars, and I think that older cars would still be better than some new cars. But I'll stop typing now so you can start on season 11!
Hmmm, it's difficult, I love the funny side of TopGear, that's for sure, it gives the audience a bit of relief on a Sunday Evening.
However I think that last series went slightly too far. The fuel making thing was sort of irrelevant to everyday cars... but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy every second of it, but some may have realised the same thing and not have been pleased.
I love the road tests too, where the guys buy a naff car and do stuff with them, like turning cars into boats or making the people carrier convertable. I also like the shows when the May and Hamster challenge Clarkson in a car.
To sum up, I think the boys can still cock about but involve the cars, not the road works and fuel making stuff we saw last series. Not that it was bad just slightly off the mark.
While I find the segments of this last series entertaining, I would like a mix of more vehicles test driven.
For example, it seems that the only cars getting reviewed are the world supercars that not a single person watching can actually afford.
As for the luxury brands, it seems as though the only vehicles reviewed are Mercs, BMWs, etc. Why no Japanese vehicles, Lexus, Acura, etc?
What you should not do: pander to the whims and cries of people on the Internet. What they want is a spot of Fifth Gear, spiked with your wit and BBC's production values. It would be crap.
I might be some hick from Kansas but I know enough about entertainment to say that you should not endeavor to make any large corrections in the course of your ship.
A bit of the last season sums up my feelings for why your show is so successful. When you were in that horrible Camaro you remarked that there is no other car you would rather be in at that time. That sentiment hit home with me and many other people I've talked to; real people who toil along in our temperamental shitboxes and wouldn't trade those experiences for anything in the world... save for a Porsche 911 GT3.
The current format works very well as an entertainment show, but as you said there's only so much 'poweeeer' that your avarage joe can take.
Yes the Power laps give a nice comparison but does it really entertain?? We all know the Veyron will get to the top and stay there. The 'star in a rubbish car' is now a bit old, I'm a dedicated viewer (but I still have a life). I would recommend working on giving more information as regards to how bad Korean cars are for example, without not turning into a robotic informative plonker.
The personality side of things that yourself Hammond and May deliver is excellent and should be kept in for series 10. The comparitve testing with cars that aren't so cheap are boring and testing cars that are not all £300+ would certainly return a more informative and interesting show.
I loved series 9 but it's worth tinkering with for those who at most just want a bit of a laugh and get some genuine info...
We do need more car reviews, doesn't matter who does it and in what way. I do get more technical info from shows like Fifth gear and Best motoring, but Top Gear is fine the way it is.
Although I would like it if we had less experiments like road re-building & making petrol. In my opinion, the 2004 season was the best with the cars, the reports, the jokes, everything rocked! The news section could also be lengthened, it's funniest part of the show for me!
In my mind, the best episode was probably the one with the three supercars and that bridge in France. It had the good production level without seeming overdone and it was enjoyable and humourous without feeling contrived. It was just three blokes having a laugh in three very nice cars.
I'd say take the show back to basics. The simple challenges were the best and your personalities and opinions should provide enough entertainment for even the non-motoring minded.
I didn't like the fact that most of the shows last season were revolving around things that weren't cars. They had tractors, road making equipment and even a rocket!
What I miss are the road races between the three presenters where they each pick a car and test them against each other. That's what really makes me smile.
It's all about balance. Entertainment and Credibilty. Just look at Vroom on Sky and see how not to do a motoring programme by trying too hard to make it 'entertaining'.
My only real criticism of the last series was that it was a bit too 'big challenge' heavy which inevetiably took over that particular episode. It was better on the previous series' when there'd be one or two, but not every week! Sometimes it's better to have more of a mix.
Also I'm not suggesting for a minute that the programme should focus heavily on road tests (far too dull for the majority) but it would be nice to see cars that normal people might be able to afford featured a bit more than just mentioned on the couch or stuck somewhere on the cool wall.
It was entertaining seeing that the X3 can't off road, the Disco can, using your mothers to test the small funny french cars, racing a Panda against a man across London, etc.
The show is just fabulous as it is now. I appreciate that there are only so many different types of stunt you can think up, but any major step away from the present format would be a mistake.
Good luck in what ever you decide but please, please don't become 'Fifth Gear' and boring !!
Originally Top Gear (pre Stig) started out as a consumer program for the motorist and its goal was to inform rather than to entertain. Frankly it ran out of ideas too after a few seasons; there's only so many shots of Tiff Needell screaming around pulling handbrake turns and informative second-hand car guides you can dish out.
The 'new' Top Gear format (with added Stig) has shifted that and turned the concept on its head. Now we have a lads mag on screen with power toys, gags and fun. This has pretty much lead the format down the path to bigger and better stunts. Where can it go from here? I think the answer is to add some or all of the following:
1. Challenge Stig competition - occasionally swap the reasonably priced car feature with a head to head Stig challenge. Maybe even wheel out some of UK's driving champs to give us their opinions on cars and circuits.
2. New female presenter - of course this would scare JC and JM to death but it would add another dimension to things provided they can deal with going 'co-ed'.
3. International feature each week - show us some carbage/wacky races from around the world
4. Motorbikes - combine this with 2, throw in some leathers and watch the ratings...
Mostly though deliver at least 1 decent road test of something the average driver would consider buying and at least 1 supercar/group test to keep the real petrol heads from turning off.
The last series went away from being a car show to being an entertainment show. That in theory is Ok, but not when the audience notices this, and you get a whole new audience who just watch to see 3 men taking the piss out of each other, because that is what it's become.
There should be less of the pointless fixed challenges, eg. resurfacing a road (let the council muck that up) and more of the sort of thing we saw in series 8, which I thought was brilliant.
Less stars plugging their shows, more fast car reviews (leave the slow ones for Fifth Gear) and more of the great challenges and races which seem to have disappeared from the show. Make some of those changes and Top Gear will be back to what it was.
I didn't enjoy the last series as much because it was all too far-fetched, and I actually thought Series 8 and 9 were better entertainment.
I've got to admit the show is FANTASTIC but seems far to short sometimes, as you flirt from one thing to the other.
If you could add a few more options like motorbikes, and vehicle gadgets, you could double your viewers and stretch the show to an hour-and-a-half or even two with the same format. Then the show could reach worldwide status for entertainment.