I think you're in a very small minority with that opinion. Virtually of the criticism - and there have been swathes of it across the media, Twitter, here, everywhere that I've looked - is precisely because CHM aren't rent-a-presenters who can be replaced as if nothing has happened. It's pretty clear from across the whole debate that CHM didn't carry the show, they were the show. The vast majority of what's been written is that Evans trying to be Clarkson is a complete disaster, and that it lacks a May type figure to snort at Clarkson and tell him he's a fat oaf.


Technically it was very much up the standards that we've grown used to, but it lacked so much; context being the chief problem. Doing Top Gear By Numbers doesn't make it a good programme.

Hammond was an irritation to many, what did he contribute exactly.....James May is an effortless broadcaster and journalist. Clarkson is a bombastic little Englander.

The formula was that Clarkson shouted loudly at the other two, they shook their head and tried to calm Clarkson down... Faux bullying, exasperation for the viewer.

I am not saying that CE or MB are improvements....we are very short of quality TV presenters in the UK.

He is never going to get the Clarkson fan club 'on his side', they will continue to write that they are not going to watch the programme whilst writing how bad they thing it is.. They cannot accept that him leaving the programme was his own fault.

I have not got around to watch the whole recording yet but that quite often happened with the previous incarnation.

It does not look promising, not because of the presenters but because it is too much like the previous version.

Hammond was the comedy sidekick & foil for the wise man (May) and the buffoon (Clarkson).. Which is a tried and tested formula, and the roles worked. The new version doesn't seem to have found that combination or chemistry. Evans is a petrol head, so maybe if he dialed down the embarassing antics it'd work better.

No it wasn't. That was a Reliant Regal.

Nooo. Hammond was the enthusiast who brought that to the party and had the additional benefit of being a cyclist, motorcyclist and country boy. He was the cheese to Clarkson's chalk. Good partnerships have that mix of opposites. May was the sensible one that gave a foil to both H & JC.

BIB is just so untrue - he was in love with foreign countries, foreign cars, foreign culture. The piece that ended with The Mall full of British built vehicles wasn't bombastic, it was celebratory.

The show wasn't "Clarkson shouted loudly at the other two, they shook their head and tried to calm Clarkson down", that was sometimes part of the news bit but was as often as not the three of them joking together about some nonsense that had caught their attention. Most of the programme was them doing an individual item, and from time to time there would be any two or three of them on a bigger item.

I see a lot of revisionism in this thread, and its predecessor. Claims that JC called Brown a one-eyed c**t {one-eyed Scottish idiot actually, factually true), or that Clarkson used the N word freely, etc. Clarkson bashing, and to some extent TG-bashing, is like Chinese Whispers sometimes, and then whatever convoluted 'facts' emerge become the accepted truth.

Oh dear god! If you need any proof that there are some seriously, frothing at the mouth, lunatic Jeremy Clarkson fans who think he is some kind of god who can do no wrong, you only have to look at this post, replying to me on the other thread yesterday! Apparently someone actually seems to believe that Jeremy Clarkson racially abusing and punching a fellow working wasn't real but some sort of script for the show! Some Clarkson fans are so insane, it's scary!!! -

"Good grief. Do you really think Clarkson, in person and in private, is going round racially abusing people and getting into fights every day? That his TV persona isn't in fact a construction which is not what he's like all the time? Are you one of those people that abuses an Eastenders actor in the street if their character does something nasty? Are you actually that stupid?"

The key factor that the new team lacks is simply any sense of that indefinable chemistry between them.

I was bored with the three buffoons for a while before Clarkson punched the staff - so I was glad to tune into the new show.

I enjoyed it. Yes the chemistry isn't quite there yet, but it wasn't for Clarkson and Co at the beginning. I will definitely be tuning in next week and I have no idea why everyone is slating it.

And you are in danger of making yourself look as daft, with posts like that. The claim as I read it was that some bloke wouldn't want to go the pub with JC as he wouldn't want to be punched in the mouth or have his partner racially abused, as if Clarkson is actually racist, or habitually goes around punching people he happens to disagree with.

You can argue all you like about what racism is, but in the world I inhabit calling someone an Irish c**t isn't racist. Racism has been redefined over the years to mean whatever people want it to mean, but in return I have a right to say pffft at that sort of thing and say it's not racism. Racism is casually suggesting that if Friday Prayers are televised anyone in it should be checked for extremism. Calling someone a c**t and including Irish in it isn't.

Fill yer boots with syntactically awkward arguments.

What? Care to explain the poster comparing Clarkson punching someone to a soap opera character. Yes, we're well aware some people like yourself like to excuse violence and racism because your god, Jeremy Clarkson can do no wrong *rolls eyes*

First off, I loved the previous incarnation of TG, I even managed to go and see it filmed which funnily enough was the ep with Chris Evans as the SIARPC.
I really wanted this new version to work. I would be delighted to have a corking car show on the BBC and have the option to watch another one on Amazon too.
I was intrigued to see what changes they would make to refresh the show, make it their own and allow it to stand out from the CHM incarnation.
Sadly, on this one showing they have failed.
They have changed parts of the show that simply should not have been changed, such as the track and the audience, whilst continuing to use bits of the show that are so synonymous with CHM that it looks like a poor cover version. Using the same style intro to the Stig just jarred completely and reminded us what was missing, let alone just not being a funny line.
The first sequence featuring Sabine had all the ingredients to make it good. Two big engined American muscle cars (quite why Matt wasn't doing this I don't know) bombing round a track to see which is best. If only someone had invented a way for this to be done, maybe they could call it a race?! The inclusion of fighter aircraft tech and pilots to go with it (again making it look like the hosts can't do it on their own) did nothing show how good the cars were at all.
The US/UK sequence was awful. The direction, cinematography was fine but the premise of the challenge was missing. The challenges have always been about the hosts buying cars at a certain price to put up against each other. The choice of car allows the host to display both their personality and ability to find a car they want to drive or think is suitable. Sticking Matt & Chris in the Robin's was not fun or interesting, especially as CHM have done Robin jokes and drive a few times already. There was no jeopardy in the challenge, Matt broke down but so what. The tug of war was equally pointless as the blokes on the rope had the grip not the cars.
The drag race again was pointless as neither car was designed for speed. The nearest they came to having an actual challenge was towing the Robins up a hill but this was made artificially entertaining by using other people to navigate/help out. Even then, Chris helped Matt to the top!
If they'd made Matt & Chris buy a US or UK car for £500 (excluding shipping for Matt) and then made them drive a long way and carry out challenges in them, great that could have been interesting/fun.
Matt, to be fair to him, was actually quite good in this segment when he was on his own. His dry sense of humour came through really well & he seems to get what the show should be. He was also very good in the Nomad piece, it was entertaining and fun right up to the awful ending with Stig driving a truck Knight Rider style.

Back in the studio Chris continued to shout his way through everything with a sense of over excitedness and eagerness to prove that he was the man to save TG. He's decided to have a bigger audience and to engage them like it's an episode of TFI, it's not, it doesn't work. As for the SIARPC segment, the whole thing was just plain bad. 2 guests that nothing to do with each other at all, one that has been on before, both playing a dreadful mix of top trumps and play-your-cards right with their car history. Yes I Know it should have been Brad Pitt as the guest but he pulled out but the segment was dire due to the set-up not the actual guests. If they couldn't get a guest that they wanted they should have dropped the SIARPC and used the Extra Gear footage to explain the new track in full.
Speaking of the new track & Car I have one simple question. Why? The premise of the old SIARPC was that celebs & stars were given a low end car, something they are unlikely to be seen in themselves and given tuition on how to drive round the circuit. The viewers loved this bit of the show. It showed the celebs out of their comfort zone, gave JC time to have a small interview, quite often without the celeb having any motive to be there other than talking about cars and racing a car round.
Now we have celebs partaking in a audience participation piece and then being given a Mini (Wow I've never imagine celebs driving around in cool looking Mini's that they've chosen to buy themselves) to throw around a circuit that includes rally cross which is an alien concept to the viewer.

I know that this is a bit ranty & it's difficult to explain what I want or think this show should be but the BBC have had a very successful, tried & tested format for TG.
They should have either stuck to this format rigidly (but without obvious things like "and on that bombshell", "some say that his eyelids are made out of..." & other things that are not just synonymous with old TG but intricately to JC, RH or JM) or they should have gone down a different route entirely.
CHM TG was a show, that to me, felt like it was created for adults by adults but revelled in the ability to childish. The way this new TG was presented by CE made it fell like a children's show that had the odd wink towards adults. I think this is primarily down to CE too. I used to love TFI Friday when it was first on TV & Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, but found the recent TFI series to be not the least bit entertaining. Maybe that's because I am older and have matured a lot (not something my mate might say!) and CE simply hasn't and is stuck in the same TV presenting persona. When he was the SIARPC being interviewed by JC, he was not in "presenting mode" and was much easier to listen too without the fake over excited high pitched shouting. The full chat he had with JC that was cut from the show displayed that he has a great love of cars and knowledge of them. Not in the same way as JC, RH or JM but he was interesting to listen to at the moment.

Extra Gear on the website I have to say was generally quite good. The main host (Rory?) was slightly too kids TV for my taste but Chris Harris was excellent. The track test of the Nomad by Chris was great and was something that should have been in the main show.
The guest they had on gave a better interview than the main show and the detail given about the new track, which again felt a bit CBBC, was something the main show needed.
The two guys here had much better chemistry (or even ability to work with each other) than Matt & Chris did on the main show & if I could do anything It would be to get Chris Harris on the main show, with Sabine throwing cars around a track with Matt being the one without a track/car testing history to balance things out. Sabine & Chris H between should have enough industry clout to get the big name cars on the show and Matt I think will turn out to be a good host of the show and someone to maybe be the butt of jokes about driving ability from Sabine & Chris H. He should also have entertainment connections to bring stars to the show.

Extra Gear doesn't really need to & probably shouldn't exist, but if it does it would be great to see more off camera stuff about how things are actually filmed, more about how cars are repaired on the challenges, how they overcome difficulties when filming in Africa or the Arctic

One last gripe. How petty was it to keep the power lap times board but to have CE rewrite the times all so we didn't see JCs handwriting.

I think some people are vastly over invested in the tv show "Top Gear".

The point was that the suggestion is that Clarkson is a racist, and that he habitually goes around punching people in the face; neither is true.

As for defending him punching people, I don't see much evidence of that on here. I see evidence of people using that single event as evidence that he does that routinely & habitually. You seem to have muddled the two.

If you want me to say it though, here you go. JC punching someone in the face is a terrible thing to do, and fully worthy of severe punishment. Ok?

Btw he's not 'my god', he can do wrong. I just don't wet myself whenever he says something a bit untoward. And yh, I like him. I like his tv progs, his books, his writing in the Sunday papers. Shoot me for it.

Well, there was that time he punched Piers Morgan. But I think we can all forgive him for that.

I think the program grew organically though from those 3..

3 of them farting around with caravans? Great that worked, we'll do more of that.

3 of them spending £1500 each on a beemer? - yep

etc

transferring the format to a foreign country with home grown presenters is fine, they're not competing like for like.. In the UK they are and for me it kept crossing my mind that CHM would have been funnier - they're much more self-deprecating for a start..

The irony is that the formula (for me) had come a bit stale and contrived even with CHM and needed a revamp, so the new crew are on even more of a sticky wicket..

I've got no issue with opinions at all, but there seems to be the lion's share of emphasis on how bad it was and even how Evans is now favourite to be sacked from the show apparently.

Overly negative stuff across the board really. There's little to no balance in opinion about it at all apart from the two pieces i've read, but they've been buried well away on their respective websites.

I thought the visuals and sound in the top gun segment were great but like you say, there was no substance behind it.. also the thought that Chris Evans could outpace Sabine even with the super spoiler is kinda silly - she could have been on his tailgate with one hand tied behind her back

I just wish in the first studio piece, CE had just addressed the elephant in the room - Jeremy, Richard and James - and just cleared the ground at the start - something like "I loved watching Top Gear with Jeremy, Richard and James, and it has been one of the BBCs best, most iconic shows."

"Unfortunately, that all came to an end as we all know, and now we are going to try and take the best parts of the previous version, and bring some new ideas, and keep Top Gear moving on, as Jeremy did with the last revamp back in 2002. We won't resort to cheap shots, and I will be looking forward to seeing the guys' new show in the autumn - we can have two good car shows can't we, pushing each other to make more entertaining shows?"

It is after all possible to like both the old and the new versions, or at least like parts of them both?

Personally, I prefer the JC version, but more because of the relationship between the guys. With just Chris and Matt, they needed another to bounce off in the studio. Matt was better than I expected/feared, though we'll see how he does over the series. His Nomad piece was pretty good, and would've fitted in nicely on the old show.

Chris needs to wind it down a few notches, and remember it isn't TFI Friday - it felt like that in the studio parts. He clearly does have a love of cars though, so maybe after the feedback from the first few shows comes in, he will be more One Show than TFI...

I wasn't impressed, surprisingly, with Sabine - felt like she was swearing (which was cut short) too often for effect, and that opening target section was not good.

The Blackpool trip - as others had said, it would've been nice for them to pick their own cars rather than be given them, maybe that will develop - and the US car breaking down ruined that first part really (though Matt did his best). The second part with the jeeps, especially the mountain challenge, was much better.

SIARPC was ok, like the new track, but you don't have to get the audience voting on each part like that, again it was a bit TFI... shame they didn't have a News section, as that would've been a good way for the two to bounce off each other.

Overall - maybe 5/10, some good parts, some bad, but plenty of room for improvement... and there is room for both shows.

I'm also a little annoyed at people who assume that people are saying the new show is crap just because they are massive fans of JC who think everything he does is forgiveable.

I am a fan of the old show, JC included but know full well that what he did was wrong. You can't punch people and expect to get away with it scot-free.
The problem here however is this. If I go and punch someone at work I'll get sacked, that's my punishment and the only people affected are me, my family and my employer who has to replace me. I am a small cog in a big wheel and replacing me is very easy.
By sacking JC (& in turn losing the team that made TG so good) the BBC has actually punished the 4-5m viewers more than anyone else.
Clarkson was always going to get another gig and not really be punished by being sacked at all. Financially he is now better off than he was before, he has more freedom on the new show than he did before & he has a bigger budget to play with to make the show than he did before. His colleagues have gone with him so he hasn't lost the friendships or trust of these people.
On the other hand a large group of people are now deprived of seeing TG continue as it was.
Maybe his punishment should have been purely financial. Maybe that would have hit him where it hurts more. Perhaps if this had happened after a new contract had been signed that's what could have happened.

So that's a no to explaining the comparison of Clarkson punching someone to a soap opera character then?

Maybe because Danny Baker wrote for this and also did TFI that there's such a similarity. It needs to be reigned in.


Was it ok? A muddy track is only going to degenerate over time so times will be largely meaningless, esp after the winter. The old track was wet or dry, with variations, but was fairly consistent - this won't be. And there has been criticism that it was all a bit childish - garish lighting, primary colours, cheering for who has the best car etc. Add to that the splash on this course. Is Evans really going to shout with excitement every week at a mini splashing in a few inches of water? Really? That's the sort of thing that grates. CHMTG treated us like adults, albeit juvenile adults occasionally. That's a bit different from cheering when a car splashes through a puddle.

"Idiot" would be opinion in that context, not "fact". Seems like you've caught some of whatever Evans' is suffering from!

Oh FHS. I didn't write anything about it being a cartoon character, I'm not going to second guess whoever did. Ask him yourself.

And the time he drew blood from Ian Hislop by throwing a pen at him. It's pretty well documented that Clarkson has a history of bullying and racism but his fans would rather bury their head in the sand than admit their god has short comings.