Hmmm - not quite sure i'm buying into all the praise. The cinematography of the supercars section was amazing as always, but we've seen it all before. The introduction was great (maybe a bit self indulgent - but who cares!)

The huge let down for me were the audience sections. For some reason, the 3 of them have suffered with scripting problems for a while now. It was more forced than ever here to the point where it didn't even feel like it was a show filmed in front of an audience. It felt like they had several hundred actors in the room shouting on queue. For 3 guys who are great friends and have worked for so long together, i don't understand why it seems so false.

New track is interesting and i like the american driver (although i imagine the joke might wear thin if it doesn't change week on week). I'm sure i'll watch the entire series and i imagine it will find its feet a bit more over time. However, i personally don't think this is the 5* winner everyone in the press is making it out to be.

I think there's a narrative at play, which says new Top Gear is bad and the Grand Tour is good. Everyone piled into Top Gear and slagged it off (and especially Chris Evans). The obvious rejoinder to this is to lavish the Grand Tour with praise. It comforms to a pre-existing prejudice that the media has. New Top Gear (while not great) was not that bad - and this (although better than new Top Gear) wasn't that good.

Top Gear got going once Rory Reid and Chris Harris had more exposure. The Jenson Button segment showed how good the show could be if they landed him more regularly.

To be honest the reasons why people didn't like the new Top Gear were fair. I went into it wanting to like it but Chris Evans was too irritating for me and it was a chance for Top Gear to do something new and different but the just tried copying the same formula. I will give the new series a watch now Evans is gone.

I actually liked Top Gear Extra better, thought Rory Reid and Chris Harris were better hosts.

Yes that is interesting and I'm sure that at least some social conformity is at play.
However, some people really did just like Top Gear for what it was and thought that what Chris Even did to it was appalling and are genuinely glad to have the 3 stooges back and enjoyed it. And they have that view totally independently of any social conformity.

I enjoyed the first episode of The Grand Tour. It was familiar, and I think that is what people simply wanted. The "Phileas Fogg" style tent / suitcases theme of the set is a neat idea, and the HD cinematography is fantastic.

It's really an anti-BBC narrative from the right wing press, the same ones which previously condemned the BBC for not sacking Clarkson for his previous controversies. But, like Jonathan Ross, they only mattered as a stick to beat the corporation with and were forgotten as soon as they left for the private sector.

What's also very notable is how every Clarkson interview headline is twisted into an attack on the BBC even though he's remained largely supportive of the beeb despite being let go.

Just like Top Gear used to be.

I quite liked it, but it's nothing new.

On the bright side the BBC review was quite nasty about the grande tour stating it was full of hubris .

really enjoyed gt and you could tell they spend a few bob on the filming of it ,

It wasn't anything radically new, but I did like it. The old chemistry was there. I think the big mistake with the recently rebooted Top Gear, was that they stuck with the old format - they should have gone off in a different direction.

You can see that The Grand Tour has epic production values. How many people watched it in full 4K?

If the BBC had found a likeable presenter rather than Evans, the new series would have been a success.
Sure, there's always those who resent change and hang on to old opinions. And more than a few who seem to be "in love" with Clarkson.

However, the BBC screwed up badly by choosing Evans. He might be popular with some elements of BBC audiences, but not with the people that TG was aimed at - even if the BBC did want to try and change that demographic.

Programmes like this will certainly increase sales of 4K TVs. Up until very recently there hasn't been enough content to justify buying a new telly. In fact I might get one as my Christmas present to myself.

I thought we were promised a programme where because of the lack of BBC rules they would say and do what they wanted? Yet on the new show the certificate is 12. Nothing the said and did changed from the Top Gesr days. Just three things changed. Better cameras, bigger budget and bigger payout for them.

Used to be is a good thing, it's Top Gear with an insane budget with the lads, and the big noticeable difference is the cinematics and no PC bullshit restrictions.

Yes and in a way, them not being able to use certain copyrighted bits of Top Gear has cleared out some of the old tired stuff and brought some fresh air as well.

So basically the 3 stooges have reinvented Top Gear whilst keeping all the bits we like whilst the BBC Top Gear just thought that keeping all the old bits and sticking new faces in it would work. It didn't!

The irony was lost on the BBC but they did a big promotion of this show on The One Show! Weird, ironic and kinda dumb,

ITs worth keeping in mind that some of the upcoming episodes seem to feature some of the slapstick stuff TG is famous for, but on a much bigger budget - so load of cars getting smashed, and explosions - so that could be fun.

Then there is a road trip episode in Namibia as well

Well they couldn't spend £2.5m on an opening sequence in the old days and they couldn't use a tent and set it up in a different country in the old days to just highlight 2 things which have changed. Clarkson couldn't have cracked the gypsy joke at the BBC and as far as what they say is concerned, not sure what you were looking for, but they are still overseen by OFCOM and they know they have a family audience so will hold back on too much swearing etc. Plus we don't know what else will be in the future 35 episodes So more than enough has changed without throwing the baby out with the bath water

It wouldn't surprise me if the BBC eventually paid Amazon for the right to show The Grand Tour.

I have watched Top Gear for many years now, remembering the days of Angela Rippon, Noel Edmunds, Chris Goffey and William Woollard. I couldn't get on with the latest run using Chris Evans and Mat LeBlanc, because basically Hammond, May and Clarkson have such a combined personality and influence on the show, that they have become it.

I can't see any choice of presenter succeeding and IMO, the only option open to the BBC (other than showing TGT) is to make a completely new TV/Entertainment programme about cars, without any reference to Top Gear.

As far as I recall, it was simply internet speculation, nothing more.

I heard Andy Willmam talk about it and I am sure at least 1 of CH&M

Entertainment in "subjective" shocker...

BIB - I found the DM coverage interesting. It really did seem to be a case of, whom do we hate most - Jeremy Clarkson or the BBC. In the end, I think they decided they hated the BBC the most, and used the negative aspects of the BBC Arts guy's review as the stick to attack the BBC with.

Well, to be fair, it was. I thought it was all rather embarassing to be honest. Had the BBC un-fairly 'sacked' Clarkson, or cancelled TG altogether, the constant 'bigging themselves up' and raspberry blowing to the BBC might have had a point, but that wasn't the case. It was Clarkson's fault he was let go - and he knows and accepts that - and the other two willingly followed. I actually thought the BBC review was mostly praising the show, rather than knocking it.


Where's the irony? At risk of re-hashing this yet again, the DG of the BBC didn't let Clarkson go because he wanted to. He did it because he over-stepped a mark that couldn't be ignored. I think the DG's quoted somewhere as saying he wished he didn't have to do it. AFAICT there's no ill-will from either side (CHM or the BBC) so why shouldn't they have the stars of the biggest new show of the year - and ex-'employees' - on their flagship magazine show? I think the only reason Clarkson did the Steve Wright R2 show and not Chris Evans is because that would have been too easy fodder for the media. I can imagine that neither guy would have had a problem with it.

More surprising then anything, as traditionally the BBC never tended to even acknowledge other channels, let alone plug their shows but the One Show feature was generally positive, I thought.


Indeed, haven't all of CHM subsequently done stuff for the BBC subsequently anyway? So, no there's no ill-wind AFAIK.

If there was any irony, it was in the opening section of TGT when CHM listed each other's firings....