Miguel Sanchez Posted July 29, 2022 Share Posted July 29, 2022 Series 10 Episode 6: Petrol has recently passed £1 a litre. 65p goes in tax. Broadcast 2007. 15 years ago. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Series 11 Episode 1: Jeremy has made the first reference to the show being repeated endlessly on Dave Given the amount of my life I've spent watching repeats of this on Dave, I've been struck by a few things. There's the blatant racism, homophobia and staged stupidity which I've mentioned here (but not in full) but I'm honestly amazed at how... terrible it is. I know when I'm going to stop watching and the video I'm going to post when I do, but the reasons I stopped watching and despaired at its popularity from about 2010 onwards seem much more noticeable now, and have done for quite a few series. It all looks so fake. The other thing I've noticed is how much the music is changed for the Dave repeats. I don't know if it's a licensing thing or what but just about every episode has different music in the background of various shots and it's really jarring, given how used to those versions I've been. The updated versions are often an improvement too, the Botswana special sticks out for this. It's 2008, there's an impending economic disaster and widespread outrage at petrol prices (£1.18 per litre) and these three gimps are going on about how the Toyota Prius isn't as economical as an M3 if you drive it round a racetrack at a constant speed. As much as I enjoyed this at the time I don't understand how it happened. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 (edited) Series 11 Episode 2: the new Jaguar has bluetooth connectivity with your phone and yer da can't understand how to work it The News then followed up with an update from James about the Dacia Sandero being delayed, leading to this classic reaction: Edited August 5, 2022 by Miguel Sanchez 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 Series 11 Episode 4: This is the one where they race across Japan in the new Nissan GT-R and the bullet train. There's a ~20 second bit that's cut from this when it's shown on Dave which I've just seen for probably the first time since I first watched it. Various shots of this bright red GT-R blasting through tunnels, with vein-like snow topped mountains in the distance and Believe Me Natalie by The Killers playing in the background. Some forlorn sense of reminiscence has entered my brain but merged somehow with the present, where I can appreciate how much I love the car 15 years later, even if from a distance and for reasons unrelated to the episode. It's also funny watching James and Richard try and fail to understand any of the language. And Richard complain about the food all being fish. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 Series 11 Episode 5: "We've just proved Gordon Brown is Stalin" cut to picture of combination of Brown and Stalin on TV I honestly don't know how this programme lasted as long as it did 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 12, 2022 Share Posted August 12, 2022 (edited) Series 12 Episode 3: James is being taught how to drive a rally car by Mika Hakkinen while Batcat by Mogwai plays in the background A dream afternoon, really. In contrast, Mark Wahlberg is on and Jeremy is asking him why he didn't pump Olga Kurylenko in Max Payne. He really is a creepy man, I'm sure when Rupert Grint was on he spent the whole time asking what kissing Emma Watson was like. Edited August 12, 2022 by Miguel Sanchez 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 I've been watching some of the older episodes on iPlayer. I'm probably stating the obvious here but it's really struck me how much car prices have gone up.In an episode from 2004 they spoke about how prices for a new Mini started at £11k whereas the equivalent car now is unlikely to be anywhere below £20k. Also just watched Jeremy testing a Focus ST in an episode from around 2006. He mentioned the price being around £17k whereas a new Focus ST these days is unlikely to give change from £30k. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 On 15/08/2022 at 13:28, Ron Aldo said: I've been watching some of the older episodes on iPlayer. I'm probably stating the obvious here but it's really struck me how much car prices have gone up. In an episode from 2004 they spoke about how prices for a new Mini started at £11k whereas the equivalent car now is unlikely to be anywhere below £20k. Also just watched Jeremy testing a Focus ST in an episode from around 2006. He mentioned the price being around £17k whereas a new Focus ST these days is unlikely to give change from £30k. Wait until you get to the outrage about petrol costing £1 a litre 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_Wilkos Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 Roooooneyy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 Wait until you get to the outrage about petrol costing £1 a litreI watched the episode where Jeremy drove an Audi A8 from London to Edinburgh and back. Petrol was 74p a litre. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 Series 12 Episode 6: I have reached the point where I'm genuinely ashamed of how much I spent watching this and thinking it was important. Boris Johnson is the guest again. He has actually always been like that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 On 05/06/2022 at 18:13, Miguel Sanchez said: I've reached the point where I'm really familiar with every episode I'm watching because of Dave. I also couldn't handle the nostalgia when the contents of Now 60 started appearing in the background (Black and White Town by The Doves, ah!) but Series 6 Episode 5: Hammond is testing the new Maserati against Gabrielli Tarquini, Maserati's test driver. Jeremy called him "a middle aged bald man who once crashed a touring car." They showed the crash and they didn't include the fucking commentary! Series 12 Episode 7: Hammond has done a (pretty half-hearted) piece about how great touring car racing is. They showed this clip and, again, didn't include the commentary! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 Series 13 Episode 2: Stephen Fry is the guest. They've started talking about apps on phones and Stephen is currently going through his Grindr profile looking for the closest match. At least he's married now. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Series 13 Episode 3: There was a level 2 heatwave warning recently. After playing car sauna, Jeremy has told Gordon Brown "we know to have a drink of water and put some suncreen on when it's hot. Leave us alone." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senorsoupe Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 Some of the stuff they did make was genuinely good, such as the time the did the race between a Steam Train, a 1940's Jaaaaaag and 1940's motorbike from London to Edinburgh, but too often it was pretty crap 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 Series 13 Episode 6: Them at a car auction is genuinely hilarious 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Series 13: I have heard at least five different songs from West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum by Kasabian during these seven episodes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Series 13 Episode 7: I have a theory As I noted earlier in the thread, despite watching all of these episodes repeatedly on Dave over the years, it appears I misplaced the point in history where I thought this programme became stupid and scripted to the point of unwatchable. It wasn't from this point onwards as I thought, it was series 6 or 7 when they changed the titles, brought on Hammond's dog and went caravanning. Maybe I was young and stupid at the time, maybe they were good actors, I don't know. I watched several series after this one in the hope that it would go back to what I loved so much in my adolescence but it just didn't. There were good features - the Lancia bit, the Saab bit, the Senna bit, all of the big specials - but then you had stuff like their electric car or the mobility scooter thing Jeremy made and I felt like I was living in a parallel universe with how popular it was. The point I definitely, definitely stopped watching was when Jesse from Breaking Bad was the guest. He was somehow even more obnoxious than that programme, which takes some doing. As I've also noted earlier in the thread, watching this back now it's hard to reconcile ever having liked it in the first place, or it ever being as popular as it was. I'm not one for the highly polarised trial by social superiority you're prone to getting nowadays but the things Jeremy Clarkson said and did on Top Gear up until this point (2010) are heinous. It feels extremely disingenuous too, with him constantly calling it "this pokey motoring show" when he's being paid millions or his constant snide complaints about the Labour government of the time. Couple this with his/their fervent anti-intellectualism and their typical reaction to the environment or sustainability, and you think if there's any civilisation left on earth in a hundred years that this sort of thing will be read about in history lessons the same way that... you know, that Roman guy did something while letting the Empire collapse (I am not a qualified historian). I remember watching Hammond drive the Zonda F and deciding that when I grew up I wanted to be a Top Gear presenter. Maybe if things in my life had been different I might have maintained the interest I had in cars in my adolescence into something else but from where I am now I'm mainly just wondering how I ever managed to have such an enthusiasm in the first place. There's no denying that a pure love of motoring goes into just about everything in Top Gear but watching it back now there's too much else which just falls flat for me to share in that any more. Now, that theory. I hold that this is the point where the programme changed for the worst. Here is a video of the ending of this episode: Jeremy drives a V12 Vantage and opines that he feels like he's driving "an ending." That because of things like the environment and the economy, cars like that Vantage won't be made any more. We'll ignore the picture of the 458 that was in development at the time that they showed on The News. As he drives through wherever it is and that music plays the camera cuts to pictures of things like the Veyron, a green Lamborghini, the 1966 Le Mans finish, while a pretty cool in-car shot of the outside changing around the car happens and he sounds glum and ironically a lot less erudite than he can be. He looks at the camera and says "good night" and that's that. This is when Top Gear finished. Jeremy Clarkson crashed that car and died. They didn't finish on a bombshell, they just ended. The show changed for the worst, everything Jeremy said about the state of the world came round again a few years later but with enough wealth inequality that cars have just got more expensive and more ludicrous. He was replaced by a body double, like Elvis or Paul McCartney. I'm sad that something I had such fond memories of from my teenage years has aged so poorly. I'm sad that my love of cars didn't last into my twenties and has only recently started to come back around at a time when the world basically stopped. I'm sad that something so stupid was ever so popular. I'm sad that nobody else has ever agreed with my theory about this video. Good night. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_Wilkos Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 The segment where they do a drive time radio show is amazing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB1994 Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 Latest series seems to have been scrapped after Freddie’s crash during filming. Not much info seems to have been released to what actually happened. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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