Top Gear (2002 TV series)


Top Gear is a British automotive magazine motoring-themed television programme. It is a revival of the 1977–2001 show of the same name for the BBC, devised by Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman, which premiered on 20 October 2002. The programme expanded upon its earlier incarnation which focused on reviewing cars to incorporate films featuring motoring-based challenges, races, timed laps of notable cars, and celebrity timed laps on a specially designed track. The programme drew acclaim for its visual and presentation style, as well as criticism over the controversial nature of some content. The show was also praised for its humour and lore existing in not just the automotive community but in the form of internet memes and jokes. The programme aired on BBC Two until it was moved to BBC One in 2020.
The programme's first series in 2002 was presented by Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and Jason Dawe, with an anonymous test driver "The Stig" also being featured. Wilman was the show's executive producer. Following the first series, Dawe was replaced by James May, with the line-up unchanged until the end of the twenty-second series, when the BBC chose to not renew Clarkson's contract in March 2015, following an incident during filming. His dismissal from Top Gear prompted the departure of Hammond, May and Wilman from the programme, who joined Clarkson on a new motoring series for Amazon, The Grand Tour.
As a result, Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc were appointed as hosts of Top Gear and they were joined by four co-presenters for the twenty-third series. After negative feedback on this series, Evans resigned from the programme, with LeBlanc joined by Chris Harris and Rory Reid as the main hosts. From the twenty-seventh series onwards, the presenting line-up was changed following the departure of LeBlanc and Reid, with Harris joined by Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff. This series proved more popular with viewers. Production of the thirty-fourth series was halted in March 2023 after Flintoff was seriously injured in an accident during filming; the BBC later announced that Top Gear would not return for the "foreseeable future".
Top Gear has been one of the BBC's most commercially successful programmes since its relaunch. It has become a significant part of British popular culture, with episodes also broadcast in many countries in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and more, making it the most widely-broadcast factual television programme in the world. Its success has led to various forms of merchandising, including live tours, special DVD editions, and books, as well as spawning a variety of international versions in various countries.

Development

After the BBC cancelled the original format of Top Gear in December 2001, Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman met to work out ideas for reviving the programme for television. This led to them eventually meeting the broadcaster to pitch the idea of changing it from a motoring magazine format to one that was studio-based. Amongst the ideas that were pitched included: the involvement of a fixed location for car reviews and other films, alongside locations across Britain and abroad; putting notable cars through a timed lap of a circuit; the involvement of test driver with veteran racing experience, who handles driving some of the cars for the programme; and the participation of celebrity guests who would be invited to take part in an episode, undertake an interview over motoring matters, such as their car history, and take part in a special challenge to do a timed lap in a designated car. Following the pitch, the BBC decided to green-light the new format, in order to create a programme to compete with Channel 5's new motoring show Fifth Gear, to which several original Top Gear presenters including Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson and producer Jon Bentley went.
Production began in mid-2002, with the broadcaster securing the right to use Dunsfold Aerodrome, an airport and business park in Waverley, Surrey, as the programme's fixed location – while its runways and taxiways were allocated for reviews and other films, one of the site's large aircraft hangars was transformed into Top Gears new studio. To match the proposed ideas for the new format, the BBC gained assistance from Lotus to design a race circuit for use on the programme that would be situated at the fixed location, while editing of films that were recorded for each episode, focused on extending the runtime of the programme to one hour. Wilman took on the role of the show's executive producer, while Clarkson became part of the hosting line-up. Because most of those who had worked with Clarkson on the original programme had left the BBC to work on Fifth Gear, the production team arranged for him to be joined by Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe.
A difficulty found during production revolved around the show's test driver – neither Clarkson nor Wilman could find a racing driver with experience at speaking on-camera. In discussions over this, the pair opted to make the driver silent, and later having their identity concealed. When they recruited Perry McCarthy amongst their possible candidates for the role, his input led to Wilman choosing to nickname the test driver "the Stig".

Presenters

To date, there have been 13 presenters of the show:
  • Jeremy Clarkson, 2002–2015
  • Jason Dawe, 2002
  • Richard Hammond, 2002–2015
  • The Stig, 2002–2022
  • James May, 2003–2015
  • Chris Evans, 2016
  • Eddie Jordan, 2016–2018
  • Matt LeBlanc, 2016–2019
  • Sabine Schmitz, 2016–2020
  • Rory Reid, 2016–2019
  • Chris Harris, 2016–2022
  • Freddie Flintoff, 2019–2022
  • Paddy McGuinness, 2019–2022

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History

2002–2005: Beginnings

The first series of the new format of Top Gear premiered on 20 October 2002. In its early state, the programme's segments were based on elements of the previous format, such as interviews and viewers' letters, but also featured some new humorous elements, such as the presenters regularly destroying a caravan during the early series.
After the first series, Dawe was replaced by James May. Having previously been a presenter on Channel 4's motoring programme Driven and the 1999 series of Top Gear, May initially declined to be a part of the new format, until its growing popularity later changed his mind.
At the beginning of the third series, McCarthy was replaced by Ben Collins for contractual reasons – the change in drivers was notable in the fact that for Collins' version, the Stig's outfit was changed from a black outfit to a white one.
As the programme progressed, the format slowly began to transform, with a focus towards creating a unique presentation style for the programme, which included the addition of new segments, a more unusual approach to reviewing cars, road trips, and more specialised films involving races – either between cars or between a car and another form of transportation – and completing a variety of challenges, mostly with cheap, second-hand cars.

2006–2014: Changes and growing popularity

In early 2006, the BBC made plans to move the programme's film site from Dunsfold to Enstone, Oxfordshire, in preparation for its eighth series. These were later cancelled, after West Oxfordshire District Council strongly objected to the planned move, on the basis of noise and pollution concerns. As a direct result, the broadcaster ordered that filming continued at Dunsfold during May of that year, despite having no permit to do so, with the eighth series unveiling a revamped studio set. In addition, the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment was modified with new rules along with a new car, while Hammond included one of his dogs for the series throughout its studio segments, along with a number of films made for this series and the next.
On 20 September, during production for the ninth series, Hammond was seriously injured while driving a Vampire turbojet drag racing car at up to, as part of a planned feature, leading the BBC to postpone the broadcast of Best of Top Gear until a later date, and delaying production on the series until the presenter had recovered. Both the BBC and the Health and Safety Executive carried out inquiries into the accident, with filming later resuming on 5 October. The opening episode of the ninth series, aired on 28 January 2007, included footage of Hammond's crash; while it was not repeated like other episodes in the programme, it attracted higher ratings than the finale of Celebrity Big Brother, providing one of the highest ratings for BBC Two for a decade, alongside the series finale, which attracted around 8 million viewers.
Later that summer, on 25 July, the BBC aired a special edition episode entitled Top Gear: Polar Special. It was one of the first episodes of the programme to be shown in high-definition, and the third special to be produced, focusing on a race to the North Magnetic Pole, at its recorded location in 1996, between a "polar modified" Toyota Hilux and a dog sled. Considerable planning and co-ordination for the filming of the episode was conducted by both Top Gears production team and Toyota, with both Clarkson and May, driving the Hilux, being the first people to reach the recorded location of the North Magnetic Pole by car. It was one of a number of challenges in which the presenters had to be focused and serious, despite the comedic scenes shown, with another being on 9 September, when the presenters, including The Stig, participated in the 2007 Britcar 24-hour race at Silverstone, using a race-prepared, second-hand diesel BMW 330d, fuelled by biodiesel refined from crops they had sown as part of an earlier feature.
With popularity for the show rising to considerable levels, the waiting list to get a ticket for a recording became extensive – an individual seeking a ticket, found that they would be required to wait for 21 years before securing a place. On 17 June 2008, Hammond and May revealed during an interview on BBC Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show, that the eleventh series would feature a new "host" in the line-up, who was later revealed on the programme as "Top Gear Stunt Man", an individual who made few, occasional appearances on the programme. From the twelfth series, feature-length specials were created for the show, each visiting a different part of the world for a road trip using second-hand cars, with a number produced to be aired as a Christmas special. Despite growing popularity, an interview made with the Radio Times by Wilman revealed that future programmes would have less time devoted to big challenges, stating the following:
"We've looked back at the last two or three runs and noticed that a programme can get swallowed up by one monster film – a bit like one of those Yes albums from the 1970s where side one is just one track – so we're trying to calm down the prog-rock side. We'll inevitably still have big films, because it's the only way you can enjoy the three of them cocking about together, but they'll be shorter overall, and alongside we'll be inserting two- or three-minute punk songs."
File:Top Gear Live Italia, 2014 Richard Hammond, James May, Jeremy Clarkson.JPG|thumb|May, Hammond and Clarkson at a Top Gear Live show in 2014The success of the programme soon led to a live-version format being created called Top Gear Live; produced by a former producer of the programme, Rowland French, the touring show aimed to attempt to "bring the TV show format to life... featuring breath-taking stunts, amazing special effects and blockbusting driving sequences featuring some of the world's best precision drivers". The Live tour began on 30 October 2008 in Earls Court, London, moving on to Birmingham in November before being performed in at least 15 other countries worldwide.
As the 14th series was being broadcast in late 2009, the programme began to attract criticism from some viewers, over its predictability through the over-reliance on stunts and forced humour at the expense of serious content. On 13 December 2009, controller of BBC Two Janice Hadlow appeared on the BBC's Points of View to reject such comments, purely on the evidence of Top Gears ratings and audience appreciation figures. However, a week later on 20 December, Wilman admitted that the three presenters were now "playing to their TV cartoon characters a bit too much". His statement included referring to "this incarnation of Top Gear" being close to its end, and that the production team would be working towards keeping its "dignity still intact", while experimenting with new ideas for the programme. Nevertheless, a one-off special of the long-running US news programme 60 Minutes featuring Clarkson, Hammond, and May, attracted 16 million viewers in October 2010.