Nov 11 episode

mike65

Mixed bag, Simon Cowell dispite being handy behind the wheel is eminently punchable, the road legal race car was er pointless but the 4 way sprint across central London was entertaining, I want a 70 mph speedboat and to zoom through the Thames flood barrier!

Mike.

Volvoboy

Found tonights ep good, funny interview with Cowell maybe Jezza met his Musically retarded match? Also The Stig on the Tube the phone playing the theme tune to Coronation St. But was better than most bloody ep where fast car goes around track and is better than this other one bolloxology, suppose it serves the purpose, i dont think ya want deep serious TV of a Sunday night!




-VB-

MagicMarker

I thought it was excellent tbh. As always.

I actually like Cowell and found him a Clarkson having a go at each other very entertaining.

GBX

I was quite surprised with Clarksons comment during part of the voice over for the Stigs part. The stig was on the tube and Clarkson said "The stig feels so out of place. He probably thinks he is a brazilian electrician"
I thought it was distasteful.

MagicMarker

Yeah that raised an eyebrow with me too.

GBX

Ive no doubt there will be a few complaints going into the BBC over that.

Guy:Incognito

Yeah I was a tad shocked he said it. I laughed though.

GBX wrote: »

Ive no doubt there will be a few complaints going into the BBC over that.

Course there will, theres always some moaney gimp ready to complain about anything vaguely offensive on tv. I'm convinced certain people only watch tv to find things to complain about.

lostexpectation

it was knowing joke, I thought the botswana one was great btw, it was actually very much about cars, regular cars and engineering.

so the bike won, what does that mean?

I reckon it shows that we don't just need replace cars wtih more eco friendly ones, but less of cars.

patrickc

was the lewis hamilton bit on the back of the paper supposed to be some sort of clue to the stigs identity

Gekko

yeah the cross london race was great TV.

It seems to be these feature-type elements of the show that make it compulsive viewing

spadder

A friend of mine told me the Stig is Damon Hill.

star-pants

I missed some in the middle - I'll catch up on Tues.
But the race across london was so funny.... Hamster constantly swearing -- fair play though he did well - I was so happy when he won -- the *look* on Clarksons face
And "couger requesting permission to pass through the barrier, at speed" lol

mike65

The old Stig is test driver Perry McCarthy who outed himself in a book. The new Stig remains a mystery. But he's proberly the old Stig!

Mike.

Mitch Connor

lostexpectation wrote: »

it was knowing joke, I thought the botswana one was great btw, it was actually very much about cars, regular cars and engineering.

so the bike won, what does that mean?

I reckon it shows that we don't just need replace cars wtih more eco friendly ones, but less of cars.

all it showed was if you don't mind being completely buggered once you get to work, the bike is better.

Think about it, who would have been more ready to start work immediately, May, Stig or Hammond?

For me, Hammond wouldn't even have come close. Public transport proved, to me, to be the best option, but you are looking at public transport within london city vs driving a car right the way across the city. I would say a large proportion of drivers are not within a decent public transport hub. I have a mate in england who if he drove to work it would take him 40mintues. using public transport (trains in his case) takes 2 hours. So, while public transport is better in certain circumstances, it is clearly worse in others. It depends where you live, and where you want to get to.

For me, driving to work is a 35 minute trip in the morning and 45 in the evening. Public tranport worked out at 2 hours 20 in the morning and anwhere in and around 3 hours in the evening. Public transport doesn't come close to be a realistic alternative for me.

Sherifu

spadder wrote: »

A friend of mine told me the Stig is Damon Hill.

I read that before too, as they once said he is a retired F1 driver afair.

kaimera

Missed the first 5 mins but what a bloody car around the test track. Wow. 7 secs faster than the nearest.
I was actually using it in PGR4 a few days ago. Heh.

Race was quite good. Stig out in the real world was hilarious imo.

Cowell..well, I don't really have an opinion on him but respect for his driving and #1 on the lap times. Again.

Good ep

kevmy

mike65 wrote: »

The old Stig is test driver Perry McCarthy who outed himself in a book. The new Stig remains a mystery. But he's proberly the old Stig!

Mike.

I've heard there's been a number of different Stig's. Rumours include Damon Hill, Nigel Mansell, Jenson Button and Martin Brundle.

Good to see Hammond winning. Interesting though that the car was the last by a mile. I mean cycling all the way across London to the airport probably isn't on for a lot of people (baggage, fitness etc.) but even public transport beat it comfortably

spadder

he sounds like Damon Hill, He has the slight lisp that Damon Hill has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihIf1Fi-BM

I think Nigel Mansell is quite tall, Brundle has a bit of a belly

Sherifu

spadder wrote: »

he sounds like Damon Hill, He has the slight lisp that Damon Hill has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihIf1Fi-BM

I think Nigel Mansell is quite tall, Brundle has a bit of a belly

Sounds like Hill to me too. Nice find.

loyatemu

Hill is a multi-millionaire. While he might find it entertaining to turn up and be the stig once, I can't see him being bothered doing it week in, week out (or however long it takes them to film a series).

spadder

So, you would only drive state of the art supercars around a test track if the money was right?

Mr Magnolia

I enjoyed last night's episode myself.

GBX wrote: »

I was quite surprised with Clarksons comment during part of the voice over for the Stigs part. The stig was on the tube and Clarkson said "The stig feels so out of place. He probably thinks he is a brazilian electrician"
I thought it was distasteful.

Very distasteful and bang out of order IMO. Apology pending I'd say.

spadder wrote: »

A friend of mine told me the Stig is Damon Hill.

The Stig has changed numerous times over the years. Damon was there as was Perry McCarthy. I think Tiff Needell was there for a while but that's just my suspicions, unlikely though as he was signed to channel4. Still possible though.

Gillie

Good show.

The comment was a wee bit out of order but I think it was more of a dig at the cops!

The Stig was hilarious!

mike65

I liked Hammonds cursing every bus in sight and proberly a few that were'nt, not to mention the lights.

Mike.

prendy

ah i taut it was a good show as usual...
the race was very funny..hammond roaring at the busses and swearing continuosly!

_Kaiser_

It'd be interesting if they'd done it in Dublin (say Blanchardstown to Stephens Green).

- Richard would have been run over by a car/van/truck in the bus lane
- James would be stuck somewhere on the Navan Road
- The Stig would be still waiting (bus dispute today)
- As for Jeremy... ummm?

Rabidlamb

Along with the "brazilian electrician" quote Clarkson had 2 other beauties:

(1) After Hammons segment on the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, Clarkson says "I'd rather be in that than Keira Knightley".

(2) When doing the Stig build up he says, "if he was divorcing Paul McCartney he'd shut the hell up".

Even my missus laughed at the 2nd one.

mike65

It was "shut her whiney face up" I think! Which got a big reaction from the throng.

Mike.

r3nu4l

Very good episode last night!

I loved the challenge, it was something entertaining and informative at the same time. I found the Brazillian electrician joke offensive but I still laughed.

I liked the Cowell/Clarkson interview. Brilliant and yes, Cowell took no prisoners during the interview. Interesting to see just how ultra-competitive and driven (no pun intended) the man is!

aoife2k

I quite enjoyed last nights episode...I thought the bit about the road legal F1 looking car was good and I really laughed when Jeremy did the 'Team America' secret wave...Hilarious!

Also when May was ringing to pay the congestion fee and the old lady asked him for the reg of his car....she replied with the exact one and he was stunned!! The face on him was priceless

AntiRip

I must be ignorant or innocent because I don't get "brazilian electrician" ??

Mr Magnolia

The guy that the police in the UK shot on the tube.

Edit/ Some info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4711021.stm

Nightwish

Just watched the repeat, as I had to see it again. It was a great episode. Am I the only one who didn't find the Brazilian electrician joke offensive? Anyway it was great to see the Stig involved in the challenge. He must've gotten some strange looks that day.

pd101

patrickc2006 wrote: »

was the lewis hamilton bit on the back of the paper supposed to be some sort of clue to the stigs identity

Thought that part was very funny. Just watched it second time round and its still hilarious.

aidan_dunne

spadder wrote: »

he sounds like Damon Hill, He has the slight lisp that Damon Hill has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihIf1Fi-BM

I think Nigel Mansell is quite tall, Brundle has a bit of a belly

I think most people know at this stage that the original black Stig was Perry McCarthy and that the current white Stig is believed to be a number of different drivers who carry out the role whenever they're available. The current list of drivers who seem to most regularly rotate the role between them seems to be Ben Collins, Julian Bailey and Damon Hill, who it sounded like was carrying out the role the day that video above was filmed. Definitely sounded like Hill on that day alright.

Nigel Mansell, nah, I doubt he's ever done it. As already mentioned, he's pretty tall but also quite stocky and broad shouldered and The Stig doesn't have that look about him, he looks much skinnier than that. Don't think it's Brundle either. As I said, I think it's widely accepted now that it's mainly rotated between Collins, Bailey and Hill (and very occassionally Nicolas Minassian) as and when they're available.

Don't forget that Heikki Kovalinen (Renault test driver at the time) also played the part of The Stig once too, back a couple of years ago when the Renault F1 car did that lap around the track.