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Top Gear 'to be hit by budget cuts', show's chief reveals

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  • 29-12-2008 10:41pm
    #1
    Tabnabs
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 15,696 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    The next series will be a cheaper affair and viewers will notice the difference, said Andy Wilman.

    Presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have broadcast from all over the world, including the US, Africa and the North Pole.

    This year's Christmas special was recorded in Vietnam.

    Top Gear is BBC Two's highest-rated and fans tune in to see the expensive and often highly dangerous stunts screened each week.

    But Mr Wilman, who brought the programme back to television in 2002 and is also Mr Clarkson's business partner, said BBC budget constraints would take their toll in 2009.

    Writing on the Top Gear blog, he said of the cutbacks: "No point in moaning about that - all shows are suffering... so no reason why we shouldn't suffer as well.

    "Our problem, though, is that there is no fat to trim off the show, in that we waste almost nothing behind the scenes and the old cliche of every penny goes on screen is actually true.

    "So in 2009 the budget cut has to affect what you watch."

    He joked that Mr Clarkson had come up with a plan: "Instead of trimming back a little bit on every show - losing a helicopter here or a truck crash there - we'll endeavour to make 13 out of 14 shows as per the usual [Hollywood producer] Jerry Bruckheimer standard, and then the last one, when we only have a tenner left, will be utter, utter *****.

    "But they had fun singing songs in the dark during the Blitz, so let's see what happens.

    "Great stuff may come of it."

    Mr Wilman's comments were later removed from the Top Gear site.

    The BBC said they had been edited out because Mr Wilman's blog post was too long.

    The BBC is making cutbacks in response to a lower than expected licence fee settlement.

    A BBC spokesman said: "Like every programme across the BBC, Top Gear is engaged in delivering efficiencies. But viewers can be assured that the next series will be as compelling and exciting as always - and of the same standard and quality."

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4015921/Top-Gear-to-be-hit-by-budget-cuts-shows-chief-reveals.html


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