Christmas special 2014 Part 2 (28th December)

colm_mcm

The conclusion of the two-part special in which Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May take three used, V8-engined sports cars on a gruelling road trip covering 1,600 miles through Patagonia to the world's southernmost city. Having encountered stunning landscapes, mechanical mishaps and dreadful roads on their journey through Argentina, the trio's adventure is brought to a dramatic climax by a terrifying turn of events.

Radio Times

finnharpsboy

another injury for May on one of these specials

cdeb

Tis like a "best of" really.

Cow on car roof - check
Horses called Tesco/Burger - check
Falling off same - check
Horn hooked up to brake - check

Generally enjoying this, but it's very much lacking original jokes

cdeb

Sad sad situation - check

One wheel hard lock and the other one straight - check

finnharpsboy

scary stuff now

cdeb

Yep; incredible.

Utter scumbags

ricero

True men making it out of that hell hole. Fair play

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Netwerk Errer

Not a great special overall. Feel that probably had a lot to do with the reaction to the plates cutting the journey short. They had to put to much filler in to do a two hour special after that.

Myrddin

Above average for me. I forgot the episode was even on & only stumbled across the very start if it last night. I enjoyed both parts, more so than any of the recent specials. The set pieces & scripting was kept in the background which I prefer, & the scenery was stunning. Scary ending :eek:

cdeb

"Is the 2CV out there?"
"No"
"Whew; for a second I thought we were in trouble there"



Saw the suggestion elsewhere that the specials had become Palinesque travelogues. They have in a way, and I like them like that. Everywhere can't have the North Pole's danger or the Chilean dune finale or a bike crash. The Burma one has grown on me, and the Middle East one I think is very underrated; I've always enjoyed that one.

This had its moments - the border crossing, the beaver talk, the camp at Tierro del Fuego. The finale obviously. I think it needed more jokes and humour to go with the amazing scenery and the adventure. Maybe a stronger route flow.

Not a classic special. But enjoyable enough.

EB_2013

How did the 3 of them make it out of the hotel? I got lost in the chaos of the ending.

A bit better than last night's episode. Interesting to see the story from the other side.

martingriff

The ending with the crew was very scary and if it was a publicity stunt (I think it was) It went very bad and they were lucky to get out. I do not think anyone thought it would go that far. Was there any reaction by the Argentinian government to what happened. The ending with the 2 could have been cut me thinks.

sonofenoch

Set up..

cdeb

EB_2013 wrote: »

How did the 3 of them make it out of the hotel? I got lost in the chaos of the ending.

In real life, I think they were flown out.

But they came up with an alternate escape ending for the programme based on the Butch Cassidy link (which I didn't really follow unfortunately)

thelad95

Very enjoyable episode tonight apart from the scary end. I think they had to space the whole thing out a bit because of the incident at the end which meant the first episode contained less quality content.

I don't actually think the number plates made a massive difference, I think those idiots would have caused trouble anyway.

colm_mcm

thelad95 wrote: »

I think those idiots would have caused trouble anyway.

Which ones?

thelad95

colm_mcm wrote: »

Which ones?

The people who egged and threw stones at the crew.

dfx-

thelad95 wrote: »

I don't actually think the number plates made a massive difference, I think those idiots would have caused trouble anyway.

Have to agree, if you're that unpopular just based on your nationality and the police lead you into it, plate or no plate the mob have their way.

The Black Oil

I don't really know what to make of the end, too much dash cam footage (not that I expect them to jeopardise their safety) to know what's true. I think the scarier bit was at the hotel.

The talking point should be the night skies of the camp at Tierra del Fuego. Stunning.

Kermit.de.frog

Tonight BBC screened the episode of Top Gear in which Clarkson and the whole crew were told to get out of Argentina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXI0Mi4zbIA

I use to like Clarkson before his little Englander stuff got in the way - slagging off other countries and cultures and extolling the virtues of Britain at other's expense. It gets tiresome.

He denies the number plate on his porsche used in the episode was a reference to the Falkland's War. It was just a chance number plate.

Since we are not all completely stupid let us consider the chance that this is a number plate a British TV show with him in charge happens to end up with.

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h--/q-95/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2014/10/21/1413903116329/Top-Gear--Jeremy-Clarkson-010.jpg


He put his crew in physical danger with this stupidity.

Even if he was genuinely telling the truth and didn't know you would think he would take one look at the plate and realise how well it would go down?

The BBC are putting up with a lot of heat because of him and I can't see him lasting much longer in the roll.

The straw must be breaking.

endacl

Pretty crap special from top gear.

AboutaWeekAgo

Could never see the attraction of this show, 3 unfunny men driving cars just doesn't do it for me.

Dempsey

Fairly sure the whole thing was scripted but carry on...

Kermit.de.frog

Dempsey wrote: »

Fairly sure the whole thing was scripted but carry on...

Of course. But them getting kicked out was hardly scripted. Unless the stone throwers are extras.

Unless the intention was to get kicked out of course which would not actually surprise me.

man98

IMHO the reg was completely intentional, although it's really clutching at straws. "N982 FKL" is subtle, in fact I wouldn't have noticed it.

daelight

Makes for good Chrimbo telly, wot! Snortt...

Enzokk

I am a little amazed that they actually thought they could go close to the Falkland Islands and think they could just do their ignorant Top Gear routine (and be rude and racist, but its okay because we are being funny) and get away with it. This when there has been an stirring up of emotions by the Argentinian government as well recently.

There is no excuse for the way the people reacted to their presence. But surely one of the crew of 31 had to have had second thoughts about this whole concept?

hoodwinked

i don't know, i think no matter what Clarkson does or says now he's under the microscope he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't

they have shown that reg on the car was registered to that car in the 90's, so unless they paid it's previous owner lots of cash to buy that car specifically, we have to assume none of them spotted it,

its not that hard to assume really, since the internet started to allow millions of us to analyze photo's/playback video footage, things have been spotted that were never noticed before, how often have we seen stills from movies from the 90's and gone "wow i never noticed that before"

its very reasonable to believe if a cast and crew of 100+ (and editors and directors) failed to spot the actor from 300 (or braveheart or whatever it was) wearing a digital watch that a crew of 30+ didn't spot a reg that referenced a war.

as for Clarkson, the Daily fail this morning is pulling him up on being "Racist" again for asking hammond "was the bridge straight?" in last nights episode???

it's getting beyond ridiculous, if he was anyone else (some of whom have said worse in their attempts to be funny) nothing would be said about it.

Enzokk

hoodwinked wrote: »

i don't know, i think no matter what Clarkson does or says now he's under the microscope he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't

they have shown that reg on the car was registered to that car in the 90's, so unless they paid it's previous owner lots of cash to buy that car specifically, we have to assume none of them spotted it,

its not that hard to assume really, since the internet started to allow millions of us to analyze photo's/playback video footage, things have been spotted that were never noticed before, how often have we seen stills from movies from the 90's and gone "wow i never noticed that before"

its very reasonable to believe if a cast and crew of 100+ (and editors and directors) failed to spot the actor from 300 (or braveheart or whatever it was) wearing a digital watch that a crew of 30+ didn't spot a reg that referenced a war.

as for Clarkson, the Daily fail this morning is pulling him up on being "Racist" again for asking hammond "was the bridge straight?" in last nights episode???

it's getting beyond ridiculous, if he was anyone else (some of whom have said worse in their attempts to be funny) nothing would be said about it.

Very true, although the program, and Clarkson, do have form regarding stunts that they pull. If this was isolated I would have agreed that it was a mistake. But them referencing that Argentina is in dispute with Chile regarding some other islands just confirms that they didn't just forget about the Falklands.

I think that they negative publicity they received about the "slope" line made it easier to forget if they ever had a discussion about the number plate. Surely they could have had the plate replaces with another one and if they got pulled over it would be explained why it is not the registered plate.

dfx-

man98 wrote: »

IMHO the reg was completely intentional, although it's really clutching at straws. "N982 FKL" is subtle, in fact I wouldn't have noticed it.

It wasn't intentional, The Mirror found the ad where the car was bought weeks before the start and no reg could be seen in any picture.

In all honesty, it was a mob looking to throw stones and eggs based on nationality. A number plate had nothing to do with it.

celica00

I found it very good, especially because of the very "real" end. Surprised about the 31-crew though!

Tzar Chasm

reddit wrote:

Heres Hey guys, i just wanted to say a couple of things since i'm an argentinian and i know there are lots of them in r/topgear. First of all, i wanted to say how much i like this community and how much i like top gear, i have been following the show since 2008 and have watched every episode from 2002 and on. The argentina thing was a disaster. As someone who has lived in Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego (and in Ushuaia, also) for a long time i was pretty excited about the guys coming over. I was tracking their progress with local journalism like AutoBlog (the one who spotted the H982 thing) and many others. And i want to tell you guys what happened from the perspective of someone from here.

First: Everyone here was misinformed. When the guys arrived to Ushuaia, the local radio (in Rio Grande at least) started reporting that a program from the BBC had came to the island JUST to provocate us. They told us that a bunch of english guys in some expensive cars had signs in their cars just to make us mad... One friend even called me to tell me that "those car guys you're always watching" had come to the island and had english flags! and that they put **** You! in their cars. Everyone started to talk bull****...Specially in Facebook, and they didn't even know who the hell was coming, or what was the message NOBODY. I heard a lot of versions during that time

That the plates were "**** You", or "1982 Falklands" That they had messages painted all over the cars... That they had english flags...

Then, the Veterans started pressuring the local goverment to expell the TG Crew out of the state, and since the veterans are kind of a powerful influence there (and they were making threats towards both the goverment and the TG team). The goverment decided to make a deal.

The TG Team would leave, and they wouldn't be any violence.

Both the TG Crew and the Veterans agreed and they left.

In fact, i was told by a friend that was working on the security operative (Yes, Tierra del Fuego is that small) for TG that night, that they were so scared and in a hurry to go to Rio Grande's Airport that they forgot things like Notebooks and equipment in the hotel.

When the TG team left Ushuaia, the Veterans left them alone... But the word about the Malvinas/Falklands thing was out and a mob started to form in both Tolhuin and in Rio Grande. Local police tried to contain the mob in Tolhuin but they were overrun (since Tolhuin has like...20 police officers and 4 pickups) but the real problem was in Rio Grande (the biggest city here) since the Mayor (Yes, the ****ing mayor) was the leader of the ****ing mob there. Still, no one knew what the hell was going on... Up to this point, no one even knew what Top Gear was. Some people just said "The BBC" but most of them had no clue.

And that mob, made entirely out of the redneck and stupid part of the population went and did what you saw... And some of them didn't even knew what was all the fuzz about, they just wanted to throw rocks at someone.

They were stupid people wanting to make trouble, and they now had an excuse to do so.

Meanwhile, most of the population in the rest of the country didn't even cared about this, hell...most of the population doesn't even care about the Malvinas/Falklands incident anymore... It's just a political subject to use when elections are coming (which is next year).

Just wanted to tell you this because i have been lurking around here and all i'm seeing is **** towards the "argies" Things like WTF Argentina, or how can you be mad at them! and many other things, and i would hate to see Argentina or Argentinians become the number 1 enemy here.

And believe me when i tell you...

We're not all what you saw. And many of us love Top Gear.

If you have any questions regarding anything of the incident, i'l try to answer them from what i saw from here.

PS: Sorry for the ****ty english.

different perspective
u/w0rtrod is an argentinian redditor from the region, so heres a locals explanation of their side of rhe story.

it puts a very different spin on events, the lads were screwed before they ever set foot on the island.

cdeb

Interesting if true. Seems to be simply inherent racism in certain sections of Argentinian society so. (More or less what I've reckoned all along, though didn't think it'd reach that extent)

Tzar Chasm

Well if ts true that the mayor of Rio grande was grandstanding at the head of a mob that puts an entirely different spin on events.

bear in mind that the lads went to ushaia wit the honest intention of playing car football, i would bet that the original intention was to play the game in front of a bunch of TG fans and end the show with a heartwarming shot of everyone drinking a beer and having a laugh, closing with clarkson and some argentinian veteran sharing a moment and the voice over reminding us that we're not all that different

cdeb

Tzar Chasm wrote: »

bear in mind that the lads went to ushaia wit the honest intention of playing car football

Not only that, but they seemed to have had co-operation in Ushuaia if the shots of the "stadium" being built and the cars decked out in Argentina colours are anything to go by.

callaway92

This being repeated? Part 1 was recorded on my Sky planner so I might as well watch part 2! Thanks

fryup

for me best part of it was the end, the stoning

i'm surprised the Argentinian police gave them an escort home thought they would have sided with the lynch mob

BTW - does anyone know were the TG presenters part of the convoy?? if not where were they??

Dempsey

The best part was Clarkson explaining his faith in the Porsche, by an unreachable mile.

Alot of opinions I couldnt care for in this thread tbh

Clareman

fryup wrote: »

BTW - does anyone know were the TG presenters part of the convoy?? if not where were they??

Nope, they were flown out separately, the crew left with the cars and their convoy, the mob focused on that while the presenters snuck out. They seemed to be doing a lot of drinking in that room.

Dravokivich

Clareman wrote: »

Nope, they were flown out separately, the crew left with the cars and their convoy, the mob focused on that while the presenters snuck out. They seemed to be doing a lot of drinking in that room.

They drank everywhere they stopped for their overnight stays, so I'm not too sure why that's surprising. Its very likely that the full extent of what was going to transpire wasn't foreseeable and they thought they'd only be breaking for the day. That bottle of wine they started in the hotel room didn't appear to go down much with more of their commentary in the hotel room.

fryup

Clareman wrote: »

Nope, they were flown out separately, the crew left with the cars and their convoy, the mob focused on that while the presenters snuck out. They seemed to be doing a lot of drinking in that room.

So much for them sticking it out and showing comradeship with their colleagues, pathetic really

thelad95

fryup wrote: »

for me best part of it was the end, the stoning

i'm surprised the Argentinian police gave them an escort home thought they would have sided with the lynch mob

fryup wrote: »

So much for them sticking it out and showing comradeship with their colleagues, pathetic really

Are you actually being serious or just ironic for the sake of it?

fryup

i'm being serious....yes i know they're the "stars" but wouldn't you think they'd join their workmates as a team, and show some solidarity

i'd be rightly p!ssed off if i was a member of the production staff, having to face the flak while others get off lightly

thelad95

fryup wrote: »

i'm being serious....yes i know they're the "stars" but wouldn't you think they'd join their workmates as a team, and show some solidarity

i'd be rightly p!ssed off if i was a member of the production staff, having to face the flak while others get off the hook

I agree with you to a certain extent on this but your point about enjoying the stoning and wishing the police would join in is pretty nonsensical to be honest.

Dempsey

fryup wrote: »

i'm being serious....yes i know they're the "stars" but wouldn't you think they'd join their workmates as a team, and show some solidarity

i'd be rightly p!ssed off if i was a member of the production staff, having to face the flak while others get off lightly

Would you want to stand beside a person(s) that a lynch mob want to tear to pieces?

fryup

thelad95 wrote: »

I agree with you to a certain extent on this but your point about enjoying the stoning and wishing the police would join in is pretty nonsensical to be honest.

no i didn't

---

although i didn't agree with it, yes i enjoyed the stoning.. it was for me the only compelling thing about this xmas special, i regret to say

thelad95

fryup wrote: »

i'm surprised the Argentinian police gave them an escort home thought they would have sided with the lynch mob

.

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

yes i said i'm surprised i didn't say i wished now did i ????????????

i said i'm surprised because south american police have got a reputation for being corrupt

thelad95

fryup wrote: »

i said i'm surprised because south american police have got a reputation for being corrupt

I'd imagine with an international spotlight on them, they probably thought it best not to join in with a partisan, racist, ignorant mob of rioters.

xtradel

fryup wrote: »

So much for them sticking it out and showing comradeship with their colleagues, pathetic really

Andy wilman explained that as they were the main target it made sense to get them out first. Could you imagine what would have happened if that mob got a glimpse of Clarkson and co?