New Series Top Gear - Favourite Presenter

Borzoi

From the website

To celebrate the return of Top Gear (Sunday at 8pm, repeated Tuesday), a new poll on your favourite or simply best presenter

Top Gear wrote:

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy's irreverent style turned the motoring industry on its head when he first appeared on Top Gear and now he's set to do it all over again with this series.

A few things have changed over the years. The hair's a bit thinner, the cowboy boots have gone and the Ferrari has been replaced by a Mercedes. Thankfully, though, JC is still more than capable of reducing car manufacturers to floods of tears with nothing more than a long pause and a few well considered words.

Really if you don't know who Clarkson is, check to see if you've a pulse

Top Gear wrote:

James May

James has been writing for car magazines - including Top Gear - for many years. Over that time he's developed a keen interest in cars that are either very posh or very basic.

He admits that he's not so good on the stuff in between and, as a bachelor, is 'very poorly placed' to comment on family motoring. 'Jeremy can do that,' he says. 'He's got a wife, hundreds of children, and a dog.' He also likes motorbikes. .

AKA the posh one. If he was more laid back he'd be horizontal

Top Gear wrote:

Richard Hammond

Richard, like so many before him, launched his TV career at Britain’s premier breeding-ground for fresh talent: Radio Cumbria.

He eventually landed his dream job as a TV presenter on a motoring show but, alas, the show was on cable TV where the cameramen regularly outnumbered the viewers. We thought it daft to waste all that genuine petrolhead enthusiasm, so we gave him a job on proper telly. .

My personal favourite due to his sheer enthusiasim

Q: Poll my arse - it's just a way of letting people know TG is back? A: Yes

vibe666

like hammond and clarkson lots, may is a bit of a wimp by all accounts though, with very dubious taste, but it all seems to work.

did you see the new alfa that (nearly) made it onto the cool wall? ooooh, sir!

guess what my new desktop wallpaper is.

the merc was a bit tasty too.

also liked the five a side footy, nice and original.

although i thought it was a bit off letting toyota supply the cars, then smashing them up before telling everyone that peugeot and citroen do them too, and the citroen is £500 cheaper. bet the toyota execs were spitting over that one!

Running Bing

Great show and I think the three of them are great. They complement each other perfectly. I'd have to say Clarkson is the best though he seems like a pretty genuine bloke and thats unlike most people on television, he just doesnt give a f*uck. Total legend.

Garibaldi

Clarkson's an ignorant, xenophobic gob****e. Hammond's child-like enthusiasm can be hilarious. James May is just....there. Must set the video....
Remember Vicky Butler-Henderson? Saw her on tv yesterday. She looked....ehh.....different.

Headshot

Jeremy Clarkson is class funney as hell picks on Hammond alot

eljono

I debated wheter or not to give it to Clarkson, I don't like him as much as I used to. He can still be funny every now and again but he's become quite big headed and bullish. Hammond has his moments but is a bit of a lap dog and May, who I like, I think is a bit out of place on the show.

Dades

Hammond - again for enthusiasm.

Thank bejusus TG is back.
I especially love the global warming / tree hugger jibes.

Great show!

Thumper Long

it has to be jezza, the other two are also very good but clarkson is the catalyst for the show, May is very funny too even if he doesn't mean to be, typical british toff, and hammond has gone down in my rankings since he started to appear on everything e.g. braniac & the boat show......

elexes

is the new show back on tv ??? did i miss the first ep ? a ffs

dceire

Clarkson is a legend so it has to be him. Hammond and may are good too, the three of them are perfect for the show, they all bring something different to the table.

What was that alfa that was on the cool wall?

unkel

Borzoi wrote:

Q: Poll my arse - it's just a way of letting people know TG is back? A: Yes

Damn, only saw the last few seconds of the first episode. I always seem to miss it on Sundays

Not a big fan of the talk show formula TG has adopted over the last few years and I couldn't give a sh!te about so called celebrities driving a crap car around a circuit :rolleyes:

I'm in the smallest minority in voting for James May. Anyone remember his contribution about what the Jaguar XJS could be and should have been, please start with a perfect base car and then hand over £35k please - absolute class review though

JC is primo inter pares in motoring journalism in this area of Europe although he is a bit of a male chauvinist British pig in my very humble opinion

Looking forward to telling a friend that's just bought a new model Lexus (Toyota) GS300 he has been Clarksoned

Suppose I have to credit JC that when he sees sh!t he'll let us all know

Blitzkrieger

Clarkson can be a prick sometimes but he's just so funny. It's great to have a presenter who's not worried about being PC or pleasing everybody. JC for prime minister?

aodh_rua

I don't know if Clarkson can be considered in this poll - he kind of is Top Gear rather than just a mere presenter. I have to say I quite like James May though as an andidote to Hammond's enthusiasm.

Great to see it back. It's the closest thing modern tv has to a 'concept album'. A bunch of guys doing completely self-indulgent ott stunts that are fantastic to watch (car darts, Apache v. Lotus, Ferrari v. Airbus, Range Rover v. Challenger II, and so on).

eljono

dceire wrote:

Clarkson is a legend so it has to be him. Hammond and may are good too, the three of them are perfect for the show, they all bring something different to the table.

What was that alfa that was on the cool wall?

Alfa Brera

prospect

Thumper Long wrote:

hammond has gone down in my rankings since he started to appear on everything e.g. braniac & the boat show......

The chap is just trying to earn a few bob, surely you can't hold that against him!

mike65

They work well as a team no question. So trying to give one extra kudos is just plain wrong!

So I voted for James May, prolly cos if he is the closest to me in character, I recognise those little mannerisms and the fact he refuses run on camera!

Mike.

DMC

James May is my fav too, I do agree the team works well... but James isn't doing too much atm. Why is this? He hasn't reviewed a car on his own all season.

Doodee

The Dog.

clearly he shows wisdom beyond his age.

BrianD3

I voted for Clarkson. However I have big reservations about the current format of Top Gear and Clarkson is an integral part of the format. I think both the show and Clarkson would be better if it things were a bit more serious and car oriented. Clarkson would still get ample opportunity to be politically incorrect if the format was changed

Didn't catch this week's show apart from the last 10 minutes which showed Hammond and May in a Merc S-class with a concrete floor in it - what was all that about? And last week there was the amphibious vehicles. Stunts like these are a load of bollox IMO. Also I hate most of the "wacky" races they do. Don't like Hammond at all either and he seems like a rubbish driver too.

mike65

I wish Clarkson would stop with the German/Poland jokes. (Programmes S-Class Sat Nav for Warsaw)

Mike.

unkel

Last year's thread revisited so

I have yet to see any episode of the current season, but my cousins in the UK keep sending them to me so I should have a look soon enough. They didn't send me one today. Was there no episode broadcast today?

BrianD3 wrote:

Also I hate most of the "wacky" races they do

Fecking hate those stupid fake races too :mad:

dahamsta

I thought the living-room-merc was a right laugh tbh, especially when Hammond lost his grip on the steering wheel. Can't understand why Hammond is beating May in the poll though.

BoozyBabe

Really can't take to James May at all. Just really don't know why he's on the show.
Love the other two though.

Disagree with BrianD3. Absolutely love the format of the show, especially where they're acting like complete children!!!! Making the convertible out of the people carrier was absolutely hilarious, the tears were streaming down my face, & last season with the life sized remote control cars, also V funny.

I think it would lose a BIG portion of it's viewers if it went back to being 100% about car reviews (as a lot of us don't care all that much about them)

Johnny Storm

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Clarkson is a twat.
He used to be really funny abgout 15 years ago and on a few rare occasions he still is.
IMHO most of the time these days he is big-headed, boring, repetitive and predictable.
I mean every ****ing car review he does is the same - he starts out saying how crap the car is than inexplicably he finds out something great about the car and goes on about how great it is, finally when they cut back to the studio he contradicts himself again. You can see his "jokes" coming a mile off and we've all heard them 100 times before.

DMC

There is a divide amongst us about what we want Top Gear to be.

Some of us want it to be a serious car review show, some of us like the challenges, and some of us like the features, like SIARPC.

That's what makes it the show it is!

I like all these components together, as a whole. Clarkson is unique, and like all famous people, he has an ego and an opinion on everything. Which I laugh at. Note: not laugh with; at. Hamster and Captain Slow are excellent in their own rights, I know they have quirks that don't appeal to all, but that's what makes the show work. Each are good foils for each other.

I, for one, if I were to pick a favourite, if pushed it would be the challenges. It what makes the show accessible to all, and makes it entertaining. It is also one of those programmes (to few of nowadays) that's pure escapism. Not everyone wants dreary soaps and gritty dramas, some people look at their TV waiting to be entertained. Some of the challenges have merit, such as buy a car for £100, and get up and down to Manchester, for less than a train ticket!

So, in conclusion, for me its the best show on TV.

peasant

Let's face it ...parkers or honestjohns just wouldn't work as a TV show.

As a car buyers guide TG is useless for most of us (New Aston Martin, BMW M6, S-class anyone?) but as a show about cars it works great.

BrianD3

Well I just think there is far too much emphasis on the wacky races and challenges. Every week it seems that half the programme is taken up with this sort of stuff which has feck all to do with cars. I really don't give a sh1t if a rocket powered skateboard is quicker around a car park than a BMW M5 but could tolerate these pieces if they weren't such a big part of the show. As someone said Top Gear is like a cross between "Brainiac" and "Scrapheap Challenge". The difference is that the stuff they build on Scrapheap challenge tends to work fairly well and is somewhat interesting.

What I'd like to see is a better mix. Keep the silly challenges but have less of them. Have some infornmative car buying guides and reviews. Proper roadtests of ordinary family cars. Stuff like "how to buy a Porsche 928 for 5 grand" like Quentin Wilson used to do on the old format Top Gear. Some stuff on classic cars. Consumer issues, car safety etc. Bring back Tiff Needell and dump the little lapdog Hammond. Maybe bring back Jason Dawe as well, he was underrated IMO.

loyatemu

BrianD3 wrote:

What I'd like to see is a better mix. Keep the silly challenges but have less of them. Have some infornmative car buying guides and reviews. Proper roadtests of ordinary family cars. Stuff like "how to buy a Porsche 928 for 5 grand" like Quentin Wilson used to do on the old format Top Gear. Some stuff on classic cars. Consumer issues, car safety etc. Bring back Tiff Needell and dump the little lapdog Hammond. Maybe bring back Jason Dawe as well, he was underrated IMO.

so what you're looking for is the old Top Gear.

is Fifth Gear still on the air? (notice the City Channel is running 5 year old reruns of this at the moment - "By 2004 we will all be driving LPG cars..." - nice one Quentin!)

prospect

Have to say I love the current Top Gear, as an entertainment show, rather than a motoring show.

There are other motoring shows out there ,5th Gear, etc if you want more car reviews than fun.

Top Gear is a sucess because it appeals to many and is good TV. I don't see why a small group of devoted 'petrol heads' keep prattling on about how it isn't a true motoring program, we fans know that and accept that, get over it.. If you don't like it, don't watch it...

Cormic

I for one am happy the way it is at the moment. My wife likes it in this format so I don't get any hassle about watching it and in the end that is all that matters

blastman

A serious car reviews programme, despite the complaining letters they allegedly get, would not have survived as long as the current incarnation of Top Gear has. It definitely would not be one of BBC2's most popular programmes, either. So I think for those reasons, we shouldn't complain too much and be glad there is at least one decent motoring programme on TV (Vroom vroom, anyone??!)

BrianD3

From what I've read the old format TG was very successful in the mid nineties. But when Clarkson left in 1999 viewing figures dropped dramatically and the show was dropped by the BBC in 2001.

This would seem to suggest that it is possible to have a fairly serious but successful car programme with Clarkson on board.

There are some aspects of new Top Gear that i like. I like that it's an hour long and the way the presenter and audience are together in the studio. They could still retain this format but have a better mix of serious stuff and silly stuff IMO.

peasant

Rewiewing "ordinary" cars on their own will get pretty boring pretty quickly anyway.

What I WOULD like to see is some more comparisons, though. Remember the programme where they had their mothers comparing cars? That was pretty good.

Every second or third show they could get some section of the "target audience" pit three or four typical cars from one sector against each other. Could be entertaining as well as informative.

Throw a few families at a few MPV's, a handful of "boyracers" at a few hatchbacks, a few "chestwig" fellows at some large coupes ...and so on.

I'd volunteer for the dog owner - estate car test

mike65

I'm going to e-mail the show with a few suggestions.

Mike.