The Top Gear Story by Martin Roach Read Free Book Online

Car, Right Car , which ran for two series.
    That said, the migration of presenting talent between rival TV stations was generally in the opposite direction: already several of old Top Gear ’s presenters had transferred to Channel Five’s new motoring show, Fifth Gear (initially written as 5th Gear ), including Vicki Butler-Henderson, Tiff Needell and Adrian Simpson. This was launched in 2002 with a host of famous faces and was at first a half-hour programme (until the longer formatted eighth series onwards) with a more factual bias. Sounds familiar? That’s because according to the latter show’s former producer Jon Bentley, any relation to the old Top Gear was not necessarily a coincidence.
    Bentley had been approached to produce Five’s new motoring show and given his vast experience and renowned passion for the subject was unrivalled in terms of what he could offer. He was one of several former Top Gear faces behind-the-scenes at the new programme: ‘I’d kept in touch with some of the people who continued to work on Top Gear after I’d left. Late in 2001, I got a call from Richard Pearson and he said he’d left the BBC, joined North One Television and was setting up a new show called Fifth Gear for Channel Five. I thought this sounded great fun. I was series producer for the first few series.’
    Bentley attended various meetings and the brief for the new show was made very clear: ‘What they said was that they wanted old Top Gear … they wanted exactly the same, a very straight magazine show.’ Five’s decision, it transpired, might have been just the adrenaline shot that Top Gear needed.
    Maybe the gusto with which Five launched Fifth Gear caused consternation in the back-rooms of the BBC? It’s difficult to say, but what’s clear is that with just one series of Fifth Gear completed, the BBC made another announcement. Top Gear was to be relaunched in a new format, with some new presenters and the full backing of Aunty Beeb.
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    While conspiracy theorists were enjoying the ‘Will they/won’t they kill off Top Gear ?’ etc, two former faces from that programme had been quietly re-inventing the wheel. Some time during 2001, Andy Wilman, the former Repton school pal of Clarkson (as stated, himself a Top Gear presenter), had called up his friend and they’d met over a pub lunch to talk about the show and a possible relaunch. Wilman had tired of the old format and has since stated – in his famously brusque way – that it had become ‘fucking old-fashioned’. Both he and Clarkson revelled in the opportunities to be outspoken, film outrageous features and generally make the show as much about entertainment as it was about cars.
    And so they drew up a masterplan: the duo instantly became a potent creative force, drawing on their long friendship and substantial shared TV experience. As Jon Bentley says, ‘Andy’s a splendid chap, very hardworking indeed. They definitely have a very close relationship.’ Over the coming weeks, this intensely creative partnership drew up a brand new template for any potential Top Gear relaunch.
    First, it would be screened from a central location, in thisinstance an old aircraft hangar rather than the previous magazine style; another idea was to not shy away from supercars, in fact they wanted to gravitate towards them, so there was to be a news section that would quickly despatch important but ‘boring’ car news (with one-liners such as ‘there’s a new Nissan Micra out’); there would be an all-male presenting line-up; also a so-called ‘Cool Wall’ to post pictures of cars and rate their desirability (of more later); outlandish and indeed cutting-edge TV features were to be encouraged; they would always be outspoken and speak their minds about the cars they tested and there would be a smattering of celebrity guests. Wilman’s defence of this bombastic