The Top Gear Story by Martin Roach Read Free Book Online Page A

and super-confident approach was simple: ‘Do the Two Fat Ladies say, “And if you want to have a low-fat version of this recipe, you can use single cream”? They never do. They go, “Pile it on, heart attack now!”’
    The BBC loved the re-invention and commissioned the first series of ‘new’ Top Gear , set to be broadcast on 20 October 2002. The plan was to have two series per year of between 8 and 10 episodes. In the new Top Gear office, an ‘Ideas Board’ for suggestions was put up and initially filled with suggestions for features from the production team; over time it has also hosted ideas from fans or members of the public. Each show would usually have four filmed features (although this would fluctuate, especially when more substantial challenges were screened). This meant the Top Gear team had to create and execute around 70 to 80 ideas per year: no mean feat, creatively or practically.
    The Top Gear production set-up is unusual within the BBC. Wilman only works on the series and is invariably talked of as being very ‘hands-on’. Famously direct, he has been described by one former co-worker as like ‘a glum, but familiar uncle on a rare visit home’. Top Gear ’s office itself is open-plan and the team say the production process itself is very ‘organic’.
    The show still used The Allman Brothers’ Band theme tune of ‘Jessica’, albeit updated. There was one final change: whereas the old Top Gear logo used a cog for the letters ‘O’ and ‘E’ in its name, the new version only employed a cog behind the word ‘Top’.
    On that initial programme, the very first cars seen on-screen were a Ford Focus and a VW Golf; the team would be testing the Citroën Berlingo and Mazda 6 for the more mild-mannered viewer but they’d also be thrashing the beautiful Lamborghini Murcielago and the breath-taking supercar, the Pagani Zonda, as well as featuring the Ford GT40. There was Harry Enfield as a guest and a feature on how fast you have to drive to be too fast for a speed camera to nab you. Remember Jon Bentley having to battle to film the Ferrari Testarossa versus the Lamborghini Countach? Well, in the first series of new Top Gear alone, as well as the two aforementioned supercars, they also featured among others, the Noble M12 GTO, the Westfield XTR, an Aston Martin Vanquish, the Ferrari 575M Maranello, a Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R , the Bentley Image, the Honda NSX Type R, the Lotus Elise 111S, a Maserati Coupé, the Lotus Esprit and a TVR T350C! This was Andy Wilman and Jeremy Clarkson absolutely setting out their stall. Clarkson even introduced the new show as such prior to the opening credits of Episode 1, saying before the theme tune kicked in that it was ‘a car programme’, there’d be no cushions, no one would sing on the programme or get a recording contract, pointing out their test track was purpose-built and adding there’d be no bus lanes and no traffic jams.
    Before moving on, it’s vital to note one further addition to the show’s personnel. In order to test the long list of supercars they were intent on featuring on the new Top Gear , the team had decided that they needed someone other than a presenter to trial the machines around the test track. So, in Episode 1, Clarkson explained this thinking and said they’d decided to lookfor a real racing driver because they have ‘tiny little brains and worthless opinions’. Then, for the very first time ever, he introduced The Stig. At this stage, The Stig was wearing all black, à la Darth Vader.
    For the first series, the presenting team was JC, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe. Hammond’s path to Top Gear had been a quirky one: contrary to Wilman’s supposedly all-male line-up plan, unconfirmed TV legend has it that certain folk may have been considering whether to recruit a female presenter, but Richard Hammond was