[amansanc]

Just finished watching episode 6. The best one in the series so far! Loved the rescue mission and the amazing pick-up trucks

[mayankk]

All very well, but I yearn for the in studio episodes. At least a couple every season would be nice.

[naveen.raju]

James May: "One day it will end"

This is what May had to say when asked about the show's future.

As the end of Series 22 edges closer, questions will again start to surface about the so called end of Top Gear. The show’s most sensible host, James May, has denied that the show has ‘jumped the shark’ but admits it has “jumped some very large fish.”

“Jumping the shark” is a phrase that is often used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality, and is signaled by a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of gimmick in an attempt to keep viewers’ interest going. It is inspired by the episode of Happy Days where The Fonz jumps a shark on water skis. Some might say Top Gear jumped a shark in India a few years back…

Top Gear has become one of the most popular entertainment shows in the world but has been criticized for forgetting its motoring roots and becoming too comical. More Top Gear Adventure Fun Time than Top Gear. The most recent example being Series 22 Episode 3, where the three hosts tried to invent a new ambulance and included a Thunderbirds-style sequence that blurred the line between a motoring show and a comedy routine. The whole thing felt more than a bit forced and in the end it really wasn’t all that funny.

But James says the team has worked to make it more about motoring than just boyish misbehavior.

“There were one or two things like our Indian special where we’ve gone too far into tomfoolery and didn’t do enough about the cars… it was a bit too sitcom-ey. But we have to poke around in the dark to see where the edge is,” he says.

“I don’t think we have ever jumped the shark.”

“We may have jumped some large fish in a very small way in the process, but we haven’t actually done the ski-jump over the shark.”

Along with co-stars Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, May has been part of the show for 12 years – a period he says is “longer than expected, and longer than is healthy, probably”.

The trio will travel to Australia next month for the annual Top Gear Festival at Sydney Motorsport Park. James claims the key to Top Gear’s success is that the trio are not friends off-screen.

“A lot of other people think they can do a program in a Top Gear style,” May says.

“They get three blokes or three women or a mixture of both, doing cooking, or travel or houses – whatever it is – and it doesn’t quite work because they haven’t realized the secret of our relationship is that we don’t really like each other.

“That’s what makes it work, that’s what makes it edgy and punchy. We’re creatively fueled by mutual loathing of each other.”

The BBC-funded program regularly courts controversy with allegations of sexism, racism and environmental vandalism regularly leveled at the show.

May says the good-natured “love or hate” program is misunderstood and he target of “a group of people that doesn’t like Top Gear… certain people will pick on anything to make it look like some terrible misdemeanor, but it never is, it’s at worst a slip”.

Recent stunts from the program included a trip to Argentina with a Porsche featuring number plates that drew parallels with Britain’s Falklands War campaign against the South American nation, a stumble that saw the trio make international headlines as they fled the country amid mobs of protesters.

While Top Gear producer Andy Wilman has not announced plans to put a stop to the show, May says the team behind the program are looking to find the best way to draw curtains on the most successful motoring program in history.

“One day it will have to end, or at least the version with us in it will have to end, and we’re going to have to think very carefully about that because inevitably if you don’t think carefully about something like this you do fly it into a cliff rather than making a nice safe precautionary landing in a field,” May says.

“You’ve got to end it carefully, and end it the way people want it to end, to leave people wanting more.

“But I’m sure we’ll fail.”

Courtesy - Top Gear News

[aim120]

BBC suspends Jeremey clarkson after a 'fracas' with producers.Top gear won't air this sunday.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31824040

MOD Note - Please discuss this at following thread - Link (Jeremy Clarkson in the News again!!)

[naveen.raju]

BBC America To Air 'The Perfect Road Trip' Special To Replace Dropped Season.

[naveen.raju]

Stig takes the Hennessey VelociRaptor 600 around the Top Gear test track. But really weird to see without Clarkson's voice over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4S5kK7s0o

Also heard Top Gear will telecast the remaining episodes and finish off this season.

[prashanthyr]

Rumor is that the trio are talking to Netflix and a new show titled 'house of cars' is in the works.
Is Netflix available in India?

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by prashanthyr

Rumor is that the trio are talking to Netflix and a new show titled 'house of cars' is in the works.
Is Netflix available in India?

I wonder who was in charge of scripting the TG episodes. The script is one significant part and the trio is the other part that made TG so damn good.

Even if they do branch out on their own or talk to an entity like Netflix, I hope the production house doesn't make the nature of the show something drastically different and allows the same creative freedom the trio got while at TG (albeit that might just create the same problems all over again).

[Jeroen]

Clarksson was the major script writer. A lot of people see him as a presenter only. Truth is he and his mate Andy Wilman, the producer, came up with the new format and controlled every detail of the show. Clarkson sees himself as a writer first and foremost

[Jeroen]

Just to add to my previous comments. The latest Topgear Magazine, UK version, has an article about how the New TopGear series came about. Written by the producer Andy. There are going to be several sequels. To my earlier point, Clarkson was much more than just the presenter.

[Fullrevs]

Clarkson admits his mistake:

Jeremy Clarkson has said being dropped from Top Gear "was my own silly fault".

The broadcaster was speaking to BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans in his first interview since losing his job over a "fracas" with a producer.
He said leaving the show had "left a huge hole" in his life "that needs to be filled".
Clarkson admitted he had taken phone calls from broadcasters who wanted to poach the Top Gear team but said: "I'd be a fool to jump into something."

"I have been at the BBC for 27 years. When you emerge after 27 years, you find the world is changed.
"When you learn how the world works, you can start to work out what to do," he continued.
"In the meantime I'm getting really good at tennis. My forehand has improved immeasurably."
Later on Thursday, Clarkson will launch what he called a "badly organised world tour" with his former co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May in Belfast.

He said the production was Top Gear in all but name - but the team were now "able to make their own films" for the big screens "without any meddling" from the BBC.
"It's broadly the same thing it's been for the last 10 years," he added.

Petition

Clarkson was suspended, then dropped, by the BBC in March following a "fracas" with a producer at a hotel.
Producer Oisin Tymon suffered swelling and a split lip in the assault by Clarkson on 4 March and visited a hospital A&E department for his injuries.

Following an internal investigation, the BBC announced on 25 March Clarkson's contract on Top Gear would not be renewed.
At the time, a BBC spokesman said: "Jeremy's contract has not been renewed on Top Gear but he isn't banned from appearing on the BBC."

More than a million fans signed a petition to reinstate the presenter, but BBC director general Tony Hall said "a line has been crossed" and "there cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another".

'Very sad'

Top Gear is watched by some 350 million viewers worldwide and is one of the BBC's biggest properties, with overseas sales worth an estimated £50m a year.

Speaking to Chris Evans, Clarkson said the show was "very much my baby, I absolutely adored it. I worked all through the night and paid attention to every tiny bit. "And then suddenly you are not asked to do that any more... I was very sad."
But the presenter said he did not harbour any resentment towards the BBC. "There are some dreadful people in it," he said, "but there are also some really talented, brilliant people. I will never complain about it."

The BBC plans to relaunch Top Gear with new presenters. Evans, a noted car enthusiast, had been linked to the reboot but has ruled himself out.

Source: BBC

[naveen.raju]

According to the Telegraph, Richard Hammond and James May have finished filming the remaining episodes from the season 22 of Top Gear. The duo were spotted at the Top Gear test track last week to film their respective segments. There is no official date on when these episodes will be aired but we can expect them to be released somewhere in the next couple of months.

Source - supercarkids

[rohittunga]

The promos for Season 22, Episode 8 are out now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUzc0xSsdhw

[naveen.raju]

So the final few episodes of the trio are coming back.

The BBC has officially announced that it will air the remaining episodes of Top Gear’s 22nd Season. Yes, Top Gear will return in the format we've grown accustomed to, with Clarkson, May and Hammond doing shenanigans and cocking about – as James would describe any given scenario that involves the other two.

As Top Gear states, the show will consist of “a pair of previously unseen films shot for the most recent series, plus studio links from Richard and James”– Jeremy being fired and all (you know the scandal).

So, expect some old fashioned Top Gear roadtrips where everything goes wrong. One of the challenges is an attempt for the trio to become “lifestyle leisure enthusiasts”, with the help of a Jeep Cherokee, an Opel/Vauxhall Frontera and a Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin, which the boys acquired for only £250 ($348).

Unfortunately, the last remaining episodes will represent the swan song of the Clarkson, Hammond and May era of Top Gear, but at least we’ll get to see the blokes one more time doing what they know best – drifting caravans, destroying cars and James getting lost.

In the other news:

The Top Gear saga continues with a fresh report from the UK which claims that the BBC offered Hammond and May £4 million for a two-year deal.

However, the two presenters allegedly refused to return to the show without Jeremy Clarkson. A source cited by The Daily Mirror said Hammond, May and Clarkson are “very close” to signing a big-money deal with Netflix for a new show, which could be called “House of Cars”.

Although the three presenters have been in talks with several media outlets, including ITV, Netflix is said to be their favored option now, the insider added.

“They are all very excited at the prospect of having total editorial control over their new show, to make it and get it distributed. It would be groundbreaking and also incredibly lucrative. They would stand to earn much, much more than they would with the BBC,” the source said.

Last week Richard Hammond and James May shot studio scenes for two Top Gear episodes, made before Clarkson’s departure following a fracas with producer Oisin Tymon. The two episodes will be released within the next weeks.

However, Top Gear fans must wait until next year at the earliest for a new season, as BBC bosses realize it will be very difficult to successfully replace Clarkson, May and Hammond. Hopefully the House of Cars series will launch earlier.

Source - Carscoop

[naveen.raju]

LaFerrari Clocks 1:14:2 On Top Gear Track

And will the new Top Gear be presented by Chris Evans? Oh no!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6HfvdFeDIQ

Source Youtube

Also, pictures of the final episodes















Courtesy - TG UK