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The BBC havs confirmed that Top Gear is to be ‘rested’ – but is the apparent end of this long-standing TV institution really bad news for motoring fans?
The BBC has decided to ‘rest’ Top Gear and has announced that it will not return ‘for the foreseeable future’. Filming of series 34 was halted when co-presenter Freddie Flintoff’s crashed heavily during filming.
Former presenter Quentin Willson told CCW: ‘Top Gear was a TV institution in the days when we talked knowledgeably and hilariously about cars and pulled seven million viewers.
‘We wanted people to feel that they’d both learnt something and laughed out loud after each episode. We called these the ‘water cooler moments’ where we’d do an item (or take an editorial position) that would make viewers gossip about the show the following day at work. This often caused much hand wringing at the BBC (and a great deal among car companies) but we believed that our remit was to inform and entertain with humour, accuracy and attitude. Being contentious was very important. ‘But now, after its different incarnations, Top Gear needs a rest.
Better to go now than die a death of a thousand acerbic reviews. The tragedy is that there is now no car show of any merit on terrestrial television. And with so much transformational change happening within motoring, we need a sassy, clever and influential motoring show like never before’.
Former Top Gear researcher – and regular CCW contributor – John Lakey, added: ‘Other car programmes are aimed at people who are already into classics, but Top Gear introduced classics to a wider audience by showing a guy driving across the desert in something totally inappropriate. Sunday night TV brings families together and Top Gear became a Colossus that brought cars and classics to the screen in an innovative and entertaining way.
‘People will remember the crazy stunts but it did represent the motor
