UKH

Each series gets better than the last, and this first episode so no exception.

I just keep watching Top Gear out of a sense of duty, and more so now that Mat has left.

In reply to The Lemming:

#amazonshitcarshow

 

In reply to Kipper:

That did make me chuckle when I saw it on YouTube yesterday.

In reply to The Lemming:

The production values of the show (and Top Gear) are off the charts. I can't think of another two magazine shows that are so slickly made, I guess that's why they are so globally successful.

I know JC has never had anything close to a beach body, but his belly is getting huge these days. 

In reply to The Lemming:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/18/the-grand-tour-review-...

 

This sums it up for me

 

In reply to coinneach:

Yup, me too.

The bit that really irritates me is that, as a household that is pretty kindled and primed up, we are bombarded by bloody trailers for the show whenever we want to watch anything

This pretty much sums up my feelings towards the show (NSFW)

youtube.com/watch?v=JlS1J1z0YKA&

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Why has the Hampstead painted the grey out of his hair?

In reply to coinneach:

Two stars seems generous (not seen in but find all three of them insufferable tw*ts)

In reply to ianstevens:

It must be pretty amazing being able to review something without even bothering to watch it...

In reply to Oceanrower:

I haven't seen it so I won't review it, but given that JC is an insufferable tw*t every time I've seen him on TV I can guess he will be in this too.

James May was good in his model making programmes.

In reply to Oceanrower:

Doing so was the national sport back in the days of the Brass Eye Special...

In reply to Oceanrower:

I suspect that any of the 22 Series + Specials of Top Gear, plus the previous 24 episodes of The Grand Tour that they have done would probably help. It’s not as if they have actually changed anything.

In reply to mountain.martin:

I thought he was a cut above the other two but the other day I chanced on a re run of him doing a car prog on his own and to make it watchable (in his or his producer's eyes) he had to destroy it with shells fired from a tank.

So, no, he is no less a knob than the other two.

In reply to mountain.martin:

I have a couple of aquaintances who worked as executives for Lego who told me that the board found May so insufferable that they considered pulling the plug on the episode featuring the Lego house as they thought he would damage the brand.

I watched a couple of episodes of the first series of The Grand Tour and that was enough to convince me that it wasn't for me.

In reply to Oceanrower:

Why would they deviate from the normal tripe they churn out? 

In reply to Oceanrower:

What makes you think the reviewer hasn't watched at least the first episode?

Or are you criticising the review without having read it?

In reply to Dave Garnett:

He said he didn't see it...

 

 " ianstevens -  on 15:02 Sun

In reply to coinneach:

Two stars seems generous (not seen in but find all three of them insufferable tw*ts)"

 

In reply to Euge:

Sorry, I was referring to the Guardian review. Just ignore me, I'm befuddled by a cold!  

In reply to Dave Garnett:

By the reviewer's own admission, the show is 'undeniably well made'

It seems that his main issues are 'a studio full of white people' and Clarkson taking the piss out of vegetarians.

Just another 'journalist' toeing the PC claptrap party line. Says more about him than the show to be honest.

In reply to asteclaru:

Maybe, but he's being paid to give his opinion.

For what it's worth, I got bored with the Top Gear format a long time ago.  20+ years ago I used to watch it in the small hours of the morning on BBC World in South Africa.  It was a breath of fresh air after the dull, techy South African equivalent where they majored on compression ratios and dared not say anything too damning because they needed manufacturers to send them cars to test.

However, what had originally been irreverent and funny became formulaic self-parody.  All those painfully orchestrated fake arguments and the frankly embarrassing road trips...

In reply to The Lemming:

The Guardian writer asks an interesting question:

"Ah, Jeremy Clarkson. Remember? We used to talk about him all the time, whether we wanted to or not... Wherever did he go?"

For anyone interested, there's a website with regularly updated Clarkson news, articles and reviews:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/jeremyclarkson

In reply to The Lemming:

If you get a chance to see episode 6, I highly recommend it. If you can put aside the usial jokes and schoolboy humour that is a trademark of the show, then you will be amazed at how sophisticated China has become over the last 30 years.

The Chinese aren't dicking around, when it comes to wanting to be Number One in the Industrialised World.

In reply to The Lemming:

The world is crying out for a sensible car show featuring battery operated vehicles and the latest in autonomy with good tips about charging their batteries ethically. 

It should be centred more on solid practicality and economy rather than frivolous entertainment and be presented by sensible folk who are culturally and sexually diverse but perhaps tend toward a more plant based diet.

In reply to birdie num num:

The thing is, these shows exist and have always existed and are basically boring. Fifth Gear?

Love it or hate it Grand Tour(/old ‘New’ Top Gear) isn’t about cars, it’s about dicking about with your mates like you did in that little window where you had adult levels of autonomy but no real responsibilities yet, but in exotic places and with lots of money to play with. 

Nobody watches it because they are trying to decide which supercar to buy. 

Ps, if you’re not a big user of YouTube you should check it out. If you want actual in depth content on any topic under the sun then that’s the place to find it these days. 

In reply to mullermn:

I'm a big fan of Autoblog's Wouter Karssen. For all I know he might be the Dutch equivalent of JC but my experience of him is confined to watching him review cars. Favourite clip showed him (apparently) feeding a pack of Duracells into the fuel tank of a Panamera hybrid.

In reply to mullermn:

Hammond did an excellent historical piece on Jim Clark a couple of episodes ago. I really enjoyed that bit. I agree they can be idiots and I'm not sure what the attraction is to actually being in the audience, but there must be something wrong with me because by and large, I enjoy most of what they put out. But then I love Through the Keyhole, and nearly everyone I know thinks that is a pile of toilet as well. It's good that there is something for everyone on TV though eh?

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Does it come with Amazon prime?

In reply to Mike Stretford:

It does, so I pay for Prime just for the free postage and get the tv channel. 

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus: I'll remember that next time I have a prime trial, and try an episode. Just had a week for 99p so it will be a while before I'm offered again.

Asked as there seemed to be a lot of 'pay on top of your prime subsrtiption for anything you might want to watch', last time I looked.

In reply to Mike Stretford:

You are 100% correct in that assessment. There is loads of good content, then you click on it and realise you have to pay for it because it doesn't come under Prime. 

And not even what I would class as high demand content. I found a documentary series on The Crusades that I fancied watching...£3.50 an episode! (think it was originally a BBC series but no longer on iplayer)

I would never pay for the TV channel as a stand alone purchase

In reply to The Lemming:

Changed my mind, episode 7 is better.

How many Munro's can you spot in this episode?