Not Quite Top Gear

The newly revamped Top Gear launched on Sunday night. I like Top Gear. I like cars and driving in general, even if I do find them both entertaining and appalling at the same time, and Top Gear has always struck me the same light: entertaining nonsense that no-one, least the presenters, should take that seriously. I have to say that recent series had started to get a bit stale and the humour was getting a little forced so it was due for a bit of a Spring clean.

I actually didn’t see it on Sunday night. I had an invite to a party which was, frankly, a much better offer. As it was, I ended up watching it last night. So far, I’d say it was a bit of a mixed bag. The format hasn’t actually changed that much but with Chris Evans now fronting the programme it has a certain feel of one of his shows: TFI Friday springs to mind. I’m not sure whether this is the right atmosphere for it as it now feels more like a brashy showbiz event rather than a bunch of blokes gathering together in an old hanger to bugger about with cars. The one good element about this, though, is that Chris Evans is far better at doing the interviews than Clarkson ever was. Jeremy Clarkson had his own chat show once and when he wasn’t doing his own pieces to camera his interviews were pretty dire.

I think the other element I liked was Matt LeBlanc. He never seems to have escaped his Joey persona from Friends and even ended up playing a version of himself as a sort of Joey clone in Episodes. There’s no escape for him: I once saw a Sci Fi film in which he played a space ship captain and all I could think of was that they had let Joey loose on a starship – it didn’t end well. However, I think he will work well in this given time and the Joeyesque affable idiot should be right at home in a daft car-show.

Aside from Chris and Joey we saw a few seconds of Sabine Schmidt (who I was hoping would fit into the girl racer role that Vicki Butler-Henderson once occupied) but what was missing was the banter between the presenters. I suppose these things take time but the features all looked sort-of Top Geary without the daft humour and pratfalls that made the show so popular. However, when the 21st Century version of the show was launched it didn’t work that well either and I think the missing element here is James May.

For what was meant to be a motoring programme, James May was actually the only one who knew anything about how cars worked and his nerdy knowledge, combined with the knowing timing of a professional stooge where what gelled the old team together rather than just being a group of middle-aged car-bores making tacky, risqué comments like adolescent boys goading a supply teacher. He is the same in his other shows: just take the excellent Toy Stories which is both informative and yet infectiously funny at the same time.

I’m going to give Top Gear a bit of time to settle. Chris Evans will have to see what works and what doesn’t and as we were promised several other presenters he may still find his own James May (Eddie Irving, possibly?) The old presenters are producing their own show, The Grand Tour, which I am assuming will take on more of the Top Gear travelogue aspect. I actually have an Amazon Prime subscription so I would be able to watch this but I can’t help but feel that more is actually less as far as motoring shows are concerned?