That one show – with those guys and the cars…..
Okay. The time has come for us to talk about Top Gear. If you are familiar with it, you’ll know it is a British show loosely themed around motor vehicles. It’s on BBC America (and available On Demand) and is pretty much the best thing on TV. Seriously. Now that The Wire is finished.
It’s a magazine style show with three forty-something guys living the dream. They get paid ridiculous amounts of money for basically dicking about (like me, in fact). It’s a perfect existence. The budget for the show makes our national budget deficit seem like chump change* – and you can tell. They travel all over the world mocking people and vehicles and they design the most RIDICULOUS and entertaining tests to put cars through their paces. The show claims 350 million viewers worldwide.
I am talking big here, and I am conscious that I will have to demonstrate how good this show is before the faithful adopt it as their own. Fear naught, I have an example for you – I have trawled youtube and found the following, in which one of the team drives a Range Rover in an effort to escape a tank (with which, regular readers will know, I have a mild obsession). This is quite a long clip, but worth every second:
The new series is on BBC America on Mondays at 9 pm (I think. I haven’t looked it up…….). Apparently it has taken off so well in the US that a dedicated US website has been launched. It’s here.
*not really. The budget deficit currently stands a smidgeon more than 42 billion dollars over 11 Trillion……. I hope that hasn’t ruined your Sunday. May I suggest a Bloody Mary?
I’m on my third.