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Matt LeBlanc and 4 others join Top Gear

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pemma

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He's a trained journalist and has been writing motoring stories for over 30 years.
He formed the Motoring Press agency 32 years ago and for that has conducted hundreds of road tests. He has contributed to endless publications including the Top Gear magazine for 23 years.

To even mention him in the same breath as a cook and a disc jockey as if they are also respected motoring journalists is ridiculous.

Chris Evans is the founder and organiser of CarFest so it's not like the BBC picked some random presenter with a passing interest in cars, even if they picked the wrong person.
 
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HMS Ark Royal

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Clarkson tried his hand at being a chat show host and look how that turned out :D

True...

Mind you, he does some great documentaries - The Greatest Raid of All and PQ-17 are two that spring to mind. In the story of PQ-17, I loved how they talked about how this wavy navy guy wired up all the depth charges in the bow by himself because he was going to try and ram the Tirpitz if she'd hoved into view
 

richw

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I've just looked up a few of Chris Harris' past independent reviews, and gain the opinion he can be controversial much like Clarkson. Apparently several manufacturers banned him from doing official reviews of their brand after less than complimentary comments. Ferrari being one of them!
Hadn't realised he was a motoring journalist with autocar and then Evo neither for best part of the last 25 years.

Seems a lot of parallels to a certain previous host.
 

jon0844

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If it's anything like the mobile tech world, giving anything but a glowing review can see you banned from events, and given review devices but that's usually a good thing for the consumer as it means someone is being honest - hopefully - and not worrying about the threats from PR agencies and manufacturers.

It's different if someone just slags off a product for the sake of it, or to be controversial, but I know only too well how it works in tech and can't imagine it being any different for motoring journalism, or cosmetics, or fashion, or...
 

Johnuk123

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I heard it advertised and it made me chuckle. Have you watched it?

Brilliant it was, the 3 lads on top top form, made this years lame Top Gear look like something made by schoolchildren.
They are in South Africa next week and will be in a different country every week for 12 shows.
Anybody who wants to see it can sign up to Prime for a month for free and it's very easy to cancel with no hassle if you don't want to carry on.
 
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Johnuk123

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Will the BBC be kicking themselves ?

Is this a bigger loss than The Great British Bake Off :idea:

Although I could never watch a show about making a cake the BBC do seem to have a knack of losing anything remotely interesting.
The BBC is a non-sport set-up now as they've lost everything any good.
 

Butts

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Although I could never watch a show about making a cake the BBC do seem to have a knack of losing anything remotely interesting.
The BBC is a non-sport set-up now as they've lost everything any good.

Apart from Wimbledon - just renewed for a further 4 Years :p
 

richw

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May and Hammond were on the One Show this week, the One Show presenter acknowledged the Grand Tour was brilliant and pretty much promoted Amazon Prime. Clarkson was absent from the interview!

I've watched it twice and can only say I thought it was excellent. Clarkson's gypsy joke may well have crossed the line on the BBC, and I liked his comment that there is far worse on the internet with some examples given!
 

Class172

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I watched it last night; needless to say I was thoroughly impressed by the show and cinematography. I liked the opening sequence with the Mad Max-esque arrival to the stage. :D
 

Domh245

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I watched it last night; needless to say I was thoroughly impressed by the show and cinematography. I liked the opening sequence with the Mad Max-esque arrival to the stage. :D

I personally didn't rate that first bit when they were on the stage, but once they were in the tent, it was as good as it ever was.
 

Darandio

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Anybody who wants to see it can sign up to Prime for a month for free and it's very easy to cancel with no hassle if you don't want to carry on.

It's also worth noting that Prime isn't only video, and come in useful for shopping on Amazon, especially in the run up to christmas.
 

96tommy

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Unsurprisingly the only major organisation with a bad review of the Grand Tour is..... the BBC. I watched it half awake at 3am Friday morning after it had just come out and again tonight, brilliant television and the 3 at their finest
 

Butts

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Unsurprisingly the only major organisation with a bad review of the Grand Tour is..... the BBC. I watched it half awake at 3am Friday morning after it had just come out and again tonight, brilliant television and the 3 at their finest


Well earlier in this thread someone mentioned it got a very good review on The One Show which I believe is on BBC1 :p
 

Cowley

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Just spoke to my Stepbrother who'd watched it and gave me the lowdown without spoiling it. Going to sign up to AP and watch it asap.
 

Abpj17

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- if you punch a co-worker, it's not unreasonable to be fired / dismissed / contract not reviewed

- GT was mostly brilliant with only a couple of awkward / excessively stages dialogue moments

- the BBC, as a public service broadcaster, simply can't afford to make shows like GT (or keep the rights to F1 etc.) - it's not really the BBC's fault..it's just a feature of their set-up which has a lot of other positives
 

richw

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It's also worth noting that Prime isn't only video, and come in useful for shopping on Amazon, especially in the run up to christmas.

I have purchased the hidden "video" only option which wasn't well advertised and was cheaper and payable monthly.

Well earlier in this thread someone mentioned it got a very good review on The One Show which I believe is on BBC1 :p
Two journalists two views.
The negative review was from Will Compertz who I think is an arts editor.

The One show footage is here. The one in white says its annoying because its so good.

[youtube]0yOoiatXTss[/youtube]

The one show has been slammed for the awkwardness of the interview by several media sources.
 

Steveman

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Unsurprisingly the only major organisation with a bad review of the Grand Tour is..... the BBC. I watched it half awake at 3am Friday morning after it had just come out and again tonight, brilliant television and the 3 at their finest

I watched it and knew it was going to be superb before it started and it was.
Not surprising the BBC have had a slight go at it as they really can't do otherwise as they are the reason it's on Amazon.
 

backontrack

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I don't care how good it is - there is just no way that casual racism should be funded by the license fee payer. They were right to chuck Clarkson.
 

richw

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Daily mail has ripped into Eboladrome as not being funny and potentially offensive. The same Daily Mail is ripping into peter kay for a gay joke with Judge Rinder on Strictly last night.
Both articles are basically screen shots of random peoples tweets. It seems the people have lost their sense of humour.
 

43096

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- the BBC, as a public service broadcaster, simply can't afford to make shows like GT (or keep the rights to F1 etc.) - it's not really the BBC's fault..it's just a feature of their set-up which has a lot of other positives
But the BBC makes a fortune form selling Top Gear around the world, so it ought to be able to afford things like GT on the basis of future revenue. You would think that it will become a whole lot harder to sell Top Gear abroad given the dross served up by Evans.
 

Butts

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I don't care how good it is - there is just no way that casual racism should be funded by the license fee payer. They were right to chuck Clarkson.

Well here's one Licence Payer who couldn't give a toss about the odd un-pc remark - I'm sure this probably represents the view of most people.:idea:
 

Johnuk123

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Well here's one Licence Payer who couldn't give a toss about the odd un-pc remark - I'm sure this probably represents the view of most people.:idea:

Yes you're quite right, the miniscule amount of people who love to be offended are the ones who shout the most.
As soon as I heard the Eboladrome gag I knew that the "permanently offended" would be banging into Twitter.
 

miami

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They missed a trick by killing off the wrong avenger - should have had Chris Evans. I guess they aren't going to do any celebrity segments. With a global audience Carol Vorderman doesn't really cut the mustard.

Weakest part of the show for me was "the American".

Well here's one Licence Payer who couldn't give a toss about the odd un-pc remark - I'm sure this probably represents the view of most people.:idea:

True, but physical assault on a colleague shouldn't be ignored, and difficult to justify renewing a contract in those circumstances.

Was the building clarkson left from the same one people get "fired" from the apprentice?
 

Blamethrower

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True, but physical assault on a colleague shouldn't be ignored, and difficult to justify renewing a contract in those circumstances.

Again, true, but do you apply the same rule to everyone? How about 2 rugby players having a fight at training? 2 footballers?

As I see it, Clarkson is paid to do what we all want to do but either can't afford it or are too scared.

I simply see Clarkson punching his producer as doing something that we would all love to do. Can we all genuinely say that we've never felt like someone at work needed a punch?

I just don't think that you can apply the same rules for us proles and those who are responsible for generating huge amounts of revenue and jobs. We all complain about it because we all seem to hate success so much.

I don't care if he punched someone, I like him for that, shows he's actually a man of the people ;)
 
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