I must admit that I gave up watching Top Gear about a lifetime ago, in recent years I’ve only seen bits of it when I’ve been flicking to something more interesting.
So it has been something of a mystery to me that the carrying on of those three chaps makes headlines from time to time, with their disciples grumbling when the bad behaviour goes over the top in case they get the sack.
Surely though it’s obvious to everyone that the latest nonsense happened because they were about to negotiate new contracts with the BBC. Obviously the fact that the programme is sold all over the world makes a lot of money for the BBC and those three presenters probably felt that they should be getting paid more than they were.
I know I’m a cynic but surely everyone realises that the whole fracas was orchestrated with the intention of getting away from the BBC and on to pastures new which have much more lucrative remunerations.
Stand by for those three chaps appearing on Sky or some other commercial station, on a programme with much the same premise as Top Gear, but the name of – Vrooming Brilliant or something similar, fill in your own idea for the new name!
The whole thing reminds me of those people who want to get out of a relationship but don’t have the guts to dump their partner because they don’t want to be perceived as being nasty. So they behave badly until their partner eventually dumps them. Result! they shout as they skip off footloose and fancy free, claiming to have been badly treated by their ex-partner.
Those Top Gear guys just don’t want to be seen as being greedy by their fans, who might not be able to afford to see them on whatever commercial platform picks them up. If you want to know what fuels Jeremy Clarkson, his raison d’etre, just have a look at his appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? that programme which looks back at family trees. The only thing which he was interested in was – where’s the money!
Sometimes it seems that the only shows on BBC America are entire evenings of Top Gear and Star Trek!
Joan,
What a shame, there are so many BBC things which would be far more enjoyable. I don’t understand why Star Trek is on that channel!
I saw him on Graham Norton a couple of years ago and all he could do is say how terrible America is, so I’m over him. And I agree with Joan, too much Top Gear and Star Trek on BBC America — how is that British anyway? Because of Patrick Stewart? There’s so much BBC programming I want to watch that we never get here!
Karen K,
He has made a career out of being rude to people and places so I’m not at all surprised. He is the worst sort of Englishman!There’s a thing called Tunnelbear which might be able to give you access to UK channels I think, but it might be a wee bit illegal!
I cannot believe so much has been debated about one man. I understand the finance and of course when he gets his name in the press that generates more PR. No such thing as bad publicity? I don’t condone physical violence on coworkers (despite being tempted at work myself) and for that something had to be done.
As for his choice of language or opinion, we are living in a world where you have to be careful what you say for fear of offending absolutely anyone, we might as well all be mute.
I can see where Katrina might be correct in her hypothesis – the man Clarkson hit is declining to press charges. That takes the whole mess pretty much out of the hands of the law, leaving Clarkson & Company free to take their act elsewhere.
Sandy,
I have absolutely no doubt they will be negotiating very lucrative deals with some other broadcasting company soon, if they haven’t already done so.