New Top Gear line-up

[Clitheroekid]

I see the BBC have announced two new TG presenters to replace Matt LeBlanc- Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuiness - https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lates ... presenters

Although, as a proud Lancastrian myself, I suppose I should be pleased that two fellow Lancastrians have been chosen, I can't say that my heart exactly leapt with delight.

My main image of FF is as a drunken twit (edit for spelling!) I don't follow cricket, so I'm not really aware of his sporting prowess, but I have seen the various tabloid articles about him, which haven't exactly endeared him to me.

I'd never even heard of Paddy McGuinness, and assumed he was Irish. Having now Googled him I wish I hadn't - he looks and sounds a complete pleb, and most of the Google entries relate to him having spent a night with Nicole Appleton and how his wife is /was dealing with that. I also had a look on YouTube, and he seems to be a poor man's version of Peter Kay.

At least the old TG presenters were relatively civilised. These two look like the remnants of a stag night in Blackpool.

No doubt the producers of TG, who all live in leafy Surrey or Bucks, thought that two `laddish' chaps from oop North indulging in merry bantz would be just what the show needed to revitalise it, but sometimes TV shows should just be allowed to die gracefully rather than turning into hideous zombies.

I'll reserve judgment, but it promises to be dreadful

[tea42]

Bring back William Woolard!

[chas49]

Bring back William Woolard!

What about Angela Rippon?

[Stonge]

My wife watches East Enders. A disgusting affair IMO. If that's entertainment, bring back cave paintings. Something should be done about it.

Yes there are some very good things on the BBC. But there seems to be a faction (senior management?) of the BBC intent on ruining it. I don't see why they should get away with it. It all suggests some sort of deliberate policy/conspiracy to promote the likes of Sky, Virgin etc.

A first world rant of course.

[bungeejumper]

I won't try to guess in advance how the new presenters are going to be, because I got Matt LeBlanc entirely wrong. I'd expected him to be smooth, superficial, a little bit insular and generally rather too heavily American, and instead he turned out to be (a) a gratifyingly petrol-headed individual and (b) surprisingly subtle, with quite a nice line in self-deprecation.

Whereas Chris Evans was a transparently vacuous all-English tosser from day one, of course.

I'm a bit surprised that the BBC have downsized Rory Reid's role, which seemed to be going quite well as he settled into the job and got better at the banter. But for me, Top Gear dropped from "unmissable" to "maybe I'll save it on the DVD recorder in case there's a night when there's nothing else on?" after Clarkson and co went off the screen.

And although TG was improving by the last series, it was from a lowish starting point. I expect I'll give the new line-up a couple of episodes before I tune in to see how they're doing?

BJ

[redsturgeon]

"maybe I'll save it on the DVD recorder in case there's a night when there's nothing else on?" after Clarkson and co went off the screen.

BJ

That is so charmingly retro

Have you not heard of iplayer?

Or catch up TV?

John

[bungeejumper]

"maybe I'll save it on the DVD recorder

That is so charmingly retro

Have you not heard of iplayer?

Or catch up TV?

Surprise, surprise, there are corners of the UK where Netflix doesn't work yet. (Reliably.) Or where folk who watch maybe 60 minutes of telly a day would have no use for it anyway.

I suppose I could rig up my home with wifi repeaters and use my laptop to send iplayer to the TV screen, but frankly, I couldn't give enough of a damn to want the bother. TV is for the evenings when I haven't got something better to do.

If that's retro, it's got me this far.

BJ

[redsturgeon]

"maybe I'll save it on the DVD recorder

That is so charmingly retro

Have you not heard of iplayer?

Or catch up TV?

Surprise, surprise, there are corners of the UK where Netflix doesn't work yet. (Reliably.) Or where folk who watch maybe 60 minutes of telly a day would have no use for it anyway.

I suppose I could rig up my home with wifi repeaters and use my laptop to send iplayer to the TV screen, but frankly, I couldn't give enough of a damn to want the bother. TV is for the evenings when I haven't got something better to do.

If that's retro, it's got me this far.

BJ

Fair enough BJ, it's just that I don't consider myself at the cutting edge of tech...far from it but I have not used any sort of recorder to time shift for more than ten years and I don't know anyone else who does. If you have a smart TV then if you just wire it through to your router then you will save a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Mrs RS watches about three TV programmes a week...mostly not at the time they were broadcast. It is so easy to use iplayer on the TV to catch up with them, she has never been able to programme any sort of video recorder from VHS onwards so the task would otherwise fall to me and I couldn't be bothered to remember for her.

As for me, I usually watch TV on my laptop these days anyway.

John

[tea42]

My take on Top Gear is that it has run its course. In the dying days of the Ckarkson era it had become more and more infantile and purile, so much so that I couldnt be bothered to watch the Clarksonless series that followed. If it deserves a place on TV it should be banished to some minor commercial channel. The spectacle of some moron skidding round and round in circles in a so called supercar has become soooo boring.
If we are to have a programme about 'motoring' there are lots of serious issues for journalists to examine - brain deadening distracting 'tech' in the centre console, the state if our roads and highways, interaction with bicycles, electric car development, battery development, environmental issues, Classic motoring and its future. Loads and loads of things of interest to the majority. ie back to a more gentler intelligent version of William Woolard.

However, I do think Clarkson is still an entertaining non politically correct figure, I enjoy reading his pieces in tbe Sunday Times. The BBC should reinstate him in some form. Perhaps a comedy slot in the type of programme I am suggesting.

[bungeejumper]

Fair enough BJ, it's just that I don't consider myself at the cutting edge of tech...far from it but I have not used any sort of recorder to time shift for more than ten years and I don't know anyone else who does.

You do now.

If you have a smart TV then if you just wire it through to your router then you will save a lot of time and effort in the long run.

No smart TV, although I presume we could just plug our old set into an extender socket via its HDMI socket and a dongle, and thus hardwire it back to the router. But where would that get us? If iPlayer can't deliver reliably in the evenings because of dropouts, how would any other catch-up system do better?

Mrs RS watches about three TV programmes a week...she has never been able to programme any sort of video recorder from VHS onwards so the task would otherwise fall to me and I couldn't be bothered to remember for her.

I commiserate. I could never work the VHS either. The DVD recorder does at least make it easier with a clickable programme menu which is foolproof - as even I can attest. What it can't do, though, is improve the damn programmes.

BJ

[bionichamster]

My main image of FF is as a drunken twit......

I'd never even heard of Paddy McGuinness, and assumed he was Irish. Having now Googled him I wish I hadn't - he looks and sounds a complete pleb, and most of the Google entries relate to him having spent a night with Nicole Appleton and how his wife is /was dealing with that. I also had a look on YouTube, and he seems to be a poor man's version of Peter Kay.

At least the old TG presenters were relatively civilised. These two look like the remnants of a stag night in Blackpool.

No doubt the producers of TG, who all live in leafy Surrey or Bucks, thought that two `laddish' chaps from oop North indulging in merry bantz would be just what the show needed to revitalise it, but sometimes TV shows should just be allowed to die gracefully rather than turning into hideous zombies.

I'll reserve judgment, but it promises to be dreadful

Don’t know much about Flintoff but he looks like he might fill the role of “butt of jokes” and playing the idiot while having some underlying ability. Well maybe.
But McGuinness is a vacuous talent vacuum with virtually no redeeming qualities. His greatest skill appears to be being mates with Peter Kay and being able draw off that relationship a bit like a parasitic tapewom to get himself established. But He isn’t funny, he’s a terrible presenter and he cannot act (unless being the worlds most irritating t*** is an act, in which case he should get a lifetime achievement award). His best work is probably his Greggs ads from about ten years ago, but even then you could tell he was stretching his limited abilities.
He is in short, even more irritating than Chris Evans, and that’s saying something.

Someone at the beeb is clearly trying to destroy Top Gear, they’ve so far failed, but with Paddy McGuinness they are going nuclear.

Bh

[bungeejumper]

I have no idea who Paddy McGuinness is, which I suppose might be an advantage. But the Beeb says that, in America, programmes featuring him have been known to carry subtitles because of his accent. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48549960

Flintoff? No idea, no great expectations, looks and acts like a permanent stag night survivor. OTOH, there do seem to be some dry wits in cricket, so maybe I'll give it a look.

TG has a long way to go before it becomes must-watch television, though. It badly needs some new formats. Who knows, maybe they'll even talk about some normal cars? That'd be radical.

BJ

[Clitheroekid]

Fair enough BJ, it's just that I don't consider myself at the cutting edge of tech...far from it but I have not used any sort of recorder to time shift for more than ten years and I don't know anyone else who does.

I've just caught up with this thread as a result of the recent posts, and saw RS's comment.

RS now knows two people who use a recorder. I use i-Player a lot, but on the rare occasions I use catch-up to watch one of the commercial channels I've noticed that I'm forced to watch some advertising - not as much as when it's broadcast live, but still extremely irritating.

But with a recorded version of the same programme I can just FF through the ads, which makes for a much better viewing experience.

I also record Match Of The Day, as for some strange reason the BBC don't make it available on i-Player until Monday evening, which is hopeless if you're a football fan.

There are also some programmes - The Detectorists being one - that are so good I want to keep them and watch them whenever I feel like it, without being subject to the whims of the BBC as to how long they remain available on i-Player.

So as far as I'm concerned I certainly wouldn't be without my recorder.

And I'm now waiting with somewhat muted enthusiasm to watch the first programme of the new TG series, which I'm hoping won't be as bad as I'm anticipating - though I'll be watching it later, on i-Player!

[bungeejumper]

I lasted thirty minutes, but eventually there was no denying the awful truth, that the test card would have been more enlightening than this sh1te. It's at times like these that I'm glad I took RS's advice and organised an iPlayer hook-up for our TV, even if we do use it only for watching documentaries when the BBC schedule has left us with no alternatives. So we watched Gordon Buchanan talking about super furry otters instead, and at least it told us something we didn't already know.

Never mind the impenetrable accents (which were weird even to my wife, who comes from McGuinness's home town Bolton). Never mind the really terrible sound quality, which made every word doubly incomprehensible. (Would never have happened on the old Top Gear, which was always technically immaculate.) There was literally no new idea of any sort to be seen on this programme. Or at least, not the 30 minutes I saw.

If the original Top Gear was a quirky, international bar-room of a place, this was Wetherspoons on a Friday night, all noise and shouting and jostling elbows, with beer swilling off the tables. No class at all.

BJ

[UncleIan]

I thought it was alright, at least there seems to be some genuine chemistry between these presenters. Though I agree, Paddy was a bit shouty. And of course there's no new ideas, what new ideas could there possibly be? Everything has to have a car involved, they need to drive it, everything's just variations on a theme.

Ethiopia looked nice.

I'll be tuning in again.

[todthedog]

An idea well past it's use by date.


Still not obliged to watch it, different channels also functioning off button!

[bungeejumper]

Well, the Grauniad review applauds them for being more sensitive and politically correct than Clarkson, May and Hammond. The word is that they've dropped the racial epithets and the dodgy jokes about gay people, so that's good. But hang on, there didn't seem to be many of those in the previous line-up with Matt Leblanc and Rory Reid either - at least, not that I saw. (I didn't bother with watching much of the last series, TBH.) The worst I remember was LeBlanc blotting his ethical copybook by doing donuts around the Cenotaph.

The word is that the new gang filmed an episode in Brunei, before the local regime decided to start hanging gay people, and that they've since repainted the three cars they used in rainbow colours, as an act of LGBT solidarity. That's impressive, as post-corrective afterthoughts go, so well done the BBC's PR department. Wouldn't have happened in Clarkson's day, that much is certain.


BJ

[UncleIan]

(I didn't bother with watching much of the last series, TBH.) The worst I remember was LeBlanc blotting his ethical copybook by doing donuts around the Cenotaph.

So, you may not have seen him not actually doing that. If memory serves, it was just down the same road, which with the help of paparazzi and long lenses made it look worse than it was and a gleeful bit of BBC bashing and "outrage" ensued from the usual suspects.

[richlist]

I watched some of it last night and thought it was very working class, blokee, stag night, down the pub type banter. Not what I'm looking for at all. I expect intelligent, factual more intellectual type reporting from my licence fee.

Typical BBC......take a program that works fine .....and then change it. The BBC have done it so many times. Shame. Won't be bothering to watch future episodes.

[swill453]

I expect intelligent, factual more intellectual type reporting from my licence fee.

Yeah, come back Clarkson all is forgiven...

Scott.