to think BBC (Top Gear) should not promote bad driving

[EdwardTaylor]

Latest programme (broadcast Sun.3rd Feb. Repeat Sat.9th Feb) includes the following:
(Last feature) car race on public roads.
Richard Hammond spinning the wheels of his car on the hotel forecourt.
James May reading a map as he drives along.
Jeremy Clarkson putting his car into a slide at one junction.

All this on public roads. It looks dangerous. Any driver should be prosecuted for dangerous driving for doing any of the above. Isn't it wrong for the BBC to promote it as "harmless fun"? Aren't they promoting bad attitudes to driving and safety.

[Bearbehind]

That is a very good point Sparklingbrook

[Amateurish]

What, are you lot seriously telling me that Top Gear is not a Government sponsored documentary on road safety?

Shit, think of all the petrol I've just wasted by squirting it into a bin...

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Joins the 'I Love Top Gear' side.

mostly because its pisses so many people off!

[degutastic]

Can I join the Challenges DVD fest? I can bring my one where Hammond is trying to mimic driving after a nuclear disaster?

I like it. Yes, it's daft, scripted, sometimes offensive and not a serious driving show, but it is entertaining (if you like that sort of thing, which I do - but then I think Strictly, soaps and many other popular shows are daft - the world would be dull if we were all the same!).

I think you have to credit the public with a small amount of intelligence to realise that copying Clarkson et al.'s apparent style of driving would be deeply unwise, sometimes illegal. And the reason there aren't more shows about pedestrian safety is simply that the viewing figures would almost certainly be very low

[calandarbear]

I also love Top Gear. I love cars, I love driving and I would love to try out some supercars round a track ( closest I ever got was my Dad's 911 round the block but I'm pretty sure it's much more fun when there isn't a speed limit or parked cars lol).
Even my 6 year old says things like " that road is closed really" and "there is a police car with them" when he is watching Top Gear. I think you'd have to be pretty dense to think these things are done without appropriate safety procedures in place.

[BumpingFuglies]

Oh come on, it's a bit of fun. I love the show, but even if I didn't I have enough brain cells to realise I shouldn't copy it!

Long live Clarkson and his Gentleman Vegetables

[Startail]

Top Gear has my DDs in fits of laughter, there is almost no family viewing left that will do that.

Also I think I know the bit of Welsh public road the had the Merc on, before the rally stage. It is incredibly quiet, you could easily close it for 20 minutes and no one notice. I'm certain the local farmers could organize a few sheep in the right place if you wanted to do it quietly.

Of course they might meet my elderly father bouncing over the hill towards them in his totally unnecessary 4x4.

[Bogeyface]

Another thought, you do know OP that it is filmed in the UK dont you? You know, the country with the most stringent health and safety laws in the universe? Health and safety laws that mean a cafe cant warm a bottle of baby milk and that mean that a refuse collector isnt allowed to actually touch a bin bag!

Do you really think that in the UK they would allow the BBC to pour petrol into a bin, totally wreck a car wash with a home made convertible people carrier or set on fire a caravan site? Or drive a quad bike on the dual carriageway without some serious safety protocols in place?!

[EuroShagmore]

I also love Top Gear. I wish Clarkson was a bad influence of a bad demin-clad uncle to me.

It's an entertainment show that doesn't take itself too seriously. We need more of those.

PS - OP, while we are on the subject of BBC shows, you do realise that Eastenders isn't a documentary, right?

[KeepingCalmAndPostingNicely]

What worries me more than anything is that there are people out there who seriously think it's an educational programme and that squirting petrol into a bin is something we should all do if we are to progress intellectually. Because let's face it - clearly some of you DO think that. You DO think that everything they show on that programme is some kind of instruction for the hard of thinking to go out and copy. You DO think that Clarkson or any of them give even the smallest shiny shite what you think of their TV personas.
I know someone who regularly has dinner with JC and he is not for the fainthearted. Very much as one would expect, surely?
I was behind him in a queue at a newsagent in the Cotswolds once. He completely ignored me - I might as well have been a cockroach as far as he was concerned . I wouldn't have wanted it any other way - who wants their illusions shattered?

[Sidge]

My boyfriend's friend is a cameraman on Top Gear. He can't say much or he'd have to kill us or summat but TG is incredibly heavily scripted, rehearsed, edited and safety-assessed up the yingyang.

I bloody love it, it cracks me up. I'd far rather watch three blokes twatting about with cars, caravans and suchlike than the brain-evaporating shite that is CBB, I'm a Celebrity etc.

[Geekster]

I personally love Top Gear and find it amusing, but I can quite easily see why others don't like it. It's a bit Marmite really.

[StuntGirl]

Personally I think it only promotes bad television, but whatever

[KatieScarlett2833]

I love TG. It's a comedy show not a serious motoring programme. And I'd do Clarkson
(Out and Proud)

[11Plustrauma]

I love Top Gear. It's great family viewing for a Sunday evening but it's totally and utterly made up - it's not real, it's television.

I would not do Clarkson though.

[JenaiMorris]

Well this very morning I squirted a litre of Super Unleaded into a bin, wheelspan off the petrol station forecourt and performed the Most Astonishing Japanese Powerslide Ever Seen into the school car park.

Am I not meant to do these things?

[11Plustrauma]

I actually did once pull into the school car park (which was empty) and do a handbrake turn. The caretaker congratulated me

[Sidge]

As long as you did it in your Aston or Lambo Jenai you're OK.

A Honda Civic doesn't count.

[Sparklingbrook]

Yes, it's not real like say the soaps are. And they are always doing stupid things in soaps, I hope nobody thinks to copy anyone in a soap.

[KeepingCalmAndPostingNicely]

Jenai I'll see your Japanese Power Slide and raise you an old caravan filled with petrol and matches and dropped from 300 feet into a school playground where it might, or might not, be playtime!

Ha! What now?

[McNewPants2013]

I love watching top gear, it wouldn't even cross my mind to copy some of their antics.

Loved how they drew a cock with wheel marks :)

[EnjoyResponsibly]

OP may I introduce you to your TVs remore control.

I Heart TG. It's very funny. I'd love to do a lap in the reasonably priced car.

and do Clarkson on the bonnet

[EddieVeddersfoxymop]

Sorry, but I love it! As countless others said, it is scripted - he seriously did not pour the fuel in the bin in the last episode.

Its staple viewing in the foxymop household, we even have to tape it for my 5 year old DD as she loves the cars and has a soft spot for James May.

[Veritate]

Gawd. the next thing we know there'll be banner headlines in the Daily Fail screaming "FURY over dangerous BBC Top Gear programme" and extensively quoting this thread. They hate Clarkson since he made it clear that he doesn't care one jot what they think - which is possibly the best thing I know about him.

[JenaiMorris]

Won't somebody please think about the children?

Top Gear is bollocks, but largely harmless bollocks. It has its moments of brilliance (if you like that kind of thing) but they're hardly role models for anyone; if it helps, 12 yo ds really really doesn't want to be Jeremy Clarkson, nor any of them tbh, with the possible exception of The Stig.