RIP Top Gear (TV series)

[Neil]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32052736


Jeremy Clarkson's contract will not be renewed after an "unprovoked physical attack" on a Top Gear producer, the BBC's director general has confirmed.

So is this the end of Top Gear (in the UK)?

[shootemindehead]

No loss to me.

In any case SKY or some other nonsense channel will pick it up.

[MinionZombie]

I'm gutted about this news as Top Gear was/is one of my most favourite shows.

I take the James May view of Jeremy Clarkson in that "he's a bit of a knob, but I like him" ... but JC royally screwed up by doing what he did, however that mug Danny Cohen caved in to his own ego (the two men notoriously hate each other) and turned a relatively small incident into a major public event. Tymon, the producer, had his face plastered all over the media across the globe - because DC made it a public issue - so that guy's had a rough time of it, and by doing so the BBC backed themselves into a corner. They're hyper sensitive to anything remotely controversial or problematic, and the way they've acted you'd have thought JC had done something far worse.

Getting into a right old tizzy and punching someone isn't acceptable, but similar - or far worse - has been done by people who are still in their jobs. It was interesting that the Guido Fawkes blog revealed a tidbit of info that former Director General of the BBC actually bit someone in a fight before he ascended to the top job. :rockbrow:

Watching the news bloat every tiny thing into a major event - e.g. turning JC's blatant off-the-cuff comment in jest at that charity auction into a "tirade" was one such pathetic example of how the news media has far too much dead air to fill, too many column inches to pad out, and too many web articles to bait clicks. Similarly, it's funny how a lot of the ardent complainers have never watched an episode of Top Gear, and yet claim to have the definitive read on JC and Top Gear - it reminded me of ignorant busy bodies like Mary Whitehouse getting wound up by video nasties, the "I don't need to see it to know that it's evil" kind of thing. They seem to forget that much of what JC says is deliberately OTT to specifically wind up the censorious hard left - they seem to have conveniently avoided all the times he (and all the presenters) have said complimentary things about the countries they visit (including Argentina) on their various trips, that Clarkson once expressed his frustration with the male guard at the entrance to the TG compound when they exclaimed their sexist surprise that a woman was capable of driving a fast car with skill, and so on.

They have also said stupid things, but so have countless TV and movie personalities across the globe. Indeed, the way some of the most vexed complainers have moaned on about JC in these last couple of weeks it's as if nobody in the history of everyone has ever flipped their lid over something stupid, to over-react to a small problem - everyone has done that myself included, and it's not something to be proud of, but everyone has acted in such a way. Likewise, it's funny how many comments I've seen on news articles that seem to think that if you're paid a handsome fee (a mere fraction of the entire slab of money the enterprise is earning, by the way) then you're no longer entitled to have a bad day, or get pissed off about something stupid ... whether you're paid a lot or a little, humans are humans are humans, and we're all capable of acting as well or as poorly as anyone else. The number of "if I was paid XX million I wouldn't act like that" comments I've seen over the last couple of weeks have made me laugh and despair at the same time. :rolleyes:

Back to the news inflating the issue it's been interesting to see how these events have been reported - the language used to describe events - particularly the deliberate vagueness of it. "The producer had to go to A&E" sounds awful ... but when you factor in the context that it was for a split lip and that he drove himself there, it suddenly becomes rather more mundane ... it's still something that should have never happened, and JC is a bell end for flying off the handle like he did (the amount of trouble he's caused himself and others - and the fans, such as myself - is something to be derided), but, much like James May said recently, it seems like a small incident that has unfortunately been blown up into something far larger than it had any right being.

Everyone does things they're not proud of, or does things that they should never have done, but they shouldn't mean condemnation for life either. Clarkson and Tymon had been friends for a very long time, it should be remembered, and it was Clarkson - not Tymon - who reported the incident to the BBC.

My predictions for the future - Hammond and May will go with Clarkson (they work extremely well as a team, and whenever you watch one of their Christmas DVDs where one or two of them are missing, it just ain't the same) and they'll head to ITV, presumably with producer Andy Wilman (ITV are desperate for that kind of a show to boost their ratings and bring in the cash - business minded folks were saying that yesterday was an ideal time to buy ITV stock, and money speaks volumes) ... and they'll come up with a new car show, but hopefully one that's close to Top Gear and under another name.

The BBC, rather arrogantly, are going to rework TG to return in 2016 - and they'll probably crowbar in some presenter(s) who know sod all about cars ... remember when they shoe-horned Claudia Winkleman into their "Film" show? What does she know about movies to head up a show about them?! The proper Top Gear will still be fresh in people's minds (and repeating on Dave ad infinitum) and when the 'new' version airs people will only see it as a vastly inferior product that isn't what they want - and it'll bomb.

If it doesn't have Clarkson/Hammond/May/Wilman behind it, it ain't Top Gear - or at least the Top Gear that I, and 350 million other people around the globe, want.

So all-in-all it's been a rather stupid incident that got unnecessarily blown up into a huge event that's done little more than piss off the fans (what happens to that three episode's worth of unaired content? I was so looking forward to seeing that eighth episode for the latest cheap car challenge!) In many ways JC has been his own worst enemy (and I'd imagine that everyone who works on TG is pissed off at him, to some extent at least), and Tymon has unfairly found himself at the centre of a storm not of his making, but the fallout has left me more disgruntled than the incident that inspired it in the first place!

/rant :D

[EvilNed]

I agree that something "as trivial" as this should've been kept under wraps. They should've kept filming the show and sorted it out behind the scenes. This stance might seem regressive, but seeing as Top Gear is such a pull for BBC, I think it's weird how they just cancelled it outright.

Had it been something different, like Jeremy Clarkson harassing female co-workers or something like that, it'd be different, but this time around him and the producer (who by all accounts hate each other) got into a fight. Childish, stupid and there's no excuse for it. But the reaction they gave made all eyes turn toward them. Suspend Clarkson or something of that matter, while investigating it, rather than just... pull it off the air.

[MinionZombie]

I agree that something "as trivial" as this should've been kept under wraps. They should've kept filming the show and sorted it out behind the scenes. This stance might seem regressive, but seeing as Top Gear is such a pull for BBC, I think it's weird how they just cancelled it outright.

Had it been something different, like Jeremy Clarkson harassing female co-workers or something like that, it'd be different, but this time around him and the producer (who by all accounts hate each other) got into a fight. Childish, stupid and there's no excuse for it. But the reaction they gave made all eyes turn toward them. Suspend Clarkson or something of that matter, while investigating it, rather than just... pull it off the air.

JC and the producer (Tymon) were friends (I'd imagine their relationship is rather more complicated/frosty now), as Tymon said in a statement ... he'd worked on the show for 10 years - but, of course as we all know, friends can have a big old bust up over something very silly indeed. I think we've all been there, myself included.

The blame for turning it into a massive thing unnecessarily is down to Danny Cohen (the Director of BBC Television) - who has/had a personal vendetta against Clarkson as their, shall we say, outlook on life, isn't exactly similar. By the sounds of it DC saw a chance to finally get rid of Clarkson and blew it all up into a ridiculous circus - any sensible man would have had the two guys, Clarkson and Tymon, in for a sit down meeting man-to-man to address the issue, particularly as Clarkson had referred himself to DC over the matter.

Clarkson was immediately suspended - and then Richard Hammond and James May refused to present the remaining three episodes in the series without JC (likewise, when Hammond was recovering from his 300mph crash in 2006 the show stayed off air and waited for his return) - and so here we are. As an extension of this the four Top Gear Live shows that were to happen this week in Norway have all been cancelled/postponed (ultimately I'd imagine the former) so that's a lot of unhappy ticket holders getting a refund then, in addition to the unhappy TV channels in 214 countries demanding their money back for three episodes of TG that the BBC won't be able to provide etc.

I wonder what the reaction to Danny Cohen will now be inside the BBC, seeing as he's just cost them an eye-watering amount of cash from one of it's most popular shows ... if that happened inside a private business you'd end up sacked for losing such a hefty revenue stream.

The whole thing has been an utter farce and as I've said, Clarkson should never have flown off the handle, but Cohen should have also not let his personal vendetta pollute the matter.

[EvilNed]

I wonder what the reaction to Danny Cohen will now be inside the BBC, seeing as he's just cost them an eye-watering amount of cash from one of it's most popular shows ... if that happened inside a private business you'd end up sacked for losing such a hefty revenue stream.


That's a major problem with these kind of things tho. Public companies make really bad business decisions. Private companies make really bad moral decision (*cough*NFL*cough*). There just doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

[Neil]

JC and the producer (Tymon) were friends (I'd imagine their relationship is rather more complicated/frosty now), as Tymon said in a statement ... he'd worked on the show for 10 years - but, of course as we all know, friends can have a big old bust up over something very silly indeed. I think we've all been there, myself included.

The blame for turning it into a massive thing unnecessarily is down to Danny Cohen (the Director of BBC Television) - who has/had a personal vendetta against Clarkson as their, shall we say, outlook on life, isn't exactly similar. By the sounds of it DC saw a chance to finally get rid of Clarkson and blew it all up into a ridiculous circus - any sensible man would have had the two guys, Clarkson and Tymon, in for a sit down meeting man-to-man to address the issue, particularly as Clarkson had referred himself to DC over the matter.

Clarkson was immediately suspended - and then Richard Hammond and James May refused to present the remaining three episodes in the series without JC (likewise, when Hammond was recovering from his 300mph crash in 2006 the show stayed off air and waited for his return) - and so here we are. As an extension of this the four Top Gear Live shows that were to happen this week in Norway have all been cancelled/postponed (ultimately I'd imagine the former) so that's a lot of unhappy ticket holders getting a refund then, in addition to the unhappy TV channels in 214 countries demanding their money back for three episodes of TG that the BBC won't be able to provide etc.

I wonder what the reaction to Danny Cohen will now be inside the BBC, seeing as he's just cost them an eye-watering amount of cash from one of it's most popular shows ... if that happened inside a private business you'd end up sacked for losing such a hefty revenue stream.

The whole thing has been an utter farce and as I've said, Clarkson should never have flown off the handle, but Cohen should have also not let his personal vendetta pollute the matter.

The thing is, I guess Cohen was between a rock and a hard place due to the "final warning" statement...

And as much as I want to say it should have been downplayed and handled in private between the two men involved, at the end of the day, JC committed an assault which is actually a police matter. So it's not exactly a minor matter that can be ignored, especially when you're on a "final warning".

[shootemindehead]

F6x0R1WIfHI

[MinionZombie]

The thing is, I guess Cohen was between a rock and a hard place due to the "final warning" statement...

And as much as I want to say it should have been downplayed and handled in private between the two men involved, at the end of the day, JC committed an assault which is actually a police matter. So it's not exactly a minor matter that can be ignored, especially when you're on a "final warning".

Only if the victim wants to pursue charges - which unsurprisingly, considering the amount of unwanted attention the media forced on him in the first place, Tymon didn't want to do, as was confirmed today so it seems. Clarkson was bloody stupid to resort to such an action, even if out of frustration and anger, but again it's the sort of disproportionate reaction that few - if any - of us can claim to be above. While I've never punched someone over something trivial, I have flown off the handle verbally over something trivial that happened at just the wrong time (e.g. at the end of a crummy day when I was in a foul mood).

All of this being said in response to the information we have at hand, of course.

Part of me wonders if JC is glad to be off out of the BBC - he'd said previously that he felt "under siege" from people that actively and vocally despised him because he didn't fit into a particular set of 'right on' boxes.

I saw a rumour today of Nick Knowles being a contender as a new presenter of TG because he'd be a "safe pair of hands" ... which says an awful lot in itself, and flags up that they're already thinking about TG2016 from all the wrong angles, and what's more - what does he know about cars? Surely it'd be like putting Jeremy Clarkson on Loose Women, or Maggie Smith on "Sun, Sea, and Suspicious Parents"! :rolleyes::lol::rolleyes: Indeed, rebooting it so quickly is a fool's errand that is more than likely to blow up in their faces.

*edit*

Was just reading on UniLad that the set has been dismantled, and was just reading on TopGear.com that they're apparently looking at ways to bring the remaining three episodes worth of content to the screen. Of course, that'll be tricky, as you'll need introductions for the film packages so you know what the hell is going on - and what of the lap times, and I'd assume the SIARPC segment wouldn't be in there (as JC always does the interviews)? I would very much like to see what was made for those final episodes.

Could it be possible to get the three presenters back together again specifically for the task of doing those links etc? Unlikely I'd imagine, especially as the set has been dismantled ... unless they shoot some links elsewhere in what could end up being a rather sombre tone.

What a palava it's all turned out to be, eh?