UK folks - Jonathan Ross will get his highest viewing figures in two weeks (22nd)...

[Neil]

...when Richard Hammon appears on the program :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6162885.stm

[MinionZombie]

Sweet!

As an avid Top Gear fan I've been waiting for the story from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak. Clarkson was on the other week promoting his latest DVD which thoroughly bashes crap American cars (including the Prius) ... what was the green room filled with? Americans, ha!

Looking forward to this interview (and likewise the new series, which apparently kicks off in January!).

As for Ross, he's a prick. He relies on the same tie-adjusting, ever so arrogant and self-involved jokes for every show. Occasionally he'll say something funny, but more often than not he's chewing scenery. The upside are the guests they secure. The one with the Clarkson interview also had David Schwimmer & Simon Pegg on together promoting "Big Nothing", that was a fun interview, it's weird to see celebrities from different ends of the sitcom spectrum (and countries) be so chummy.

[Cykotic]

so Top Gear is gonna come back? I heard they were just going to cancel it

[ssbib]

I think its good that John Hammond is making a full recovery. I just hope he realises how much of a lucky bastard he is. heh heh

[MinionZombie]

pfft, that was never confirmed, a rumour most likely started by opponents of the show (of which there is a vast minority in comparison to the quarter of a billion fans around the world - and that's the officially counted fans).

The BBC are/were doing some investigation, but it looks like (last time I heard) it was a simple tire blow out - which you can't forsee. I heard they were gonna do a kinda documentary or special about the whole incident showing us exactly how much care they put into the feature which went so wrong due to a (seems to still be the case) freak accident.

I loved Clarkson's take on it and people yammering on about "speed kills" - Hamster crashed at 300mph and survived, so speed doesn't kill anymore than any other cause of a crash. :D

Also, the producer, Clarkson and May said they'd refuse to do anymore Top Gear without Hammond and that they wouldn't tone their show down to suit the bleetering thoughts of a minority of people who don't even watch the show.

Besides, the BBC would be utterly retarded to let Top Gear slip from their grasp, it's won a friggin' Emmy and recently a National Television Award and like I said - quarter of a billion viewers ('official' viewers) around the world in 80 to 100 countries. It's one of their biggest money draws, the Beeb would be foolish beyond belief to sh*t-can it.

Wooooo! Can't wait for Top Gear to return.

Their matter-of-fact take on politics is also refreshing in this climate of BS and PC-ness. They also come up with some solid info for the other side of the environmental debate, such as bleetering on about humans causing damage via CO2 is bollocks because 95% of CO2 is produced by the earth itself via natural means.

Also, methane being a far more potent environment-killing agent than CO2 (I have the numbers somewhere, I wrote them down, but forget off the top of my head) - anyway, basically, what one cow farts in a day beats a Land Rover driven for 10,000 miles over the course of a year...just think about how many farting animals are on this planet...that is, in complete truth, the reason why New Zealand failed their climate-whatever-it-is target - all the sheep sh*t - seriously, it actually was.

It's simple - don't be wasteful - that's all you need to do, as well as find alternate and renewable energies that work (fuel cells look rather promising). This green stuff is getting out of hand, especially here on this pokey little island called the UK who can't make a damn bit of difference is two fat-ass-sized countries won't chip in their fair share (America and China ... among others). This "green" thing is just to make people feel less guilty about owning a car, or to make them feel good and smug about themselves (like those actually useless windmills on houses).

It's like with Labour, the only reason for green taxes is not to save the world, it's to rip more money out of you. That's the only reason any environmental issue gets the official nod in this world. It's a marketing scam bred by people who peddle the myth that mankind is the be-all and end-all of everything.

I'm sure the earth has been through a lot more turbulence on it's own before we came along - we are, after all, a momentary blip on earth's radar. To assume we're to blame for temperature rises is assinine and immensely arrogant - besides, it's been suggesting that the sun is actually burning brighter now than it used to - which seems like a pretty tight theory if it's the case, you turn up the heat and things get warmer, derrrrrh...

What was I on about? Oh yeah, Richard Hammond...:D

ssbib - I think you mean Richard Hammond. :)

*additional*

Just heard the news from FinalGear, Clarkson was on BBC Radio 2 and said that Top Gear returns to our screens in the 3rd week of January (probably the 21st of January) and they will be showing the crash footage.

Roll on Top Gear!!! :cool: How I love this show...

[capncnut]

Top Gear's back in January? YEEEAAAHHH!!! :thumbsup:

[Neil]

As for Ross, he's a prick. He relies on the same tie-adjusting, ever so arrogant and self-involved jokes for every show. Occasionally he'll say something funny, but more often than not he's chewing scenery. The upside are the guests they secure. The one with the Clarkson interview also had David Schwimmer & Simon Pegg on together promoting "Big Nothing", that was a fun interview, it's weird to see celebrities from different ends of the sitcom spectrum (and countries) be so chummy.

I really like Ross... He's the most candid interviewer around and I think a lot of guests actually appreciate someone who they can have a laugh with and who doesn't constantly kiss their asses... Who else would talk to Denzel Washington about the Hollywood fad of getting a "balls tuck" :) Any other interviewer would be apologising to "Mr Washington" just for being in the same room as him probably :)

[MinionZombie]

I agree about the candid nature, that's nice to see because the guests - many of whom are American and used to the stuffy norm - are taken aback by the nature of his interviewing.

What I friggin' hate though is the constant barrage of tie-adjusting innuendo - now, I enjoy a good slab of innuendo like anyone else, but Ross just tells the same friggin gag over and over.

Also, according to Ross himself, he's seemingly a "big fan" of f*ckin' everything - now to me, that's kissing ass in another way, he's always this big fan. He's read every book by his guests, he's seen all their films, watched all the TV show box sets and done everything else - excuse me, but even a celebrity is only afforded 24 hours a day to do stuff and I call shenanigans on Ross as he quite literally cannot be the big fan of absolutely everything his guests are peddling like he claims.

And as for the candid nature, sometimes there's too much of it and you're left wanting at least a portion of a real interview where you find stuff out, without Ross interupting every five seconds to position himself alongside which celebrity he's got on.

Worth an 18 million contract? Not bloody likely, you can generally get a decent celeb and decent interview on his show, but there's so much bollocks surrounding it all it drives me up the wall.

Capn - indeed, w00ty-w00ts are in order. I can't wait to see the new series, they already had a bunch of stuff "in the can" and resumed filming about 3 or 4 weeks after the accident itself, so they should have plenty already prepared - also, call me a little sick, but I'm dying to see how Clarkson and May rip the piss out of Hammond - you know, they all take the mick out of each other, but I think there's gonna be plenty of opportunities for "Hammond Bashing" (to quote an earlier episode :p ... I'm such a Top Gear nerd) - especially as he'll most likely not be able to do stuff which puts him 'within' the event so-to-speak - so they'll no doubt make a joke out of that, have a special cordoned off area with hard hats and bubble wrap and all sorts to keep him out of danger, teehee.

I cannot wait for the new Top Gear, it can't come soon enough!

[capncnut]

It's a strange fascination with me, Top Gear. I don't drive, I don't understand motorist jargon and yet this damned programme keeps me glued to the box when it's on. Heck, I can even endure 6 hour Top Gear marathons on UK Gold! I guess that a part of the show's worldwide appeal, you don't have to drive to appreciate other peoples opinions on driving. I watch it 'cos Clarkson and Hammond are a pair of old bitches that make me laugh. I've been thinking about getting some Top Gear dvd's. How are they presented? Are they the usual 'season' type box sets or are they more like double disc 'greatest clips' compilations?

[MinionZombie]

Indeed, that's the great thing about Top Gear. It suits the car novice and the car nerd. I've learnt so much more about cars since getting into Top Gear, I still don't know an awful lot, but I've heard of a "Wankle" and understand why American cars are generally awful and such like...

As for Top Gear DVDs, they haven't released full series unfortunately.

They have the Winter Olympics Special on DVD, as well as a bunch of Clarkson DVDs (I'd recommended The Good, The Bad and The Ugly as well as the one he did before that - Heaven And Hell). There's also a bunch of other Top Gear DVDs, but like you said, they're kind of 'best ofs' or collections - but still worthwhile. "Revved Up" is worthwhile, has a collection of - aye - best bits of Top Gear.

"Top Gear: The Best Of" is a compilation of segments from the first two series.

[MinionZombie]

A bit of extra news:

1) Top Gear proper returns on January 28th, on the 21st they're doing a special on Hammond's crash.

2) http://uk.news.yahoo.com/11122006/344/hammond-assists-cyclist-crash.html

[Maitreya]

As an avid Top Gear fan I've been waiting for the story from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak. Clarkson was on the other week promoting his latest DVD which thoroughly bashes crap American cars (including the Prius) ... what was the green room filled with? Americans, ha!

MZ you silly goose, the Prius is a Japanese car!

But yea, this is gonna be cool, Top Gear's such an entertaining show. Whether you like cars or not it's still awesome.

[MinionZombie]

lol, bit of a mistake on my part there, but aye it's Japanese ... I was attempting to say it's almost like an American car due to all the celebrities saying they drive them to save the planet (meanwhile they really own several other cars, including GTO's and other gas guzzling vehicles, as well as the obligatory Hummer). :lol:

The Prius is crap anyway, you get better fuel consumption from a Diesel Lupo on an average journey, the only way the Prius works is when driving around 20 mph through a city on the electric motor ... then you're so quiet you run over small children. :lol:

The way to help solve climate change? Simple - get that chemical scientists are working on to stop animals farting (seriously, it's being researched as we speak) and then plug up all the volcanos and constantly douse every dryland and forrest to stop fires ... okay, the latter two aren't realistic, but a humorous idea.

Considering the fact that weather has really only been properly studied for what, 100 and a bit years, it's a bit daft to judge we're plunging into the apocalypse - maybe 2000 years ago it was f*cking freezing, or maybe it was bloody boiling, who the fudge knows?

It's always "the coldest winter" in the papers ... then (literally) turn the page and it's "the warmest winter ever!" (honestly, I have seen that happen), the human race does nothing but panic and think it's the be-all and end-all of everything ... geez. In fact, I'd like to see a comprehensive collection of all the evidence that suggests mankind isn't to blame for climate change.

Don't be wasteful, yeah totally, and bring on fuel cell technology and solar panels and busses that are clean-fueled ... but, mankind killing the planet in our short space of time (particularly the minute amount of post-industrial revolution time that has passed) seems a bit ... Hollywood ... and easily taxable.