And On That Bombshell The Grand Tour is with us what do you think ?.

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  • Posts: 2,917
    "F**k. Stuck on question 4."

  • Posts: 5,993
    Easy : Strangways, head of the Jamaica Station.

    Now, on other news, there will be no overseas filming when filming of the next series of Top Gear resumes in june. Which doesn't mean that there will be no overseas scenes, given that some filming had been shot before CoronaVirus spoiled everything.

    https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-05-16/top-gear-series-29-scraps-overseas-filming/
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Had they only shot one episode of the Grand Tour last year then? Is that it?
  • Posts: 2,917
    The Madagascar special is being edited as we speak.
  • Posts: 5,993
    No more "Stars in a reasonably priced Car" ?

    https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-09-28/top-gear-drops-star-in-a-reasonably-priced-car-segment-new-series/

    What has the world come to ?
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Revelator wrote: »
    The Madagascar special is being edited as we speak.

    That's one long edit! :)
  • Posts: 2,917
    The edit was completed back in June or July and Amazon has been sitting on the episode since then. I'm guessing it's been saved for the holiday season. Clarkson has indicated that he'll be regrouping with Hammond and May in October, presumably to shoot another episode.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    I do think one episode a year probably isn't good enough, even considering the issues there have been this year and that they had this in the can before restrictions.
  • Posts: 2,917
    They were on the verge of departing for Russia to film another episode when the virus struck in March. So there would have been at least two shows this year. I think that's the most to expect, considering that the trio are aging, slowing down, and pursuing solo projects.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited September 2020 Posts: 16,383
    I was expecting another around Easter, I’m not sure why they left it so long. The Christmas one was so underwhelming I didn’t realise that would be it. Big international ‘adventures’ seems an odd way to go about slowing down, unless of course you take their approach and make barely any shows! :)
  • George_KaplanGeorge_Kaplan Being chauffeured by Tibbett
    Posts: 682
    Presumably the Madagascar one would've been out now if things hadn't gone to hell and they'd be bringing the Russia one they were about to film in March out this Christmas. Suppose one every six months or so (under normal circumstances) isn't bad.
  • Posts: 2,917
    The trio have been spotted filming a new episode in Scotland.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    I look forward to watching it in a couple of years' time! :)

    Nice Buick Riveria there.
  • Posts: 2,917
    Lights, camera, excessive caution! We're back, but the Covid control freaks are running our show (Oct. 11)

    By Jeremy Clarkson (Sunday Times, Oct. 11)

    Boris Johnson made a pretty good speech last week at the non-existent Tory party conference. He spoke in a way people could understand, even when he was using words they couldn't. He struck exactly the right tone of exasperation on the virus, and painted a bright and sparkly vision of what Britain would look like when it had gone away.

    I liked a lot of what he had to say, but, unfortunately, he's not in charge. He can dream all he likes about wind farms and electric aeroplanes and 14-year-olds buying houses, but the person running your day-to-day life now, and for the foreseeable future, is your company's Covid officer.

    In the past, he or she will have been in charge of health and safety, which means they were responsible for erecting signs advising you that the floor was wet. Now, though, they have your actual life in their hands. And what they like to do, when you ask if something is possible, is say, after a lengthy important-sounding pause: "Yes."

    If they say no, nothing will happen and they'll be out of a job. But if they give you a tentative yes, they are in complete control. If they tell you to staple your genitals to a piece of cardboard and quack like a duck, you will. Or you'll be out of a job.

    The trouble is that in every single company, the health and safety officer is always the stupidest person on the payroll. No boss, when he's told by human resources that he must appoint someone to look after workforce safety, is going to choose the sharpest tool in the box. He's going to select that drongo Terry, from stores.

    The first thing Terry does is buy a Roget's Thesaurus to make sure he never uses the word you'd expect. You don't "start" things with Terry, you "initiate" them. And you don't ever chat, you have a "conversation", not about what he's found out but what he's "ascertained".

    And what he's ascertained, after reaching out to the weirder end of the internet, is that, yes, you can go ahead, but everything from now on, up to and including the way you wipe your bottom, must be approved — green-lit — by him.

    So you've drawn up a business plan. You've taken all the precautions you can think of to make sure everyone is safe. And everything has been approved by the board. And now it's all up to Terry, who isn't going to say yes unless he can come up with some extra precautions you hadn't thought of. And which make absolutely no sense at all. Because Terry is a moron.

    In the summer, when it seemed as if the virus were receding, we decided to fire up the Grand Tour machine and head north of the border to spend a week or so watching Richard Hammond crash into things.

    I'm not suggesting for a moment that Amazon has a Terry but, my God, the rules of engagement it supplied were dizzying. We were to take our own testing lab on the 1,000-mile journey and the key players were to be tested every day, after filling out an online form that began by asking if we'd been tested before. "Yes. Yesterday."

    Everyone on the crew had to maintain a distance of 6ft from one another, which is pretty tricky when you're in a car. And anything anyone touched had to be sterilised before someone could touch it again. This meant removing the locks from our cars and giving everyone their own screwdrivers to break in, because keys were deemed lethal. The cost of meeting all these requirements was enormous. And that's before we get to the fact we had to take over entire hotels, rather than rooms, and fly on our own plane.

    I didn't think there was a hope in hell we'd get started, let alone finished. And that's before we get to the problem with Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon seems to be driven solely by a deep-seated hatred of the English, so we were expecting her to close the border at any moment. Which would have meant throwing away all the money that had been spent. There's supposed to be a government insurance scheme for film companies in this position, but it doesn't seem to have a fully functioning website yet. Or a boss. Or staff.

    We did make it to the start line, though, and in the Edinburgh hotel we had been forced to commandeer, we all sat and had dinner, on tables for one, facing in the same direction. Then a burly man shoved a swab down our throats until we gagged. And, incredibly, all of us — about 50 people — tested negative. We could begin.

    We were not allowed to socialise with or even speak to people from outside our bubble, which wasn't easy, as every other TV show I can think of was in Scotland too, pegged back from their global aspirations by their own Terrys. Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer were there. We passed the producer of A League of Their Own scouting for locations. Then there was I'm a Celebrity. And, finally, when we got to North Uist, we were greeted on the docks by Joanna Lumley. I wasn't allowed to get within 6ft of her. That hurt. Well, it hurt me.

    I was allowed to take off my mask while eating, but when I stood up I had to put it back on. Because Covid-19 only exists at altitude and before 10pm, which is when I was forced to go to bed in a room with no wi-fi. My producer texted to say it was OK, though, because Emily Maitlis was hosting Newsnight in knee-high boots.

    Astonishingly, thanks in part to the rules but mainly to luck, not one of us tested positive on the whole nine-day shoot. Which meant all the cameras were rolling when Hammond had his customary accident. It was a good one. Probably his best yet, mainly because he didn't actually hurt himself. I guess that's lucky because, strictly speaking, he wouldn't have been allowed by the Covid rules to go in a stranger's air ambulance.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Jesus, he's getting worse.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,255
    nah, just slightly frustrated. :-D
  • Posts: 2,917
    Ranting about excessive health and safety rules is something of a Clarkson tradition. I would have been much less forgiving if he was against Covid-19 precautions en masse but he's making the usual complaint about dim bureaucrats.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,255
    Revelator wrote: »
    Ranting about excessive health and safety rules is something of a Clarkson tradition. I would have been much less forgiving if he was against Covid-19 precautions en masse but he's making the usual complaint about dim bureaucrats.

    He's making the usual rant about something that bothers him personally, and he's as usual trying to make it bigger so he doesn't seem that selfish. Which he is. The only redeeming quality is his humour. And the fact that the other two have to put up with him.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited October 2020 Posts: 16,383
    Revelator wrote: »
    Ranting about excessive health and safety rules is something of a Clarkson tradition. I would have been much less forgiving if he was against Covid-19 precautions en masse but he's making the usual complaint about dim bureaucrats.

    Having worked in places where H&S saves lives, I find folks who complain about it to be idiots, generally. Complaining about Covid restrictions impinging on the TV show he could have had finished before restrictions if he'd got off his arse just makes him doubly unlikable.
  • edited October 2020 Posts: 2,917
    mtm wrote: »
    Complaining about Covid restrictions impinging on the TV show he could have had finished before restrictions if he'd got off his arse...

    I doubt that. He was busy with another show (about his farm, also set for Amazon release) and his colleagues were also making their own shows. When they finally got ready to embark on another episode, it was right before lockdown began and the episode had to be cancelled. Clarkson is many things--bad and good--but he is not lazy.

  • George_KaplanGeorge_Kaplan Being chauffeured by Tibbett
    edited October 2020 Posts: 682
    Even though he's allergic to manual labour.
  • Madagascar special trailer
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    On seeing the trailer for the show, I thought that Ford with the tank tracks,
    would be unstoppable, that it would be able to go anywhere. Then I watched
    it. :D
  • edited January 2021 Posts: 2,917
    A fun outing, though not as good as the Seamen or Mongolia specials. They boxed themselves into a silly ending, but the scenery is superb in 4K. Clarkson wanted to keep his Bentley but it's a test car and had to be scrapped.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I agree, an entertaining show, but they have produced better.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Top Gear: Sean Connery’s old BMW 635 is up for auction.
    https://www.topgear.com/car-news/movies/sean-connerys-old-bmw-635-auction
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,255
    Tht car will go for a lot more than the 60k projected.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Yes I think it will too.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited February 2021 Posts: 16,383
    Posted this in the Petrolhead thread then remembered this one:

    Looks like the new series of Top Gear will feature the 007 DB5 and the Renault 11 from A View To A Kill
    https://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-tv/heres-your-first-look-new-series-top-gear-telly



    There's also a yellow car which appears to be a Ferrari 355 (as seen in GoldenEye) but which looks more like a Pontiac Fiero with a bodykit on it to me
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    I found it funny last week reading a few stories that in the early days of
    The new Top gear, the BBC asked Clarkson Back ! ( sorry don't have the links )
    My wife always said if they got rid of Clarkson she'd watch Top Gear, guess what ?
    They changed presenters and she ......... Still doesn't watch it :D
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