Top Gear on
Reflection
So the final episode of Top Gear was played on BBC 2 on
Sunday and at the end all I could think was ‘that was weird’. Something just felt
so strange about the experience. I have no idea how many years the show ran for
but I grew up with it and now it’s gone and it is genuinely sad.
Top Gear was built on the comradery and chemistry of its presenters.
From its origins of a humble car show it became one of the most recognisable
television shows worldwide. When you get right down to it the show was three
mates messing around in a bunch of strange scenarios whether it be expensive
super cars or piles of scrap they bought for a couple hundred quid. It was full
of humour and hilarity and even occasionally an emotional moment that made you genuinely
feel quite good about yourself.
There are so many great moments I couldn’t possibly mention
them all. In a way the final episode was similar. I laughed a lot watching it,
Clarkson’s line, I hate working on Top Gear really got me. It was good however
the two films weren’t the farewells I’d always imagined from Top Gear. In a way
it was fitting, the last thing Clarkson did was drive a £250 car cut in half
through a muddy field towards an extravagant house full of smartly dressed people
in a convention for some environmental thing. It was what came after I found
strange however.
Watching Hammond and May close the show felt incredibly
sombre. Hammond looked ready to well up and there was no acknowledgment of the
elephant in the room, no talks of the future, simply the TWO of them said
thanks for watching and Goodbye. It’s always goodnight said at the end of a Top
Gear Episode. Then the credits came up with the usual black background and
white text. There was the simple change
of no music, instead a silence lingered over the screen. It almost felt like
there’d been a death, it felt meaningful as did that first line, “Hello and welcome
to what’s left of Top Gear”.
I’d be incredibly surprised if this is the last we see of
the three of them together, equally Top Gear on the BBC will be back, we
already know Chris Evans will be hosting which for what it’s worth I think is a
good choice. It is the end of an era though. It’s strange, I always imagined
Top Gear would in in a barrage of tyre squeal, explosions, the Stig removing
his helmet with those three morons all there before declaring that on that
bombshell it’s time to end. The expression on the faces of Hammond and May said
it all however. There’s genuine sadness to see it go, not bad for a pokey
motoring show on BBC 2 I suppose.
Leave your favourite Top Gear memory in the comments, there
are so many but personally I think I’d have to say the Reliant Robin test, it was
so incredibly funny. I’m not really sure how to end this, I kind of want to say
something fitting but I’ve got nothing. Not much of a bombshell really is it.
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