Is it just me or is Top Gear fantastic?

Top Gear

I hate cars. I didn’t learn to drive until I was 21 because I hated them so much. I’ve owned two cars in my life, which was a bit of an aberration, and they were both rubbish and nothing but trouble. Cars are evil. They suck up money and destroy the planet. Use public transport instead if you can.

But I love Top Gear. It’s one of the best hours of television around and I’m not sure why. Obviously, it has something to do with the chemistry of the presenters. There’s also something about the way it doesn’t take itself too seriously and the way it mixes genres, one moment being the standard car review show, the next veering into scripted comedy, the next into reality TV. One moment it’ll be a chat show, the next moment it’ll be shot like a movie.

It’s terribly blokey, and not desperately informative for the average car driver, but it’s wonderful fun. If you’ve not tried it because you’re put off by Jeremy Clarkson or cars, I suggest you give it a whirl, since it’s still great.

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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