The Top Gear Story - The 100% Unofficial Story of the Most Famous Car Show... In The World. Martin Roach
there would be an all-male presenting line-up; also a so-called ‘Cool Wall’ to post pictures of cars and rate their desirability (of more later); outlandish and indeed cutting-edge TV features were to be encouraged; they would always be outspoken and speak their minds about the cars they tested and there would be a smattering of celebrity guests. Wilman’s defence of this bombastic and super-confident approach was simple: ‘Do the Two Fat Ladies say, “And if you want to have a low-fat version of this recipe, you can use single cream”? They never do. They go, “Pile it on, heart attack now!”’
The BBC loved the re-invention and commissioned the first series of ‘new’ Top Gear, set to be broadcast on 20 October 2002. The plan was to have two series per year of between 8 and 10 episodes. In the new Top Gear office, an ‘Ideas Board’ for suggestions was put up and initially filled with suggestions for features from the production team; over time it has also hosted ideas from fans or members of the public. Each show would usually have four filmed features (although this would fluctuate, especially when more substantial challenges were screened). This meant the Top Gear team had to create and execute around 70 to 80 ideas per year: no mean feat, creatively or practically.
The Top Gear production set-up is unusual within the BBC. Wilman only works on the series and is invariably talked of as being very ‘hands-on’. Famously direct, he has been described by one former co-worker as like ‘a glum, but familiar uncle on a rare visit home’. Top Gear’s office itself is open-plan and the team say the production process itself is very ‘organic’.
The show still used The Allman Brothers’ Band theme tune of ‘Jessica’, albeit updated. There was one final change: whereas the old Top Gear logo used a cog for the letters ‘O’ and ‘E’ in its name, the new version only employed a cog behind the word ‘Top’.
On that initial programme, the very first cars seen on-screen were a Ford Focus and a VW Golf; the team would be testing the Citroën Berlingo and Mazda 6 for the more mild-mannered viewer but they’d also be thrashing the beautiful Lamborghini Murcielago and the breath-taking supercar, the Pagani Zonda, as well as featuring the Ford GT40. There was Harry Enfield as a guest and a feature on how fast you have to drive to be too fast for a speed camera to nab you. Remember Jon Bentley having to battle to film the Ferrari Testarossa versus the Lamborghini Countach? Well, in the first series of new Top Gear alone, as well as the two aforementioned supercars, they also featured among others, the Noble M12 GTO, the Westfield XTR, an Aston Martin Vanquish, the Ferrari 575M Maranello, a Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R, the Bentley Image, the Honda NSX Type R, the Lotus Elise 111S, a Maserati Coupé, the Lotus Esprit and a TVR T350C! This was Andy Wilman and Jeremy Clarkson absolutely setting out their stall. Clarkson even introduced the new show as such prior to the opening credits of Episode 1, saying before the theme tune kicked in that it was ‘a car programme’, there’d be no cushions, no one would sing on the programme or get a recording contract, pointing out their test track was purpose-built and adding there’d be no bus lanes and no traffic jams.
Before moving on, it’s vital to note one further addition to the show’s personnel. In order to test the long list of supercars they were intent on featuring on the new Top Gear, the team had decided that they needed someone other than a presenter to trial the machines around the test track. So, in Episode 1, Clarkson explained this thinking and said they’d decided to look for a real racing driver because they have ‘tiny little brains and worthless opinions’. Then, for the very first time ever, he introduced The Stig. At this stage, The Stig was wearing all black, à la Darth Vader.
For the first series, the presenting team was JC, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe. Hammond’s path to Top Gear had been a quirky one: contrary to Wilman’s supposedly all-male line-up plan, unconfirmed TV legend has it that certain folk may have been considering whether to recruit a female presenter, but Richard Hammond was sent along too as he shared an agent with a woman that they were interested in.
Hammond was a long-time fan of the show and avidly watched old Top Gear as a kid. As we have seen, he had been making good progress on various cable TV channels but in mainstream terms, he was a relative unknown. At his audition, he made a good impression and was initially asked to make some short films for a possible Top Gear spin-off.
The Guardian quoted a ‘former BBC executive’ as saying, ‘We interviewed lots of high-profile motoring journalists and half of them were scared shitless of Jeremy. The remarkable thing about Richard is he was naturally funny and he took the piss out of Clarkson, which Jeremy loved.’ The Top Gear job was Hammond’s. It was 2002 – a big year for Richard, as he also married his sweetheart, Mindy. Later, speaking to Times Online, Hammond made no secret of how excited he was to be on the series: ‘Even when we were recording the first episode and Jeremy said, “Hello, and welcome to Top Gear”, my immediate thought was, “Oh great, Top Gear’s back!” Then I suddenly realised, “Oh s***, I’m on it!”’
Alongside the show’s patriarch Clarkson, Hammond’s other co-presenter was Jason Dawe, a Cornish native who first started selling cars in 1986 when he worked at a local car dealership (including two separate brands crowning him ‘Salesman of the Year’) before graduating to become a sought-after motor industry trainer. After 16 years in the motor trade, he began working in journalism and picked up a reputation for championing consumers, helping them pick their way through the minefield that buying a car can prove to be. Dawe’s participation in the new Top Gear therefore introduced a highly credible and investigative tone to the brash programme. His role quickly took the form of ‘consumer’s champion’ with the more light-hearted features generally being presented by Clarkson and Hammond. However, at the start of the second series of the new generation, Dawe was replaced by James May.
Following the demise of the previous incarnation of Top Gear, May returned to his revered magazine columns. He was barely settled back in his journalist’s chair before the new Top Gear producers called as they were looking for a replacement for Jason Dawe, who was to leave the programme after the end of series 1 in 2002. Despite earlier reservations about being too similar to Clarkson, May was the archetypal British gent: a more cerebral, stylish and pedestrian partner to the firebrands of Clarkson and Hammond. He has since proved the perfect foil for the other two’s more exuberant personalities.
Speaking to the Guardian in 2008, a BBC executive recalled his audition for the new formatted show: ‘James had a 14-year-old Bentley at the time. At the audition he said, “I’ve found out if you spend £50 at Tesco, you get £5 of free petrol. Now I can drive anywhere I like; the problem is my house is full of rotting food!” Everyone in the room laughed, Jeremy laughed. That landed him the job.’
With James May on board, the BBC now had the presenting line-up that would, over time, turn Top Gear into a programme watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world. However, although different to its predecessor in many ways, the new format was not an immediate ratings hit; where the BBC played its trump card was in allowing the show to grow, giving Wilman and his production team the creative freedom and time to produce unusual features while allowing the presenting triumvirate of Hammond/Clarkson/May the opportunity to develop their characters on-screen.
The more caricatured elements of the three characters have only really developed over the span of several series and the show’s ratings have subsequently gone up and up and up … Wilman himself was quoted in the Guardian describing them thus: ‘Jeremy is walk through a door rather than open it, Richard’s a massively accident prone and cheeky chappie, and James is a pedantic nerd.’ This was a formula that quickly proved highly successful: with the dream line-up, a healthy budget and the full backing of the BBC, new Top Gear set about becoming the most-watched and most successful motoring show of all-time.
The Star in a Reasonably Priced Car
From the very first series of the new