When was top gear first aired

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Top Gear: Car Vs. Top Gear: Ferrari Top Gear: Caparo. Top Gear: Heart And Soul. Top Gear: Smallest Production Car. Top Gear: Helen Mirren. Top Gear: Driving Heaven. Trailer Season 31 Trailer. Photos Top cast Edit. The Stig Self as Self …. Sabine Schmitz Self as Self. Josh Cohen Narrator as Narrator.

Tom Chilton Self as Self …. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Top Gear is a British television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars, and is a relaunched version of the original show of the same name, airing since , and becoming the most widely watched factual television programme in the world. Bring on the Bangers and Mash! In , after several series full of destructions, stunts, and races around the world, the programme received a Guinness World Record for the world's Most widely watched factual TV programme.

In , after an altercation with the producer, the BBC suspended Clarkson and the fate of the show was left to the bosses of the BBC. Clarkson used this new show to promote using your old car to raise money with our fundraising venture, Charity Car.

Another proud moment for us! After series 26, which airs in early , Matt LeBlanc will leave Top Gear because he wants to spend more time with his family, and filming with Top Gear requires a lot of travelling.

The BBC have promised his last series will be one not to miss! Matt has thrown himself into the show with real passion, revealing his extraordinary car knowledge and a willingness to get down and dirty.

We were always going to be borrowing him from his day job as one of the top comic actors in Hollywood so I wish him all the very best.

We're looking forward to seeing how series 27 pans out with Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuiness at the helm.

Stay up to date our latest news. It must be time for a coffee break! As was the case for the first eight series of Top Gear , individual episodes were not available for purchase in box sets. Instead, footage from the episode was cut and placed into a compilation video, which was released twice:. After its initial airing, many licenced tracks were replaced with stock music, as most export countries do not share the same blanket licence that the BBC enjoys in the UK. The following are identified stock tracks or other alternative pieces of music used in these rebroadcasts.

The Honda Civic Type R is caught by the speed camera, with the date and time visible in the upper right. Top Gear Wiki Explore. Recent blog posts. Explore Wikis Community Central.

Register Don't have an account? Series 1, Episode 1. View source. History Talk 0. The Lamborghini Murcielago driving around the track. The Black Stig, who was introduced during this segment. Clarkson worried after going slightly off the road. This list is taken from the visible end credits and does not rely on IMDb or any other source.

Spelling mistakes are indicated with [sic]. End Card. Series Editor. The following series saw Hammond's return to high-speed driving, with a special "Hamster" helmet designed and donated by FinalGear, as he raced a Bugatti Veyron against a EuroFighter Typhoon.

It was this series which saw the trio find the best driving road in the world, a second attempt at building amphibious cars , determining whether or not British Leyland made any good cars, and the show's fourth special , set in Botswana.

After the success of the first ten series, the decision was made to dial down production to an average of 6 episodes per series, rather than the 10 of its predecessors, with the majority of content pertaining to new, affordable cars being axed.

Series 11 saw heightened creative control from Wilman and all three of the presenters he produced for, and viewing figures did briefly suffer as a result, with some viewers sending in complaints which would persist throughout the following series. Although the show had temporarily stalled in its home country, Top Gear was rapidly growing into an international sensation by this point, and its next two series would see the show reach its absolute peak. Often considered the best episode of the entire run of format Top Gear , 's Vietnam Special , the fifth of its kind, saw the trio take to motorcycles across the Asian nation which had only just recently experienced the advent of the car.

This would be followed up in Series 14 by an equally acclaimed special in Bolivia , where the trio took three 4x4s a thousand miles through South America. After many other classic moments such as the 'unmasking' of The Stig as Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher , a themed Race to the North , Jeremy and James' attempts at producing an effective advertising campaign for the then-new Volkswagen Scirocco , several more cheap car challenges, a second attempt at finding the best driving road in the world, this time in Romania, and a homemade electric car based on the chassis of a scrap TVR, Top Gear started the next decade as television's greatest show as voted for in a poll broadcast on Channel 4.

One series following a transition to i High Definition broadcasts as opposed to the i Standard Definition broadcasts of the first thirteen series, Series 15 saw Top Gear open the decade with a new reasonably-priced car , an attempt at taking another Toyota Hilux up an active volcano, an attempt at building a motorhome from three used cars, and in one of the series' most memorable moments, Jeremy Clarkson trying to drive a Reliant Robin from Sheffield to Rotherham; a distance of 14 miles.

Following an unceremonious departure from the aforementioned Stig during the time the show was off the air, which then saw Tiff Needell's return to the show for the first time since , the next few series were characterised by the show's ever-increasing notoriety and lust for scandal. The second episode of the show's sixteenth series resulted in the Mexican Comments Controversy , where presenter Richard Hammond made several disparaging comments towards Mexicans when asked for his opinion on the Mastretta MXT.

The next episode contained a skit involving the supposed "murder" of an overweight Albanian national which some viewers found to be distasteful. These controversies came to a head in May , when it had been revealed that in an outtake for Series 19, Episode 3 , Jeremy Clarkson appeared to mumble a particular racial epithet whilst humming the words to "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" as he chose between the virtually-identical Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ. At the end of the year, this was followed by the Slope Controversy , where an archaic epithet for an Asian person seemed to have been used by Clarkson.

This led to the decision to place Clarkson under a "final warning" technicality, where any further infraction would result in his dismissal and the termination of his contract with the BBC.

With viewer retention beginning to struggle in an era where online streaming had started to supplant traditional television, with Series 20 averaging at a paltry 4. A Red Button exclusive episode simulcast on the official website, Facebook and YouTube, Top Gear presented its first and only live episode on the 18th of January, one week before Series 22's premiere.

Titled An Evening With Top Gear , radio host Christian O'Connell and an attentive crowd asked the trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May various questions about the upcoming series, in addition to several preview clips being teased throughout. The first six of a planned ten episodes would air as planned, but behind the scenes tensions began to fray. Following a late-night filming session for the studio segments of Series 22, Episode 7 , in a move which some have since speculated to have been deliberate, Jeremy Clarkson burst into a tirade against Oisin Tymon , a long-term producer, before assaulting him over a catering-related dispute.

Clarkson would report the incident himself a day later, but would end up dismissed as a result of his actions.