Top Gear

Top Gear is a television show on the BBC. The show is all about cars and other vehicles. They test new cars to see how fast they go. They also test really old cars and do crazy stuff with them. They usually rate cars that the normal person wouldn't be able to afford. The show started as a regular car show but has changed over time to what it is now. It uses comedy to attract viewers which are now estimated to be 350 million.

Top Gear
Genre	Automotive entertainment Comedy Motorsport Motoring
Presented by	Angela Rippon (1977–1978) Tom Coyne (1977) Barrie Gill (1978–79) Noel Edmonds (1979–80) Frank Page (1980–88) Sue Baker (1980–91) Tom Boswell (1981–90) William Woollard (1981–91) Chris Goffey (1981–97) Tony Mason (1986–2000) Tiff Needell (1987–2001) Jon Bentley (1988, 1995–97) Jeremy Clarkson (1988–2000, 2003-2015) Nicky Fox (1991–92) Steve Johnson (1992) Quentin Willson (1991–2001) Michele Newman (1993–98) Steve Berry (1993–99) Russell Bulgin (1994) Vicki Butler-Henderson (1994–2001) Andy Wilman (1994–2001) Julia Bradbury (1998–99) Brendan Coogan (1999) James May (1999, 2003-2015, 2021) Kate Humble (1999–2000) Jason Barlow (2000–01) Adrian Simpson (2000-01) Richard Hammond (2003-2015, 2021) Chris Evans (2016) Matt LeBlanc (2016-2019) Sabine Schmitz (2016-2020) Eddie Jordan Chris Harris (2016-2022) Rory Reid (2016-2019) Freddie Flintoff (2019-2022) Paddy McGuinness (2019-2022)
Opening theme	"Jessica"
Composer	Dickey Betts
Original language	English
No. of series	78 (original) 33 (revived)
No. of episodes	794 and 15 specials
Production
Producers	Andy Wilman (2002-2015) Maggie Gibson Kate Shiers-Ghellere Peter McCann Gary Broadhurst Pat Doyle Alex Renton Grant Wardrop Chris Hale Greg Vince Oisin Tymon
Production locations	Dunsfold Park, Guildford, Surrey
Running time	60 min. (approx.)
Production company	BBC
Original release
Network	BBC Two
Release	Original 22 April 1977 (1977-04-22)– 17 December 2001 (2001-12-17) Revived 31 December 2001 (2001-12-31) – 18 December 2022 (2022-12-18) Revived 31 December 2027 (2027-12-31)  – present

Cast

Original

Series	Episodes	Presente
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	1977	Angela Rippon	Tom Coyne	Judith Jackson						N/A
1	1978		Barrie Gill
2	1979		Noel Edmonds		Barrie Gill	Gill Pyrah
3	1980	Noel Edmonds	Judith Jackson	Gill Pyrah	Frank Page
4						Frank Page				Sue Baker
5	1981	Chris Goffey		Merril Bolton
6				Tom Boswell				Martin Muncaster	Bill
7	1982
8				Bob Friend
9	1983
10								Jonathan Miles
11	1984	Tony Baker		Konrad Bartelski
12		Chris Goffey		David Willey
13	1985	Peter Burgess	Chris Goffey
14
15	1986			Russell Bray
16
17	1987	Alan Sutton	Tiff Needell	Tony Mason	Chris Goffey			Tony Mason
18		Tiff Needell	Tony Mason	Chris Goffey
19	1988
20		Jeremy Clarkson	Tom Boswell		Tiff Needell		Jon Bentley	Tony Mason
21	1989					Vic Allan
22
23	1990
24			Chris Goffey	Mark Forsyth
25	1991
26										N/A
27	1992			Helen Mound		Peter Wilson
28				Steve Lee		Steve Johnson
29	1993					Joe Withington
30				Steve Berry
31	1994					Andy Wilman
32
33	1995
34							Jon Bentley
35	1996
36
37	1997
38
39	1998
40
41	1999	J. May	Steve Punt
42		Kate Humble
43	2000
44		Jason Barlow	Andy Wilman
45	2001

Revived

Series	Presenters
	1	2	3	4
1	Jeremy Clarkson	Jason Dawe	Richard Hammond
2		Richard Hammond	J. May
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23	Matt LeBlanc	Chris Evans
24		Chris Harris	Rory Reid
25
26
27	Chris Harris	Andrew Flintoff	Paddy McGuinness
28	Paddy McGuinness	Chris Harris	Freddie Flintoff
29	Freddie Flintoff		Paddy McGuinness
30
31
32
33

Segments

Races

The show often has long distance races. They usually race a fast car against a different form of transportation like trains and boats. They are called 'epic' races. They also have smaller races where they match up cars of different times to see which one outperforms the other.

Challenge

The challenge part of the show is about different stunts of the most ridiculous things the show can come up with. One time they jumped a bus over a row of motorcycles (instead of the motorcycle jumping over buses). Recently, the show has started using the phrase "How hard can it be?" for the challenge segment. They put themselves in different situations that a normal person probably wouldn't get a chance to experience.

Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car

Once during every episode (except some specials) they bring a celebrity on stage. They show footage of the celebrity driving an average car around a racetrack. They put the time it took for them to complete a lap of the track on a board with the names of all of the other celebrities who drove the same course.

Power laps

Power laps are one lap around the Top Gear Test Track. They will take any car that can drive and will see how fast it can make it around the track. The vehicles must be cars and they must be road legal.

Other websites

• Top Gear on IMDb