Top Gear

Top Gear is one of the best programs on the BBC. The hole thing with the police was so funny. My nan even whached it.

What were the police doing with their holes? Sounds like filth to me.

But it wasnt the towbar that did the damage, it was the post outside the petrol station which the caravan hit. Cavavan stoped by post + car pulling against it = bent towhook.

No he is, How many times has Jeremy hinted at it

That's the joke.

When has it ever been hinted at?

There was a long conversation about the subject when Damon Hill appeared on the programme

Top Gear is still great & doesn't need changing at all as they say if it ain't broke....

But just what is that dog all about, was he a rescue dog, donated...?

The Caravan trip was excellent & shows that the show still has many ideas in it yet, also they still do the serious side testing out several cars in the programme as well (and yes I think I hate the Vectra as much as Clarkson seeing as that's the only car our firm use & can't escape them as they're so common and bland)

Just one quick question there was a big fella by the name of Jason (I think) in the first series of the New Top Gear but he was replaced by James May (a good move to add the posh bloke in the show), anyone know why at all?

Because the big fat guy was awful.

It was clear in that first of the new series that there was a chemistry between Hammond and Clarkson and that they were carrying the show.

The fat guy (really can't remember his name) just didn't work. He was meant to have all the inside information from his contacts in the industry about cheap cars on sale at garages now....

I'm getting bored just typing this.

James May was an inspirational bit of casting, acting as the perfect foil to the Clarkson/Hammond relationship.

Jason Dawe

Wikipedia entry

I think he's been cut out of the repeats shown on UKTV, either that or the first series isn't shown. Would be interesting to see the first few of the 'new style' Top Gear's to contrastthem to the current series

I downloaded a couple of series one eps from Emule to see what they were like, as you mention. They're a little slower, and dryer than the later stuff, and have more actual car information. I think Jason Dawe just didn't fit into the frivolous direction the programme was going in.

I happen to quite like JD, on the "Used Car Roadshow" programme he's pretty good, but then that show fits in with his style a lot better. Think Mike Brewer without the chavviness.

I've got all of Season 1 with Jason Dawes, and it is almost totally different to the series we have now. It was almost all car based. I seem to remember one episode they did a 5 minute segment on running your car on vegetable oil, and another episode where Clarkson did a 10 minute segment on how good a Citroen Minivan was. Something you'd never see them do now. You also had the insider dealings with Jason who'd tell you how cheap you could get new cars, which James May also did when he first arrived but that soon stopped. When they did the track tests as well, they were a lot more complicated. They even had an OSD of the track and where the car was, a G metre and a speedometer. A lot less of the screwing about segments too. It was obviously more for the serious car enthusiast in the first series. It was like a mish-mash of old style Top Gear and new Top Gear.

As for the question of whether its past its prime, rubbish! I think it's better now than its ever been!

For anyone interested, here's a clip featuring Jason Dawe not doing very much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZuGQNARGGM&search=top%20gear%20season%201

...and here's that feature on vegetable oil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF7p8-2s5Lw