Jeremy Clarkson jokes about Top Gear hosts
The BBC's flagship car show Top Gear has been a staple in many homes across the country since it began 47 years ago. From daring stunts, wild challenges and celebrity appearances, the motoring show has kept fans entertained for decades.
Originally, the series aired on April 22 back in 1977 with Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne fronting the series. They spoke on a broad range of motor topics, from car reviews to road safety and offering consumer advice.
For over 20 years the show saw a rotation of presenters from Noel Edmonds to Tiff Needell, William Woollard and Quentin Willson. However, the BBC decided to cancel the programme in 2001, with many cast and crew moving to Channel 5 for Fifth Gear.
However, it wasn’t off screens for long as the broadcaster relaunched the show in 2002. This time, fans saw Jeremey Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe as the hosts with James May replacing Jason the next year.
The trio were the faces of Top Gear for many years before leaving in 2015 with other famous faces taking over. However, last year the broadcaster revealed they are ‘resting the show ‘ for the foreseeable future following host Freddie Fliontoff’s crash.
As the first episode of Top Gear aired 47 years ago, Express.co.uk has taken a look back at the rise and fall of the BBC show.
Hollywood cameos
Over the years, Top Gear fans have seen a huge range of guests make an appearance on the show.
From A-list actors to pop sensations, there’s a pretty impressive roster of stars who have featured on the motor programme.
One of which includes actress Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise who both went head-to-head in 2011 to see who could complete a lap around a race course quicker.
Tom’s race around the track saw him speed around a corner so fast that he nearly flipped the vehicle on its side.
As Jeremey Clarkson applauded him, he said: “What a corner! We could’ve killed you. What if we’d actually killed you?! Thank god you managed to get it on all four wheels again.”
In the end, Tom beat Cameron’s time as she finished in one minute 45 seconds, whereas he completed it in one minute 44 seconds.
Other well-known faces who have starred in the show over the years include Simon Cowell, Rowan Atkinson, Ger Horner, Lewis Hamilton, Dame Helen Mirren and Matt LeBlanc before joining the show as a presenter in 2016.
Terrifying crashes
Over the years, many Top Gear hosts have found themselves involved in accidents from nail-biting stunts on the show.
Most recently, Freddie Flintoff was airlifted to hospital to hospital after the open-topped three-wheel sports car he was driving flipped. Going up to 130mph, the vehicle crashed and flipped onto its roof, which dragged Freddie and a crew member along the track.
From this, he suffered broken ribs and serious facial injuries.
However, Freddie was not the first star of the show to find themselves in serious danger. In 2006, Richard Hammond was involved in a serious accident which left him in a coma for two weeks.
The BBC star crashed a jet-powered dragster called Vampire at nearly 320mph (515kmph) while filming for the show. Speaking about the incident on the Diary Of A CEO podcast, Richard explained the injuries he sustained could mean an increased risk of a condition linked to memory loss.
He commented: “I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes. It might be because I'm 53, it might be because I'm working a lot and I'm tired, it might be the onset of something else.”
Ratings plummet
In 2016, the programme had a huge reshuffle following Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s exit.
Instead, viewers tuned in to watch Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc with Sabine Schmitz, Chris Harris, Rory Reid and Eddie Jordan as their co-presenters,
However, the first episode of the new Top Gear didn’t go down well with fans as they gained 4.4 million viewers, a whopping one million lower than Jeremy Clarkson’s last show.
Sadly, the ratings continued to fall with the second episode getting 2.8 million and 2.4 million for the third instalment.
When the season came to an end, Chis decided to leave the show with Matt staying on until 2019.
Although viewing figures failed to rise with an overnight average of 1.9million viewers. When the programme was taken over by Paddy McGuinness, Chris Harris and Freddie Flintoff following Matt’s departure, the viewing figures rose slightly to 2.5million.
However, last year it was reported the latest series attracted a whopping 4.5 million viewers, a massive difference from 2016.
