Throng

Quite often, I find myself so irritated by the Top Gear team as a whole, that I dream of making a cockentrice out of them, with Hammond being inserted into May, May inserted into Clarkson... and the whole thing roasted and served up to simpleton men in chinos holding River Island gift vouchers.

However, despite the combined irritation, the show does have moments of fun and, occasionally, truly insane television.

I think that it's fair to say that Top Gear is neither fish nor beast. It's not really a car-consumer show, and neither is it wholly Jackass for middle aged men. Sometimes, in the grey area, we get good TV. If it veers too far one way or the other, it can baulk.

That said, the one thing that always saves the show is the Top Gear Special.

Top Gear, once again, has bowed out with a monumentally fun show. Poking fun at everything and everyone, Clarkson, May and Hammond smashed, revved and snorted... and sailed closer to the wind than possibly ever before. Knuckles whitened through tension and fear of bumbling into jokes just too dodgy.

However, for all the fun of the advertising skit, which saw May and Clarkson showing off videos of bleeding arm stumps, funerals and more, it was the last sequence that has people chattering nervously like bipolar fathers outside a courthouse.

You see, there was something incredibly final about the last in the series. Will Top Gear be returning at all?

Jeremy Clarkson is in trouble again, over remarks he made to the Top Gear audience about Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In a long tirade against Brown, Clarkson is said to have called him a c***. Many in the audience found the word offensive and complained. According to newspaper, The Guardian, a witness reported Clarkson saying: "The reason you can't do that is because Gordon Brown is a ----" when speaking about government policy.

While many of the audience found it funny, some complained, and Clarkson was confronted by BBC Two Controller, Janice Hadlow, who was present at the time of his outburst. A BBC spokesperson has said that Hadlow holds Jeremy and his show in “high regard” and in telling him off she did not ask him to make an apology.

Top Gear (BBC Two, Sundays), when on form, is pretty much unparalleled on telly. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May... and the ominous Stig, clearly have complete disregard for almost everything, including the cars they test drive.

There's a certain anarchic joy about the way the lads go about their business. It's almost like they've forgotten about the car element to their show to give everyone a grown-up version of Tiswas (no, I'm not talking about O.T.T., the failed Tiswas late-nighter). As such, the show dragged people who don't even like cars along for the ride. However, the latest series is showing something of a worrying trend. Namely, that it's rubbish.

 Top Gear

TOP GEAR's Richard Hammond, aka "The Hamster," has made a speedy recovery back to the world of extreme motorsports after a horrific high-speed crash just a few months ago. He crashed at 288 miles per hour and barely lived to tell the tale, but he has already whetted his addiction to speed with a new toy.

Hammond has recently collected a Ducati 1098 speedbike, capable of 175 mph, from the manufacturer's plant in Italy. The speed freak now has a new way of putting himself in death-defying places - at top speed!

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There are rumours that producers of popular Top Gear are in the midst of talks to make a US version of the programme. The show would follow the same format as the UK version but would focus on American made cars.

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Presenter Jeremy Clarkson dropped hints during the latest Top Gear show that he may not be sticking around in the future. He said that the show would not return for a new series in the summer, though this has been contradicted by the BBC, who have stated that it would be returning, and with its original presenters: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

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The final of Celebrity Big Brother on Sunday was viewed by 5.8 million, and the show over the season reached up to 7.3 million at its height. However Top Gear on Sunday night, which showed footage of Richard Hammond's crash in September, was seen by 7.9 million viewers. Top Gear has reached a height of 8.6 million viewers.

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The following link shows a new picture released by the BBC of the high-speed crash that nearly took the life of Top Gear host Richard Hammond.

Picture.

Richard Hammond, co-presenter of Top Gear, now has a full bill of health, after being injured while filming in September 2006. Footage of the crash is likely to be shown in the new series.

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