Top Gear still has plenty in the tank

The series, which turned three badly-dressed blokes into global stars, has become an incredible phenomenon.

Sunday's opening episode is expected to pull in 350 million viewers when it is simultaneously broadcast across more than 50 countries — something that would surely have seemed unthinkable when it was launched in 2002 as a revamped version of BBC2's worthy but slightly dull motoring magazine.

But what is it about this slightly chaotic motoring show, which seems to be more about the finely honed incompetence of presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond than it does about cars, which has proved such compelling viewing all over the world?

• The crew provoked the ire of the Morris Marina Owners Club when they dropped a piano on the car. By way of ‘apology’ they responded with a glowing review of another example of the car — which was also crushed beneath a piano.

• Jeremy Clarkson and James May made history as the first people to drive a car to the magnetic North Pole in 2007. However, they were rapped by the BBC Trust when Clarkson celebrated the achievement by drinking a gin and tonic.

• The programme was at the centre of a ‘fakery’ row when riverbank diners had their meal disrupted by a deluge of water from the ‘hovervan’ the trio had created. One of the ‘diners’ said he’d been hired by Top Gear.[/breakout]

In some respects, it is surprising that Top Gear is still with us.

This week, executive producer AndyWilman raised speculation that it could be the last series, saying that talks were ongoing about whether another one will followed, and that he sometimes believed the Top Gear team was not fully trusted by executives.

In recent years there have been growing murmurings from the critics that the show is, like its presenters, a little past its prime.

For all the hullabaloo about the dust-up in Argentina, which threatened to escalate into a full-blown diplomatic row, the purpose for their trip to South America was yet another game of car football – which was not especially funny the first time they tried it, almost eight years ago.

Indeed, as long ago as 2009, Wilman admitted the format was "nearer the end than the beginning." And at this week's launch party, frontman Clarkson conceded the series was beginning to resemble The Last of the Summer Wine, being predominantly about "Three old men falling over a lot."

It is now 13 years since the new-look Top Gear hit our screens, although it could be argued that it was not until 2003, when James May joined the cast, that the format really began in earnest. In the 2002 series, Jason Dawe played the role of the straight man, providing serious consumer input while former Star journalist Clarkson and Hammond larked around. However, when May replaced Dawe the following year, the laddish banter was turned up a notch or two, and any pretence of being a serious factual show rapidly disappeared.

As Clarkson this week, said: "We are the world's most popular factual show, which is interesting because we don't have any real facts.

The Argentina controversy, in which Clarkson and his colleagues were forced to hide under their beds and flee after an angry mob searched their hotel and tried to attack them, led to fresh calls for the series to be scrapped.

• Last year the show was at the centre of a race storm after the pair built a new bridge over the River Kwai. As a local man walked across the bridge, Clarkson took in the scene and quipped: “That is a proud moment, but there’s a slope on it.” Producer Wilman later said the team had no idea that the word ‘slope’ was a racist term for Asian people.

• During the 2007 American Special, the show received 91 complaints regarding a dead cow being tied to the roof of Clarkson’s Chevrolet Camaro. It was later revealed by the BBC that the cow had died several days previously and Clarkson had caused no harm or injury to it.

• Clarkson reputedly ended up hiding beneath his bed after Argentinians took offence at the H982FKL number plate on the Porsche he drove through the country. He denied that the plate was a reference to the 1982 Falklands War.[/breakout]

Locals in the South American country were furious that he was driving a car with the number plate of his Porsche, H982 FKL, believing it was a reference to the 1982 Falklands conflict.

However Clarkson insists it was purely coincidental, with an internet search having located only two suitable Porsche 928s within the budget.

The Top Gear team was warned 10 days before the fracas that the number plates on the car would cause offence. And how do you explain the alternative number plate, BE11 END, which Argentinian police say they found inside Clarkson's car?

However, while the drama might have left Clarkson and his cohorts feeling a little shaken, it appears to have done nothing to harm the ratings. The two-part special attracted 4.8 million viewers, with a further 2.1 million seeking it out on the iPlayer Catch-up service, making it the most searched-for programme over the Christmas period.

In many ways, there is something uncannily British about Top Gear.

In this era of stifling political correctness, it is surely refreshing to see a show which makes no pretence of subscribing to fashionable thinking. While politicians, safely ensconced in their chauffeur-driven limousines, lecture us about the need to drive smaller cars, Clarkson & Co strike a blow for all of us when they give the establishment a metaphorical V-sign and burn some rubber in an Aston.

And while the Guardian-reading classes will howl in protest at a show whose raison d'etre seems to be about offending their sensibilities, and for all the 'umming' and 'ahhing' from the BBC heirarchy about editorial ethics, it seems inconceivable that this series of will be the last.

EastEnders may tick all the right boxes, Newsnight may leave us better informed, and it may be that the Top Gear crew are running out of ideas. But when it comes to a bit of good old-fashioned fun for all the family, there's still nothing else to beat dropping a piano onto a Morris Marina.

Now, where are those cows?