Un-official GTPlanet BBC Topgear UK ThreadTV 

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If I should be sacked, think only this of me; That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever Dave.
 
Top Gear won't end. It's too valuable for the BBC to kill off completely. The problems were with Clarkson, not the show. Top Gear will continue like American Idol has without Simon Cowell; it'll go on but not be nearly as good, with or without Hammond and May.

First Speedvision, now Top Gear. :grumpy:
 
starknight97
There goes the only thing I liked about the BBC. Licence fee is now just an extra tax so I can watch tv.
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That's all it ever was - a convenience tax that permits you to watch (or record) broadcast TV.

If you want to watch anything from on-demand services (iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, whatever the 5 one is, Sky Anytime, NowTV, Netflix, Amazon Prime) or anything broadcast but not on a UK service (SpaceX/NASA launches, for example), you don't need a TV Licence. We binned ours in 2013 - and now the TV isn't on in the background on Sky News or whatever 20 hours a day, saving us electricity too...
 
Famine
If you want to watch anything from on-demand services (iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, whatever the 5 one is, Sky Anytime, NowTV, Netflix, Amazon Prime) or anything broadcast but not on a UK service (SpaceX/NASA launches, for example), you don't need a TV Licence.
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Am I correct in thinking that the only one of those services not supported by a subscription (barring the License fee), or advertising, is iPlayer?
 
MatskiMonk
Am I correct in thinking that the only one of those services not supported by a subscription (barring the License fee), or advertising, is iPlayer?
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Yes, to an extent. Of course iPlayer IS funded by the Licence fee...

Licence: iPlayer
Subscription: Sky Anytime, Netflix, NowTV, Amazon Prime
Advertising: ITV Player, 4OD, Demand 5

Sky, Now and iPlayer also have provision for a live component that you cannot view or record legally without a TV Licence.
 
While I'm kinda sad Top Gear's dead, having practically grown up with it, it was only a matter of time. Even if the BBC somehow kept him, it'd only be another few months until there's another racial slur, or Clarkson gets drunk and has a 'fracas' with someone else.

It was starting to circle the drain anyway IMO. While some overseas audiences *cough*America*cough* seem to love the blatantly scripted humour, I just wanted to see them review cars. Even if it wasn't a particularly serious review (e.g. Fiesta vs Corvette in a shopping centre) it would still be better than the Ambulance 'challenge' or the India special.
 
I have 30 minutes left to watch of the Perfect Road Trip 2 Part 2 on my DVR. It will be the last of new Top Gear I will see.
 
ehh, they had a good run anyway with 21 seasons under their belt.
 
RandomCarGuy17
...huh
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The normal season for American television is generally 23 episodes, each 21 or 42 minutes over a year. Top Gear usually does biannual seasons of about 7 episodes, each an hour long, so it's pretty different from other TV shows, especially in America. There are exceptions to the 23-episode seasons, such as AMC's original series, however.
 
JMoney689
The normal season for American television is generally 23 episodes, each 21 or 42 minutes over a year. Top Gear usually does biannual seasons of about 7 episodes, each an hour long, so it's pretty different from other TV shows, especially in America. There are exceptions to the 23-episode seasons, such as AMC's original series, however.
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Well, I didn't know that. Now I do. Fine though, I'll call them "series". *sigh*
 
JMoney689
The normal season for American television is generally 23 episodes, each 21 or 42 minutes over a year. Top Gear usually does biannual seasons of about 7 episodes, each an hour long, so it's pretty different from other TV shows, especially in America. There are exceptions to the 23-episode seasons, such as AMC's original series, however.
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It's a British television show. Our seasons are far shorter than yours but it doesn't make them any less of a season. There were only ever twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers. That's right, there is nearly four times as much Joey as there is Fawlty Towers.

There are exceptions of course but British telly generally has short and sweet seasons rather than long ones.
 
It's a shame that Jeremy Clarkson's involvement in Top Gear ended this way, but the BBC did the right thing.
 
If he's facing a police assault charge for assaulting someone, then that's consistent with the law. If he's lost his job as a result of employee misconduct, then that's only to be expected. If the final three episodes of this series of Top Gear never get aired, then that will be a minor irritation. If James May winds up leaving the BBC as a result of all this, that will be a true tragedy.
 
Did anyone else notice at the end of the perfect road trip 2 that there was a new narrator?

Anyways, Mondays will suck now if this is all true according to Clarkson.
 
E28
While I'm kinda sad Top Gear's dead, having practically grown up with it, it was only a matter of time. Even if the BBC somehow kept him, it'd only be another few months until there's another racial slur, or Clarkson gets drunk and has a 'fracas' with someone else.

It was starting to circle the drain anyway IMO. While some overseas audiences *cough*America*cough* seem to love the blatantly scripted humour, I just wanted to see them review cars. Even if it wasn't a particularly serious review (e.g. Fiesta vs Corvette in a shopping centre) it would still be better than the Ambulance 'challenge' or the India special.
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Exactly this. As a result of it becoming so popular, by simply being a funny programme about cars, it had to then start pander to people who don't find cars interesting. As such, the show changed into a more general, more scripted comedy programme, and they were never going to return to the glory years of 2003-2007ish, when it was still a funny show about cars, that was not heavily scripted. The three presenters almost morphed into caricatures or parodies of themselves, exaggerating certain traits for "humorous" effect (oh look, James has got lost, har har har, oh look, Jeremy's trying to fix something with a hammer, oh look, Hammond's so shouty, fnar fnar). I was literally crying inside during that Peugeot retrospective from a few weeks back, it was so tediously unfunny. I mean, I actually found the India special vaguely amusing in parts, but when I go back and find a Series 4 episode or something (like the £100 cheap car challenge), the genuine humour and unscripted calamities are far funnier, even though they aren't quite as dramatic.

A fitting end, though, no? Rather than simply ending like a normal programme might, it went out in blaze of controversy.
 
This makes me almost as sad as the second cancellation of Futurama. Top Gear is right up there as one of my all time favourite shows and that's largely thanks to the trio. While Top Gear will 'live on', it just won't be the same.
 
It was probably the right decision as Clarkson is a colossal imbecile and this incident was the last straw that broke the BBC's back.

Even if it is revamped with an all new cast (if reports Hammond and May also quitting are confirmed), Top Gear just won't feel the same as it was when Clarkson, Hammond and May turned the show into a money-making powerhouse for the BBC.
 
Needless to say, anyone that verbally abuses a junior staff member for a prolonged period of time and then punches them in the face giving them a bleeding lip shouldn't really keep their job. Combine that with his history of racial slurs and it's safe to assume Clarkson's not such a great guy. Good riddance.

As for the show, it's becoming increasingly tacky and scripted and the trio are looking increasingly undignified so if it's permanently cancelled I wont miss it much.

I must say, I'm slightly confused as to why anyone wants to see a man with a long history of assault and racial slurs return to their TV screens. Is the love of Top Gear so great that people are willing to overlook the fact that he's probably a pretty terrible person?
 
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I just heard about this. I have watched quite a few of these on Netflix. Top gear was indeed an excellent show for entertainment. Most of it was opinion and not everyone agreed with everything they said but it was still great entertainment as long as you didn't take it serious. I really liked the hour long episodes especially when they went off road. Richard Hammond was my favorite of the 3 but they were hilarious together as a group.
 
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