Back in early December, the Australian T.V broadcaster SBS (along with the ABC, one of the two grown up TV stations in Australia) aired the 2004 season of the British motoring programme Top Gear, and it was the best show to be aired on Australian TV for a very long time…
I used to watch the original Top Gear many years ago back in England, but lost touch after moving out to Australia, so I was particularly pleased when SBS decided to give it a go – something that no other Aussie TV broadcaster has tried before as far as I am aware. Now this particular incarnation of the show is quite different to the original, more irreverent, with a totally different format, and I thought after watching the first episode in December, maybe a little bit too British in its content and humour for the mass Australian market. But it seems I am wrong, going by the SBS forums and the amount of talk about it in the office the day after each episode, I am hearing nothing but positive reactions! It is so utterly different from any type of Australian motoring television show that I think it appeals for its freshness. It is not unimaginative, predictable, or formulaic; all shortcomings that Aussie motoring shows seem to suffer a surfeit of.
Perhaps being born and growing up in the UK makes me a bit biased towards the show, but well, that’s what Top Gear is all about, unabashed bias!
Unfortunately though the final show of the 2004 season was aired last Monday, so we’ll have to wait and see if Jeremy Clarkson and the team will return to the antipodean airwaves with the 2005 season. It might be argued that it is a little out of date, but to be honest very few of the (non super-car) vehicles shown and tested on the show make it out as far as Australia, so it isn’t really an issue.
My favourite moment – the first show when they compared a British Jaguar S Type, an American Chrysler 300C and an Australian Holden Monaro (although it is badged Vauxhall Monaro in the UK to make the Brits feel better about buying it). I was pleasantly surprised when the normally anti US /Australian vehicle team overcame their superiority complex for all things Euro, and voted the Aussie Monaro as best of the three under their extreme test conditions. A great moment for the Aussie motoring industry!
I have one question though – during the many track tests they did throughout the series, why did it always seem to be raining…?
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