Radio Times

[dit]

Today's Guardian MediaMonkey has covered an interview with Andy Wilman from the Radio Times. I reckon the headline and subheadline say it all!


www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/28/top-gear-bbc-jeremy-clarkson?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

[RedMoon11]

Top Gear's Richard Hammond: My wife is a better driver than me

Richard "the Hamster" Hammond defends himself, Jeremy Clarkson and James May from the suggestion that they look down on women drivers



Ben Dowell

3:15 PM, 21 March 2014

They may have a reputation as a trio of lads who look down their noses at political correctness – but Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is adamant that he, James May and Jeremy Clarkson have the utmost respect for women drivers.

In fact, the diminutive presenter, nicknamed "the Hamster", insists that his wife is a better driver than him.

“People say to us ‘Oh you are terribly offensive, I know what you are like about women drivers’,” Hammond told RadioTimes.com.

“And I say, 'What? Give us an example'. We are not. For one thing, half of Top Gear’s audience is female. I have always thought my wife is a far better driver than me and I don’t ever make any jokes about women drivers.”

We are sure that Mrs Hamster – newspaper columnist Mindy Hammond – agrees. After all, Hammond says she is often left alone in their West Country home with their two children when he is on assignment and is compelled to take up all the family's driving duties.

“I work away a lot and when I go away I shed a tear or two when I know I won’t be home for a few weeks,” he adds. “When I am home I do the school run when I can – I try to strike a balance.”

Another drawback of his celebrity status is “overweight van drivers pointing at me and going on about how short I am.

"I just think: ‘I can’t do much about that but you’re still fat’. Still, it is gratifying sometimes to be recognised and to know that we make TV that people are watching. But I am still surprised when I talk to kids and a lot of them tell me they want to be famous – why?"

Hammond is fronting a new National Geographic Series, Science of Stupid (see clip below), which sees him introducing footage of accidents and trying to explain why they occurred.

Or as he puts it: “I spend my time laughing my socks off at clips of people doing stupid things, usually falling flat on their face…usually because of gravity. My job is to explain the science of what happened.”


Science of Stupid begins airing on Wednesday 9 April at 10pm on National Geographic UK

www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-03-21/top-gears-richard-hammond-my-wife-is-a-better-driver-than-me

[slfriend79]

The video doesn't work in the US.

[eshalda]

There is a nice bit in next weeks Radio Times (page 6) entitled 'Antiques Top gear.' Lovers of the Antiques Road show will remember that on the opening credits there is a convertible car carrying a large grandfather clock and other large items, it looks as though Top gear are doing a spoof of this. There is a lovely picture of James driving a green convertible with a large grandfather clock, and a smaller picture of Jeremy who looks as though he is sawing up an antique to fit in his car. It looks good fun, can't wait to see it in the next series.

[RedMoon11]

Series 22 Spoilers
jamesmayboard.proboards.com/thread/4102/series-22-spoilers


The Antiques Roadshow Titles (UK)

[RedMoon11]

Henry Dalton@henrydalton 5 Aug 2014
Lovely spread on Cars Of The People in the new Radio Times (and no, I still can't drive). #COTP #TopGear

James May: No car could ever be as exciting as my Vauxhall Cavalier

“In the 20th century, motoring, not religion, was the opium of the people”


James May

8:00 AM, 10 August 2014

My first car was a 1978 Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6L. It wasn’t actually very old, but it had belonged to a sales rep, so it had a moonshot mileage and one of the rear doors was stoved in, as if it had been kicked in the immediate aftermath of failure to close a deal.

The Cavalier 1.6L was bog-ordinary even in an era when bog-ordinary was the standard for just about everything. It had only two instruments, no clock, no head-rests, wind-up windows and the usual coat hanger for an aerial. The interior was brown.

These days, it’s no secret that I have a Ferrari. I love it, dearly, but neither it nor any other car I drive now could ever be as exciting as my Cavalier was. It’s not just that it was the first; it’s that I came to it from a bicycle, which I would think nothing of riding 40 miles to visit girls I imagine might be interested in me, only to discover that they weren’t, which meant I’d have to ride it 40 miles back the other way.

The Cavalier instantly broadened my horizons, fuelled my ambitions and invigorated my social life. I could visit several girls in the time I would have devoted to one in the bicycle era, and exhausted my (largely blank) address book within a week, proving in the process that women don’t find you any more desirable just because you can drive. Nevertheless, I drove it with a sense of absolute astonishment. I had a car; a richness beyond the conceit of kings.

Here we arrive at the most basic and obvious definition of “car of the people” – one designed to be accessible to those who never imagine they would have one. Such a car has been the holy grail of the motor industry for more than a century, and Henry Ford said of his Model T that he wanted to make “a car for the great multitude”.

Apart from anything else, it’s good business sense. By the time Ford was working on his moving production line, FW Woolworth had already demonstrated that it was better to sell a lot of cheap things to a large number of people than to push a few expensive trinkets on the rich. He had his own skyscraper to prove it.

More to the point, anything that appeals to the masses can soon be turned into a socio- political instrument, either to buy loyalty or to keep the people in their place. The VW Beetle, still the most interesting car ever made in my view, was an attempt at the former; East Germany’s Trabant remains the finest example of the latter. Both of these cars came good, but their beginnings are mired in controversy.

In the 20th century, motoring, not religion, was the opium of the people, and with it came concerns that we imagine are current ones: pollution, congestion, parking and running costs. All of these things were troubling us in the 1950s, and sent the affordable car down some curious historical cul-de-sacs.

Yes, the “Bubble Car” is recalled fondly as something the odd film star or model might have been seen exiting, through the front. It is, in fact, simply the best remembered of a lengthy microcar movement that produced absurdities such as a car that was the same at both ends and a 50cc French runabout that was intended for use – although it was never officially stated as such – by serial drunkards. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of this curious period is actually, well, a small motorcycle, the Honda C50 Super Cub. That probably tells you everything you need to know.

But I’d like to redefine the car of the people as something that rescues Ford’s “great multitude” from the drudgery of... the car. From the likes of my Cavalier, to be honest. Once car ownership turns into what seems like an inalienable right, then salvation for the people has to take the form of a car that sets them apart. These are what can be called “the people’s cars of hope”. So the Fords Capri and Mustang, which offered the exotic coupé form at the price of a humdrum saloon, are in there. So is a small Japanese sports car, the Mazda MX-5, and so is a dazzling totem of the bloated plutocracy – the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow – that became a blue-collar hero.

I may now drive a Ferrari, but at heart, “my other car” will always be that Vauxhall Cavalier. Which is as it should be – it’s only because of the cars of the people that we have cars at all.

James May's Cars of the People, Sunday at 9:00pm BBC2

www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-08-10/james-may-no-car-could-ever-be-as-exciting-as-my-vauxhall-cavalier

[RedMoon11]

James May's Cars of the People



Review by:
David Butcher

SERIES 1 - EPISODE 1
Never mind your supercars. Forget the Veyrons and LaFerraris that roar off the pages of car mags, and pass by your common-or-garden Porsches and Jags. James May wants to focus our sights on the sharp end of the car market. He wants to celebrate the transport of the masses, the everyday cars created to free populations and get whole nations on the move.

So our Top Gear man applies his schoolboy enthusiasm and dry wit to a tale of dictators, fraud and rust that includes some of the best and worst vehicles of the 20th century. Beetles, Trabants and Fiats are the stars of the opener, which also includes a clip of Brezhnev drunk, some hilarious old ads and advice on the use of mustard powder in radiators.

ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME
1/3. New series. The Top Gear presenter examines the social significance of cars in the 20th century. He begins by travelling to Germany, Italy and Russia to examine how dictators kick-started the mobilization of the masses, finding tales of design brilliance, abject failure, war, fraud and double dealing. James also learns about how the British motor industry blew a gift-wrapped chance to rule the world and he gets his own back with a stunt that means bad news for one of the planet's most hated cars.

www.radiotimes.com/episode/cz4nnz/james-mays-cars-of-the-people--series-1---episode-1

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SERIES 1 - EPISODE 2
“If you’re a regular viewer of Top Gear, you might be a bit disappointed that this programme is full of stupid, small cars,” admits James May. “But I have to say, I’m enjoying myself immensely.”

And so he is, piloting a range of more or less daft microcars like the Peel Trident and the Messerschmitt Tiger – cars created essentially to let people without a licence drive a (sort of) car – and look, as May says, like berks.

He spends a bit too long on this design cul-de-sac, but things get more interesting when he moves on to the classically French 2CV and Renault 4. Which sold more, do you think? And for that matter, what would be the biggest selling vehicle of all time? Answer: a Honda moped.

ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME
2/3. The Top Gear presenter continues his examination of how the car became an everyday part of people's lives, exploring the weird world of small vehicles. He discovers how austerity and fears of congestion led to European disasters in the shape of Britain's infamous three-wheelers, French death traps and German absurdities, and also takes to the battlefield to settle one of the greatest rivalries in car history.

www.radiotimes.com/episode/c2fhf7/james-mays-cars-of-the-people--series-1---episode-2



Series 1 - Episode 3
There’s a lovely diversion in this epidose where May gets sidetracked into pondering the badge hierarchies of 1970s car ranges – you know, all that L, GL, GLS, SLX, CDi, XRi business that defined not just whether you had velour seats and a wood trim fascia, but on which rung of the male status ladder you stood.

Social mobility is the theme – not just the populist cars, but also those we aspired to owning or had as posters on our walls. To that end, May concludes the Lamborghini Countach was a brilliant poster but a terrible car, and decides that the Reliant Bond Bug “looks like Marge Simpson’s tried to iron her own head”.

About this programme
3/3. James concludes his examination of the social significance of cars by exploring how aspiration and new wealth were behind the development of some of the greatest models ever made. He tries to make sense of the baffling world of company car hierarchy by holding a travelling salesman race-off and indulges his 1980s urges with the twin delights of a Lamborghini and a Porsche. He also unveils his choice of the ultimate people's car - a vehicle that can lay claim to being the greatest in history. Last in the series.

www.radiotimes.com/episode/c2pr89/james-mays-cars-of-the-people--series-1---episode-3

CAST AND CREW

Presenter: James May 

Director:Tom Whitter

Series Producer:Tom Whitter

www.radiotimes.com/episode/cz4nnz/james-mays-cars-of-the-people--series-1---episode-1
www.radiotimes.com/episode/c2fhf7/james-mays-cars-of-the-people--series-1---episode-2
www.radiotimes.com/episode/c2pr89/james-mays-cars-of-the-people--series-1---episode-3

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Jeremy Clarkson and the Mystery of Paddington Bear's Missing Wellingtons

The marmalade sandwich munching bear from Darkest Peru won't be sporting his famous footwear for his new film outing - and it's got something to do with Clarkson's family...



By Ben Dowell
Tuesday 14 October 2014 at 08:10AM

There’s a film of Paddington Bear released in cinemas this November with Hugh Bonneville as Mr Brown, Nicole Kidman as a scheming taxidermist, Peter Capaldi playing the Browns' grouchy neighbour and Ben Whishaw voicing Paddington.

But for those of you brought up with Paddington toys in your early years it may not escape your attention that there is nevertheless something missing – his wellington boots.
“I can reveal that that's all down to Jeremy Clarkson's family,” Bonneville tells us. “In the sketches in the original book, he's not wearing wellies at all and acquires the blue duffel coat. Jeremy Clarkson's family created the toy of the bear and it kept falling over and they said: 'Well, why don't we put it in wellington boots?' So that came along as a piece of merchandise."

Bonneville is not wrong about the origins of all this. Clarkson's parents, Shirley and Eddie, did run a small design business called Gabrielle Designs and Shirley made a prototype for the first Paddington Bear stuffed toy in 1972 and gave it to Jeremy, then 12, and his sister Joanna for Christmas.

These early bears are now considered collectors' items as all of them were handmade in a small factory, latterly known as the Bear Garden, in Doncaster. And they did have wellies. Unlike our new ursine movie star.

Paddington will be in UK cinemas on 28th November




www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-10-14/jeremy-clarkson-and-the-mystery-of-paddington-bears-missing-wellingtons

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The Story of Paddington Bear and Jeremy Clarkson

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on October 14th, 2014

 
 Paddington bear (StudioCanal)

Let’s get one thing clear before we start, the U.K. may be a small country by U.S. standards, but we don’t all know one another and it’s perfectly possible for two people to be incredibly well known in Britain and never interact in any way whatsoever.

That said, sometimes curious links emerge between globally famous British exports in a particularly delightful way, almost as if everyone lives in the same village, and these should be celebrated.

Take Paddington, the story of an accident-prone bear from darkest Peru that moves to London, written by Michael Bond and turned into a forthcoming movie starring Hugh Bonneville, Peter Capaldi and Ben Whishaw (as the voice of Paddington himself).

There’s been a minor moment of disquiet from fans who grew up clutching a Paddington teddy bear, having noticed that the movie’s hero is not wearing wellington boots. The Paddinton toys always wore a duffle coat, hat and wellies, and according to Hugh Bonneville, this has less to do with Michael Bond, or the successful BBC cartoon from the 1970s (neither of which made a feature out of bear galoshes), and everything to do with Jeremy Clarkson’s parents.

He told Radio Times: “I can reveal that that’s all down to Jeremy Clarkson’s family.

“In the sketches in the original book, he’s not wearing wellies at all and acquires the blue duffel coat. Jeremy Clarkson’s family created the toy of the bear and it kept falling over and they said: ‘Well, why don’t we put it in wellington boots?’

“So that came along as a piece of merchandise.”

And it’s true: Shirley and Eddie Clarkson ran a small manufacturing business called Gabrielle Designs in the early ’70s, and they made the first Paddington toy bear as Christmas presents for their children Joanna and Jeremy (who was 12 at the time). In order to stop the bear falling over, Shirley put him in children’s wellingtons, and they stayed when the bear went into production, proving so popular that Gabrielle had to make their own special wellies with bear prints on the soles.

To this day you can still get Paddingtons in wellingtons, most notably from the kiosk in Paddington station, and it’s all thanks to the Clarksons.

Paddington will be in U.S. cinemas on December 25.

www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/10/story-paddington-bear-jeremy-clarkson/

[RedMoon11]

Top Gear tops BBC iPlayer Christmas chart as Doctor Who slips
Controversial Patagonia special earns 2.08 million views as Doctor Who drops to ninth place after topping the charts for the last two years



By Emma Daly
Wednesday 7 January 2015 at 11:32AM

Top Gear’s controversial Christmas special in Patagonia has topped the BBC iPlayer Christmas chart with 2.08 million requests to view. This is almost half of the 4.7 million people that tuned in during its original broadcast on the 27th of December.

Jeremy Clarkson and co's trip to Argentina made headline news when the crew were forced to flee the country after mobs attacked, believing a Porsche with the numberplate H982 FKL was a reference to the Falklands War of 1982. The presenters and show producers have repeatedly denied this was a deliberate "stunt", saying the plate was a pure coincidence.

The second half of the motoring special, which aired a day later, went on to earn 1.5 million requests meaning the show took the third spot in this year’s top ten, too.

Doctor Who, which has held the top spot for the last two years, slipped to ninth place this year with only 1 million requests during a nine-day period charted by the BBC over Christmas.

The original broadcast on Christmas Day, with Peter Capaldi at the helm, also saw a dip in audience figures from last year, with 8.3 million tuning in, compared to 2013’s 11.1 million.

EastEnders proved to be a winner for the on demand service too, with various episodes earning the soap four spots in the top ten.

It was certainly a popular period for the online tool, with iPlayer recording its highest ever one-week figure, reaching 54.5 million viewing requests during December.

“Christmas on the BBC is an incredibly special time of year, with our broadcast schedules bursting with amazing shows,” says Victoria Jaye, head of TV content for BBC iPlayer.

“It’s also the time of year when we see a significant surge in BBC iPlayer usage, as people all over the country unwrap new devices and take the opportunity to enjoy our terrific range of programmes, at a time that suits them.”

The top 10 iPlayer requests during Christmas 2014

1. Top Gear Patagonia Special (Part 1): 2,078,700

2. EastEnders (25/12): 1,689,400

3. Top Gear Patagonia Special (Part 2): 1,533,700

4. EastEnders (26/12): 1,432,900

5. The Apprentice Final/ You’re Hired: 1,309,200

6. Miranda: I Do, But To Who?: 1,263,700

7. EastEnders: (23/12): 1,147,100

8. EastEnders: (24/12): 1,107,900

9. Doctor Who: Last Christmas: 1,069,400

10. The Boy in the Dress: 1,058,300


www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-01-07/top-gear-tops-bbc-iplayer-christmas-chart-as-doctor-who-slips

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No More Top Gear Controversies Promises Richard Hammond

"The Hamster" says series 22 will return to form but won't be returning to Argentina....



By Ben Dowell
Friday 16 January 2015 at 11:55AM

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond says the show will be "back on form" when the next series begins later this month – but that it will not be attracting negative headlines.

His promise follows the latest in a series of controversies when the production was attacked by protestors after Clarkson drove a car with a controversial H982 FKL number plate during the Patagonia special, which aired earlier this month.

Hammond told RadioTimes.com: “That’s done. It’s been done. I hope people saw our side of it. Really, all we to want to do is to get back to making the show, to get back to it being a TV show on a Sunday night without all the controversy around it. You can judge it by what it is. Did you enjoy it? Did it make you laugh? Did it entertain, did it tell you things? That’s its job. That’s what we want it to be.”

Hammond also poured cold water on Jeremy Clarkson’s claim that the BBC has warned the show that it would be axed if there is another controversy.

“I think he has kind of retracted that,” said Hammond, although RadioTimes.com can see no public statement to that effect. The BBC declined to comment.

He added: “All we want to do is get on air and make a good TV show. And I have seen some of the film that’s going into the new series and it’s going to be back on form. It’s just a cracking TV show – best footage, best production values, best editing – it’s just a well-crafted thing. Long series to make. A long series to get into our teeth into."

The show's executive producer Andy Wilman also weighed into the debate telling trade magazine Broadcast that the show “could do with a bit less telling off” from the BBC.

He said: "“They’re sort of like: ‘Can you be naughty between the hours of [8pm and 9pm], can you be naughty under these conditions.’ Sometimes I feel they don’t trust us at heart, but actually – apart from the very odd occasion – we can be trusted.”

Top Gear will return to BBC2 on January 25th for a ten episode series and the team will film the studio recordings next week.

They travel to St Petersburg in the first episode, with singer Ed Sheeran as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.

Episode two sees them pick a brand new GT car and assemble it in the Northern Territory, Australia, where they “engage in a classic adventure involving crocodiles, camping and cows”.

The next series will be the 22nd. Asked how long it would last, Hammond said that “everything has a life”.

Would they stop if they started to resemble the three old men from the classic sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, a show it is sometimes cruelly compared to?

“We are not far off now,” he laughed. "I really don't know."

Hammond added that another Top Gear Special has not been confirmed, but when asked whether the team would return to Argentina he joked: “Maybe not”.

Hammond will also feature in the second run of his National Geographic Show Science of Stupid which returns next month.

"It’s a different kind of show. A solo project can be a lot of fun,” he said. “It combines a lot of things I’m interested in.

“Watching people fall flat on their face is always funny. You feel a bit guilty. But, because we are looking at the science behind it, it's excusable and you can sit back and enjoy it because we are learning. Why you can’t race an office chair down the road, for example?”

Series two of Science of Stupid starts on Wednesday 11th February at 10pm on National Geographic Channel


www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-01-16/no-more-top-gear-controversies-promises-richard-hammond

[RedMoon11]

Jeremy Clarkson and Co's final Top Gear appearances will be moving says show insider

Fans may have to ready their hankies for Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond's last bow on the programme



By Ben Dowell
Tuesday 23 June 2015 at 07:30AM

The last Top Gear appearance of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May promises to be rather emotional.

Someone close to the production tells RadioTimes.com they are expecting fans to be quite teary at the swan song, which will air on BBC2 on Sunday.

“I think it will remind fans what great camaraderie they had, how funny Jeremy is and just what has been lost,” we have been told by the insider, who has worked with them all for most of their time on the show and has seen the 75-minute film which will air later this month.

In this week's issue of Radio Times magazine, Andy Wilman, the show's former executive producer who oversaw the final episode, also gives his take on the "poignant" last scenes shot recently by Hammond and May.

“The final session without Jeremy was very poignant," says Wilman. "We’ve had a lot of fun in that studio, but we had a job to do and we got it done, professionally, and without tears or tantrums.”

Clarkson joins up with Richard Hammond and James May in the final show, set to be broadcast on Sunday 28th June at 8pm on BBC2.

The programme will be made up of pre-recorded films from the final episodes of series 22, which were pulled from the schedules earlier this year following Clarkson's "fracas" and eventual dismissal as a Top Gear presenter.

The show will also include voiceovers from Clarkson and will be the last episode of Top Gear before Chris Evans takes over along with a new presenting line-up.

A teaser for the final episode was recently released, featuring the three presenters putting budget 4x4s to the test in dinner jackets.


www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-06-23/jeremy-clarkson-and-cos-final-top-gear-appearances-will-be-moving-says-show-insider

[RedMoon11]

Vote for James, Jeremy & Richard

www.radiotimes.com/factualchampion
Round 1 closes
Sunday 16th August 11:00 BST /6:00 AM EDT/ 3:00 AM PDT

[RedMoon11]

James May: BBC's Top Gear repeats over Christmas were "harsh on Chris Evans"

The former Top Gear presenter says he hopes the Radio 2 DJ makes a success of the new show, and defends Jeremy Clarkson as they continue filming on a new car show for Amazon Prime



By Radio Times staff
Monday 18 January 2016 at 6:30PM

Chris Evans already has an impossible task, reviving Top Gear following the departure of Jeremy Clarkson. But James May thinks the BBC are making his job even harder.

The former Top Gear presenter says that the decision to show repeats of the old show over Christmas was "harsh" on Evans just as he was planning how to launch his own version.

"I was surprised they showed lots of Top Gear compilations over Christmas," May said in the latest issue of Radio Times. "I thought, 'Oh, so now they're celebrating us,' but I also thought it's harsh on Chris Evans.

"Just as he's trying to launch his version of the programme, the BBC is saying, 'Look how brilliant it was before.'"

May added that he wants to see Top Gear under Evans succeed – even though "it's a ballsy call to continue it" – saying "there must be a way of reinventing it."

Jeremy Clarkson not "having a breakdown"

The presenter might have chosen to leave Top Gear, but May is still working with the BBC: his latest series Cars of the People is set to air this Sunday 24th January at 9pm on BBC2.



As well as his BBC work, May is currently filming with Clarkson and Richard Hammond on a new car series for Amazon Prime, with a reported budget of £160 million.

May said that he was confident the show would be a success, and defended Clarkson following the BBC's decision to drop him.

"If he's an alcoholic, so am I," he said. "We just like a drink. I don't think he was unwell or having a breakdown. He's deranged, but that's not the same thing. There's nothing wrong with him."


Read the full interview with James May in this week's issue of Radio Times, available in shops and on the Apple Newsstand from Tuesday 19th January


www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-18/james-may-bbcs-top-gear-repeats-over-christmas-were-harsh-on-chris-evans

[RedMoon11]

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www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-24/james-may-on-chris-evans-amazon-and-life-after-top-gear

[RedMoon11]

James May cracks a Top Gear joke in his new series of BBC's Cars of the People

He couldn't resist...



By Radio Times staff
Sunday 24 January 2016 at 1:02PM

If you plan on tuning into James May's Cars of the People tonight, make sure you listen closely. You see, among his fascinating facts about the history of the automobile, the presenter slips in a Top Gear gag.

You remember Top Gear? The BBC car magazine series that was enormously popular until Jeremy Clarkson's infamous "fracas" led to his very public firing and the show's reinvention under Chris Evans. Clarkson, May and their co-star Richard Hammond have since signed a lucrative deal to make a new car series with Amazon – but May couldn't resist a reference to his days on Top Gear while driving around Oxford in a Morris Minor.

It's the Minor that leads him to his quip, as he contemplates a future without the iconic British car.

"Rather in the way that the [Citroën] 2CV symbolises everything about the condition of being French, the Morris Minor has come to be regarded as everything that is good and proper about being British," he explains.

"Let's imagine for a moment that overnight the Morris Minor suddenly disappeared from the British conscience. Would it matter? I think we would struggle with it. If you did a survey: should we get rid of the Morris Minor? 'NO!'

He continues: "But actually, would we really notice? Would it in fact give us a chance to move on? It might be a little bit as if a very popular and well-liked television programme suddenly came to an end. Everybody would think it was a disaster. But after a while, they'd get over it. Probably find something else."

May's probably hoping that "something else" includes Cars of the People which airs tonight at 9pm on BBC2


www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-24/james-may-cracks-a-top-gear-joke-in-his-new-series-of-bbcs-cars-of-the-people

[RedMoon11]

Interview with Richard from 29 November-5 December 2014 RT issue

 



Richard Hammond talks fame, Top Gear controversies and climate change

"In society as a whole, we love to be offended and have a scapegoat. But at Top Gear we’re the first to put our hands up and say we pitched it wrong.”



By Kate Battersby
Monday 1 December 2014 at 1:59PM

Richard Hammond is getting wet. Very wet. With a new show to promote that is all about the weather, Radio Times' photoshoot requires him to be thoroughly drenched courtesy of a rain machine, while a giant fan chills him with a high wind. He could refuse and insist on a regular portrait. Instead he mugs on cue, soaked to the skin, all the while cheerfully co-operative – as might be hoped, but isn’t always the case, with a seasoned pro.

At 44, Hammond’s success is set in stone. One of three sons of a Solihull probate specialist, he was working in local radio by the age of 19. He began presenting on the Men & Motors channel and, by the time he was picked to join the Top Gear team in 2002, he’d been broadcasting for well over a decade.

Twelve years on, Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May are key to Top Gear's status as the most-watched factual show on the planet, seen by 350 million viewers in more than 200 territories. Such success brings rewards that reflect his motoring mania – he currently owns at least five vintage cars and four vintage motorbikes, plus a Porsche 911 GT3 and a BMW R1200RT motorbike “for actually getting places”. He arrives at the west London photoshoot on his BMW, much preferring it for the 250-mile round trip from his Herefordshire home than travelling by car.

In addition, the “Hamster” (he claims a possibly optimistic height of 5ft 7in) boasts a long list of solo presenting credits, particularly for “pop science” shows. It’s noticeable that all his individual gigs nowadays carry his name in the title, of which more later. And when it comes to promoting them, as with this photoshoot, he knows the game.



On the basis of Top Gear, you might expect him to be all blokey jokes and sniggering asides. Not a bit of it. Instead, he’s given to intense micro-analysis of thought and motive, in such density that at times the blizzard of words veers towards a white-out. (“An interesting debate for broadcast would be the nature of language itself. Are words intrinsically powerful? Do they work like magic spells? Do they exist out of context?”)

Get him on to the ever-mounting controversies surrounding Top Gear, and his reasoning becomes a little opaque. Try this, about the Burma special in March this year, in which Clarkson, May and Hammond were involved in the construction of a bamboo bridge. As an Asian man stood on the bridge, Clarkson said to Hammond that there was “a slope on it”, resulting in an Ofcom ruling that the remark was racist.

“No one on the show had any misgivings at the time,” says Hammond. “As a unit, we tried something which the BBC chose to broadcast, and enough people complained that it was deemed to be wrong, so we went ‘sorry’.

“Look... there’s a Top Gear DVD where Jeremy and I point at the sign for the French town of Bra, and snigger. But the joke wasn’t that we were laughing at the name of an essential female undergarment; the joke was that two middle-aged men with responsibilities would point at such a sign and laugh – and viewers got that distinction completely.”

Um. Really? Are you quite sure? “Oh yes.”


Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson in the Top Gear Burma special

In interviews from years gone by, Hammond would describe the show as “completely harmless”. Halcyon days. At the time we met, the hullaballoo over the filming in Argentina for the Christmas special – where the presenters and production team outraged local people with a car numberplate apparently referencing the Falklands conflict – had not yet taken place. But 2014 had already seen Clarkson mired in the Burma episode and his utterance (or otherwise) of the N-word in unbroadcast Top Gear footage. Back in 2011 Hammond himself caused offence when he delivered the line that if cars reflect national characteristics, a Mexican car would be “lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight”. Somehow a car magazine show has become the most contentious programme on television.

In society as a whole,” sighs Hammond, “we love to be offended and have a scapegoat. But at Top Gear we’re the first to put our hands up and say we pitched it wrong.” So they pitched it wrong with the Burma special? “We have apologised.”

Was the Ofcom “racist” ruling warranted?

“We’re not in the business of genuinely upsetting or offending anyone,” says Hammond. “We’re in the business of entertainment, and if it fails to entertain, it’s wrong. If the public says we stepped over the line, then we have.” He declines to say whether he agrees with Clarkson that the BBC overreacted. Has anyone at the BBC instructed the programme or its presenters to be more careful?

“That would be inappropriate to comment on. It goes above my pay grade very quickly.” Presumably he will encounter fewer hazards with the response to Wild Weather with Richard Hammond, in which he treks the globe to explain meteorological mechanics. He loves such programmes – “finding out stuff which amazes me as much as the viewer”. The show does not particularly touch on climate change, but Hammond still has something to say.

“Finding anyone with an honestly held view founded upon genuine knowledge is incredibly difficult. There’s plenty of evidence that climate shifts cyclically, and cars probably create less of a problem than our desire for superheated homes in winter. But demonising the car is much easier, without having access to the facts. Cars are a handy political football. God knows when a truly informed debate will happen.”

Hammond is not one to shrink from sharing his views – and often that view is worth hearing. Listen to his take on his obligatory name-in-the- programme-title status.

“It’s all for box office, but it annoys me when they do it,” he says, and then stares when I scoff that surely such things only happen at his contractual insistence. “No. Emphatically, completely not. Why would I want that?”



Perhaps because he might be either manically egotistical or rampantly insecure, like a lot of well-known people? He shakes his head. “The people worst equipped to deal with fame are those who have pursued it. I do a job through a camera. I like sharing interesting stuff. Being famous is a concept that doesn’t exist to me as a person. If it does, you’ve gone mad.

“If you choose to be an actor or broadcaster or politician, part of you is dealing with inadequacies and insecurities from your past. I am, too, probably, though I’m not conscious of what they are. Fame can be gratifying, and a little embarrassing, and sometimes funny, but if it actually matters to you, you’re in a world of trouble.”

He does enjoy Twitter, having almost 1.7 million followers, using it mostly to gauge the response to his shows. “I’m never offended by anything on there,” he says. “I would be more offended by a critique of a show.” So when I read out to him part of a newspaper article written in 2011, he knows without being told that it’s by Steve Coogan. (“Richard has his tongue so far down the back of Jeremy’s trousers, he could forge a career as the back end of a pantomime horse”... His “‘edgy’ humour is truly tragic”.)

“Maybe he’d like to put his own tongue down the back of Jeremy’s trousers and is cross that mine’s there already,” suggests Hammond cheerfully. “There comes a time when you have to stop worrying what people think about you. I don’t think I’ve done badly. If another lone celebrity voice disagrees, that’s fine. I’m not after votes.”



Meantime, he tweets occasionally on the sweetness of the family life he shares with his wife Mindy [Amanda] and their daughters Izzy [Isabella], 14, and Willow, 11. “Sitting with a beer whilst youngest daughter plays piano for me,” he posted in June. “Impossible to be happier.” He smiles at the memory of it.

“Having daughters is perfect. It’s mesmerising to see them grow up. The idea of having to give them away at a wedding some time is going to be a fight, although to them I’m the same embarrassing dad as everyone else’s. Their one fear is me doing Strictly Come Dancing.

“Willow loves ponies. Izzy is sort of into cars, but largely humouring daddy. She comes on the back of the motorcycle all the time. But I don’t want to make my daughters replicas of me. They’re more balanced than me. I have in the past swayed more with people’s opinion, and been susceptible to peer pressure.”

And Mindy? Why was she right for him? “She’s brave and funny. If I took one piece of survival equipment it would be her. She’s sensitive, has great imagination, and is grounded. Bonkers sometimes; impossible, as am I. She’s more cautious than me. I’m not gung-ho but I’m more used to evaluating risk. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to think, ‘Is this a good idea? Will it go wrong? If it does, what are the consequences and are they worth it?’”


Filming for the upcoming Argentina special

The most notorious such occasion is now eight years behind him. On 20 September 2006, Hammond was shooting a Top Gear item at the wheel of a jet-powered dragster, when tyre failure caused him to crash at 288mph. He sustained life-threatening head injuries and was in a coma for two weeks. Recovery, now complete, was for a long while difficult.

“For years I thought of it especially around now, in the autumn,” he remembers. “It was a lot to deal with. I had a pretty tricky few years. The knock-on effects of the injury meant I was susceptible to depression, obsession, compulsion and paranoia, although I wasn’t aware of that at the time. It gave me an unnatural platform from which to observe my own mental state, which was exhausting.

“For a time I lost the ability to connect emotionally. I began picking away at my own personality and that was dizzying. I don’t think I was very easy to work with for a good while. The team were very patient. I was difficult on shoots, losing my temper, feeling threatened by everything, very defensive. And I massively needed to know if the crash was my fault, because I’d risked the girls growing up without their dad. The telemetry showed I’d done every- thing right and it was an accident. But the girls still remember it very clearly.

“Yes, there could be another accident out there waiting, as there could for anyone. But it’s not a big scar. I’ve filed it away under ‘big things that have happened’. We all have those. Don’t we?”

www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-12-01/richard-hammond-talks-fame-top-gear-controversies-and-climate-change


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