I was being ironical.

Are you Alanis Morrisette?

What exactly have they done? I didn’t watch it as I’m one of the people who got a bit bored of the staged ‘challenges’.

You are not a ‘BIG Hitter’ though so predictable staged challenges needent concern people like you.

Crikey give the guy a break, how to discourage new forumites in one easy lesson….

Just watched the 1st part on iplayer and it was pretty poor even by TG recent standards. TG is well past it’s sell by date, the series is tired and the specials are lame. Clarkson uses the UK TG as a platform for his bigoted views and the justification for his UKIP -esque ‘humour’ is the revenue that TG generates for the BBC.

Does anyone actually know how much money from TG Ltd goes back into the BBC??

This thread doesn’t do irony. It’s all about nuance

Adds to al’s list of funniest thread posts

Chapeau

Racism, xenophbia, etc., etc.

Does TG need these in order to entertain those that enjoy it?
Does laddish humour have to involve the above?

I don’t think it does. If it was just three blokes dicking about in cars, scripted or otherwise then it’d be fine.

Watching the “slope” clip again (on Charlie Brooker’s Wipe) it was an obvious racist comment.
They had the chance to remove it but obviously thought it was funny.
Remove the clip and what had the programme lost?

If the BBC feel the need to bring in viewing figures with these sort of acts then it’s a sad state of affairs.

I don’t believe BBC or TG team to be racist, but

, the BBC claimed that while Top Gear’s producers “knew that the word could be used to refer to people of Asian origin, they believed that such use was mere slang”

They are lying, self serving & arrogant establishment scum, in their use of public funds.

yeah, and I cant think anyone benefits from the apathetic keyboard worriers being hemmed into this thread more than the “establishment”

however one advertiser complains about your thread Al, its gone, you know it and i know it.

however one advertiser complains about your thread Al, its gone, you know it and i know it.

I bet it doesn’t.

They are lying, self serving & arrogant establishment scum, in their use of public funds.

Their use of public funds? As the show makes more money than any other BBC production it seems like a good deal for the licence payer.

the apathetic keyboard worriers

A typo, I presume; but providing a much more apt description.

I didn’t know until now that Clarkson, May and Hammond and some of the production crew weren’t in the convoy that got pelted. They flew out and were tucked up in a hotel in Chile while 20 odd technicians ran the gauntlet with all the kit.

I bet it doesn’t.

I bet it does.

…just to keep things ticking along.

I didn’t know until now that Clarkson, May and Hammond and some of the production crew weren’t in the convoy that got pelted. They flew out and were tucked up in a hotel in Chile while 20 odd technicians ran the gauntlet with all the kit.

They referred repeatedly to the crew being the ones in the convoy of doom. The lack of mention of how the ‘stars’ got away led to figure a plane or chopper probably allowed them to by pass the threat. What became of the cars, I wonder?

establishment

So that’s it.
It’s all about class.

Their use of public funds? As the show makes more money than any other BBC production it seems like a good deal for the licence payer

Does anyone actually know how much money from TG Ltd goes back into the BBC??

I suspect it makes a handful of people very wealthy (including Clarkson) and adds little value to the license payers.

Almost correct

Quote from the guy who helped them leave.

Confirming controversial Clarkson and his co-presenters left the southern city of Ushuaia by plane and were not with Top Gear technicians who were attacked by locals as they headed for Chile overland with a police escort, he added: ‘Neither Jeremy Clarkson or the other two were in the convoy when it left the province.

‘That was because the local government’s primary concern was to save peoples’ lives.

‘We reserved 13 seats on an Aerolineas Argentinas flight which left Ushuaia for Buenos Aires at 7.30pm that same day with the three presenters and the production team.
They were invited to leave and decided to do so by plane because of the fear they were experiencing

‘We made those reservations at their request after they accepted our invitation to leave the province and as soon as they decided they wanted to go.

‘The local government never forced them to leave. They were invited to leave and decided to do so by plane because of the fear they were experiencing.

‘The technicians were the only ones who left the area by land. They were about 15 to 20. There was no other option for them because they had all the equipment used for filming.

‘We ordered the opening of a border pass to ensure there was no risk to their lives or wellbeing.

‘While they were crossing, Jeremy Clarkson would have been nice and warm in Buenos Aires.’

BBC Worldwide makes a profit of over £150m a year – I think I remember reading that about 40% of that is from Top Gear. It’s broadcast in 170 countries, and with 21 series worth there’s a lot of repeat showings. There’s several localised versions (and more planned) of the TV show. Their DVDs regularly top the UK sales charts, the naff books and CD music compilations likewise. The magazine sells well in the declining UK market and is localised for about 30 countries too. The Top Gear Live shows go around the world in the off-season between filming.

Clarkson and Wilman made quite a bit of extra cash via their company that held rights to various TG stuff, although that’s been mostly co-owned with BBC Worldwide since shortly after it was created, and the BBC bought the remaining part from them a year or two ago so it’s all BBC income now.

I believe their annual budget for making it is well under £10m for everything (stars’ salaries, overseas specials and all) so still making a good £50m a year for the BBC to spend on other things.

I suspect it makes a handful of people very wealthy (including Clarkson) and adds little value to the license payers.

I suspect thats a load of rubbish you made up to suit your point of view.

Lets not spoil a good ruck by bringing silly facts into the equation!

BBC Worldwide makes a profit of over £150m a year

and pays dividends of £80m per year. I think that the BBC gets at most 10% of its funding from BBC Worldwide and I suspect the TG contribution of 40% is over inflated. If TG costs £10m p/a to make, is that cost paid for by the Aunty Beeb to a private production company eg. Bedder 6 and then sold globally by BBC Worldwide Ltd?

Almost correct

almost informative, why not just give the facts if you have them?

Ah, money. Must remember that making money glosses over/forgives the all the other sins.

Surely using a car transporter to remove the cars would have been a safer, more logical solution? They do have them in Argentina, don’t they?

Was there any good reason for those cowardly chaps delegating that task to their crew? Uplifting and covering the cars would have defused things, wouldn’t it?

It wouldn’t help with the storyline but it’s hardly fair making someone further down the food-chain risk getting smashed in the face with a rock either…

Bedder 6 is entirely owned by BBC Worldwide these days.

Ah, money. Must remember that making money glosses over/forgives the all the other sins.

Indeed. Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Sexism are all fine as long as the numbers stack up. It’s almost like money is the be-all and end-all. Who knew?

Lets not spoil a good ruck by bringing silly facts into the equation!

We’ve had plenty of facts from the start of the this thread but it seems that the only ones worth anything are those that relate to profit.

I would have thought it would be very very sensible to remove the presenters of TG as quickly as possible from the situation as they would be the recognisable targets of the attackers. I am sure that if the threat had been even greater when they had to make the decision who was to get on the plane (not in hindsight) then all the crew would have been flown out and kit left behind they couldn’t take on the flight. As it was the situation looked like it ended up getting worse than they expected (the dangerous blockade was near the border crossing they were heading for) but thankfully they managed to escape another way without serious injury.

Rob, you have to assume that the professional security man (who was there at the time) knew better than those who weren’t…

Ah, money. Must remember that making money glosses over/forgives the all the other sins.
Indeed. Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Sexism are all fine as long as the numbers stack up. It’s almost like money is the be-all and end-all. Who knew?

This.

Loving the usual “it makes lots of money for the BBC/us so there!” argument.

Chest_Rockwell – Member

Surely using a car transporter to remove the cars would have been a safer, more logical solution? They do have them in Argentina, don’t they?

Was there any good reason for those cowardly chaps delegating that task to their crew? Uplifting and covering the cars would have defused things, wouldn’t it?

It wouldn’t help with the storyline but it’s hardly fair making someone further down the food-chain risk getting smashed in the face with a rock either…

Do you mean people in vehicles, and then vehicles on the transporter? Personally in that situation I’d rather be master of my own destiny.

There’s a good chance that many of the crew might have been freelancers and owned their own kit (not sure about TG but that’s the case for many productions). So they may have wanted to risk the journey rather than abandoning many thousands of pounds worth of equipment which they need to make a living.

Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia and Sexism are all fine as long as the numbers stack up. It’s almost like money is the be-all and end-all. Who knew?

oooh can we have a STW non-pc swear box so we can all say N***, P***, S***, G***,

at a quid a throw i, er, im keeping schtum

I was referring to the presenters cars only as it was the issue with the number plates which kicked the whole thing off.

The crew could have left in their own vehicles. Driving the three offending vehicles right by the baying mob was not the best idea from a safety POV but added to the story, I suppose…

Don’t they abandon most of the presenter’s cars anyway after a Top Gear special? They could have just left them where they were and let the mob vent their anger on them.

It wasn’t deemed safe for Jezza and co. to drive them but it was OK for a minion to drive right into an ambush?

Loving the usual “it makes lots of money for the BBC/us so there!” argument.

Which is a perfectly valid point to make in reply to people moaning about it being a waste of Licence Fee payers money wouldn’t you say ?

Chest_Rockwell

Don’t they abandon most of the presenter’s cars anyway after a Top Gear special? They could have just left them where they were and let the mob vent their anger on them.

You’ve got a point there. Since they clearly had enough footage to make up 2hrs they no longer needed the cars. And since the “stars” were flying out the chances of shooting their car football match (another re-hash) was non existent, if it was ever supposed to be.

A cynic might conclude that they took the star cars along since a few plain white Hiluxs might not draw any attention at all, much less a violent rioting mob, meaning no scandal, no hype, no programme.

I suspect a lot of people commenting haven’t watched the program. If you have, you’ll remember after the first confrontation they ditched the show cars as they were to recognisable.

A cynic might conclude that they took the star cars along since a few plain white Hiluxs might not draw any attention at all, much less a violent rioting mob, meaning no scandal, no hype, no programme.

You are aware that they have made quite a few programs in the past, that were quite successful, but didn’t feature Rick throwing mobs at the end of any of them.

I’m pretty sure it’s not an essential part, that if missing, means instant failure of the whole show.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not an essential part, that if missing, means instant failure of the whole show.”
It is not a sine qua non but it is a tried and tested trope of their shtick. The rock throwing mob may not have known it but the production team manipulated them into existance . I hate Clarksons TV persona but actually quite enjoy the program however it is silly to pretend that it is anything other than heavily scripted massively repetitive deliberately offensive dross, all be it often featuring wierdly interesting adverts for unaffordable and superfluous cars and breathtaking scenery.

^^ What a load of bollox….. Anyway the FKL plate was far too subtle, I’d have gone with with Gotcha! myself.