8:25am Thursday 2nd September 2010
By Emma Clayton
There are some TV programmes that have me switching channels faster than you can say Holby City.
The aforementioned medical soap, which is so worthy it hurts, is one of them. Others include Doctor Who, Hollyoaks, documentaries about holidays/families/neighbours from hell, The One Show, anything with Eamonn Holmes in, and Last Of The Summer Wine, which I will forever associate with that sinking Sunday night feeling.
Until a few months ago I would’ve added Top Gear to that list. From what I could tell, it involved three blokes with ageing rock-star hair wearing high-waisted jeans hanging around an aircraft hangar, discussing the finer points of power steering and alloy wheels. Since I have zero interest in cars, it held no appeal for me.
As far as I was concerned, unless you were a nerdy petrolhead who wore high-waisted jeans, you’d never admit to watching it.
Then one evening, I was half-heartedly watching telly with my 13-year-old nephew. Wondering why he kept erupting into fits of laughter, I looked up from my magazine and found myself gripped as the Top Gear gang made their way through the Bolivian rainforest to the Pacific coast, using second-hand off-road vehicles.
As they chugged through snake-infested undergrowth – wielding machetes and chainsaws, tearing holes in their vehicles, making bridges out of planks and rope, crawling along a notoriously narrow ‘Death Road’ with terrifying sheer drops, while battling altitude sickness – they bickered, got each other in and out of scrapes, and kept up an endearing comic banter. It was all ridiculously un-PC, but so delightfully ‘Boys’ Own’.
Whenever I’ve seen Top Gear since – my younger nephews are fans too, so I’ve watched it with them – I’ve chuckled at the bonkers antics of Clarkson, Hammond and May, whether they’re driving daft home-made motorhomes around campsites, playing caravan conkers, crossing the Channel in boats made of cars or sending a Mini crashing off a ski jump. When they test-drive cars and bang on about things like engine power it leaves me cold, but I enjoy the madcap stunts. Yes, it’s ‘blokey’ and sometimes a little staged, but it’s a fun show that families can watch.
It makes a refreshing change from tedious talent contests, inane ‘reality’ shows, bland police dramas and hopeless TV presenters who can barely string sentences together.
I’d much rather watch the adorable James May blowing up a caravan or cannon-firing cars on to a giant dartboard than endure yet another talentless blubbing X Factor reject droning on about chasing their dream.
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