Radio Times

Top Gear is television's greatest anomaly. It is the specialist interest show made all-inclusive.

I, for instance, know nothing and care even less about cars. If the conversation turns to motoring it's as unpleasant as having my every facial orifice packed with wet bread. What’s more, I feel no affinity whatsoever with Messieurs Clarkson, Richard Hammond or James May. They're like the great guffawing boobs you'd find at the back of the school bus on a day trip, pressing their arses against the window at passing truckers. And yet I LOVE Top Gear, and I'm not alone.

Though it started as a rather weedy, serious look at automotives - about as much fun as finding out how much your MOT is going to cost - Top Gear's recent history is one of freshly broken ground. No longer just pornography for mechanics, the show now has more in common with a mental schoolboy's comic. It brims with more ideas per episode than most programmes might have in a series, and more importantly it executes them with a perfectly realised and sustained tone. It is, in parts, wonderfully made, creative and more importantly funny. And Clarkson is the reason why.

Many assume that Clarkson is the bullish, cocksure everything-o-phobe with the spray-on jeans we see on TV. And he probably is. But hate him or loathe him, it's indeed Clarkson's downright refusal to stop being such a pig-headed petrol-burning ape that has saved Top Gear from the specialist programming dustbin reserved for Belgian pastry, sand and Michael Barrymore. The last episode of the last series was watched by more people than this year's finale of Big Brother. In appeal terms it makes Clarkson a TV Goliath.

But why do we watch it? Well, firstly, it's funny. The Stig? Funny. The incessant bullying of the posh one with the hair like an Afghan hound? Funny. Pretending that since Hammond's horrific high-speed crash he's a little less of a man (though to be fair he does look a little haunted these days)? Funny.

Secondly we watch it for its shameless machismo. The things they'll do in order to prove how fast a car is are the kind of ideas a child might have if it had won the lottery and had eaten one million pounds’ worth of sweets. And we are attracted by their reckless abandon… "I know, shall we tie Hammond to the propellers of a helicopter and then fly it into the moon?", "Yes, why not?". It looks and feels like a giant playground full of glamour, celebrities, money and speed, not a car showroom, which is how it should look.

And finally, secretly and with no fanfare, it is also the best-looking series on TV. The set pieces wouldn't look out of place in an action movie much of the time, bar perhaps an action movie featuring no cars.

Everything about Top Gear should be unappealing, but everything about it just isn't.

The Rocket Reliant, BEST TV I've seen in ages... prob even better that the actual Apollo 13, fantastic, absolutely brilliant, and it actually took off...amazing, Well Done Lads :)

Two words, JAMES MAY!

I hope they never stop making Top Gear, its by far the greatest show on Television today!

Top Gear works because of the chemistry of the presenters and the humour its an hour of shameless escapism beautifully packaged with stylish camera work and wonderfully evocative musical sound track accompanying the outdoor filming for sure top of my must see list every Sunday.

I love the way Jezza refused to apologise to the humourless twits who complain that his humour is not theirs. But to be fair - you might issue a warning - This show is not for the politically correct, please retune before we offend you! Clarkson for PM I say !

This show has the best photography and film shots I've seen for a ...... long time. XXXXX to the film crew Great team, love the comedy, great characters.

I watch this sometimes when I am home,but would love Michael Barrymore to go onto that show.

Top Gear is definitely the best show on TV, but that might be because I've only got the four basic channels... But anyway, it's pure genius! I have to agree that it is completely down to Clarkson's view of the world that kept the show the way it is today, but James May and Richard Hammond are still very talented TV presenters.

I thoroughly enjoy the entertainmene presented by Top Gear but I am becoming disappointed that the presenters feel the need to resort to increasingly risque comment, innuendo and blatant toilet humour. It definitely spoils the enjoyment of sharing the programme with my family.

Top Gear made me the car nut I am today. I adore everything about it. I'm able to hold my own in any social situation because - and this is brilliant - everyone has an opinion on the show. Never mind that some people hate it, I can still talk about it to anyone I meet. How many other shows can claim that? (Oh, and I happen to think James is the thinking woman's piece of crumpet.)

before I moved away to university Top Gear was the programme we would watch as family. now I watch it with my uni friends without shame. watching three grown men who are more like kids than anything else is fantastic entertainment. Its a bit like just william - there get into trouble all the time and thats the best bit. LONG MAY IT REGIN

I used to love watching "Top-Gear" before we had that cackling audience in the background.can we get back to the older, more serious foremat please

Me And My Friend Kirstiie LOVE TG We Watch it everyday. We Love Hammond. The New Series Will Be Great. Anyone Know When Richard's Next Biography Signin ?? Thnx xx

Top Gear's brilliant, and I think, like you said, that you don't have to be at all interested in cars to watch it, because it's just three brilliant blokes cocking about. I also think their characters really help build the show... Jeremy's criticism, Richard's energy, James's sensibility, and Stig's... anonymous-ness.

In my opinion, nothing beats Top Gear, so don't ever stop, TG3!

Did you know an American version of Top Gear is planned. I wonder how anyone can follow these three

I love Top Gear no end. I always have (well, nearly.) I sprained my ankle and needed urgent medical care, so I watched Top Gear. I felt fine after that.

I love cars, but not as much as Jezza, Captain Slow and :-x Hamster. :) That shows you how childish they are, and I love it.

TOP GEAR Should be prescribed to depressives. :-( That would cheer you up. :) :-D

Three words:

JAMES, RICHARD and JEREMY!!!

That's why I watch TG and, for seconds, it should be available on the NHS, feeling depressed = watch TG it's wonderful therapy, you feel on top of the world.

Rock on TG3, you're FANTASTIC

Kayte xxx

Am I the only one who finds that Top Gear's video editing has become just a little too cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cut of late? Much as I love--for example--the Bugatti Veyron, do I really need to see it from thirty different angles in a ten-second scene?

It is the fashion these days to shoot hand-held (rather than Steadicam®) and to cut rapidly from shot to shot to give the impression of drama, movement and speed... but watching it is such hard work!

Why do we watch Top Gear? Because the outrageous Jeremy "quote a minute" Clarkson loves cars, loves words, has mastered both and is unbelievably funny. Read his review of the Bugatti Veyron here and be mesmerised both by the wonder of the car and his mastery of the English language.

Choose life. Actually it is just a brilliantly produced program that could almost be on anything - probably because the characters sorted of ended up together in a BBC type of way rather than some instantly produced format. Its been going now for so long that it can also lope along on a long history. It would be quite fun if they could involve 5th gear a bit more in their asides.

We watch because we are jealous. I want to build and sail/drive all of their toys.

well tonights ep should be good as the hammster is driving the bugati veyron against the euro fighterso be interesting to his view point on it after the disapointment of capn slows 'its fast yet boring to drive as you dont feel the speed ' or something like that when he was driving the veyron on a test track for some reason, i enjoyed the way clarkson was talking non stop about it i even enjoy watch the veyron vs the plane from time to time, heck any of the races we funny.

The great thing about Top Gear is that it doesn't really try to be a motoring programme. There are very few "normal" cars on it and it's more just 3 guys messing about in supercars. Three guys who have an obvious bond driving really fast and doing weird yet wonderful challenges. It doesn't cater to motoring fanatics because people don't watch it for the cars. They watch it for the banter and the challenges. The bond between the 3 presenters is more like that between 3 friends down the pub, taking the mickey out of each other and having a laugh. For those who saw tonight's show I bet I wasn't the only one who felt I was in on the whole "pulling off in a motorway rest point" joke.

I can bet you that the episode where they try to cross the English Channel in boats they made from cars will be one of the highest viewed shows that week, if not that month. And that's because people want to see it.

The true strength of Top Gear comes from, not just Clarkson, but the way the entire threesome blend together.

We have Clarkson's childish antics. We have James May's boring "Did you know..." type of personality, and Hammond's.. well, his whitened teeth I suppose. It's such a perfect blend of characters, that caters for just about all personality types in the audience.

I couldn't tell you the differences between a steering wheel and an ashtray (and have absolutely no desire to learn what they are) but I still love watching the programme.