BBC America is working on creating original programming (rather than rebroadcasted UK content) and one of their first shows will one hosted by Richard Hammond. Tentatively called “Hard Drive with Richard Hammond”, the show will feature Hammond driving “some of America’s toughest and most extraordinary vehicles”.
Also in the works is an American version of James May’s Man Lab, a show that has aired a few times in the UK.
As usual, there’s always some rumor about Top Gear coming to an end or somehow changing formats. The latest comes from a small comment James May made about Top Gear living on after the current hosts retire. This of course was blown out of proportion, so he went on a local radio station to clarify:
Top Gear’s latest DVD, “Apocalypse”, was released on the 22nd of this month in the UK on both DVD and Blu-ray. Here’s the discussion thread on our forums.
Besides talking about this weekend’s SIARPC and how the filming went, the latest post on the Top Gear Transmission blog also tells the story of how The Mole (the secretive person who manages the blog) saw James May driving home from the studio:
Sitting at a roundabout behind a Mercedes E500 and a Porsche 911 Carrera S – powerful cars both – it was hard to ignore a black Fiat Panda containing none other than TV’s James May which had drawn alongside them.
The roundabout cleared and Captain Slow made an uncharacteristically brisk leap away from the line, straight onto the knuckle whiteningly tight slip road that feeds into the A3.
The Porsche tried to pull out to get around a dithering Volkswagen ahead, the Mercedes clinging to its tail, but before either could make a move James had seized the advantage, taking the OUTSIDE LINE around all three cars and disappearing into the distance.
There can be only one conclusion. There is a keen and remarkably fast driver with a black Fiat Panda in the Guildford area and he looks a lot like James May.
So maybe Captain Slow isn’t really as slow as he sometimes makes out to be…
James May did a Q&A session via his book publisher and Twitter yesterday. I thought you might find it interesting:
Q: RT @TopGearBabe: With so many fabulous adventures under his belt so far… are there any achievable dreams left unfulfilled for James?
A: Oh god, yes. I’d like to go to the Moon and I’d like to be able to make a risotto.
Q: RT @beckstar2: please ask James May what book he would take to a desert island
A: The Haynes Manual for the Honda CB 754
Q: RT @ChicklitBlog: If you could put a car into a time capsule for future generations to marvel at, which would it be and why?
A: Crikey, that’s a good question. I think the Ford Escort Mark 1, it’s what cars are meant to be.
Q: RT @maxtortheone: Please ask James May what impressions [removed due to spoilers, see forums for question] left him when he visited a couple of months ago!
A: It was much prettier than we expected, a very hospitable country. Lots of dogs.
Q: RT @LindenChase: What did James think of [removed] (where he’s just been filming with TopGear)? How bad was his vertigo?
A: The thing I remember most about [removed] is the dust, I don’t like dust. It gets in the air vents.
A: My vertigo is pretty bad everywhere, even up a 5 storey building, so in parts of [removed] it was very bad.
Q: RT @Intheskieswith: Does James May have a favourite novel or author?
A: When I was 18 I read Free Fall by William Golding and thought ‘this is about me, it’s going to change my life’ but that’s probably rubbish
A: I also like Cecil Lewis’s Sagittarius Rising. If you want something erudite and easy to read, Car Fever is an excellent book.
After Top Gear aired on Sunday, an excellent documentary hosted by James May called James May on the Moon aired. It was about the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings.
If you’d like to download it and watch it (you should, it’s quite good), there is a torrent available right here.
Many thanks to everyone who's ripped the episodes on this site as well as Quiky and PacketCollision for being awesome sysops.
Powered entirely by WordPress and a bunch of custom WordPress plugins by Viper007Bond | Site design by zeroSignal and others
All videos are copyrighted by their original owners. This site is not related in any way to the BBC, Channel 5, the History Channel, SBS, or Channel 9.
