Top Gear

[Tom R]

It was decent tonight, if only for the well fit bird who stood behind that actor bloke.

[Liverpool lad]

It was decent tonight, if only for the well fit bird who stood behind that actor bloke.

 

The girl behind Clarkson was lovely as well

[Salou]

It was decent tonight, if only for the well fit bird who stood behind that actor bloke.

 

They seem to reserve that spot just for really hot girls.

 

If people remember this beauty from the last series I think...

 

 

she was the best, oh wow I think I've re-fallen in love with her.

(girl on the furthest right for you all fags that can't pick out the best looking girl in that picture)

 

but there were also these lovely ladies

 

 

Can be found here: http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/gf-general-forum/71964-top-gear.html

[Fugitive]

It was decent tonight, if only for the well fit bird who stood behind that actor bloke.

 

She was lovely.

[Yozzer]

 

The woman from yesterday show, i presume this is the one.

[JohnnyH]

Fucking missed it. Completely forgot.

 

Is it repeated on tv at all this week?

[Woo]

Gonna watch the first two episodes now as there's fuck all to do in work this morning. They better had be good or I'm blaming Cain and Mark!

[havarantagain]

Fucking missed it. Completely forgot.

 

Is it repeated on tv at all this week?

BBCi, do you have the internet?

[JohnnyH]

I do, but I hate watching tv on it. Is it repeated on the tv at all?

[havarantagain]

I do, but I hate watching tv on it. Is it repeated on the tv at all?

'Dave' (not Usher) will have it on eventually and check out bbc 3/4.

[Duff Man]

I switched it off last night as it just bored me. I don't think there's one part of the show that's not staged anymore.

[Rex Banner]

The staging of Races and pretending it's real does wear thin after a while, I suppose it wouldn't be as entertaining when someone wins by 5 hours but some degree of realism would be a welcome change now and then.

It's still an entertaining show though and I always watch.

[RedinSweden]

I find the races boring. I much prefer it when they build stuff, or wang cars at caravans. The episode where they build their own cabriolet and the one with the carboats were class.

[Johnni]

Some of the staging they do was always suttle but now its more obvious which is a shame.

They need to do more cheap car challenges and less challenges that are funny but not near as as funny like last week Romania one or that crap Time Trial Rally from last series.

[Liverpool lad]

BBC iPlayer - Top Gear: Series 14: Episode 2

[rondeco]

That R8 looked the fucking business last night.

[milky]

Some of the staging they do was always suttle but now its more obvious which is a shame.

 

It's getting really obvious the staging parts now. That bit where the car rolled off down the hill last night, you could tell they were so uncomfortable pretending to not notice it. It's a pity this is creeping in more and more now.

[Duff Man]

It's getting really obvious the staging parts now. That bit where the car rolled off down the hill last night, you could tell they were so uncomfortable pretending to not notice it. It's a pity this is creeping in more and more now.

 

Yeah it was shortly after that bit that i sacked it off. Cringeworthy

[Trumo]

Don't mind when the go abroad on those epic races/challenges. It's funnier when they get a collection of bangers or problematic vehicles (as in the Americal special, the African special and the Vietnam special) than when they get top-of-the-range models (Frisco to Bonneville) or supercars (Romania).

 

Saying that, it's funniest when they do their challenges using a banger because it's ripe for their piss-taking which, let's face it, makes the show.

 

They should perhaps do a special in Oz, racing Utes across the Outback.

[dennis tooth]

MEDIA ALERT: THE SILENCE OF THE BBC 100 - BBC TRUST CHAIRMAN RESPONDS TO ‘NEWSPEAK’

 

 

One of our readers recently took us to task for a serious omission in our new book, ‘Newspeak in the 21st Century’ (Pluto Press, 2009). He asked how we could possibly have failed to include the BBC’s Newsnight presenter, Emily Maitlis. In August 2008, Maitlis opened Newsnight with these words about the conflict between Russia and Georgia:

 

“Hello, good evening. The Russians are calling it ‘peace enforcement operation’. It’s the kind of Newspeak that would make George Orwell proud.” (BBC2, August 11, 2008, 10:30pm)

 

When has a BBC journalist so much as raised an eyebrow while channelling US-UK propaganda about the “peace enforcement operation” in Afghanistan or Iraq? It is unimaginable that a Newsnight presenter would declare such claims “the kind of Newspeak that would make George Orwell proud”.

 

Our book devotes two whole chapters to the BBC: the first, exposing the magnificent fiction of BBC “balance”, and the second presenting a handy A-Z compendium of BBC propaganda.

 

Another 'Newspeak' reader was so keen for its arguments to be given a fair hearing that he paid for 100 copies of the book to be sent to the BBC. Thanks to his generosity, and the efforts of our publisher, a copy was sent to virtually all senior BBC news journalists and editors, members of the BBC Executive Board, as well as the BBC Trustees.

 

The BBC were unwilling to allow a mass mailing of books via their post room. But after considerable wrangling, Pluto Press tracked down individual postal addresses for 100 BBC professionals and wrote to them individually, enclosing a copy of our book. The publisher also invited comment and feedback on the book through a dedicated email address that was set up especially for that purpose.

 

To date, only two replies from the BBC have been received. One was from a radio producer who was pleased to be included in such a mailing, he told us, because he’s normally overlooked. The other response came from no less a figure than Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the BBC Trust. Sir Michael wrote:

 

“Thank you for sending me a copy of ‘Newspeak in the 21st Century’ - interesting in its own right and evidence that the Pluto Press imprint remains strong. I will read it with interest.

 

“In my first scan, my attention was drawn to the list of BBC Trustees on p. 26 where energetic editing of my CV helps to accommodate the author's concern to characterise the BBC Trust as distanced from roots and community issues.” (Email, November 3, 2009)

 

Is it possible that Lyons had flipped straight to the index to search for his name? A celebrity sin ranked marginally below that of Googling one’s own name.

 

We described Lyons, fairly, as having "held a number of executive and non-executive media and local government positions". We in fact omitted to mention his links to +central+ government as described on the BBC website:

 

“Sir Michael has also worked closely with central government, undertaking both an independent study on the scope for relocating public service activities from London to other parts of the UK (The Lyons Review, 2004) and a detailed examination of the role and funding of local government (The Lyons Inquiry, 2007).

 

“Sir Michael was knighted in 2000 for services to local government.” (BBC Trust - The Trustees - Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman)

 

Readers can see for themselves how Lyons and the other BBC Trustees present their CVs:

 

BBC Trust - About the Trust - The Trustees

 

The point we made in our book is that there is clearly a heavy bias towards establishment, financial and corporate links amongst the BBC Trustees:

 

"There are no representatives from the trade unions, green pressure groups, development charities, child poverty groups or other grass-root organisations. We are to believe there is no reason to doubt that these Trust members are independent from the government that appointed them, and from the elite corporate and other interests that employ them. We are to believe, instead, that these privileged individuals will uphold fair and balanced reporting which displays not a hint of bias towards state ideology or economic orthodoxy in a world of rampant corporate power." (Newspeak, p.27)

 

We thanked Lyons for his response and invited him to send us comments on the two chapters devoted to the BBC. Three weeks later he wrote again:

 

“I have now read the two chapters relating to the BBC as you suggested. I do not think that I can fruitfully enter into a dialogue about my reactions, but I would draw your attention to the fact that the BBC Trust will be undertaking a review of News services in 2010 and you might feel that you want to contribute to that exercise. Your views would be most welcome.” (Email, November 24, 2009)

 

Again, it was good to receive any kind of reply - it would have been so easy for Lyons to ignore us, and we suspect that he means well. But an interesting question arises: why, in a free society, can Lyons not “fruitfully enter into a dialogue” about his reactions? Is it because nothing much occurred to him as he read through our chapters on the BBC? We very much doubt it. Perhaps, instead, Lyons would agree with the honest and courageous Leo Tolstoy when he wrote:

 

“One man [indeed one woman] does not assert the truth which he knows, because he feels himself bound to the people with whom he is engaged; another, because the truth might deprive him of the profitable position by which he maintains his family; a third, because he desires to attain reputation and authority, and then use them in the service of mankind; a fourth, because he does not wish to destroy old sacred traditions; a fifth, because he has no desire to offend people; a sixth, because the expression of the truth would arouse persecution, and disturb the excellent social activity to which he has devoted himself.” (Tolstoy, What Then Must We Do?, Green Classics, 1991, p.118)

 

More jovially, BBC presenter, Times journalist and comedian Jeremy Clarkson writes:

 

"As you may know, Rupert Murdoch and his son James are engaged in a bitter dispute with the BBC over all sorts of things. This puts me in a tricky spot. Obviously, Rupert and James Murdoch are my bosses, not just here at The Sunday Times but also at The Sun, for which I write a column on Saturdays. I am therefore inclined to nod vigorously when they suggest the licence fee should be scrapped and all BBC web activities halted forthwith.

 

"But I am also employed by the BBC, which means I am inclined to nod vigorously whenever the director-general says the BBC is a fantastic institution and the envy of every nation in the world. This means I’ve been doing an awful lot of vigorous nodding in the past few months.” (Clarkson, ‘I’m so dead – shot by both sides in the website war,’ Times Online, November 29, 2009; I’m so dead – shot by both sides in the website war | Jeremy Clarkson - Times Online)

 

If these are the real reasons why dialogue with us cannot be entered into “fruitfully”, then this is exactly the point we are making in our two chapters, our book, and in our work as a whole. We do not live in a totalitarian society - the BBC is not a totalitarian organisation. But we are kidding ourselves if we imagine that we are free to speak the truth as a result. To quote another eminent philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, writing in the context of US politics:

 

“It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.” (Thoreau, Walden, Penguin, 1983, p.49)

 

Near-total silence, then, from the BBC 100 in response to ‘Newspeak,’ a rational, referenced challenge to their capacity for truth-telling. Our freedom is carefully sculpted and constrained by this kind of silence. Whole issues, whole nations, unimaginable crimes and horrors, are swallowed up by it.

 

What hope, then, for a fair and reasoned reception to honest public challenges when BBC News services are reviewed next year? To be sure, there will be noise and bluster aplenty. But, as usual, it will be delivered in the context of the wider, controlling silence.

[Anny Road]

DT You must be a fucking hoot at parties let me get out my party diary.

Jan....NO

Feb ...No

Mrch..No

You can see where this is going.

[Thants]

Top Gear is back? Great! It's racist and sexist but hey they're only joking aren't they! And he's not a real hamster!

[kop]

A bit of racism and sexism as never hurt anyone.

[Trumo]

On at 8:30 tonight.

[Liverpool lad]

On at 8 tonight, they have moved it about a lot so I thought I would remind you

 

BBC - BBC Two Programmes - Top Gear, Series 14, Episode 7

 

I'm good like that