BBC Magazines
BBC Books 2008
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
Yes, it’s a book about the top-rating
motoring show. Coincidentally, this is the thirtieth year of Top Gear’s
production (under a variety of names and with a range of presenters). It has
gone from being a serious motoring show in 1978 featuring Angela Rippon’s legs
to a less-than-serious show featuring Jeremy Clarkson’s ego (oh, and a couple
of other presenters as well). Since most of us own cars that are, face it, fairly
boring, the show now concentrates on the few non-boring ones and some of the
interesting things one can do with the rest.
All the best parts of the TV show are
included. The presenters come in for a hammering from each other (even Richard
Hammond’s suspiciously-white teeth get a passing swipe), and the jokes about
the Stig and Americans and Fiats all get an airing again. The best of the
Challenges are there, too, in photographic essays. We have Driving across
America’s deep south (So Real It’s Like Actually Being Killed By Hicks),
driving across Africa, driving to the North Pole, and my personal favorite, the
disastrous Reliant Robin Space Shuttle. The chapters on these are necessarily
brief, but the photography is comprehensive. The book is filled with lots of
photos that bring back memories of the best moments of the shows, and the text
commentary accurately reflects its style and presentation.
That is really the book’s strong point. It
brings back memories of the shows and the personalities of the presenters much
quicker than firing up the DVD player. It may inspire you to put on the DVD of
your favorite shows later on, but meanwhile the book brings back all the
memories of those great moments. It’s also a lot easier to pass around your
friends. It’s a good thing it’s in hard cover, so it can take the wear and
tear.
The book is also full of useful
information for fans of the show. There is a ready-made complaints sheet to
send off to the BBC, a history of Top Gear, a Get The Look! Section that shows
how you, too, can look like your favorite presenter for less than twenty
pounds, and a question and answer section (Why is there a bloody great Boeing
747 on the test track?). Pages of Poweeerrr! features the favorite cars of
guess-which presenter.
As befits a TV show, the book is highly
visually-oriented. The photos are high quality, the book’s presentation is
lavish, the text is hilarious. I started reading it and enjoyed it so much I
couldn’t put it down until I finished it a couple of hours later. It’s a
brilliant recreation of the show in book form