Shifting Gear in last-gasp effort

REARVIEW:I REMEMBER watching Top Gearwhen I was a kid in the 1980s. At a time when central locking and electrically-operated windows were considered luxury items, particularly in recession-hit Ireland, the show was truly a wonder to behold.

As a child who used to try to tell the make of a car by sound, and who got a Ford Escort engine for his 14th birthday, Top Gearwas more than just a TV show.

When the show changed its format in 2002, with more pizzazz, more grandstanding, and segments such as the star in the reasonably priced car and racing fighter jets, it seemed Top Gearkept giving and giving as a piece of entertainment for car fanatics.

But something has gone wrong. These days, when I finally work out the channel and time of the latest episode, and having often failed to ascertain either, missing it really isn't a problem. It used to be like missing Mass for a devout Catholic or missing the ard fheis for a Fianna Fáiler, but missing the jaded tripe that Top Gearhas become is not such a drag.

The show’s latest “controversy” hit the headlines after the hosts “joked” that Mexicans were “lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight”. (I use inverted commas on controversy and joked advisedly). Jeremy Clarkson previously “joked” that truck drivers kill prostitutes. Now, I enjoy an inappropriate joke like the next man or woman, but this is something else. The Mexican jibe was nothing more than a scripted and contrived controversy aimed at creating maximum publicity. It was also not particularly funny.

It is a last desperate gasp of a show that has run out of steam and become more about the presenters than about the cars.