Topgear to be banned

Campaigners say scrap Top Gear and replace it with ‘Third Gear’ version promoting sensible driving

Press release embargoed until 00.01 hours Monday 11 April 2005

TRANSPORT 2000 campaigners called today for Top Gear to be taken off the BBC schedules and replaced with a new programme promoting “sensible driving in sensible vehicles”. It argues that, as a programme put out by a public service broadcaster, Top Gear should be responsible, seek to educate and be in the public interest, but that it falls far short of these ideals and is in danger of promoting irresponsible driver behaviour and an obsession with big cars, while ignoring the interests of most women viewers.


Transport 2000’s suggestion is for a new programme, perhaps called Third Gear, devoted to encouraging responsible motoring based on less environmentally damaging cars, considerate and safety-conscious driving, and exploration of alternatives to the car. The call comes as the BBC launches a consultation exercise inviting the views of the public on its future and its programmes.


While recognising that Top Gear is seen by many of its viewers as entertaining, campaigners argue that it has a number of key faults:

... It glamorises speed and fails to make the connection with danger on the roads.

... It encourages an obsession with unnecessarily powerful and therefore heavily polluting cars.

... Through use of Jeremy Clarkson as presenter, with his distinctive image, it is in danger of encouraging a ‘yobbish’ attitude on the road.

... It does not focus enough, if at all, on responsible driving, ‘greener’ cars, road safety or the need to cut car journeys and use alternatives where possible.

... Through its recurring ‘macho’ themes of speed and power, it fails to include the interests of most women in its programmes.


Spokesperson for Transport 2000 Steve Hounsham said: “Everyone is talking about how to reduce car use, cut climate change emissions and make the roads safer but, to quote in perhaps its own language, Top Gear effectively sticks up its fingers to this.


“There is a strong danger that it encourages irresponsible motorist behaviour and it therefore has no place in public service broadcasting. We want to see Top Gear taken off the screens. It is irresponsible, out-dated television designed to give comfort to boy racers, ‘petrolheads’ and those from the ‘get out of my way’ school of driving. We would like to see it replaced with a new programme – perhaps called Third Gear – that promotes sensible driving in sensible vehicles.


“This is not about censorship or having a poor sense of humour, it’s about what is in the public interest. You can provide entertainment without it being mindless and irresponsible. If we must have Jeremy Clarkson on the television, let’s give him something useful to do, such as trying out public transport or road-testing new bicycles. Perhaps he would like to drive a bus; he’d find it just as much fun as a Ferrari.”<br>


Notes

Some things Top Gear is famous for:

... Following complaints made to the BBC, the programme team was sent back to Oxford twice to refilm a piece about the closure of the High Street to through traffic because it failed to present a balanced view of the scheme.

... To test the claims made for a 4x4, the programme really did try to take the vehicle to the top of a mountain in Scotland, through a sensitive peat bog causing substantial ecological damage.

... In an infamous episode, Jeremy Clarkson tore up on camera information from Transport 2000’s website presenting the dangers of speed.

... In a race against colleagues using public transport and plane, Clarkson drove a Ferrari more or less non-stop from London to Switzerland and was stopped by police for speeding on the way.



For further information, media representatives should contact Steve Hounsham on 020 7613 0743 extn 106 or 07984 773468 or Stephen Joseph on 020 7613 0743 extn 105 or 07939 584790.

Meanwhile, controversy about the programme has spilled over into the pages of the Daily Telegraph, with one reader partly blaming the show's chief presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, for the company's troubles, because of his derisive reviews of Rover cars.