The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Top Gear’s petrolheads motor in
STAR Wars wasn’t the only major production to roll into Kerry this year with smash hit BBC car show Top Gear also visiting the county.
While nowhere near the scale of the Star Wars’ production, Top Gear’s visit was greeted with almost as much excitement.
The segment saw new hosts Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans taking to the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula to test and compare a modern Rolls Royce Dawn with a classic Rolls Royce Cornniche.
Filming of the segment took place in April with the two hosts visiting the Killarney, Kenmare and Dingle areas.
As part of the production GAA players from the Dingle and An Ghaeltacht GAA clubs took part in a specially arranged Gaelic football clash at the remote Gallarus pitch in West Kerry.
Their respective trips around the county saw LeBlanc and Evans crash a hen party in Kenmare; meet some Irish dancers; chat with a farmer driving his sheep along the road near Slea Head ann sample whiskey at the Dingle Whiskey Distillery.
The show was broadcast in late June with an estimated audience of around 2.8 million viewers tuning in. Top Gear’s famed high production values showcased Kerry in stunning fashion and the show proved to be a fabulous advertisement for all Kerry has to offer.
If there was one downside it was the fact that Kerry’s appearance came on the post Jeremy Clarkson era of Top Gear, a new iteration of the programme which, to put it mildly, has not proved a hit with the show’s millions of fans worldwide.
Evans has since left the show and Clarkson’s new show The Grand Tour, so far, appears to be hammering Top Gear in terms of ratings.
Perhaps Clarkson and company - who one would image have surely seen their former show’s trip to Kerry – could be persuaded to bring their Grand Tour to The Kingdom. If the county is good enough for Luke Skywalker’s retirement home surely it’s worthy of Clarkson, May and Hammond’s touring tent.