GeaR We GO aGaiN
Top Gear’s Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris talk to DANIELLE about fire, fears and Formula 1
FROM riding a two-tonne Maserati Quattroporte around a £1m “Wall of Death” to a cross-Channel attempt in DIY amphibious vehicles, Top Gear has seen many an adrenalinefuelled misadventure.
But with a current presenting line-up comprised of a former sportsman who’s scared of the dark, a comedian who suffers from severe motion sickness and a motoring journalist who’s terrified of crustaceans, you’d be forgiven for thinking the car show’s premise is a recipe for disaster.
Yet it’s precisely the kind of chaos that keeps audiences coming back for more.
“The motor car is the perfect medium for television because it’s emotional,” says presenter and motoring journalist Chris Harris, 46.
“It sounds good, it looks good and I can’t think of a better thing to film. I would say that because I like cars – but outside of wildlife and natural history, the motor car is perfect.”
Describing early incarnations of the hit BBC show as “rather dry” and the equivalent of “Tomorrow’s World for cars”, Chris says that recent years have seen Top Gear evolve to “become a travel show”.
“Now we’ve had a correction – which I think we’re all quite grateful for, the show needed it,” says Chris.
“You’ve got to be careful with the travel thing – constantly being on planes and things like that, attitudes have changed quite quickly and we need to be aware of that.”
Now entering its 31st series, this time around we see the presenting trio partaking in the ultimate Formula 1 track race by gatecrashing the British Grand Prix and teaming up with McLaren driver Lando Norris, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel as part of a trackfocused sports car challenge.
“It was stunning and for us, what a coup to have been involved in an F1 weekend – it’s not easy to be a part of that, they don’t let that happen,” recalls Chris.
“We shot it on the Thursday. We had one hour to film it, which we’ve never done because TV is a big old beast.”
Describing the current championship battle between seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s brightest star Max Verstappen as “fantastic” and “the golden age of F1”, he says the episode is set to air as the title fight “crescendos to an end”.
“You’re now seeing all the young guns coming through and then they’re gonna take over soon – Lewis knows it, they all know it’s coming, it’s a question of when not if.”
With the presenters bearing the brunt of more than a handful of “old man” digs from Vettel – considered, at 34, to already be a veteran of the F1 paddock – the comments see actor and TV presenter Paddy McGuinness recoil, with the 48-year-old comedian declaring “we’re not that b **** y old!”
“We are to them,” counters Chris, “Lando was born around the time Phoenix Nights [the Peter Kay comedy series in which Paddy played a bouncer] was airing.”
Fondly recalling a particularly raucous meeting at one of Vettel’s many victory parties, former England cricketer Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, 43, says reflecting on the glory days isn’t always such a bad thing.
“As an ex-sportsman, I always look back on previous years and I always think they were better,” he muses. “If I watch cricket, I like the 70s and the 80s; if I watch motor racing, it’s the same. It was more art than science I think back in the day.”
It’s a series that is also set to tug at the heartstrings, as Paddy meets his hero – former stunt rider Eddie Kidd, who was paralysed following a 1996 accident.
“When you’re talking to him, you totally still see that glint in his eye,”
says Paddy with a smile.
“I think it’s nice that we can do stuff like that on Top Gear. It takes you [away from] us being outlandish and doing silly stunts or what have you. I think I just didn’t want to kind of... p*** him off or say anything wrong to him.
“In the film he trolls me quite a lot. He’s really sharp – and I didn’t care what he said to me or if he took the mickey out of me.”
With Freddie describing how today’s stuntmen and women cite Eddie as the “benchmark” for modern day stunt riding, the scale of the performer’s achievements suddenly hit home.
“The first person to do all that is the one who’s the bravest,” he says, “he’s doing something you’re not sure can possibly be done and he’s the one out there and he’s paved the way for everyone else afterwards.”
With the series also featuring Freddie’s nail-biting journey to gaining his race licence, picturesque adventures in Iceland and celebrating the DeLorean’s 40th anniversary, no instalment of Top Gear would be complete without suitably ridiculous carbased chaos...
Case in point, the chilli pepper challenge. A task that saw all three presenters bundled into a car as they took turns devouring chillis while tackling an off-road course.
The segment saw Freddie’s competitive streak come into its
own. “I had to do it. There’s no two ways about it,” he declares. “You’ve got him [Paddy] in the back nibbling on a jalapeno and then throwing it about town and Chris was right up there, so there was no way on earth I could not have done it. It was the first time I’ve drunk milk in eight years – that didn’t do me any good either.”
Proving the greatest challenge for Paddy – who says that when it comes to spice he “struggles with brown sauce” – Chris says that although he “quite likes hot stuff ” he was “a proper goner”.
“It was all-consuming,” says Chris. “When it goes from painful to this throb across your whole head, you’re thinking, ‘God, I’m going to have a haemorrhage or something!”’
As for challenges the trio deem truly nightmarish, this season
saw Paddy – the one who suffers from motion sickness – refrain from Zorbing (rolling in a giant orb), noting “even if I’m in the garden with the kids and I do that spinning around I’m like, ‘Right, that’s me, I’m gonna sit down for five minutes”’.
However, it’s Chris who takes longer to admit his true fear, pointing at producers while declaring, “I know that if I said something they would try and organise it and we’d have to do it.”
Eventually caving, he announces, “if you put crab anywhere near me, I will have a heart attack”.
“It has an exoskeleton with hair coming out of it. It’s the most appalling creature ever designed.
“It’s proof there’s not a God – God wouldn’t create such a creature.”
Top Gear is on BBC1 tomorrow at 8pm and will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer