Chris, your Top Gear is nothing to shout about
Our Goggleboxers the Coleman family – Jimmy, partner Julie and daughter Phoebe – give us their steer on the new Top Gear. JIMMY: Phoebe is 16, she doesn’t drive, and Julie doesn’t drive, so I’m over-ruled when it comes to watching car shows. We used to tune in and out of the original Top Gear, with the three dinosaurs. It was good to see fairly interesting celebrities – Sharleen Spiteri, Eddie Jordan and Teeny Tempah. JULIE: Tinie Tempah! PHOEBE: Dad, you’re sounding like one of the dinosaurs. JIMMY: When I saw Chris Evans racing a £250,000 McClaren, I was thinking ‘Oh no, I can’t be doing with this’. JULIE: I can’t relate to that. Turns out Chris has bought one of them, which reinforces everything you think about him. JIMMY: He looks like Harry Potter gone wrong to me. PHOEBE: Chris is trying to be Clarkson, the old man crashing his car was trying to be James May and Joey – sorry Matt – was wearing a leather jacket that symbolised Richard Hammond. Why try to replicate the show? JULIE: Chris is smug and shouts. Not that
The childhood programme that shapes my youth... I absolutely loved Little House On The Prairie. Laura Ingalls was my hero. The episode where Mary Ingalls lost her sight will remain with me for ever. The programme my other half and I are at odds about… Cricket. But actually I’m more at odds with my son Ollie about it. He’s a passionate fan and watches endless cricket. It goes on for hours... My guilty TV pleasure… Doctor Who is brilliant. Ollie and I have all the DVDs and for us, it’s a great night in. The show I can’t stand… Some of the shows on the Disney Channel are so predictable. You know, the ones where all the kids are totally precocious, have pushy mothers, and there’s always the pretty girl who is actually not very nice. Then there’s the plainer one who is actually lovely, and eventually gets the Matt needs to look any cooler, but by comparison he’s so chilled. JIMMY: He was good in Episodes and has done that cross-over now. We’ve been able to disconnect him from Joey from Friends. JULIE: They should disconnect Chris for the next series and introduce young talent. JIMMY: It would be refreshing to see a female presenter. JULIE: There’s still The Stig, and I did like the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car, so I’m glad that’s still in it. A segment about getting young drivers on the road would be good for Phoebe to watch. PHOEBE: They really should have thought harder before they rushed this series to beat the Amazon one. JIMMY: The last 15 minutes saved it for me when they were in South Africa in a Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes. JULIE: Oh yes, the location was stunning and the filming was really well done. JIMMY: If they have good interesting characters then I would watch it again. JULIE: I’ll watch to see how Matt is settling into it but I’ll mute the parts where Chris is talking, aka shouting. I liked that they brought in more celebrities – it made it more fun.
The show I wish I was cast in… I’d love to be Doctor Who’s assistant. I liked it when Billie Piper was David’s assistant. When I was a child I was terrified of the Daleks, so I’d like to fight them, but I wouldn’t like to fight the weeping angels. They’re SO creepy. Springwatch is on BBC2, Thursdays at 8pm