Top Gear is back for a staycation
With sexy new supercars Fiestas, and their fathers’ this series is full of and co surprises. Freddie talk to Jenny Johnston
When the Top Gear team gave a sneak preview of their new series to industry insiders, they had some unexpected feedback. Some of the viewers were floored by the striking vistas and locations being showcased. Where were these spectacular mountain backdrops and sweeping panoramas? Canada? Presenter Chris Harris laughs. ‘If we’d said it was shot in Canada and Sweden you’d probably believe us.’
Actually it was Scotland and the Lake District. The team – well used to packing sunscreen for their epic global jaunts – needed layers and hoods this time around. ‘It rained pretty much every minute we were off camera,’ admits Chris. ‘In Scotland we filmed in the coldest corner, in winter. But as well as the horizontal rain and wind we got that crisp cold whiteness we were after. The sense of space was magnificent. In the Lake District, it was during autumn so you got those amazing autumn colours.’
Freddie Flintoff seems just as radiant. ‘I actually enjoyed it! With Top Gear and other things I’ve filmed, I’ve spent a lot of time in the UK this year and it’s been great. I know other people are flicking through travel brochures, but I’m not one of those. It will be nice to go abroad at some point, I fancy the idea of a road trip in America, but I’m not itching to sit on a plane.’
For the Top Gear lads, long-haul travel used to be part of the job. The pandemic has grounded them though. The 29th series, which aired late last year, had to be rethought, although one segment had already been filmed in Greece.
This time around, the Top Gear guys have enjoyed what for them is even more of a staycation as they headed to the Scottish Highlands. ‘On the fringes of the inner Hebrides, near Mull,’ says Chris, who’s planning a trip back, perhaps with his children. ‘Although I’d like to visit the whisky distilleries too, and I can’t really do that with my kids.’
They also spent a few blustery days in the Lake District in a jaunt that included a dash for the Windermere Ferry, which sounds rather quaint but really wasn’t. The upshot? Well, interestingly, Chris Harris at least seems convinced that the enforced staycation has provided a valuable lesson. ‘I think the travel aspect of the show became too big a component,’ he explains.
‘The world’s changed. It’s always been my opinion that the heart of the show is the motor car. After that, it’s the relationship between the hosts and then the location. But I think the location became too prominent and there’s an expectation that you’ll always outdo yourself next time. The logical conclusion is
‘If we’d said it was shot in Canada you’d believe us’ CHRIS HARRIS
you need to go and film on Mars.
‘I think there’s been a correction about all of our lives with Covid – and the correction applied to Top Gear is, I think, a realisation that we don’t need to travel so much.’
Part of the success of the show has always been that viewers love seeing grown men act like overgrown schoolboys. The new series has plenty of this. One stunt sees them driving in pairs, with two of
them squished into the driving seat together. The footage of 43year-old Freddie, all 6ft 4in of him, manoeuvring himself onto Paddy McGuinness’s lap is indeed hilarious. ‘Having Flintoff sat on me is something that will haunt me till my dying day,’ admits Paddy (47).
But there are also very grown-up aspects. The segment where the lads get to drive the cars their fathers drove may well have viewers reaching for their tissues. The three presenters had very different fathers, who in turn drove very different cars – a Ford Cortina, a Ford Fiesta and a BMW 323i – and they got the chance to become reacquainted with those cars. ‘We all have quite complicated relationships with our fathers. I certainly did,’ says Chris (46) of his dad Ian. ‘I had some amazing times with him. Some not so. But I think Paddy
summed it up best when we were filming. He just took a pause after speaking to camera and said, “I just miss him.” That’s the thing. When you lose a parent too young, you always think, “I wish I could have asked him that.”’
The part where the tarpaulins are drawn back in a remote barn and they get to ‘meet’ the cars they grew up with is genuinely moving. ‘I watched it back the other day, and I had a bloody lump in my throat just seeing someone like Chris get choked up,’ admits Paddy. ‘It’s not usual for us. It was quite emotional for all of us.
‘I suppose it would be like recreating your front room from when you were a kid, seeing all the things you’d forgotten about. I used to spend so much time in my dad’s sunshine-yellow Fiesta. Because I
was brought up by a single mum, it was exciting to go out with my dad at the weekend. I’d go to bed the night before all excited, then watch for the car coming. That car was where I spent the most time with my dad, and spending time in the car with your dad is one of the best feelings ever, isn’t it?’
The emotions are complicated though, he concedes. He heroworshipped his dad Joe, an exminer and then HGV driver, who had ‘hands the size of plates’, he remembers. ‘When you’re young you don’t realise it’s your mum
who’s putting in the graft. She’s the one saying, “Get ready,” “Eat your tea.” You spend your time thinking, “My mum’s doing my head in,” so when your dad rocks up at the weekend to take you to Blackpool, get you dinner, you’re dead excited. I know my dad had the bloody easy time, and my mum was the saint. But it doesn’t take away from the laughs we had together in that car. Getting in it again, sitting in the front seat, even the smell of it brought it back.’ Joe died in 2014, but it brought him back too for a minute, it seems.
Chris’s dad was an accountant and drove a series of BMWs and Audis. He reckons he got his love of cars mostly through sitting in the back of his dad’s, which he was never allowed to drive, by the way. ‘Never! I wasn’t even allowed to fiddle with the buttons. When I was about 23 and a professional road tester for a magazine, I had a Ferrari 550 Maranello for the weekend and I went to see my parents. I had to go out in the evening and I asked my dad if I could borrow his car because I didn’t want to take the Ferrari, but he said, “No, not my car.” He didn’t trust me, while Ferrari did!’
Chris’s dad died when he was 24, and his mum passed away a few years ago. Interestingly, she was the speed demon in the family. She’d been an autocross (similar to rally) driver in the 50s – rare for a woman – and never lost her love of speed. ‘The irony was that she drove an estate car for the dogs, but when she got to drive my dad’s car the fireworks began. She was like a bat out of hell. Once I was in the car with her, I was maybe 17, and she was stopped doing a speed that would have seen her in court. But the policeman was so staggered by my mum saying, “Oh, hello officer!” that he stammered and said,
“You’d best be on your way.” She just winked at me and shot off again.’
Freddie has his own memories. His dad drove a Cortina, and Freddie’s entire childhood preparing to represent England at cricket seems to have been spent being driven to matches. ‘My parents used to sleep in the car,’ he remembers. Seriously? ‘Yeah. Not all the time, but sometimes. The team would be put up in hotels so sometimes Mum and Dad would sleep in the car.’
Fatherhood is quite a talking point today. The presenters have ten children between them, and just before lockdown Freddie added baby number four, Preston. Have they all been pitching in with more housework? Freddie takes mock offence. ‘Are you saying we lived in a pigsty before? No, I’ve been doing my bit. It doesn’t take much to pull a Henry Hoover around.’
Paddy insists that in his house he’s in charge of the domestic chores. ‘I do all the cooking and cleaning anyway,’ he says. He and his wife Christine have three children who all have autism, which ups the ante in terms of parenting challenges, and they have plans to do a documentary about it.
‘It will be based on our experiences. I remember I spoke about autism once, and then this dad got in touch with me on Twitter, saying he was so relieved because he’d felt he was on his own. That’s how I felt, and I realised that if a so-called celebrity with a big house and money felt like this, then others did too.’
I ask the two who no longer have their fathers around what their dads would make of their Top Gear jobs. Chris reckons his would be chuffed. And Paddy? ‘He’d be asking if I could get him a discount on a Mercedes.’
The new series of Top Gear starts on 14 March at 8pm on BBC One
‘Being in the car with your dad was the best feeling’ PADDY McGUINNESS