People like it when we’re pushed out of our comfort zone...
Get your motors running. MARION McMULLEN buckles up for the new series of Top Gear
PADDY McGUINNESS, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and Chris Harris are getting back behind the wheel for Top Gear.
The much-loved BBC show is back for its 32nd series and, thanks to the fact that travel restrictions have, by and large, been lifted, they’re able to embark on one of their trademark global adventures, this time, beginning with a road trip across Florida’s swampy Everglades in an RV.
Presenter Paddy, 48, – who is married to model and TV personality Chritine – spills the beans about life on the road.
Did you enjoy the opportunity to be back on the road again for this series of Top Gear?
Absolutely. We’ve been in this pandemic for the past couple of years and in and out of lockdowns.
So just to go somewhere like the USA and have a road trip was the best thing ever.
We were all demob happy. Everyone had a brilliant time.
It had a really good feeling about it because we had not done it for so long.
We laughed a hell of a lot, and I think that’s the beauty of us three.
We laugh off camera as well as on camera. We get on really well. Long may it continue!
What did you enjoy most about the American road trip?
I love Americana. To be out there and visiting different places was fantastic.
We started in Miami and worked our way up to the Everglades and then to Naples and beyond.
You can drive a short distance out
there and it feels like you’re in a different world.
Miami’s very cosmopolitan, and then you go an hour up the road and it’s all Trump flags.
But no matter where we went, everyone was so lovely to us.
Did you dress accordingly wherever you went?
Yes. Every race we did was in a different area of the US, so we added some local flavour each time.
When we were in Miami, we dressed up in full Crockett and Tubbs [outfits]. We had a Miami Vice vibe that really suited it.
Then we went up to the Everglades and we were dressed in the vests and the jean shorts.
We crammed a lot in. It was amazing. It was another moment where I thought, “Wow, I’m so fortunate to be able to do this.”
What was it like trying to find suitable cars for modern cop shows for one episode?
Being brought up in the 70s and 80s, TV for us was a steady stream of cop shows like Starsky and Hutch, The Minder, Knight Rider and
Morse.
In a lot of programmes in those days, the cars were always the stars.
I remember back then not really knowing much about Starsky and Hutch, but really loving their car.
This was another one of those moments where we thought, “We are so lucky to be involved in this!”.
The producers brought back all these classic cars from the TV shows. So we had Morse’s actual Jaguar, Starsky and Hutch’s Grand Torino and the Miami Vice car.
We talked about each show and each car, and then we had the chance to come up with our own cop alter egos.
What was yours?
He was called Dirty Cobra. It was a cross between Dirty Harry and Cobra.
He was a cop who operated outside the law. He was going to be a cross between Dirty Harry and Lethal Weapon, but the producers didn’t like the name Dirty Weapon!
What was it like driving a HGV?
The producers got us to take our HGV licences.
Even now, when I’m on the motorway and a big artic drives by, I think, “I’m actually qualified to drive one of those”.
Doing Top Gear, I’ve done lots of races, so I can get my head around the speed and the track and everything else, but this was totally alien for all of us to be in a vehicle so big and so powerful.
When you put your foot down,
you’re going at a 100 miles an hour plus. What made it even harder was that we were right in the middle of a big storm.
They said nobody should go out on the road and we were hurtling around in these high-sided HGVs.
It was a thrilling thing to see in the flesh, but I feel glad to have survived that one, actually.
Why does the chemistry between the three of you work so well?
We don’t have to try very hard. When you look at people who been put together by a producer or a commissioner, it doesn’t always work.
You can see that straightaway.
But with us, even when we did our taster day way back when we first got the gig, it just worked from the get go.
When we argue with each other, it can be quite dark and near the knuckle, but we always know when one of us needs a bit of time.
We are quite sensitive to that. We take the mickey out of each other a lot, but if one of us is having an off day, he gets left to it.
Why do you think Top Gear remains so popular?
The British public has a bit of a perSweeney, verse sense of humour and we like seeing people a little bit out of their comfort zone on the telly.
In the days of [former hosts Jeremy] Clarkson, [Richard] Hammond, and [James] May, they would be in Vietnam in vests, no sleep, sweating, just having a horrendous time.
It’s really amusing seeing that happen to people.
It’s the same with Chris, Fred and me. People like it when we are pushed out of our comfort zone, but they also like it when in the end we prevail.
Do fans all over the world come up and talk to you about the show?
We laugh off camera as well as on camera. We get on really well. Long may it continue Paddy on working with his co-stars Freddie and Chris
Yes. When we were out in America, some guy stopped me in the Everglades and started talking to me about the series.
That blew my mind because he was a full-on Everglades guy in a cowboy hat.
He was talking to me in depth about stuff we had done.
He was the last guy I thought would be talking to me about Top Gear, but the show obviously travels well and people just really enjoy it.
That’s the beauty of it.
Top Gear starts on BBC1 tonight at 8pm