Top Gear 21: Season 21 Begins! [TV Review]

It's that time of year again! The most widely watched factual programme (not joking) in the world, the BBC's premiere motoring show, hosted by a hamster, a gorilla, and the world's slowest man is back. Yes, that is right! Top Gear is back again for its 21st season! Grab a stick-shift and fill your tanks petrol-heads!

Once you've seen it, you cannot unsee it: The Festive Hot-Hatch.

This year sadly does not begin with the holiday special, instead the season will end with it. Yet for the first episode out of the gate we are treated to a 'challenge episode.'

Always a good start.

I've been waiting since the end of last summer for the new season to begin. It was a long wait... was it worth it?

4 out of 5 stars

Lap-your-car. Do not try this at home.

In a word, yes. Not an emphatic yes because we started with a regular episode, but still a resounding yes. Top Gear never fails to deliver, even in it's lower budget episodes. Which are admittedly a touch odd for a show that has got to rake in the cash every season. I can only imagine it costs a pretty penny to insure those incredibly expensive hyper-cars like the McLaren P1 (from s21e02).

The car says TGPD. I'm ignoring the 'staches.

What I've said should not take away from the fun in the first epsiode. The guest was Hugh Bonneville, which was thrilling for Richard who turns out to be a massive Downton Abby fan. Not as spectacular for me since I've never seen an episode. It's BBC, and Masterpiece, so I probably should. Now next week is Tom Hiddleston, an actor I'm much more familiar with (Loki in Thor and Thor The Dark World, and Prince Hall / Henry V in Henry IV parts I and II, and Henry V)... so that will obviously be an interview I'm more interested in.  

Always let hamsters drive tanks. Thank you Top Gear.

The main feature of the episode was a challenge in which the guys had to prove that old hatchbacks from their youth (more like the 80s) are better than modern hatchbacks. To that end, Clarkson gets a Volkswagen Golf Mk.II GTI, May gets a Ford Fiesta XR2i, and Hammond picks up a Vauxhall Nova SRi (a car any moron can steal as they quickly prove).

The challenges involve a hill climb (not an unusual challenge... despite Hammond binning his car in the verge), a Supermarket challenge where they are penalized for every £ of damage they do (Clarkson does a bit), and a race where they attempt to escape from the TGPD (who are distracted by becoming mustache life-support systems). During the hill climb event each car is accompanied by music that fits their era... the modern car has some terrible song from today, the one in the hamster car commercial, it is quite awful. The GTI gets accompanied by Girls on Film by Duran Duran, an excellent song. AS to be expected the police chase involves tanks and other dangerous machines that Jeremy Clarkson should never be allowed near. They let him near them. So it is all good fun. 

It was good enough that I've watched the episode three times already... I'm really looking forward to the rest of this season!

I can't see the Nova at all...