Jeremy: James, the car is weaving about.
Richard: It's not--this is not natural.
James: Really alarming!
Richard: [voiceover] So, we consulted the caravan handbook.
Jeremy: [quoting the handbook] "When a swaying caravan starts to dictate the direction of travel, you have a snake."
Richard: No, you have a crash!
Jeremy: Exactly! [quoting] "Try to keep it in the straight ahead position, and allow the outfit to slow down gradually." [commenting] And that's not true! You put your foot down, don't you?
Richard: Power out of it. Always!
James: Yeah!
Jeremy: Power out!
Richard: Yes, if in doubt, give it more power.
Jeremy: [holding up the handbook] This is wrong!
[Jeremy is reading a Thai cookery book, planning lunch]
Jeremy: James, you know that shop you went to this morning? Did it have any raw prawns?
James: No.
Jeremy: Coconut milk?
James: No.
Jeremy: Green curry paste?
James: No.
Jeremy: Coriander leaves? Snake beans?
James: It had some potatoes.
Jeremy: Oh, well - Chips, then!
[he causes a chip pan fire and burns down their, and the adjoining, caravan]
Scroll to the bottom of the page to watch the faked Top Gear scenes...
Top Gear producers had contacted the brigade several weeks before filming - and paid about £1,000 to have six crew members and an engine on standby for the stunt.
The BBC said that viewers would not have been misled as it was obvious that the sequence was "slapstick" with a "sitcom ending".
oh 🙁
It's an entertainment TV programme for grief's sake! You only see events for real when items are transmitted live, when the reporter goes 'umm' 'arr' 'umm' 'arr' several times and you scream at the TV.
- Colin Watts, Bournemouth UK, 12/8/2007 12:51
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Does this come as any surprise to anyone? Top Gear is the best BBC offering on television but anyone who thinks the 'pranks' they get up to are real must need their heads examined - it's entertainment for goodness sake!
- Mark Nicholson, Swanley, Kent, 28/7/2007 22:49
Click to rate Rating 9 Report abuse
Sorry folks but this questioning of TV has gone a bit too far... I watched the Top Gear episode in question and anyone who didn't realise that it wasn't a "mickey take" should just stick to reality TV... that's sarcasm by the way.
- Chris, Aberdeen, 28/7/2007 22:46
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I saw and enjoyed this piece, and think you'd have to be completely thick, not to see this was a creative and light-hearted piece of entertainment, making proper use of the medium. I am slack-jawed at the thought someone sees this programme, as a having any serious documentary purpose, bar the occasional moments in which it highlights a safety issue, of which this is hardly one.
- Jonathan, Baldock, UK, 28/7/2007 22:39
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So what, we knew! It was still hilarious!
- Shirley Smith, Harrow, 28/7/2007 22:06
Click to rate Rating 5 Report abuse
I have to say this was the worst episode of Top Gear I have ever seen. However, I never thought for one minute that it was genuine!
- Jw, Hants, UK, 28/7/2007 22:02
Click to rate Rating 10
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