Top team crank it up

– Jason Beck
TO PARAPHRASE Jeremy Clarkson – is it the greatest show in the history of the world?
The tyre-torturing juggernaut that is Top Gear has swept all before it.
Reputed to have a budget that would pay off the debt of a small African nation, creativity runs deep in Top Gear’s veins.
But the magic here is the lightning in a bottle chemistry between the three presenters.
The franchise in all its forms really is the three boys themselves, and the show would be unthinkable without any one of them.
That’s why the Top Gear clones have failed – the magic here can’t be replicated.
Even when events are clearly staged, the three amigos keep it natural, and you can tell they’re not acting too much.
The show’s best feature is that it’s not really about cars, and you don’t have to be a “car person” to love it.
The themes are universal – men love it, women love it, children love it, old people love it, and if you happen to understand that cars are more than mere machines, then that does no harm either.
Is it any wonder this one show was virtually the core of SBS programming, and has now made Tuesday nights on Channel 9 an almost religious experience?
All good things must end and one day, no doubt, so will Top Gear.
In the meantime, long may they keep their motors running.