Wednesday 30 December 2009

Was it just me irritated by the end of the Top Gear South America Special?

It was all going very enjoyably. Some humour some tension. Jeremy getting past the other car while edge of the road was slipping away was truly nail-biting. The way they were given condoms, vaseline, Tampax and Viagra at the start which were then all eventually used for various non-sexual purposes was downright clever. Then, unfortunately, two minutes from the end, it happened.

The three cars were lined up abreast, ready to tackle a dangerous steep slope in preparation fo rthe big drop down to the coast. The camera is switched on Jeremy with a perfect view of Richard getting out of his car and walking over to Jeremy for a completely pointless bit of reassurance. Then, Richard's Toyota slowly creeps forward, builds up a bit of speed and another camera perfectly captures the rolling over and destruction of said car.

Very contrived.

I can only come up with two possible reasons for doing this.

1. They wanted to demonstrate just how dangerous the slope actually was. They couldn't use the Range Rover because that had to "win" and nobody would believe that James would not put his handbrake on and leave his car in reverse gear with some chocks in front of the wheels if parked at the top of a dangerous slope.

2. Either Richard or Health & Safety or Insurance decided that it was too dangerous to do in an open vehicle. Even with it's roll-cage, a stray limb or dodgy seatbelt meant that a roll would result in somewhere between serious injury and serious death.

With either scenario, a TV producer would suggest a little "comedy" moment with Richard forgetting about the handbrake. Eh Voila - a naff ending.

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