My Wife Doesn't Like Jeremy Vine

He irritates her on his Radio 2 show.  I am indifferent towards him.

We both like his brother though.

But I am going off Jeremy myself now.

 

Because of this article.  He says that the Drivetime show (as discussed by me last month) shouldn't be called "The Drivetime Show" because it celebrates "a form of transport that kills 1700 people a year."

 

Vine said "the show needed a new name for post-car Britain".  But there are still plenty of cars about when I'm driving home.

 

He added that "our addiction to the motor vehicle has made our cities traffic sewers; made us asthmatic, fat and angry; and made our planet suffer".  Speak for yourself mate - I'm not a fat asthmatic.

 

This means that he has slipped right down the rankings in my list of favourite Jeremys.  Obviously Clarkson and Corbyn are at the top closely followed by Hardy but Vine has now gone from mid-table (Paxman, Irons etc.) right down to Hunt, Kyle territory.

 

I wonder what he thinks of hybrid cars - I suspect that he will be very unimpressed by this BBC story.

 

The gist is that lots of fleet buyers bought hybrid cars for the subsidies and tax breaks offered by the Government and many are never charged up so just end up as fuel inefficient petrol cars. "Many drivers may never have unwrapped their charging cables" it says - I'm not sure how they can know that but I suppose it is quite possible.

 

Basically, the Ministry of Transport have not thought this through properly.

 

I think that the Transport Minister should resign.

 

Oh. He has.

If it Ain't Broke - DON'T FIX IT!

Up until recently, Simon Mayo presented the Radio 2 Drivetime slot entertaining commuters on their way home from work each evening.

Meanwhile, Jo Whiley had a slot later in the evening - a more musically focussed show.

Two very talented broadcasters with two very enjoyable shows in my opinion.

And in the opinion of lots of other Radio 2 listeners. 

Then some bright-spark at the BBC, decided to combine their two shows - extend the Drivetime show by one hour and have the two of them as co-presenters.

We didn't think that would work.

It didn't.

From the start it was obvious that the chemistry between them, no matter how hard they tried to make it work, just wasn't there.

Listeners were upset - there were many letters of protest in The Radio Times and directly to the BBC. So much so, that Radio 2 had to offer an official response to complaints.

They stubbornly claimed that: "Every new show needs time to settle down and so we hope listeners will continue to listen and give it a chance."

Anyway, today the end of the show was announced.  Jo is moving to a new slot from 7-9 which is good news but Simon is leaving Radio 2 all together.  Sad face.

So what has this got to do with cars (apart from the tenuous link to driving home)?

Nothing - except that today the BBC also announced a new line up for Top Gear.  They are demoting Rory Reid and bringing in Freddie Flintoff & Paddy McGuinness.

Now I like Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness - but they are not motoring show presenters.

It was also very brave in an un-politically-correct way of the BBC to demote the only black presenter of Top Gear - I'm sure someone will get a telling-off for that one.

I know they had to find a replacement for Matt Leblanc - but there are plenty of motoring journalists and racing drivers out there rather than opting for celebrity "petrol-heads" - this line up just looks two-thirds wrong:

Now I don't mind having a celebrity petrol-head in there from time to time - Ronnie O'Sullivan seems OK helping out in the Team Tests in the latest series of Fifth Gear. (I'm quite enjoying the latest series - even if I can never remember which channel they are on - I wish they'd go back to Channel 5 and stay there)

 

But I suppose the BBC know what they are doing.

 

After all, they've never made a similar mistake before have they?

Bowled Over

This lady is leaving BBC Radio 2:

Why is that motoring news?

 

Because she is the lovely Lynn Bowles (or "Elbow" to give her her Jennifer Lopez type name)

 

For many years, she has told me why I'm stuck in a traffic jam on the M53.  I don't think she's ever prevented me from actually getting stuck in said traffic jam on the M53 but that's probably more to do with a combination of the timings within Chris Evans' show and the time I happen to be eating my Special K in a morning.

 

She does the travel news.  And has done for 18 years - without the aid of a helicopter.

 

This article doesn't actually say WHY she is leaving, but it does imply that after 18 years of getting up at silly-o'clock every weekday, she fancies a few lie-ins from now on.

 

Can't say I blame her but I will miss her.  She has a great sense of humour that played very well against Chris Evans and against his predecessor, the late, great Sir Terry Wogan.

 

Plus, she's Welsh.

 

In other Welsh news this week, apparently you can get banned from driving if you crash your Peugeot into somebody's upstairs bathroom:

TFI Top Gear

Remember where you heard it first - BBC News.  But I got it off them soon after.

Last Friday, after much advertising, Chris Evans resurrected TFI Friday for one last bash. On Saturday, The Telegraph did an article on how people didn't like the excessive car stuff in it.  In fact, they claimed "Audiences turned off by Chris Evans' lengthy Top Gear audition".

Hmm.  Interesting.

Especially since, on more than one occasion on his breakfast show, Chris has ruled himself out of that job.

Besides, according to the Guardian yesterday, he would like to ressurrect TFI as a full series.

But that would be very impactful on his other commitments - his Radio 2 breakfast show and his Friday evening edition of The One Show.

I never really watched TFI Friday - the only five minutes of it I ever saw were a sort of mock poetry competition where a pretty girl was allowed to read out her poem then when a young lad tried to read out his, they had some guy come up behind him sticking his arm between the young lad's legs to put him off in "an amusing way".

I also didn't watch last Friday's show but apparently I would have enjoyed it for the same reason the Telegraph readers didn't.  Jeremy was on it - so was Jason Plato - so was The Ferrari LaFerrari and the Top Gear Test Track.

And now they've given the Top Gear gig to Chris.

Maybe it was that or he joins Channel 4 and TFI leaving them with a hole in the One Show and possibly a bigger hole at breakfast time on Radio 2.

Or maybe he'll do TFI as well.

Evans overload.  Evans above.

No news yet on his co-presenters.  The Express were at least 33% wrong with their story on the new line-up.  Whereas I go with my suggestion of Jason Plato to join Chris:

I

I think that could work.  I don't know if Fifth Gear is still going since I don't have Discovery but I'm sure he could be prised away.

Actually - forget Chris - bring in Tiff, Vicki and Jason then Fifth Gear would need three presenters.

I know of three motoring show presenters looking for work.

Take Your Classic Car to Work Day.

I like Chris Evans.

Not in a sexual way, of course.

I'm also quite jealous of him.

He is the same age as me (give or take 6 months) and has a successful broadcasting career and considerably more cars than me - even if you take into account my Scalextric collection.

He also has the power, through presenting Britain's most popular breakfast show, of declaring days as being "National Whatever Day".

As one of his listeners, I have been following with much interest and anticipation, the announcement and run-up to today - his "National Classic Car Day".

MSN announced it here but most of the media hasn't covered it.

Maybe that is why I haven't seen many classic cars during my 22 mile commute to work this morning and back home this evening.

This morning, I spotted a 1980's Daimler (the one with the rectangular headlamps).  This may or may not have been taking part in National Classic Car Day.

This evening, I spotted a 1980's Porsche 911.  This may or may not have been taking part in National Classic Car Day.

This lunchtime, whilst strolling back from the local Spar with the beef barm I had just purchased, I spotted a yellow Triumph Dolomite.  This may or may not have been taking part in National Classic Car Day but it excited me anyway (not in a sexual way) as all Triumphs always do.

So, overall, I don't think there has been a big take-up - at least where I've been on the England-Wales border today.

However, there are several nice pictures on Chris' Facebook page including this Dyane being modelled by Chris' Radio 2 colleague Alex Lester:

...and of course this Triumph Dolomite: 

So now I'm excited again.

 

But not sexually.

 

Well.  Maybe just a bit.