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КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ
НАУЧНО-ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИХ И ТВОРЧЕСКИХ РАБОТ
«ПЕРВЫЕ ШАГИ В НАУКЕ-2016»
Тема: Влияние телешоу TOP GEAR на культурную жизнь людей
Направление: Лингвистическое
Автор: Кондратьев Александр Сергеевич
Муниципальное автономное общеобразовательное учреждение
средняя общеобразовательная школа №8, 10А класс
Руководитель: Уварова Марина Александровна
учитель английского языка
Красноуральск
2016г.1
Contents
Introduction………………………………………………… 3
Basic part ……………………………………………………. 5
1. Automobiles in our life............................................................... 5
2. Do you know what Top GEAR is?............................................... 7
2.1. History of the show................................................................ 8
2.2.Brief biographies of the leaders of the show .................... 13
2.3 .Top GEAR in Russia and abroad..............................................17
2.4 .Top GEAR today...................................................................... 20
2.5. Future of the show.................................................................. 21
3. The opinion poll............................................................................ 23
Conclusion………………………………………………………... 26
List of literature …………………………………………………. 28
Appendix………………………………………………………… 29
2
Introduction
Last ten years TVshows have strongly entered a grid of a broadcasting of the
majority of domestic TV channels. If for the western viewer various talk-shows,
reality-shows and other entertaining telecasts became an integral part of leisure, they
are rather a new product in show business for Russians.
Obviously, the leaders among the countries which are engaged in production of
TV shows are the USA and the UK. The License versions of talk- and reality-shows
of these countries occupy bulk of the entertaining time in Russian television
programs.
But do you know many TVshows that influenced the life of many generations?
Our contemporaries should know about one of the most popular BBC shows
Top Gear. I am sure it made revolution in our country because the quantity and
quality of cars used here are increasing gradually with every year. And people want
to use good-quality cars.
This show is very popular in our country too. Not many shows can be popular
for some decades but Top Gear could. Their manner of performing is unique. And I
shall try to prove that it will live in spite of its present day problems.
The actuality of the research: There are not many first-rate TV shows that
made some contribution and influenced the human’s culture and standards of living.
The problems: 1. What made the show so well-known and popular?
2. Will it return to life?
I tried to find the answer to these questions too, having tracked the history of
the show in the Internet (Wikipedia, the sites of Top Gear in Britain, Russia, the USA
and forums of Top Gear’s fans in Russia and abroad).Working with different
material I was interested in if the show had influenced the life of people in my
hometown so I made a survey about the influence of cars on life of people of our
town;
Hypotheses: True cultural values don’t disappear, each generation sees the
heritage according to the spirits of times they live in.
3
The aim of my work: Telling my contemporaries about the show Top Gear
defining the influence of cars on cultural life of different generations;
Tasks: 1. To study the history of the show;
2. To find out among people of different ages what they know about the show;
3.To develop and make a survey about the influence of cars on life of
different generations of our town;
The object of the research:The history of the show.
The subject of the research: The films, web-sites, forums of fans of the show;
Methods of the research:
1.Studying different literature about the show Top Gear in the Internet and
analysis of it;
2. Watching video-films about the show;
3. Making a survey among different generations (pupils and grown-ups) about
the cars and the show in Krasnouralsk and analysis of the results;
4
Basic part
1. Automobiles in our life
Cars have become a defining feature in our culture. To love or hate them, all
people have been deeply affected by the automobile. Cars have changed our
lifestyles, altered our landscapes, and captured our imaginations. For some people,
cars are truly ‘more than a machine.’ Besides the safety benefits, there’s quality of
life to consider: for example, a typical American commuter spends 250 hours a year
in his or her car.
Cars… everywhere: at home, at work, while travelling. Nowadays, I am sure,
people cannot live without cars. Cars in life of different people are different: some
have expensive cars, others – very expensive ones and others only dream of them.
Cars reflect people’s material well-being.
What do people have cars for?
The Car As a Daily Necessity
Today the majority of people consider their cars to be a daily necessity for
getting around. The car is used every day to go to and from work, drive over to
friends’ houses and so on and so forth. When these people need to go down to the
store which is less than a mile away, they drive rather than walking or bicycling
because it is just what they used to do. People who drive in this manner generally
just take having a car for granted.
These drivers may use the car for travelling but the majority of their driving are
done within five or ten miles of home. Since they drive daily, the majority of the
places they go are the same places over and over again. For these drivers, the car
plays the role of being the major mode of transportation around the area where they
live and work.
The Car for Commutes
There are some people who drive their cars every day but they don’t
necessarily use the car for little trips. These are people who drive daily specifically to
commute from work.
5
Many people drive from their home to their work and back again but leave the
car in the parking lot or the driveway when they are not in one of these two places. In
other words, the person commutes to work but then may walk or take a bus to get
lunch and run other errands during the workday. For these people, the car plays a
specific role of getting them to and from the two primary places where they spend
their time.
The Car for Day Trips and Travellings
Thereis a category of drivers that for the most part don’t drivebut however, if
they have to get to a place which requires a car then they don’t hesitate to borrow or
rent one to get to where they want to go. For example, if they want to go hiking then
theyneed to rent a car to do that. They also have to rent a car whenever they travel
back to their hometown or to other places where cars are needed to get around easily
(and where other modes of transportation just don’t seem to work as well).
For them, the car plays the role of allowing them to get a bit further away from
home. It’s a bit limiting to them in the sense that they would prefer to walk or take a
bus if they could. However, it also gives them freedom in the sense that they can go
further away from home if they have a car. Typically the car in this case plays a role
that combines the role of the daily driver with the role of the commuter. For example,
they may use a car specifically to get from home to a primary location (such as a
hiking spot) or they may use a car in a city that’s not their own for daily driving and
getting around. The difference is that their use of a car is rare compared to other
drivers.
The Car As a Luxury
There are two ways that a car may play the role of a luxury item for someone.
The first is in the case of people who can not afford cars and who therefore see the
car as a luxury of life that they can not have. The second is in the case of those people
who have more than one car or a car that is very expensive and for whom, therefore,
the car is basically a status symbol.
Believe it or not there are some people who still can’t afford a car and for them
the car is a luxury. They take a bus because they have to and they don’t travel far 6
because they can not afford to. For these people the car represents the role of a luxury
item that they can not obtain. It may be a goal in their lives to eventually obtain a car.
In contrast, there are those people who have a few cars or who have high-end
luxury cars. These people may be daily drivers or commute drivers or even, in rare
cases, just day trip drivers but the difference here is that they also consider the car to
be a status symbol for their lives. The car itself tends to take on meaning for these
people instead of just being a tool for getting around.
The Green Car Driver
There is also one other kind of drivers who combines some of these roles of the
car into one and that is the green driver. These are drivers of electric vehicles, hybrid
cars and the cars that get the best gas mileage. These drivers may be daily drivers,
commute drivers or day trip drivers. More importantly, they have a bit of the luxury
car driver in the sense that the car for them is more than just a car but also a symbol
that is representative of something more. In their case, though, the car is a symbol of
their concern for the environment so it is not a status symbol in a traditional sense but
is still a way to tell the world around them what kind of driver they are.
7
2. Do you know what Top GEAR is?
Every self-respecting car enthusiast certainly at least once watched Top Gear.
It is one of the most popular television programs in the world, gave birth to the
magazine, the website, Live-shows and many other products. But how did Top Gear
begin? Where is it now? And will the franchise be able to survive without Mr
Clarkson because of his leaving the BBC?
What do you think, how old is this show? 10? May be 20?- No.
The monster show that now bestrides the globe actually began in 1977- 39
years ago as a straightforward regional motoring program produced by BBC
Midlands that looked at cars and road safety.
2.1. History of the show
1977: Start of Top Gear.
When everything only began, Top Gear became the broadcast telling about
new cars and the other accompanying things as traffic safety. It was born at the BBC
studio in Birmingham and was broadcast on the channel BBC 2. William Vullard and
Noel Edmonds were leaders, and musical theme screensaver took the song "Jessica"
is now a forgotten group The Allman Brothers.
1987: Clarkson's appearance
In 1987, one of the producers of the show was John Bentley (no, he has
nothing to do with the well-known names). He immediately invited as leading
motorsport guru and former F1 driver Tiff Nideli and the magazine columnist
Performance Car Magazine Jeremy Clarkson. They made the program more critical,
live and in something even disputable. Such approach justified itself and was met by
a significant increase in popularity. In addition to this new organized competitions,
such as, for example, the "rally drivers", the main prize of which was participation in
the RAC Rally, the British round of the championship of the world.
1990: Connecting with women.
In the nineties the show received even more new faces. In 1990 the show
invited a woman presenter Michelle Newman, later Steve Berry appeared,
8
specializing in motorcycles and in 1997 one more woman pilot Vicki Butler-
Henderson joined it.
In the periods show received a lot of criticism for advocating irresponsible and
dangerous driving and what not to pay attention to environmental protection. Despite
these charges, and perhaps because of them, the show continues to attract and retain
the huge army of loyal fans.
With the increased popularity came a new perception of the attention factor
that is particularly strong effect on the opinion automakers. One negative review of
Top Gear could potentially undermine the sales of a particular model, or vice versa,
to raise them, but as it turned out, this influence was greatly exaggerated. For
example, the criticism of the Toyota Corolla in general does not impact on sales, and
a lot of praise to the Renault-Alpine GTA / A610 is essentially nothing to help it.
1999 - 2001: Falling popularity and closing.
In the period 1999-2000 leading show began to leave its popularity, one of
them turned Clarkson. In addition, the other of them was Brendan Coogan, who
joined the team in 1998, but was accused of drunk driving. The audience of the show
has plummeted from six million and a half viewers to three. In 2001, the
transmission, which at that time was 24 years old, was decided to close.
2002: Fifth Gear ("fifth gear") - Top Gear with a new name.
In 2002, commercial television "Channel 5" has launched a new car program
Fifth Gear with many former leading Top Gear starring Quentin Wilson, Vicki
Butler-Henderson and Tiff Nideli. The name was changed because the rights to the
name remained in Top Gear BBC, despite the fact that the show was done by the
same producer John Bentley. Along with all the new program removed almost all the
old crew and only one man, Jason Barlow concluded a contract with the BBC to
produce a new transmission 'Wrong Car, Right Car', for which they took a total 23
episodes.
2002: Restarting Top Gear.
After the release of the first episode of "Fifth Gear" BBC decided to resume
Top Gear, completely changing the format of the show with "coffee" in the studio. 9
Jeremy Clarkson was invited as the main star who was joined by Richard Hammond
and Jason Dawe. The last participated only in the first two seasons and was replaced
by James May, after which the composition has not changed until now. The program
turned out so different that even the previous format of the show were called "Old
Top Gear".
The new series format incorporated a number of major changes from the old
show. The running time was extended to one hour. It has developed a quirky,
humorous style.
Top Gear's studio was located at Dunsfold Park, a privately-owned aerodrome
and business park in Waverley, Surrey. Top Gear used a temporary racing circuit
which was designed for the show by Lotus Cars and was laid out on parts of
Dunsfold's runways and taxiways. A large hangar was used for studio recording with
a standing audience who apply to the BBC for free tickets, albeit with an estimated
21-year waiting list.
New segments were also added, including "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car",
"The Cool Wall", "Car News", "Power Laps", and one-off features such as races,
competitions and the frequent destruction of caravans.
The new look was the last hour of the transfer and its debut Stig (The Stig), the
anonymous driver. The mysterious person added even more interest and more
intrigue and became famous even outside the classroom shows.
The original Stig was completely "black", but when Perry McCarthy
declassified himself as a man under the black hat, he was immediately fired and
replaced by the familiar "white" Stig.
2006: We move or not?
In 2006, the BBC banned the use ofDunsfold, and they planned to move out of
the Top Gear survey in Oxfordshire, but the county council did not give permission
to move because of the noise and pollution. However, shooting in May was still
produced in the old place, even with the lack of resolution.
2006: Accident.
10
September 20, 2006 Richard Hammond was seriously injured in the accident,
the jet dragster right during filming. BBC broadcast was postponed and declared that
the show would be delayed as long as Hammond recovered. After a few weeks
shooting was resumed.
2007: Ratings and HD.
Ratings continued to grow with every episode of the first season of the show 9
drew more viewers than the finale of the popular show "Big Brother." In 2007 the
world also saw the release of a special episode of Top GearPolar Special, the first
shot in HD. Jeremy Clarkson and James May were the first who reached the magnetic
pole on the car using its GPS-navigator.
In 2007 it was one of the most pirated television shows in the world.
2008: Top Gear Live.
2008 became the year of the first adaptation of TV shows in the live show in
the arena called «Top Gear Live». The tour was kicked off London and eventually
visited fifteen countries around the world, demonstrating the power of the brand Top
Gear. New Top Gear Live Show in 2015 would be the circumnavigation tour.
2009: Too predictable?
When the popularity of Top Gear had grown to the heavens, the British
tabloids had done everything possible to reveal the identity of the Stig. Despite the
fact that motorsport collaboration was an open secret, BBC refused to disclose the
secret. At the beginning of the season 13 Clarkson said that the identity of the Stig
revealed:
In fact, the second Stig was Ben Collins, the British driver, while other pilots
sometimes wore white suits for filming as Michael Schumacher at the wheel of his
own Ferrari FXX in the episode above. When Collins betrayed himself by publishing
a book about his adventures on the show, he was subjected to the same fate as Perry
McCarthy was fired.
The identity of the new Stig is still a secret. All that we know ... he is called the
Stig.
11
During the 14 seasons the show received a lot of criticism over the fact that the
program has become too predictable and overly relied on tricks and jokes, rather than
become a little more serious. During the growth of its popularity the focus was
shifted from a serious and objective information to more light entertainment format
on automotive topics.
In addition, on Top Gear have been increasingly used jokes "on the verge",
commenting on the Albanians, America, the Asians, the mentally retarded, Mexicans,
Muslims, Nazis, prostitutes, Romania, truck drivers and so on. Although banter
considered an integral part of Top Gear, a feeling that carefree jokes sound innocent,
but clearly designed for you to create controversy. And it happens often enough to be
an accident.
2014: Dispute more.
Last year's season was the peak for generating of controversy jokes. One of
electronic tabloid published a video in which Clarkson muttered some racist poem,
and in Argentina the film crew was attacked by a crowd of angry locals due to
provocative license plate for Porsche of Clarkson, hinted in the Falkland conflict.
2015: Is an end Top Gear?
Before the start of each season, the debate inevitably arise about how
long Top Gear would last in the current format. So far, no signs of completion were
not visible. Besides, very soon the team would go to the biggest tour.
Three leading stars together for over a decade and transmission remains the
most popular automobile show on the planet, and the Top Gear brand on BBC still
continued to bring a lot of money. Apparently, everything would stop only when
Jeremy Clarkson decided that he had had enough, or he would eventuallybe fired for
too controversial jokes.
And it happened...
In March, 2015 Clarkson was fired from Top Gear as a result of a juicy scandal
with producer. After Clarkson's leaving May and Hammond refused to renew their
contracts with BBC.Later, the British trio agreed to do a new road show to the U.S.
streaming service Amazon Prime.12
2.2. Brief biographies of the leaders of the show
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson, aka "The Orangutan"
and "Jezza", (aged 54) is a British broadcaster and journalist
who specializes in motoring and was one of the presenters on
the hit BBC show Top Gear from 2002 until 2015. He writes
weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun, but he is
mostly recognised for his role as host of the BBC TV show Top Gear, a show that he
helped to make. The show won an International Emmy in 2005, and Clarkson himself
has won the 2007 National Television Awards' Special Recognition Award. He and
James May were the first people to reach the North Pole in a car, which was
broadcast in a Top Gear special on 25 July 2007 on BBC Two. Clarkson appeared in
the first twenty-two series of the current format of the show until he was dismissed by
the BBC on the 25th of March, 2015.
He was born on 11th of April 1960 in Doncaster to teacher Shirley Gabrielle
Ward and travelling salesman Edward Grenville "Eddie" Clarkson.
For an episode of the first series of the BBC's “Who Do You Think You Are?”
broadcast in November 2004, Clarkson was invited to investigate his family history.
It included the story of his great-great-great grandfather John Kilner (1792–1857),
who invented the Kilner jar: a receptacle for preserved fruit.
Clarkson married his agent and manager, Frances Cain, in May 1993 in
Fulham. The couple currently live in the town of Chipping Norton, situated in the
Cotswolds, with their three children (Emily born inAugust 1994, Finloborn in March
1996, and Katya born in November 1998). Clarkson also has a flat in Bayswater as a
base in London for working. The couple bought a lighthouse as a further home on
Frances' family home of the Isle of Man. Known for buying him car-related gifts, for
Christmas 2007 Clarkson's wife bought him a Ford Street Ka in 2005. He was
previously married to Alexandra Hall for one year.
Clarkson is allegedly smug, self-centred, opinionated and courts controversy
just to inflate the viewing and income for the BBC. It has been said he is protected 13
from all the controversy by the BBC because of the financial injection by Top Gear.
Clarkson has featured in 657 episodes of Top Gear, in the shows of modern and old
format. This makes him the longest-running presenter on the show.
James May
James Daniel May (born on the16 of January 1963) is a
British television presenter and award-winning journalist, who
was one of the presenters on Top Gear. May fronted the show
from 2002 to 2015 alongside co-starsJeremy Clarkson and
Richard Hammond. He also writes a weekly column for The
Daily Telegraph's motoring section.
On Top Gear, his nickname is "Captain Slow", due to
his 'careful', relaxed driving style. He also earned the nickname "Captain Sense of
Direction", due to the fact that he always gets lost, always gets distracted by an
irrelevant subject and always arrives late. He is, however, a very smart man (who
likes to lecture) who has carried out some exceptionally high-speed driving. He
became one of the very few in the world to have taken a Bugatti Veyron to its top
speed of 253.45 mph (407.90 km/h), precisely one-third of the speed of sound at sea
level, and hit 259 mph in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
May and Jeremy Clarkson - together with an Icelandic support crew - were the
first people ever to reach the Magnetic North Pole in an automobile (a modified
Toyota Hilux). The expedition was broadcast in a "Top Gear" special on BBC Two
on 25 July 2007. Clarkson described May as being "the first person to go to the North
Pole who didn't want to be there."
Born in Bristol on 16th January 1963, May is one of four children; he has two
sisters and a brother. May attended Caerleon Endowed Junior School in Newport. He
spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire where he attended Oakwood
Comprehensive School in Rotherham and was a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church.
During the early-1980s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later
Autocar magazine, from which he was sacked in 1992 after putting together a hidden 14
message in one issue. At the end of the year, the magazine's "Road Test Year Book"
supplement was published. Each spread featured four reviews and each review started
with a large red letter. May's role was to put the entire supplement together, which
"was extremely boring and took several months". He described it as: 'a real pain in
the arse.'
May has written the book titled “May On Motors”, which is a collection of his
published articles, and co-authored Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure, based on
the TV series of the same name.
May is refined, wise, protective, with very very polite attitude (When meeting
new people he often starts with 'hello'). Initially, James is considered to be the most
mature and sensible presenter as he is not as out-going and imaginative as Jeremy or
Richard. However, just like his colleagues, he shows confidence and toughness
during any task or situation on the show. His favouritecolour is said to be a greyish
shade of brown. His least favourite place in the world is the nurburgring. He never
builds anything before naming all his tools and arranging them in a descending order
of size.
Richard Hammond
Richard Hammond is one of the co-presenters of
Top Gear, working on the show from 2002 to 2015 in
series one through twenty-two of its current format.
Known for being the shortest presenter of the three, he is
often affectionately named Hamster.
Born in Solihull in December, 19th 1969, Richard is the eldest of three children
to Eileen and Alan Hammond. He is the grandson of workers in the automobile
industry. Originally from the West Midlands, in the mid-1980s Hammond moved
with his family to the North Yorkshire market town of Ripon where his father ran a
probate business in the market square.
In 1995, Hammond began working at a London PR company, where he
developed a romantic interest in Amanda Etheridge. Hammond persuaded a friend to
ask Amanda out on a date on his behalf due to being too nervous to do it himself. 15
After several dates they began to grow closer which resulted in Amanda's pregnancy
in 2000. After they became married in 2002, their first daughter whom they named
Isabella (or Izzy for short) was born and a few years later, they had another daughter
named Willow.
Early in his career, Richard worked at many radio stations, including Radio
York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, and Radio Lancashire, before going on to present
a number of daytime lifestyle shows and motoring programs on Men & Motors.
He presented the Crufts dog show in 2005, the 2004 and 2005 British Parking
Awards, and appeared on School's Out, a quiz show on BBC One where celebrities
answer questions about things they learned at school when they were younger. He
even hosted the UK Version of "Total Wipeout", also hosted "Sports Relief 2008",
hosted his own show "Richard Hammond's Crash Course" and hosted the special "50
Years of Bond Cars", where he interviewed Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live
and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun director Guy Hamilton, Sir Roger
Moore who played James Bond from 1973 to 1985, current James Bond actor Daniel
Craig, former the Stig Ben Collins who also stunt doubled for Craig in 'Quantum of
Solace' and was amazed when he taught Bond baddie actor Ola Rapace on how to
drive the Audi in the beginning of 'Skyfall' and visited the Istanbul set.
The Stig
The Stig is an anonymous race car driver, who is
featured in Top Gear. Currently, the Stig is a white
version, as The Black Stig, featured in Series 1 and 2,
had "died" on the HMS Invincible British Ship.
There are also several other versions of the Stig,
most of them being one of his many cousins, living in many different parts of the
world.
The Stig's name derived from presenter Jeremy Clarkson's days at Repton
School; where, according to Clarkson, new students were always called "Stig". A
proposed name for the Stig was originally "The Gimp" until protests from Perry
16
McCarthy nixed the idea. There have been three official Stigs on the show, while
various other Stigs have made cameo appearances for particular episodes.
Ben Collins
Ben Collins was the 3-rd Incarnation of
The Stig.
Ben Collins (born on the 13 of February
1975) is a racing car driver from Bristol, England.
He has competed in motor racing since 1994 in
many categories, from Formula Three and Indy
Lights to sportscars, GT racing and stock cars.
On 19 of January 2009, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph ran a story
claiming that they had "outed" Collins as being one of the people behind the white-
suited incarnation of The Stig, at the same time noting that "Collins, from Bristol, has
always denied being the Stig".
The Times, in a follow-up article, stated that the "identity of the white-suited
Stig ... has been an open secret within the motoring world for some years, with
newspapers refraining from publishing his name, to uphold the spirit of the program"
which concluded that "a newspaper broke with the convention to out Mr Collins, 33,
after following up a story in a Bristol newspaper". Similar allegations were repeated
by The Sunday Times during August 2010.
2.3. Top GEAR in Russia and abroad
Top Gear is the biggest motoring
TVshow in world history. Top Gear's U.K.
version has been licensed to more than 230
territories globally. New episodes of Top
Gear are initially broadcast in the United
Kingdom on BBC Two, on Dave, BBC
America.The popularity of the show has led to the creation of several international
versions, with local production teams and presenters in Australia and the United 17
States, China, Russia and South Korea and a number of other television channels
around the world. It is watched by about 350 million viewers across the globe. It is –
according to the chaps at the Guinness Book of World Records– the most-watched
factual television program IN THE WORLD.
In Italy, the U.K. version is currently shown on DMAX, a Discovery channel.
Sky Italia is a part of pan-European pay TV giant Sky, in which Rupert Murdoch's
21st Century Fox owns a 39 percent stake. Top Gear already has a strong and
established presence in Italy with the original U.K. series and the magazine proving
huge popularity. Adding a local version to the mix in a country steeped in motoring
history is fantastic for Italian audiences. Top Gear brings together great entertainment
with passion and competence for cars and speed, a perfect mix for their subs is even
more successful thanks to the talent of Joe and Guido.
The Italian announcement follows the launch of a local version in France.
French network RMC drew its biggest audience for a show ever when the series
debuted earlier this year.
Whether it’s testing the most exotic cars to their limits, attempting ambitious
road trips in vehicles entirely unfit for purposes, or destroying caravans in the name
of humanitarian progress, Top Gear has always pushed the very boundaries of
automotive possibility. Some call it ‘cocking about’ and prefer to think of it as
‘cutting edge consumer research’.With 22 series down and more to come, it is the
spot for all the latest news and behind-the-scenes gossip from the TVshow.
Top Gear Specials are special episodes of the popular UK motoring show in
which the three presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond,
head to an international location for a road trip. These specials differ from regular
episodes in that they are longer than the standard sixty minute episodes; the Top Gear
studio is only used at the beginning of the episode and there are no power tests or
SIARPC segments. Generally, these specials air at Christmas time in every second
series.
To date, there have been twelve specials, the first one being the Winter
Olympics Special which aired in 2006. The most recent special, the, Patagonia 18
Special aired in 2014, as part of Top Gear's twenty-second series. Typically the
specials are one-off episodes but more recent specials - the Africa
and Burma Specials - have been broadcast in two parts.
Top Gear in Saint-Petersburg
In 2014 Top Gear visited Russia,
the film-making team arrived to the large
Russian city of St. Petersburg. The main
task for the leaders was to find out by
means of what type of transport it is
easier and more convenient to move in the city. In St. Petersburg scenes for the new
22-nd season of the cult British television show about cars Top Gear were shot.
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and the Stig tried to travel by all
available forms of St. Petersburg transport, including the subway.
According to witnesses, James drove the electric Renault, Richard Hammond
went by bike, Clarkson travelled around the city by boat and the mysterious Stig did
not take off his helmet even in the subway.
Top Gear in the Crimea and Ukraine
The producers of the show told the leaders to choose three small cars and to
arrive to Yalta that is on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine. Richard Hammond
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arrived the first by a new Ford Fiesta. Jeremy Clarkson was the second by
Volkswagen. The last was James May by Dacia Sandero.
Then they were given the task to go to a little place that is between Yalta and
Sebastopol along a magnificent coastal road. The leaders reached the base of
submarines (Balaklava). Having enjoyed the history the leaders went to the city of
Sebastopol where they stopped for the night. Next morning they drove 1200
kilometers to Kiev. It was a very boring road for them. On the road they stopped to
have a bite. They decided to stay in Kiev for a while where the next morning they
were met by unusually big crowd of admirers. Then they received one more task: to
visit Chernobyl.
2.4. Top Gear today
On the calendar 2016.
Top Gear is a BAFTA, multi-NTA and International Emmy Award-winning
BBC television series about motor vehicles, mainly cars. It is also the world second
most expensive show in the world at £1.2 billion.
The show regularly features various races.
There have been a number of epic races where
Clarkson or one of the other presenters drives a car
against other forms of transport, typically involving
Hammond and May taking the same journey by
combinations of plane, train or ferry.
A number of smaller scale 'novelty' races have
also taken place that demonstrate various strengths
and, more often, weaknesses of cars. These races
involve one of the presenters, in a carefully chosen
car, racing head-to-head against an athlete in conditions that favour the latter. The
program has also featured a variety of small races, typically lasting a couple of
minutes, that pit two similar cars against each other, for example old vs. new.
The show has received considerable acclaim for its visuals and presentation, as
well as a number of criticisms for its content and comments made by presenters. 20
Columnist A. A. Gill described the show as, "a triumph of the craft of program-
making”.
Groups such as the Environmental Investigation Agency have criticized the
BBC for allowing Top Gear to film in environmentally sensitive areas such as the
Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana.
Currently the future of the show is in a period of uncertainty with the BBC
announcing its intentions to renew the show for a twenty-third series. Little is known
for sure that the show will return and that Jeremy Clarkson will not be resuming his
role as a presenter on the program.
2.5. Future of the show
While the work was making in February,11 2016 the BBC announced the full
list of the leaders of Top Gear. The transmition in the new format will be made by six
people, as well as the mysterious racing driver the Stig, whose identity is, as before,
was not disclosed.
The official website of Top Gear
reported that the company named earlier,
Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc will be
joined by a German racer Sabine Schmitz,
a popular British autoblogger Chris
Harris, a former racing driver and
businessman Eddie Jordan, as well as an
automotive journalist Rory Reid.
Sabine Schmitz has previously advocated for BMW and Porsche in different
touring car series and also participated in the 24-hour endurance races. In 2005,
Schmitz appeared in one episode of Top Gear, after driving one lap of the track in a
van Ford Transit in 10 minutes, 8 seconds.
Eddie Jordan (pictured second right) has worked at the BBC as an expert
Formula 1. In the 1990s, he was team Jordan Grand Prix, which featured such racers
as Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Damon Hill, Nick Heidfeld, Jean Alesi
and JarnoTrulli.21
Chris Harris (third from right) worked in the publications Autocar and Evo,
and also making reviews of cars for the You Tube channel Drive. He runs his own
video blog Chris Harris on Cars.
Rory Reid (left) is currently the editor of Recombu and the host of the show
Gadget Geeks on Sky 1.
The new season will air in May 2016.
The former leaders of Top Gear
Jeremy Clarkson is preparing to relaunch
his career with a new motoring show Amazon
Prime after being axed by the BBC in
March.The new show, rumoured to be
called Gear Knobs, will reunite the petrol head
with fellow ex-Top Gear hosts James May and Richard Hammond. But the trio have
been recognized for their contributions to the BBC show with a nomination in the
Factual Entertainment category.
The trio of the former leaders of Top Gear united for creation of new show
again.The British showmen Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James Mai
announced a series of live shows under the plain name Clarkson, Hammond & May
Live. Earlier the similar performances of the British were called Top Gear Live, but
the rights for this name remained with the BBC company after departure of showmen
from the telecast of the same name.
So far leaders placed some videos foretelling new shows. The first of them will
take place in May 22 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Other performances will take place
in South Africa, Norway, Australia, Poland and Great Britain.
The British Mirror edition reports that Clarkson, Hammond and May prepare
for start of yet not announced TV show which will become TopGear'sanalog.
According to own information of the newspaper, the program will extend through the
paid Netflix service and will receive the name House Of Cars.
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3.The opinion survey
It was interesting to me what my contemporaries know about the show, what
role cars play in people’s life nowadays and what cars are popular (bought) in our
town. (See Appendix №1,2)
As for me I am a resident of Krasnouralsk and it is not a very car-friendly
town and I have not bothered to have a car. I am able to walk to most of the places I
want to go. But my dad drives a car to or from work. We travel somewhere that
requires using a car but I only spend a handful of days a year in a car. May be it is
because I do not drive a car myself because I do not have the driving licence. But as
soon as I am 18 I hope to get the driving licence and drive a car myself.
In contrast, my cousin lives in Ekaterinburg. He drives everywhere to get to
most of the places that he wants to go. He is in the car every day. And he loves it. He
enjoys driving. He drives around just to see things. For him, the car is a fun tool for
getting around. For him, it is a tool of freedom.
There are a lot of fan clubs of Top Gear around the world including Russia.
They try to gather admirers of Top Gear together. Are there many fans in our town?
I would like to present you the results of the opinion survey made by me. I
made it among the pupils, teachers and workers of our school.
My task was to work out and make a poll among people of different ages to
find out what they know about the show and compare the influence of cars on life of
different generations.
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I worked out a common form for filling it for 2 age categories: till 18 years old,
and over 18 years old.(See Appendix № 1)
I represented the results of the opinion survey in tables and diagrams.(See
Appendix №1- 3) Questions №№1 and 2 were:
1. Have you heard about the show?
2. Do you see the show?
We can see from the Table№1 that a half of the interviewees have heard about
the show and watch it but I was not surprised that some pupils and grownups heard
nothing about this show .
Questions № 4 was: Do you consider the show popular?
Less than a half interviewees consider it as a popular show.
Questions № 5,7 were about the leaders of the show and their work (films):
5. Do you know the leaders of the show?
7. Do you like any their films?
As we can see from the Table №1 and diagrams we- teenagers know more
than the grownups. From the Table we can see that teenagers know some names of
their films but not many. (See Appendix № 6) And it is understandable. We-
teenagers live and grow up in time when we can watch different TV programs thanks
to digital TV. What is more, nowadays teenagers get a lot of information not only
from books as the grownups did: we surf the Internet a lot and come across a lot of
interesting information, films which the grownups were be able to find nowhere
because of their lack of access to the Internet.
Questions № 6 was about the Future of the show:
6. Do you think if the show will be popular in future?
Let’s look at the Diagram №6 and the negative answers: only 8 people (13%)
do not believe in its popularity in future.
How does age of people influence the popularity? I think it depends on what
we are comparing. The history of Top Gear began about 40 years ago. It is rather a
long period for a show. Do you remember any show that was popular at least 20 years
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ago? But these diagrams show us that it is still popular and will have their audience in
future. Top Gear is actual and interesting to a certain circle of youth.
The next survey was devoted to cars in our life and in life of families. There
were two questions: 1). Do you have a car?( if “Yes”- name the brand);
41 families have one car, 4 families have two cars, 1 family has four cars-
every member of the family has a car. Altogether-53 cars.
What about the brands: the first place belongs to Japanese cars-11(TOYOTA,
MAZDA, SUBARU, MITSUBISHI, NISSAN), the second place share cars from
Korea-5( Hyundai, Kia ), Germany-5( OPEL, VOLKSWAGEN ) and
Russia-5 (!) (VAZ, GAZ).
As we can see from the Table №2 and 3 citizens of our town prefer to buy
foreign automobiles: they are more reliable and beautiful than ours, they say.
But from the conversation with a policeman I found out that young people
prefer to buy VAZ- cars (08, 09, 99, 13, 15 makes): they are older but cheaper for
them, for their experiments with cars, when they make tuning after watching such
programs as Top Gear, for example.
2). What does a car mean for you and your family?
As we can see from the Table №2:
38 people use cars as everyday necessity;
15 people go to and from work by car;
15 people use the car while travelling and for rest;
for one person his/her car is a status item.
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Conclusion
Top Gear is the most popular British telecast devoted to cars. For the first time
it was transferred in 1977. The program was in a format of a serialized television
program which didn't change for a long time. In 2002 the show was restarted in a new
format and with new leaders therefore modern Top Gear— with humour, tricks and
firm tests appeared. Then the program was submitted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard
Hammond, James May and the superconfidential masked test pilot -The Stig.
The audience of the program contains about 350 million people from around
the world, making it the most watched show worldwide. It is one of the most pirated
television shows in the world. It is also the second most expensive show in the world
at £1.2 billion.
Almost twelve months passed from the moment of closing the show, but in
spite of the present day difficulties the ratings of Top Gear is high.
What is the secret of its popularity not only in the UK but also abroad.?
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Top Gear made a great impact on human culture because the show promotes
cars and people cannot live without cars nowadays. Cars in life of people play
different role but they influence the life of differen tgenerations greatly. People
want to have not simply a car but a high-quality and beautiful automobile. (See
Appendix №3 )
People around the world continue to watch their films that have become
classics. Top Gear never repeated the jokes, didn't speak the same things, as the
majority of celebrities do now. Their wit and spontaneity were drew attention to them
as to the extremely original persons.
I think, the purpose and problems of my work - are carried out.
The hypothesis is confirmed: True cultural values do not disappear. Each
generation sees the heritage according to the spirits of times they live in. The show
lives and will live in the hearts of people who love cars. (See Appendix № 1,
diagram-6)
Practical value of work: The materials of this work can be useful for elective
courses and at the lessons of English, at schools and class hours and also in others
educational institutions: Vocational School, College, the English language courses to
expand the outlook of students, for preparation for examinations, in correction work
of English teachers.
This is the story of Top Gear, with all ups and downs. As for me, as one of
their fаns, I am full of optimism and believe that the show will return and be with us
for a long time. In my opinion, next year I will be able to compare the shows of new
and old teams and tell you if the new team could keep the show as the most popular
one in the world.
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List of literature /Internet resources
1. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear
2. http://www.topgear.com/show
3. http://topgearrussia.ru/
4. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bbcs-top-gear-italy-sky-
811185
5. Raceport История Top Gearhttps://www.drive2.ru/b/1638504/
6. Top GEARwikiahttp://topgear.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Gear
7. Top Gear (U.S. TV
series)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(U.S._TV_series)
8. Кларксон ушел. TopGear закрытhttps :// motor . kz / post / klarkson - ushel -
top - gear - zakryt -26987/
9. Топ 10 наиболее популярныхТ-шоу в мире http :// brjunetka . ru / top -10-
naibolee - populyarnyih - tv - shou - v - mire /
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4.
5.
6.
7.
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