For all Top Gear Fans

DMWRIGHT · Post by **DMWRIGHT** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:35 am

Some dude and his organisation wants to stop Topgear from being shown, see BBC article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4432279.stm

Thankfully due to some research his address has been found

This is the dude named:

Steve Hounsham
Communications Manager
[email protected]

So me and some mates on another forum are sending him e-mails because this is a man calling anyone who watches Top Gear:

Boy racers
Petrolheads
Those of the "get out of my way school of driving"

and frankly I don't care for that kind of stereotyping

Feel free to join in

carmadaaron · Post by **carmadaaron** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:44 am

how would he know what top gear is about if he hasnt watched it before?

carmadaaron · Post by **carmadaaron** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:46 am

"If we drive a Rover and think it is rubbish, no matter how much we want the company to survive, we have to tell the truth,"

too rite Mr Hammond

Si_GTi · Post by **Si_GTi** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:22 pm

Preposterous! To be honest I'm surprised that Top Gear only gets 3 million viewers, IMHO its an excellent program!

For Transport 2000 to demand it is taken off air is like the Tourist Board demanding Holiday 2005 be taken off the air for advocating holidays outside the UK, its ridiculous!

They'd better get Five to cancel Fifth Gear too, wouldn't want them to further influence us boy racers and petrolheads

Hmmm. I wonder what Mr. Hounsham drives... maybe he's frustrated with his eco-friendly Prius/Insight/Matiz (hehe) or such like. I'm sure that this won't come to anything, in fact it'll probably be the first item of news on the next series of Top Gear in May

EDIT: the link to the Transport 2000 message board is here. Some interesting reading! Feel free to post your views there as well as here

13twelve · Post by **13twelve** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:53 pm

whens top gear back on?

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 4:18 pm

Not the first time top gear's been attacked by environmentalists etc, and fair enough, it's not exactly an environmentally friendly program. Thing is, that's what makes it such an enjoyable program, the fact that it is irresponsible, un-PC and just generally not bothered about pussy footing around trying to keep everyone happy. If they tried to make it educational, environmentally friendly etc then it would just turn into a government awareness advert.. and how many people are going to watch one of those voluntarily.
I don't think anyone need worry about top gear being taken off the screens, it's far, far too valuable to the BBC for that, and it'd be strongly opposed by the majority of the public anyway. It's always going to be contraversial, but I don't think it's going to be under any serious kind of threat.

Redline · Post by **Redline** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:33 pm

Bloody eco-nutters.

Obviously Transport 2000 is trying to gain itself some free publicity by attacking something very controversial.

inder · Post by **inder** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:11 pm

13twelve wrote:whens top gear back on?

Top Gear returns to BBC Two on May 22

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:33 pm

Guess he missed the two (?) recent installments which had a definate safety focus then, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've also done programs focussing on eco-friendly vehicles either. You've still got to have some unattainable exotic sportscars, and a minor celeb thrashing a korean budget can around a track to keep the punters happy though. Doesn't matter how nice or high minded your program is, without something to make it popular it's going to die on it's arse and get shuttled off to some crap corner of the cable TV spectrum like The Community Channel.

Also wouldn't be surprised if the twunt is secretly on the govt payroll neither. I can't think TG is exactly a pro-labour-transport-policy entity. A tight control over the media is after all well within the remit of the type of mind-set Tonyville seems to be fostering.

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:45 am

you've all missed the point...

One of Transports key figures is a Mr Micheal Palin, who as most of you will know, is firmly in the pockets of the BBC. If the rumours are true these accusations were started by him and then communicated by T2000's communications manager.

There is no way the BBC would stand for this unless it was there idea.

The new series of Top Gear starts on the 22nd of May - which i didn't know until this article came into circulation. In every newspaper piece i've read on this it signs off by saying "the new series of Top Gear starts on 22n May" - Can any of you think of a better way to communicate this than through a plot like this? I think the term is ' free advertising' and for a specialist program like Top Gear, is great because the will want to spend as little as possible.

neilw · Post by **neilw** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 3:24 pm

They'll probably say something about it on the program. Or find a way to Rip into that guy.