Top Gear

We both had the day off today. An invite had come via Club Lotus, a couple of weeks ago, to be part of a socially distanced audience for the recording of the new series of BBC TV’s Top Gear. We’ve always wanted to go and a couple of rapid e-mail replies later, we were in.

We were at Dunsfold Aerodrome in good time and it soon became clear an eclectic selection of cars had been assembled. We parked up on the Top Gear “track” before being called forward to park up by the live stages. Socially distancing has made making tv shows with audiences impossible but sat in or on our cars, all sensibly spaced apart, was a great idea. As the sun set, we were asked to switch on headlights and the recordings got underway. Top Gear is moving to BBC1 in the UK and despite the reduced opportunities to shoot the usual antics in far flung locations, the series looks great. Presenters Paddy McGuiness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris were fired up with enthusiasm and banter and we had a great fun evening.

The little green Lotus did not appreciate sitting half the evening with its headlights on (the same was true of quite a few other cars) but the TG team had arranged AA men with suitable gear to quickly get us all running again! Late home but a fab day.

Not sure when the shows will actually go out on tv but should be in the autumn at some stage.