So they forgave Ben Collins?

janstett

janstett

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Glad to see him, unmasked, on the last episode helping the disabled vets. Is all forgiven? Is he still on Fifth Gear?

Also, I guess Hammond's intro probably confirms that Ben was the "man with the digital face" in the Polar episode...
 
He didn't appear on the most recent Fifth Gear series. Considering his history he simply is the right man for the job.
 
He didn't appear in the studio and Jezza does alot for the injured soldiers. I suspect thats why Hammond did it.
 
Man with the pixelated face in the Polar Special had a totally different voice IIRC.

Also it is quite possible that with Collins' military past he may have been asked to help the team independently of TG involvement and they were gracious enough to put differences aside for the sake of the injured ex-service personnel.
 
MWF said:
Also it is quite possible that with Collins' military past he may have been asked to help the team independently of TG involvement and they were gracious enough to put differences aside for the sake of the injured ex-service personnel.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I thought the interaction with Hammond, brief though it was, was still fairly awkward. All I could think of was " I'm going to shoot him IN THE BACK."
 
Yeah, I absolutely agree that he would have been involved whether TG were covering it or not. Also, I think you could see the affection Richard and Ben still have for each other. I mean, I know he made a couple of jokes (he had to, it would have been the elephant in the room otherwise and so it needed addressing) but I get the feeling it was done in jest rather than in a malicious way.

I read Ben's book (yes, I know, 'traitor' etc.) but it did seem that of the three it was Hammond that he bonded with the most and despite what has happened between him and TG, that kind of friendship or relationship doesn't simply go away. They got all their frustrations and anger out in the series immediately after he left with the jokes and the cardboard cutout drive-by shooting thing and now it seems they are ready to move on, accept that what happened happened and be friends again.

I say good on them, it would have been so easy to fall back into the TG stereotype of being childish about it but everyone involved was grown up and mature and made sure it didn't steal focus from what was a very touching and inspirational story of the soldiers.

Sorry if that was a bit wordy.

tl;dr version = All isn't 'forgiven' exactly, but they've moved on. We should too.
 
Already in an interview when this was going down Jeremy said that they did what they had to for the cameras but they really didn't care that he did what he did...
 
MWF said:
Also it is quite possible that with Collins' military past he may have been asked to help the team independently of TG involvement and they were gracious enough to put differences aside for the sake of the injured ex-service personnel.
Click to expand...

Ben has been helping Project Mobility, the organisation behind the Project Dakar team featured last night.

Top Gear was invited to film their first event (the Freelander challenge) back mid May.

After this, some of the guys, notably Tony the driver and Tom the co-driver, formed their own separate Dakar team, Race2Recovery, which Ben is also helping.
 
Seemed to me like they temporarily put aside their differences for the sake of the vets and that was it.
 
Viper007Bond said:
Seemed to me like they temporarily put aside their differences for the sake of the vets and that was it.
Click to expand...

Which is how it shoul be. /thread
 
Hmm...let's see on one hand, continue stupid superficial quarrels for the sake of people who take the show WAY too seriously, or help out vets who really need therapy so we do not have another Vietnam PTSD situation...

C'mon now.
 
Amie8 said:
Special Forces personnel are always pixillated. I think it's something they learn to do during training.

I tried it once but I got a bit light-headed
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Who cares?

In this thread, we'll debate something pointless about the inner feelings of people we don't personally know. In other news, everything you see on TV is real.
 
I always knew that Jeremy's and Richard's (James never really showed it) hate for Ben Collins was scripted. They were together for 7 or so years, there's no way they can show so much hate toward him just because he wrote an autobiography revealing that he was the Stig.

Some of you on here were very insulted by that (for unknown reasons), but I didn't care much (and the presenters didn't either).
 
I agree that it was scripted. No one made much of a fuss when Perry McCarthy left, why should it be any different for Collins? Hell they probably did him a favor by making a big deal out of it; would anyone have read his book otherwise? Would he have had an opportunity at Fifth Gear otherwise? :blink:
 
http://bencollins.com/blog

"It was great to catch up with the lads from Top Gear again and it meant a lot to me personally to put the events of last year into perspective.
(...) it was well worth risking a right hook from Clarkson or being mauled by the Top Gear dog when my old boss Andy Wilman invited me back.
It was nice seeing Hammond without his target pistol too, even if he didn?t recognize me without my white suit? "

so long ,

e-type
 
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