Possible controversial opinion - I liked SIARPC

chay007

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I know this is something many people will disagree with but I liked top gear having the star in. Reasonably priced car segments. Yes they didn't always work (and many went on too long) but they had a valuable place in the show. They broke up the show very well and provided a much needed change in tempo and often gave clarkson a great chance to show his personality in a relaxed unscripted enivorment.

Yes there were many times it didn't work but looking back on it some of my favorite memories of top gear involved this SIARPC. Some guests were especially great, the likes of ross nobles tank story, Rodger Daltreys stories about keith moon, rowan Atkinson just being rowan Atkinson plus the great f1 driver interview with webber vettel and Hamilton.

It became to big a part of the show when they had 2 guests at a time and it now misses much of the charm clarkson brought but when if worked I think it really worked

What do you guys think and who was your favorite guest?
 
Worst. Part. Of. The. Show. Ever.
 
I with you Chay....I liked it too, even though I didn't know who half the people were sometimes. I like British TV and have grown to know a lot of the Stars. There were some very memorable interviews and laps out of it, and I watched the segment, with a few exceptions I'm sure, every episode. I'm kind of a fan of two interesting people having a chat about topics I enjoy in general though, so I guess it worked for me. I can see why some people didn't like it though...but I definitely did like it.

I'll say I was more of a fan of Clarkson doing it then any of the TG America or Australia blokes or with the ginger chap (twat?).
 
I liked it too. My favorite SIARPC is James Blunt, could be a comedian too. (Hot fiance/now wife too.) What a Cluster F that Evans did to the segment. Like the car and track for it, though.
 
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I think most of the internet people disliked SIARPC because they didn't know the guests. Even though it was a global show, they still invited mainly UK-centric celebrities that people outside UK wouldn't know - radio hosts, BBC people etc. When they invited more well known guests, like F1 drivers or bigger celebrities, the reception was better, because the viewers cared more about what he had to say.

I think that it should have been kept in Grand Tour too, but with more car-centric people. Racing drivers, local car people would be amazing, like that South African guy who built that Sauber C9 replica - now these would be people who I'd like to hear more from.
 
I liked it but how much depended on which guest was on that week. Keanu Reeves was scheduled to be on the week of Clarkson being suspended and I was looking forward to his lap time, it's always interesting to see people try to bang out the fastest lap especially when it's a F1 driver. I kind of wish the had F1 drivers or even other people from motorsports more regularly.
 
Possible controversial opinion - I liked SIARPC

I don't care about famous people, they get enough interviews on other shows. Top Gear shouldn't become a talk show just to appease the few that can't get enough of rich people. How many actually watched the show? The few that did made their interviews special. The only memorable ones was Jay Kay on the second (third?) time to beat Simon Cowell and that women that took a boat around the world and smoked everybody. Otherwise, I skipped through all the rest.
 
A lot of them weren't terribly interesting to me but the good ones were REALLY good.

Ranulph Fiennes comes to mind.
 
I liked the segment in general, but of course it depended on the guest. Clarkson mostly got some good interviews out of it, so I enjoyed it often even if I had never heard of the guest before. In later seasons it became more and more blatant that the guests were only there to promote their latest movie/book/album, and the quality of the segment suffered because of that. Not even to speak of what Evans did.
 
If the quest was good aka funny, true petrol head or f1 driver then i always watched it (sometimes even re watched it) but sadly most of the times quests were not interesting at all.
 
I liked it when it was good. I didn't like it when it wasn't. Funny how that works...
 
Oh, I actually liked SIARPC quite a lot. Not so much the "driving," but rather, the "Jeremy Clarkson takes on all comers," matching wits and having fun with anyone and everyone who popped over for the bit. And I would also include the bits with the F1 drivers -- I felt that Jeremy was "almost a father figure" to some of them. Sure, some guests were better than others, but when it was good, I enjoyed some of those segments just as much as anything else on the old Top Gear.

That said, the last series (EvansGear) was absolutely HORRIBLE. I utterly couldn't sit there and watch ANY of it. And the fact that they gave it a full third of each episode was absolutely, utterly the worst decision anyone has ever made in the history of Top Gear.

But in the end, there was something about the SIARPC segments and "The News" segments that worked far better than anything similar has worked on The Grand Tour -- on old Top Gear, they simply "talked amongst themselves." It wasn't "playing to the assembled crowd," but rather, simply "talking to each other." And maybe every now and then they got the crowd involved. This "pandering to the audience" was a big reason why last season on Top Gear was so unsatisfying, and why The Grand Tour has been a bit unsatisfying. Just ignore the audience, and talk to each other. Is that so hard to do?
 
I with you Chay....I liked it too, even though I didn't know who half the people were sometimes. I like British TV and have grown to know a lot of the Stars. There were some very memorable interviews and laps out of it, and I watched the segment, with a few exceptions I'm sure, every episode. I'm kind of a fan of two interesting people having a chat about topics I enjoy in general though, so I guess it worked for me. I can see why some people didn't like it though...but I definitely did like it.
This. Clarkson is great with interviews and this was the one segment that held up the longest.


I think most of the internet people disliked SIARPC because they didn't know the guests. Even though it was a global show, they still invited mainly UK-centric celebrities that people outside UK wouldn't know - radio hosts, BBC people etc. When they invited more well known guests, like F1 drivers or bigger celebrities, the reception was better, because the viewers cared more about what he had to say.
I found myself liking larger portion of people that I didn't know, compared to global stars. Then again, people of lesser global stardom seemed to be there more often for actual love of motoring, rather than a promo opportunity so it could be that.


I think that it should have been kept in Grand Tour too, but with more car-centric people. Racing drivers, local car people would be amazing, like that South African guy who built that Sauber C9 replica - now these would be people who I'd like to hear more from.


I haven't bothered watching GT, but I'd definitely love to see people like that on the spotlight indeed.


I liked the segment in general, but of course it depended on the guest. Clarkson mostly got some good interviews out of it, so I enjoyed it often even if I had never heard of the guest before. In later seasons it became more and more blatant that the guests were only there to promote their latest movie/book/album, and the quality of the segment suffered because of that. Not even to speak of what Evans did.


Very much so, on both parts. Former just for the people not really that interested in motoring. Then again, much of the stuff like talking about their car history etc. had faded our from the segment even before bigger names started appearing. The latter was really awkward in many ways, but subject to another part of the forum. :)


And as far as favorites go, Michael Gambon and James Blunt would be my default . But having just recently watched series 3-5, there are too many good ones (in earlier years especially) to pick an absolute favorite from.
 
I liked it a lot even if I did not know some of the guests.

I started watching Dr Who last year for the first time (I know, I'm late!) and last summer I went back to see David Tennant, Billie Piper, etc... even if I saw them live without knowing who they were, it was even funnier.

Billie Piper... :p

I discovered a lot of UK actors/artists and tv shows with SIARPC, so thanks for that.
 
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