BBC Speed - Discussion Thread (WARNING: SPOILERS, if you haven't seen it)

[epp_b]

I figure we haven't really discussed the Speed series in the video offers area (I suppose that's not the place to do so, anyways), and I think there are some points to ponder

First off, I found this series to be better than any of Clarkson's DVDs! It was intriguing, fascinating and inspiring.

I guess, there's one thing that kept bugging me in the back of my mind. There were several scenes that involved airplanes, jets, and air pilot-related things (the multi-tasking test, hand-eye coordination, etc.). He kept saying that he has almost no experience in flying and so on and so forth.

Yet, thinking back to some Top Gear episodes, such as 01x01 where he states "In the F15, you don't get much sensation of speed, whereas in this [Zonda], you do!" or in 06x05 where tells Damon Hill (F1 star in a reasonably priced car segment) "That's why I stopped going up-side-down in fighter planes" (in response to Damon explaining why he retired from F1). He seems to imply that he used to be a pilot of some sort.

Am I missing something here?

[Labcoatguy]

He doesn't actually fly those things, just stays in the secondary seat; he's just been a passenger a whole lot, which accounts for his Top Gear anecdotes. I definitely like these "Clarkson explores the world" miniseries, like "...meets the neighbors" and this one, better than the "Clarkson explores his ego" DVDs. Say what you will about his arrogance, but when he is awed by something/someone, he really shows it.

[ruuman]

yeah, he's done some pretty interesting stuff, the motorworld programs were good too, especially like the one where he went to Saudi Arabia. Speed was a great series, I must download them all.

[Koppel]

Speed is just another series of Clarkson that shows you how much this guy has done and where he has been. This guy has access to everywhere. The BBC is one powerful company!

[maximus]

All of his TV programmes have been pretty good, his one on car history (the name escapes me at the moment) was excellent and don't forget the extreme machines shows too, great stuff.

[Cobol74]

He did a one off about Isambard Kingdom Brunel who he championed as the Greatest Brit. It was pretty good IMHO, probably one of the best factual programmes I have seen.

References :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/2353803.stm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAbrunel.htm

[epp_b]

He doesn't actually fly those things, just stays in the secondary seat; he's just been a passenger a whole lot, which accounts for his Top Gear anecdotes.

Ah, I see. That clarifies things

[Blythy]

Originally Posted by Cobol74

He did a one off about Isambard Kingdom Brunel who he championed as the Greatest Brit. It was pretty good IMHO, probably one of the best factual programmes I have seen.

has anyone got a torrent of this?

[edkwon]

Just finished watching the series, great stuff. It's cool to see a lot of those things Clarkson referenced in Top Gear, including the Lighting jet fighter in his lawn and seeing how much it pissed off his wife, and i'm pretty sure 99% of her reaction wasn't acting

Here's the torrent download that i grabbed.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/512389

[wikkedsnaab]

Originally Posted by edkwon

including the Lighting jet fighter in his lawn and seeing how much it pissed off his wife, and i'm pretty sure 99% of her reaction wasn't acting

heheh that's putting it lightly! she looked like she was gonna bitchslap him... mind you, did you see the furrows the plane's wheels cut into the lawn?!

the Speed series is fantastic and well worth the long download. Jeremy's enthusiasm
is infectious... I don't think his complete and utter appreciation of mankind's engineering achievements can be questioned. i reckon the Lightning in the front yard was his second choice... he would have had a Concorde given half a chance.

just imagine the trench that would have dug in the turf

[ledknight]

Does anyone know if he still has the LIGHTNING JET fighter in his front yard?

[MattD1zzl3]

i think some local board complained about it or something, called it "trash on the lawn"


... philistines!

[Amanaman]

I already had the highlights DVD of Speed, but it was well worth viewing the series in its entirety. The only problem with the downloads is that it seemed that the audio kept going out of sync.

[Blythy]

the fighterjet thing was part of his extreme machines program, ftr, he threw up at least twice.

[edkwon]

Originally Posted by Amanaman

I already had the highlights DVD of Speed, but it was well worth viewing the series in its entirety. The only problem with the downloads is that it seemed that the audio kept going out of sync.

thats weird because the audio on my download seemed to be fine.

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

i think some local board complained about it or something, called it "trash on the lawn"

i think it was on Top Gear he said the Lightning jet was given to an airbase as a museum piece or something.

[Alok]

When was this video aired?

[Amanaman]

The series aired in 2001. The problem I have is that the audio goes out of sync, yet if you play it back at the same moment the sync is returned.

[HOKUM]

Can someone please seed this:
http://www.mininova.org/tor/512389

[epp_b]

You can get them all from 95's FTP.

[efoolution]

So far I´ve seen 4 Episodes (it´s 6 in total, is it?) ... and so far I was rather surprised how good it was on many levels. I was expecting something like his "Car" DVDs, but this was much better, more in a Class with his Brunel-homage. I didn´t think this would come up with so many aspects of speed and so much science from various fields ... and it was not boring. Since I´m a Lab-geek myself this is somewhat apealing to me.

I´d really like the theme-song on my mobile phone in a bit longer version ... anybody an Idea where I might find that? Can it be found on any album or is it just some Tv-instrumental ? (Dancing Down the Stoney Road - Chris Rea)