Extra Guest costs how much......?

[Mineworksfine]

Never been afraid to pick up a bargain can of worms and attack it vigorously with a tin opener so here goes........

Being the "internet dweeb" that I am and in view of the mooing that's been going on as a result of the change I asked a fellow forum member with access to the relevant technology to take an average of the time the twin guest SIARPC segment has taken this last series (not including Jay Kay) and compare it to the average for the segment in the previous series.

The results are as follows:

One SIARPC - average 9' 52"
Two SsIARPC - average 10' 28"

The issue however is not that we have been robbed of 36 seconds of James May or (insert your own preference here) but at least IMHO that the guests were of such a poor calibre they either need to get a new Guest Booker or drop the segment entirely.

I now open the floor to reasoned and civilised debate..........yeah right.

[Lilleput]

I wholeheartedly agree that the segment has gone downhill so fast that you would be pulling life threatening Gs, the only SIAPC segment i saw this season was JayKay. Maby these people matter for people in the UK, im not sure.

[Reborn]

they could drop it as an regular feature of the show.

something like three SIARPC segments per season would be okay, but please with interesting guests (gordon ramsey/jamie oliver, jay kay/simon cowell).
i thought terry wogan was a quite interesting guest aswell(alright, that was back in season 4-ish), even through the interview wasn't about cars or a competition whatsoever.

[Heathrow]

Originally Posted by Mineworksfine

..

The issue however is not that we have been robbed of 36 seconds of James May or (insert your own preference here) but at least IMHO that the guests were of such a poor calibre they either need to get a new Guest Booker or drop the segment entirely.
I now open the floor to reasoned and civilised debate..........yeah right.

Agree, the idea probably sounded good when the Production Team had a “new ideas” meeting. But the implementation didn’t really work for various reasons.

The Dragons were passable, the News readers were nice to look at but the others were forgettable.

This idea bombed worse than the Stunt man.

[matt2000]

The segment has lost it's appeal over the years, maybe it could be replaced with a different celeb challenge to get the old favourites back.

All of the stars were fairly significant on TV here to be honest, they were just not great guests, and I don't see why Rob Brydon needed someone else there with him.

I dunno...

[klankymen]

Originally Posted by Mineworksfine

The results are as follows:

One SIARPC - average 9' 52"
Two SsIARPC - average 10' 28"

Single guests were on average nine feet, fiftytwo inches tall? Are you including anyone other than jodie kidd here?

(actually that was really my first thought skimming over the thread, I thought you were talking about hight, and I was like wtf?)

[watto]

I agree. The calibre of the segment has gradually gone downhill and the only one I watched in full was Jay Kay, because he was at least interesting and is so passionate about cars. The others guests were just yawn fests, very dull indeed.

They either need to get rid of the segment completely or at least cut the time in half...

[Crash Biker]

Well, I know I'm in the minority, but I like SIARPC and enjoyed the guests from the last series.

Just from the top of my head, I though the zillionaires from Dragon's Den were far better than I expected (and quite funny), I thought the two lady news-readers were good sports and entertaining, I liked JK clowning around and showing some real passion and enthusiasm.

It's the one part of the show each week that adds some new characters to the cast and I think that is important in having just a little variation to the "flavour" of each show. I am in the UK so do know who these people are, but it's not so important as long as they are pleasant/interesting/willing to join in a bit. I suspect you could just as easily randomly select people from finalgear and I would still enjoy the segment, I suppose the benefit of going with celebs is they are camera/interview experienced so know the routine.

The actual lap/time bit can only be a minute (though I've not timed it) so it's mostly a light hearted interview poking fun at car choices of celebs back before they were celebs and it's a nice breather between segments as well as light fun and an attractor for a wider TV audience.

Cheers

Crash

[j8mie]

Originally Posted by matt2000

...and I don't see why Rob Brydon needed someone else there with him...

Probably to help him plug his award winning TV show I suspect.

Originally Posted by watto

I agree. The calibre of the segment has gradually gone downhill and the only one I watched in full was Jay Kay, because he was at least interesting and is so passionate about cars. The others guests were just yawn fests, very dull indeed.

They either need to get rid of the segment completely or at least cut the time in half...

Agreed!!

Jay Kay was interesting and one of the few I've ever watched, along with Hugh Grant, Trevor Eve's and Stephen Fry. 99% of the people on there are boring and simply skip past that part of the show.

Fingers crossed they ditch the two star idea and at least put it back to how it was. I'd love to see them change it, or ditch the celeb bit altogether............but I doubt that will happen as Jezza clearly loves chatting to the celebs.............probably reminds him of his old chat show host days.

[otispunkmeyer]

seriously they need one guest and it needs to be charlie brooker

[NooDle]

just skip the interview, show them doing the lap and them cringing at the laptimes and be done with it!
shaves atleast 5 pointless minutes off the interview, and we have more time for Mr May falling over and crashing

[fbc]

Hmm, haven't we already had countless threads about this?

Anyway, FWIW, I still like SIARPC, but the two-guest format just didn't work. Not enough time for JC to give each guest a proper interview, and I don't think the guests-racing-each-other factor really worked all that well.

[j8mie]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

seriously they need one guest and it needs to be charlie brooker

Gets my vote. That guy has a habit of hitting rather large nails on the head

TVGOHome was one of my favourite websites for a long time.

[Mike Bull]

The last series with two guests really went down the pan for me, as did stuntman actually.

[Necx0]

The segment lives or dies on the quality of the guest.

Eg. Stephen Fry, Trevor Eve, Terry Wogan, Jamie Oliver, Jay Kay very entertaining.

Helen Mirren, those wierd looking blokes (11x03) complete disasters.

I think the good guests far outweigh the bad so the segment certainly has a place. However more thought needs to be given to the guests selected if its going to continue to be a winner.

Those people that automatically skip the segment are missing some golden moments though.

[Mineworksfine]

Just had another thought regarding "cost". They've been banging on a while now about the fact they wear/iron their own clothes etc to keep costs down so there is more money in the show's budget to make it as quality as possible so how come they have introduced a second guest? Given that the people they had on were hardly mental petrolheads (with one obvious exception) I can't see any of them having done it for free. I suppose the only other option is that they went on as part of existing BBC contracts so nothing was taken out of the Top Gear budget to pay for them. If that's the case it might explain the recent drop in quality of the so-called celebs on SIARPC.

If someone wants to list every guest from the last 4-5 series in reverse order then maybe we can pick out the ones (if any) who don't/didn't work for the Beeb. Then if it turns out the only way they can have a guest is by getting A N Other nomark on the cheap like this then surely the time has come to drop the idea and replace it with something else?

[twobigdogs]

Yep I agree ..............a load of pants,scrap it and get back to one star in a car!

[Mercury]

I think some of the guests were brilliant and provided some very funny moments. Michael Gambon jump to my mind first with a truly hilarious interview, surprisingly Hugh Grant was a damn good laugh and the rest others have mentioned here were great as well.

But when the guest is boring the segment is just a bore fest, i nearly died of boredom in some of the double guest segments, and that was in the first 2 mins...then I just fast forward it.

Bottom line, if they have to keep it for appeal to a wider audience, they need to go back to 1 star per show and get bloody interesting people. Otherwise it just feels forced.

[the Interceptor]

Originally Posted by Mercury

Bottom line, if they have to keep it for appeal to a wider audience, they need to go back to 1 star per show and get bloody interesting people. Otherwise it just feels forced.

[Meio]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

seriously they need one guest and it needs to be charlie brooker

Totally, forget the 2 star system for any other than natural double acts, and branch out from boring actors and presenters plugging shit BBC programming. Get some witty people in there and car nuts.

I really bum the idea of Charlie Brooker having a go, but seeing as he's a totally London based journo there's probably only a 50/50 chance that he's bothered to learn how to drive. I'd like to see some great modern comedians, just purely for the banter. My suggestions would be Sean Lock (wanted to put JC into room 101) or Frankie Boyle (also supposedly has a hatred of JC).

Do you think they could get some Hollywood types through to stop all the moaning about the UK bias too? Some more international music stars plugging a tour or album should work too (and not just ancient ones).