Series 3 Set Report ***SPOILERS***

stiggie

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***TopGear Australia series 3 spoilers below***

I went to filming for TopGear Australia tonight and thought I'd share a bit about what I saw and learned while I was there.

First, I just want to get a bit of unpleasantness out of the way.... I'm afraid the rumours were true- Shane Warne is on the show. He isn't one of the three main hosts, but he has filmed reviews in England. They showed us clips from reviews he has done of the Caparo T1 and a Morgan. I am guessing that they planned to make him a host and put him to work filming reviews right away. Then when it was leaked earlier in the year and they saw the massively negative reaction online, they decided to dump him as a host but still use the stuff he had filmed. I hope that is the case. I'd hate to think that he is permanantly part of TopGear Australia.

Tonight filming was a bit confusing. Rather than simply filming an episode, the footage from tonight was for use in four episodes. I think they were doing some pick-ups of stuff that was either missed in earlier tapings or needed to be re-shot. At one point they threw to commercials telling us that Lisa McCune would be on after the break, then later they filmed a scene that ended by telling us that boys from the Chaser would be on next. The celebrity interview that was filmed tonight was Jimmy Barnes. I had a look at the lap-time board and noticed that Michael Clark, Lisa McCune and the the two Chasers were already on there. The test-track has been reconfigured into a figure of 8 and they are using an 80s-era Falcon ute with a bull-bar for the celebrity laps now.

Most of the filming seemed to be for an episode where they have gone to England to take on Jeremy, James and Richard in a TopGear ashes contest. To prepare, they drove crappy old English cars and drove through a safari park in Peel p50s. It didn't go well... they were almost killed. All the challenges were blatently rigged so that the UK guys won. When told to show up with a commercial vehicle for a drag race, Jeremy brought a Ford Transit van powered by the engine from a Jaguar XJ-220. They also did the pretend-the-Stig-is-really-James trick that they pulled on the Germans in their contest against D-Motor. Apparently it was to demonstrate to the Aussie hosts that the most important thing about making TopGear is knowing how to cheat.

Then they filmed a few scenes introducing and concluding a caravanning challenge. They were finding out whether or not retirees who'd had their superannuation funds wiped out by the global financial crisis could still become grey nomads if they did it on a budget. The caravans didn't fare too well. Remember when the UK boys tried to drive with a bowl of water in their laps without spilling it? The Aussie hosts had a race while towing caravans where they each had a large bowl of urine in their laps.

Shane and Ewan did a Porsche Cayenne vs BMW X5M comparison review that ended with them going to a drag-racing meet. They put the Cayenne up against some bogan hoon's green SS ute (with green neon lights) and the Holden ate its dust. They also did a pick-up concluding a segment where they must have driven to Lake Eyre in old sedans to go sailing.

They was no news segment, though if tonight's taping was mainly for the ashes show then there might still be news in the other episodes. There was three seats on the stage, so they must do a segment where they are all sitting at some stage. Like when I went to filming for a series 1 episode, I was left thinking that the guys are far more entertaining between takes, when they get to be themselves, than they are when they're working from scripts. I look forward to seeing the finished show. Apart from the appearance of Shane Warne, it showed a lot of promise.
 
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I think they were doing some pick-ups of stuff that was either missed in earlier tapings or needed to be re-shot. At one point they threw to commercials telling us that Lisa McCune would be on after the break

That doesn't surprise me - for the first filming we were in the studio from 6pm till 10pm and they didn't really get a huge amount filmed.

They did two takes of McCune's interview, a few lap time revelations, and then several different intro/outro and commercial throws for it.

Lake Eyre was the film, for which they did intros/outros from around the three vehicles. There was a couple of takes introducing Warne's moist Morgan film from a Morgan in studio. And the introduction of the Ute, The Stig, and his lap.

No news nor Power Lap board.
 
Good write up, Stiggie. I'm cautiously optimistic. It's interesting that the new TGA3 are better off-camera than on-camera. Surely Freehand would have learned to let them off the leash a bit by now?

Nice to see that Nein isn't going to disappoint us in the cheesy cross-promotion department. Michael Clarke and Lisa McCune are no doubt working with Nein, and I wouldn't be surprised if The Chaser finally succumb to Nein's obvious courting of them and change teams in 2011. As for Barnesy ... did he plug an album?
 
Thanks for that Stiggie! The news about Warne is a massive dissappointment but that ashes episode sounds like it'll be a good one (I'd be keen to see how the 6 of them work together) Did you talk to any of the hosts afterwards?
 
No, I was with two others who were very keen to find out what was happening in the Gold Coast Titans vs NZ Warriors game, so we left as soon as the taping ended. :(
 
Warnie.....NOOOOOOOOOO

And a bowl of urine? That's gross. And boo for UK beating us. Grrr. lol cant wait to see this though...I really enjoyed the taping I went to. Was funny because I have a reputation amongst my friends for knowing everybody, and Steve recognised me from a trackday I'd been taking photos at. He was standing on the stage with Ewan who said 'great, not another paternity suit'. So at 23 I really do still look underage then...
 
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Brilliant review Stiggie. I see Nein have started advertising the Ashes ep as 'coming soon'.
 
Just wanted to add an article that came up today online about the Ashes Special: [link] Spoilers!
 
funnily enough, i originally hated the thought of warnie being on the show, but after watching his review of the Morgan, i quite liked him. he might not be liked for whatever reasons, but he is a character..
 
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