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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.
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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