We take a look back over the decades of this iconic motoring TV Show and its past presenters…
Top Gear Series 1, which premiered in 2003 on Prime TV, is actually over twenty years after the start of the programme’s original beginnings…
On the 22nd of April 1977 Angela Rippon and Tom Coyne presented the first episode of Top Gear, broadcast on a regional BBC channel in the UK. In July 1978, the BBC’s national network took on Top Gear, broadcasting the 30 minute show weekly. The second series was still hosted by Angela but she was joined by Barrie Gill, Mike Dornan, Judith Jackson and Noel Edmonds (the same Noel Edmonds you will probably know from Deal Or No Deal and who now resides in NZ!). Each week UK audiences saw Noel Edmonds test several new cars, including his very own Ford GT40.
In 1980 Noel Edmonds replaced Angela Rippon as the main presenter. Back in the early years of Top Gear, the show didn’t criticise cars as it does now, but when Noel commented that the Fiat Strada “wasn’t very good” it upset Fiat and they threatened to sue the BBC!
The 80s saw several presenters and co-presenters including former F1 driver Tiff Needell and a not-so-well-known columnist from Performance Car Magazine – Jeremy Clarkson!
During the 80s, the show received repeated threats of cancellation from the network due to low viewing numbers. To increase the appeal to the audience, the show began to cover more motoring topics and events, and towards the end of 1988, Jeremy Clarkson became the face of Top Gear, bringing viewing ratings from a hundred thousand to millions!
During the 90s, Clarkson was joined by many popular Top Gear presenters, including Quentin Willson, Vicki Butler-Henderson and James May! The soaring viewing ratings made Top Gear one of the most watched shows on UK TV and vehicle manufacture executives became conscious that negative reviews from the show could have a severe effect on sales.
Despite an exciting start to the decade, as the 90’s progressed, the show is said to have lost its vibrancy – moving away from the more entertaining, fast-paced format it had developed previously. A significant decline in the programme’s popularity was cemented in 1999, when Jeremy Clarkson left the show saying the format and content were dull. Viewing ratings took another hit!
After several presenters in the first couple of years of the decade, the show was cancelled in the latter half of 2001 because of the dwindling viewer numbers since Clarkson’s departure. Tiff Needell, who had been with the show since 1987, and Vicki Butler-Henderson, who was a presenter with Top Gear from 1994, launched a new motoring programme called Fifth Gear.
Photo Credit: Peter Tarry – The Sunday Times
Tiff Needell has remained very popular amongst the motoring community – still writing for numerous car magazines. Our claim to fame is that he has also been a customer of CarTakeBack UK! Vicki Butler-Henderson has had a prominent position in the motor industry since her start as a racing instructor and still presents and writes. We were thrilled when she was able to give us advice on selling your old car!
The BBC decided to relaunch Top Gear in 2002 – only months after it had been cancelled. Set in a studio, with a fresh format, Jeremy Clarkson returned along with new presenters Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe. It’s this version that we recognise as Series 1 of the iconic show, which premiered on Prime TV in 2003. We’re sure many of you will remember Jason Dawe, although he was soon replaced by another previous presenter of the show – James May. International audiences enjoyed a decade of incredibly successful series, making Top Gear one of the BBC’s most successful exports.
Photo Credit: BBC
An Australian version of Top Gear was launched in 2008 with presenters Charlie Cox, Warren Brown and Steve Pizzati. This trio was selected from over 4,000 applicants and their auto credentials ran high with experience between them as racing drivers, a commentator, a columnist and even as an instructor. While the programme found a relatively small but loyal following in Australia, this version never replaced the original Top Gear format for the NZ audience. After struggling through four seasons and several presenter line-ups, it was cancelled in 2011. This image shows the original line-up and the Series 3 presenter line-up of Shane Jacobson, Ewen Page and Steve Pizzati who was the sole remaining original host.
The original Top Gear went from strength to strength, with regular use of Dunsfold Aerodrome, which they used as a test track for the famous, silent racing driver – The Stig.
In 2013, after several series packed with destructions, stunts, and races around the world, the programme received a Guinness World Record for the world’s most widely watched factual TV programme.
While the Top Gear Live Tour graced our shores several times, 2013 saw the show’s first and only visit to film for the programme. ‘The New Zealand Race: Car vs. Yacht’ featured in Series 20, Episode 1, with Jeremy Clarkson and James May taking on one of the show’s legendary ‘Epic Races’. The race route was from Fletcher Bay at the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, to Spirits Bay at the northernmost tip of the North Island. Clarkson was driving a ‘rented’ Toyota Corolla, and May was sailing an AC45 racing yacht crewed by Olympic gold medalist Sir Ben Ainslie and members of Oracle Team USA.
Photo Credits: BBC Top Gear
Clarkson tackled the race in signature style – driving aggressively through the North Island’s winding coastal roads and trying a cheeky shortcut across Ninety Mile Beach, but despite his tactics, a sand bog near the finish line stumped his efforts. May and his team faced punishing seas, but won the race by a narrow margin after his swift exit from the boat and a swim to shore! After seeing the state of May, Clarkson jokingly claimed a victory for fossil fuels.
Just months after Top Gear’s move to TV3 (now Three) in 2015, Top Gear hit the headlines in a very different way …An altercation with a producer resulted in Clarkson being suspended. In March 2015 the BBC announced it would not renew its contract with Clarkson, resulting in Richard Hammond and James May both leaving – refusing to carry on making the programme without him.
Just a month after the final Top Gear episode featuring the show’s most popular trio aired, Amazon Prime announced the trio had signed to create a new car show… The Grand Tour, which premiered globally in November 2016.
After 15 years with Clarkson, May and Hammond running the show, in 2016, the new presenting line-up of Top Gear was revealed: Chris Evans, Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris, Rory Reid, Sabine Schmitz, Eddie Jordan and The Stig.
Photo Credit: BBC
The first series suffered low viewer ratings, and Chris Evans, despite being a great presenter and huge car enthusiast, left the show. Chris’ exit led to the American Actor, Matt LeBlanc – most famous for playing Joey in the US Sitcom Friends – becoming the first non-British main presenter of Top Gear. While Matt was hugely popular, after series 26, which aired in early 2019, he left Top Gear to spend more time with his family.
Patrick Holland, Controller for BBC Two, said:
“I want to thank the fabulous Matt LeBlanc for being a brilliant co-host on Top Gear. Matt has thrown himself into the show with real passion, revealing his extraordinary car knowledge and a willingness to get down and dirty. We were always going to be borrowing him from his day job as one of the top comic actors in Hollywood so I wish him all the very best. The next series of Top Gear (Matt’s last) promises to be something very special and we have great plans to welcome a new co-host to join the team for 2019 and beyond.”
Series 27 saw cricket legend Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, and TV presenter Paddy McGuinness, join Chris Harris at the helm. While neither Freddie nor Paddy had any professional automotive links, as massive car enthusiasts and natural presenters with a huge sense of fun, they refreshed the programme and soaring viewing figures quickly followed.
This new dynamic trio had a supporting presenter in stalwart of the show and driving legend, Sabine Schmitz, who had been part of the Top Gear presenting family in various roles since 2004. Sabine tragically passed away from cancer in March 2021, aged 51. Top Gear presenters past and present united for a special programme to pay tribute to The Queen of the Nürburgring.
Photo Credit: BBC
Alex Renton, co-Executive Producer on Top Gear said:
“Sabine was part of Top Gear for over 15 years and it was no surprise that so many people who had worked with her over that period dropped everything to be a part of this tribute. She was so loved and will be greatly missed by us all.”
Sabine was part of the show when the COVID pandemic hit. The success of the new presenting team meant the BBC found ways to safely keep filming. By using a larger studio and temporarily dropping popular segments such as ‘star in a reasonably priced car’ to maintain social distancing, the new dream team managed to complete series 31.
After navigating the difficult loss of Sabine and maintaining production throughout Covid, it seemed the show had managed to find its most stable and popular rhythm since the Clarkon-Hammond-May era. The chemistry between this comedian, cricketer, and car journalist had given the format a new dynamic, with the antics and trips seeming to get bigger and better every episode and average viewing figures at millions.
However, it was the popular high-octane nature of the show that led to its most difficult chapter…
In December 2022, Freddie Flintoff was involved in a serious high-speed crash at the Dunsfold test track while driving an open-top Morgan Super 3. The accident resulted in severe facial injuries and long-term physical and emotional trauma for the presenter. In November 2023, following a safety review and a reported £9 million settlement with Flintoff, the BBC announced they would be ‘resting’ the show for the foreseeable future. Production on Series 34 was obviously scrapped, and the show entered an indefinite hiatus.
In 2025, Freddie Flintoff shared his recovery journey in the moving documentary ‘Flintoff’, which is still available to watch on Disney+. Paddy McGuiness and Chris Harris continued to work together on the travelogue ‘Paddy and Chris: Road Trippin’, which is available on TVNZ+.
In 2024, Paramount+ premiered the reboot of Top Gear Australia with a brand new line-up of presenters, Jonathan LaPaglia – an actor and host of Australian Survivor, Beau Ryan – a former NRL player and TV personality, and Blair “Moog” Joscelyne – a musician, filmmaker and co-founder of the popular car YouTube channel Mighty Car Mods. The high-budget production (which was an issue with the original AU show) has hit audiences well, but a lack of motoring knowledge for real enthusiasts has generated criticism and viewing figures don’t compete with the original Top Gear show.
While many Top Gear fans accepted the end of the original show following Andrew Flintoff’s devastating accident, the car world has been buzzing with rumours that the ‘rest’ might be over.
Jeremy Clarkson sent fans into a frenzy with a cryptic social media post stating, “It will be back in May” leading to intense speculation about a reunion with Hammond and May. Also, while the BBC has not officially confirmed a new series, industry insiders have suggested that a 50th-anniversary special, or even a total reboot with a fresh ‘heritage’ angle is being discussed.
For now, Top Gear lives on through its magazine, website, regular re-runs on TVNZ+, as well as Discovery Turbo and Prime Video, so you can watch your favourite era, whichever presenters and formats you enjoyed the most!
