★★★★★ 0/5

Extra Top Gear

Channel Nine is now securing the BBC edition of Top Gear, meaning 90 minute episodes are coming.

14
Leave a comment

Channel Nine has secured the BBC edition of Top Gear for its episode next week, which means it will play longer as a 90 minute edition, including ads.

The show is longer than previous editions but not because it is topped up by commercials. Previously both Nine and SBS played the international edition which was shorter.

Nine will also play out the BBC editions for Series 11 which will follow after this episode. If you are a truly die-hard fan then technically there will be some new, unaired content in those eps. Fans for a long time have been asking for the full episodes in Australia.

In a 90-minute Top Gear special all three presenters test drive a car this week: Jeremy Clarkson runs the BMW X6 through various “humble” locations, Richard Hammond takes the Lexus LFA for a spin and James May tries out the Vauxhall Insignia VXR.

Clarkson actually makes a film about the BMW X6. Despite being told by the producers to keep to a budget, he decides to take the car to all corners of the globe and ends up conducting one of the most expensive road tests in Top Gear history.

Hammond puts the $595,000 Lexus supercar to the test on the Top Gear track, while May takes the wheel of the new Vauxhall Insignia VXR, accompanied by Margaret Calvert, the designer of Britain’s road signs.

It is also time for the annual Top Gear awards ceremony and the atmosphere is electric as the winners are announced, including Injury of the Year and Car of the Decade.

And this week’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car is the blues musician, Seasick Steve.

It airs at 7:30pm next Tuesday on Nine.

14 Responses

  1. Well done 9. A lot of the funny stuff seemed to get cut out of the International version, so this is a win for viewers.
    Can they also announce that they will also be the HD version ? Seems crazy when the source material is HD, yet we have to put up with SD ‘blurry vision’

  2. If there is any good reason for this show being taken from SBS and moved to Nine its this reason. SBS was never going to show the BBC version due to budget restrictions.

  3. @Gary Wallace – actually S3 which recently aired was about 60 minutes long so maybe BBC UK are releasing them else where, depending on the season. S6 which they are doing this week has been back to about 50 minutes long each. But you can get the full versions of the available series on iTunes in AU.

  4. If they went to the trouble of getting the BBC version then hopefully it is HD as well! But I doubt it, none of the other episodes have been so far.

  5. I was wondering when Channel Nine were going to show this episode. I normally waited for Channel Nine/SBS to show the episodes, rather than downloading them, but on this occasion I got sick of repeats and waiting for Ch 9 and watched it elsewhere. It is good to know though, that they will now be showing unedited episodes albeit with 30 minutes of ads.

  7. Finally, a commercial TV station changing something for the better rather than changing to make it worse. Who knows, I might even start watching Top Gear on TV again.

  8. It will make the fans happy as well as Channel Nine by keeping their audience around longer. If audiences can watch 90 mins of AGT every week, they can watch 90 mins of Top Gear.

    Definitely recording next week’s episode.

  9. BillK, The BBC version is 60mins without ads, so you get maybe 43mins plus ads in the first hour, then 17mins with 10mins of ads, equals 87mins

  10. Good news at last!

    @chk chk – the US edition of WDYTYA? airs in NBC not HBO but you are right the Jeremy Clarkson on is BBC and was owned by SBS, I’d like to know if Nine have it also.

  11. The BBC version is only 10 min longer then the international version currently shown. So for that 10 min we get 20 min of ads.
    Got to get the most out of the show.

  13. Hey David, in a Top Gear related news, last night Nine showed a promo for Who do you think you are? which features Jeremy Clarkson, I’m pretty sure this is with the BBC edition rather than that of HBO’s (US), so does this mean they bought this off from SBS or WDYTYA-BBC is also moving to Nine?

Leave a Reply