5 posts tagged “jeremy clarkson”

So, chaps, after you’ve taken your other half to The Time Traveler’s Wife, it’s time for a proper Eric Bana film.

I know hundreds of millions of people have seen this, but who cares? It’s worth watching again. And again. And again.

   Just a note to our American friends: in the original version of this show, Britain’s Got Talent, Piers Morgan is the foil to Simon Cowell, rather than the villain that he “plays” in America’s Got Talent. I realize that there are still people who want to punch him, regardless, not just Jeremy Clarkson:

Sad news for car nuts: automotive and technical writer Jeff Daniels has passed away, according to Keith Adams’ Austin Rover Online website. There’s a longer piece at Just-auto.com.
   There probably isn’t anyone of my generation who doesn’t recall the greats like L. J. K. Setright, Jeff Daniels, George Bishop, Phil Hill and Paul Frère.
   Jeff wrote a column called ‘Danspeak’ in Autocar for many years, and it is probably his style, more than anyone else’s, that informed me when I started my columns.
   I found him one of the more knowledgeable car writers out there and it is sad that much of this old style of journalism has given way to the Jeremy Clarksons of this world. Just as in television presenting, where the William Woollards gave way to the Jeremy Clarksons on Top Gear.
   While I love Clarkson’s style (since he could never get away with it without some actual research) and can be said to adopt elements myself, there is still room for the more technical, educated approach of Daniels et al.
   Jeff Daniels was 68 and continued working up to his death. He will be sorely missed.

Robin Capper, who introduced me to Vox, has alerted me to a Top Gear petition, which I’d recommend fans sign:

http://www.petitiononline.com/tg100/petition.html

There are c. 50,000 signatures already and going up by the minute. In the time I took to fill it out, around 13 people signed.

I walk the talk. Here is my email to the BBC after my Top Gear post on my blog today.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I write in support of Top Gear. This show does not glamorize speed as the anti-car lobbyists claim, but is an informative, entertaining show about cars. 
   If the lobbyists are right, then speed kills—which would suggest that German autobahnen would be death traps. That is not the case.
   Even in Britain, motorways have fewer accidents given their volume than on roads with greater speed restrictions.
   I will continue to support the show and the magazine, as I have done since 1988, when it was first shown, as a special, in New Zealand. I hope the BBC will support its own, and take in the viewpoints of to the majority—not a vocal minority that is misguided, and which will use botched statistics and claims to justify its actions.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Yan