Ekona

Lucky sod, I wish mine did! They used to be fine on Whiskas pouches jelly for about 8 years, then they would only eat the Whiskas Simply Steamed, then only Applaws, then finally the uber posh stuff they have now. I'm sure they'll have me catching and cooking a whole chicken for them soon enough.

Hammond came from radio, and May had already done some car-related TV work. All from their wikis, so usual pinch of salt. I want to see a professional on the show, not some random gobby Yootoober. Why does everyone think that generic bloke off the street will do a good job on TG? It's like me imagining that I'm capable of managing Man Utd just because I won the league with Villa on Football Manager!

It's not for the third presenter, it's for A.N. Other role on the show in some aspect. Driver, feature bit, anything they want really. No way in hell would the BBC trust the most important show relaunch since Dr Who to a stranger It's a nice bit of advertising (not that it needs it), and guarantees a few more people will be watching the first new show.

Welcome to the internet!

I think Carly Simon wrote a song about me once.

I am and I can't

Have you had a look to see if anything is loose?

No-one has said the driver was okay to be eating cereal. Clearly, that's not right, however it looked like she was in full control of the vehicle at a very low speed. Contrary to what some would have you think, some people are actually capable of doing more than one thing when driving. I used to use my phone all the time when driving before the law changed, and AFAIK no-one died because of that. Vigilantism is the bigger worry here in my book. That bloke lost his rag completely, when it wasn't needed. If she'd been doing 50mph and weaving all over the place then sure, his anger would be justified, but pootling along at 2mph? Massive, massive over reaction.

If some bloke was that aggressive to my missus, regardless of what she'd done wrong, I suspect my temper might just get the better of me. At that point in time, eating a bowl of cereal in stationary traffic was hardly causing too much of an issue. A militant cyclist cutting across lanes without so much as a signal, just so he can get righteous in the face of a woman, I'd suggest was the bigger problem.

Just added you fella

You and your damn love taps My own fault for outbraking myself constantly

Because I'm selfish. I don't give a hoot about ratings or revenue, I care about them making a show that I want to watch. I'm hoping they can make that specifically caters to my needs. Which is pretty much the same reason as you and everyone else who loved the old TG watched it. You're selfish, and you didn't want it to change because you thought it was perfect. At the end of the day, we're all selfish when it comes to stuff like this: We only care if it works for us.

You just missed a decent session on PCars What's your GT? Although I suspect I can guess it...

I don't run silly size wheels

Ripped straight from the first page of the BBC Royal Charter: The BBC exists to serve the public interest and its main object is the promotion of its public purposes; • Its public purposes are: sustaining citizenship and civil society; promoting education and learning; stimulating creativity and cultural excellence; representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities; bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK; and, in pursuing its other purposes, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television; • The Trust is the guardian of the licence fee revenue and the public interest; • The Trust and the Executive Board are to act separately and the Trust must maintain its independence of the Executive Board; • The Trust has, inter alia, the function of assessing the performance of the Executive Board in delivering the BBC’s services and activities and holding the Executive Board to account for its performance; • The Trust must represent the interests of licence fee payers and exercise rigorous stewardship of public money; • The Trust must ensure that arrangements for the collection of the licence fee are efficient, appropriate and proportionate; • The Trust must have regard to the competitive impact of the BBC’s activities on the wider market and adopt a statement of policy on fair trading policy and hold the Executive Board to account for compliance with it; • The Executive Board must conduct the BBC’s operational financial affairs in a manner best designed to ensure value for money None of which mentions making a profit, which is what business is about. BBC Worldwide is a commercial arm which is 100% there for profit, perversely. Everything that Steve posted relates to the Worldwide arm. I'm not saying the BBC doesn't make money, I'm saying that's not what it's there for, not its primary purpose.

Correct. It's not.

Cat insurance I've never bothered with. I'm sure it'll catch me out at some point, but I figure that as mine are house cats then they're a bit less likely to get run over. In general, female cats are supposed to be more friendly than male ones. Every cat I've ever encountered is the opposite of this rule, so make of that what you will. Personally, I think it's more down to how they're brought up than their sex. I would never get a solo cat, only ever two or more. Company is everything, despite cats actually being loners out in the wild. Feral cats may be okay with that, I'd suggest that domestic cats aren't. There's a theory that domestic cats never actually leave the kitten stage of mentality, and my experience would back that up. Whatever you think cats cost these days, double it. They're frightfully expensive buggers, especially when they get older and only eat posh food. My eldest two only eat cat food that's £6 for 8 tins, and at two tins a day each... Yup, over £1K a year just on food. Add in litter at £5 a bag which lasts a fortnight, £75 in injections & treatments, god knows how much on kitty treats and toys, and they're a little bit pricey. Absolutely worth every penny, and I know you said that money isn't an issue for this right now but you could hopefully have 20 years of those costs.

Oh absolutely, I don't expect it to be markedly different. What I'm hoping for is that it will be sufficiently different that it offers me a reason to watch again. If it's not, then as much as I like CE, I won't be watching it.

Wallpaper it. Choose to be different.

This is very true. It also means they're all idiots. What I'm getting it is that just because something is popular, does not mean that it is good.

No, you're right. I don't want a documentary, I want TG exactly like it was 10 years ago. It was perfect then.

*They're wrong :p I know you're doing it on purpose, but I still can't help myself!

CH was awful on the early videos. He was stiff, dull, useless. Couldn't agree with you more. However... He is so much better now. Watch his conversation with Andreas Preuninger chatting about the GT4, or with Chris Goodwin over the P1: The passion and intelligence there is eminently likeable. Watch the 458 vid round Combe, or the P1 vid round Bahrain. I really don't see how that looks forced, certainly not when compared with the forced scripted humour in the TG bits. No, he's not perfect and sometimes the insistence of the slomo cornering shots bores me to tears, but no more so than the TG reliance on acute cuts with juddering pans.

I saw the hypercar bits on YT, they weren't a patch on what had come before and certainly had nothing on what CH did with just him, one camera and a lot of enthusiasm. I did see the first episode of the last series as wasn't Webber on it? Or whatever series that was, I saw that whole episode and was massively disappointed still. You're right though, everyone should watch it with an open mind and prepare to have really strong feelings about it one way or another

Quite right. I don't want the star either, as I usually skip that bit. I remember watching stuff like when they got their Mum's in to review three hatchbacks, that was brilliant. Or when they first started doing the Which Is Fastest bits, they were new and different. I also remember when TG jumped the shark, which was when the review of the 997TT, the latest iteration of one of the most important sports car brands ever, was relegated to 5mins of night driving. That did it for me. The reviews of things like the CGT/Enzo/SLR were masterpieces in how to review properly, and I can remember them as if they were yesterday. I'm not in TV producing or writing, so I have no idea what new things should replace the chaff, but I'm damn sure we've not run out of stuff yet. What about motorsport? Get the presenters to race in stuff like the Drift championships, or a rally stage like Catchpole did, or any of the hundreds of other disciplines. That'd be ace, and would certainly fill a gap.