Top Gear 29/11/2009 show
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 392
Likes: 0
From: UK
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 448
Likes: 4
From: In the mountains
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 88
Likes: 0
From: uk
Have a look on private flying mate, it's all on there. but yeah, a massive setup. Gutted!
The Hawk HF saga:
I was there at the top gear studio all day and saw everything outside the studio first hand. Because of my personal view of the programme I refused the offer of participating inside the studio. I was informed after the recording of what was said and shown by my friends from Noble Motorsport who were also there on the day.
We know that Nico volunteered his car at very short notice to the people at Top Gear who has asked for an Alitalia. Nico made it abundantly clear in his many emails to them that the car had been standing and had been rallied over the last few years and was a little 'distressed'. They arranged transportation for the car to be collected from Edinburgh and delivered to the studios where it was filmed with sticking brakes and showing the Stig getting out of the car after it had broken down. But they omitted to report that they had blown the engine. Then they transported the car back to Nico in Edinburgh declaring only trouble with the brakes and still not admitting to an engine problem and a broken door where they had pushed it so far back it had broken the check strap and cracked the fibre glass edge!
This is the point where I came in. I was asked by Nico if I could collect the car from him and put a new engine in which the BBC would pay for (after liaising with the BBC they agreed to pay for a new engine and my transportation from Edinburgh to Dunsfold via my workshop). Due to the short timeframe in which I had to work on the car I had to drop everything to collect the car from Edinburgh.
Early start next morning to load the car and all tools for a shake down test at Bruntingthorpe. After a couple of slow bedding-in laps, checking temps and levels, etc (this was the first time that the car had run). The speed was gradually built up and everything seemed OK. My biggest concern was that Nico was unable to keep the car on the track for very long resulting in some spectacular spins across the grass and once into the tyres, narrowly avoiding damage. Owing to Nico's time constraints no adjustments were made to the suspension in any way - setting of shocks, tyre pressures, tracking etc.
On Wednesday, the day of filming, I had to be at the studios by 8am which meant leaving home at 4.30am.
After off loading the car on its slick tyres I went through the start procedue with them and handed over the keys. I then went to park up my truck and trailer away from the studio but with a good vantage point of the test track. At 9am the editor came to ask me if I wouldn't mind fitting the 2nd set of wet weather tyres as it was pouring with rain and he said that they wouldn't get far on the slicks - I duly obliged. Then this week's Stig driver came round(Andy something, I think) and got in the car, started the engine revving it's nuts off making it bounce off the rev limiter. To which he remarked "I thought I was pressing the brake" - I explained to him that the brake is the next one along and the clutch the next one after that. Off he shot.
The car flashed down the track and to me it sounded as though it was firing on 5 cylinders but it was going so fast and it was raining so hard it was difficult to tell.
For the next hour and a half I watched through binoculars as they filmed the supposed one power lap. In fact he drives two or three laps and then the camera team move to the next corner and he does two or three more laps and so on. In all he must have done 30+ laps. Then he did the supposed spinning out of control on the power lap. I must admit though, he is a very good driver in the way that he provoked and recovered the spins - or maybe they were just his practice ones. From this you can see how contrived it all was.
My view is that from the outset this was the direction that the programme was going to take. Even if the car had performed spectacularly they would have still slated it.
Nico went in to the studio filming and immediately expressed his anger and concern over the way everything had been handled and portrayed. Including Clarksons comments - a great looking car but a crap build (or words to that effect).
My emails and telephone conversations with the BBC were met with 'media talk' and I was told that they were going to show the footage and nothing was going to change. Legal action by Gerry and Nico to remove all footage of the car and all references to it have just been sidestepped by the BBC.
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 356
Likes: 11
From: The sky mainly
Like the way it was edited to make you think that May was flying the airship. Didn't think he had airships on his ppl!
You could tell it was a joke from his flight plan. Dorset first - no, change of plan Kent - no, change of plan, pop up to Suffolk - oh dear, overshot Suffolk and trash Norwich airspace.
You could tell it was a joke from his flight plan. Dorset first - no, change of plan Kent - no, change of plan, pop up to Suffolk - oh dear, overshot Suffolk and trash Norwich airspace.
Chief Bottle Washer
Joined: Sep 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 7,258
Likes: 1,438
From: PPRuNe
Top Gear: BBC show accused of faking 'flying caravan stunt'
Top Gear, the popular BBC show, has been accused of faking a stunt featuring presenter James May flying a caravan-style airship across Britain.
The BBC2’s show’s episode, which aired on Sunday night, featured a segment where May, 46, appeared to accidentally stray over Norwich airport, which lead to a police helicopter being deployed.
He was later seen crashing to the ground, shouting "mayday, mayday" in panic after the craft was dragged across the ground.
But professionals involved in the segment claimed the sequence was a "set-up".
Despite viewers having been given the appearance that May had appeared to be alone in the flying caravan, a professional pilot, Chris Sanger-Davies, had undertaken some of the more difficult manoeuvres.
Instead of the appearance of being an accident, which happened to be caught on camera, insiders said the whole episode had been carefully planned months.
The show’s producers had got airport clearance to stage the scene while a private helicopter firm provided the "police" chopper.
Steve O'Brian, Chief Pilot at Sterling helicopters, who supplied the 999 helicopter said the balloon was delivered to the airport on the back of a truck.
"The whole event was set up, it was all arranged more than a month before it was filmed,” he said.
"The programme had been completely scripted, there was no real emergency - we were hired to play along.
"There would be no way someone would be able to fly over the country unless it was all staged.”
Mr Sanger-Davies, from Lindstrand Balloons, added: "The landing was not a crash. It obviously looked more dramatic on the TV - it was all a controlled accident.
"No one was in danger of getting hurt at any point, which was the impression that a lot of people got from the programme.
A Norfolk police spokeswoman said: "We did know the event was going on, we were warned a couple of months prior,” she said.
Top Gear producer Andy Wilman said May had been helped by another pilot to follow flying regulations.
He admitted the film had been shot over a period of three days and the airport scene had been pre-planned.
"The airport did know we were coming, it was a knockabout part of an entertainment film,” he said.
"The landing was a proper crash, it was an accident that was under control.
"This was purely entertainment and not taken seriously, James did fly and a crash did happen.”
He added: "It was intended as a fun film, it wasn't a race or review where we have to be impeccable with accuracy and above board.
"It was a tongue in cheek segment and I think people will have seen it as that - it was a piece of knockabout fun
Top Gear, the popular BBC show, has been accused of faking a stunt featuring presenter James May flying a caravan-style airship across Britain.
The BBC2’s show’s episode, which aired on Sunday night, featured a segment where May, 46, appeared to accidentally stray over Norwich airport, which lead to a police helicopter being deployed.
He was later seen crashing to the ground, shouting "mayday, mayday" in panic after the craft was dragged across the ground.
But professionals involved in the segment claimed the sequence was a "set-up".
Despite viewers having been given the appearance that May had appeared to be alone in the flying caravan, a professional pilot, Chris Sanger-Davies, had undertaken some of the more difficult manoeuvres.
Instead of the appearance of being an accident, which happened to be caught on camera, insiders said the whole episode had been carefully planned months.
The show’s producers had got airport clearance to stage the scene while a private helicopter firm provided the "police" chopper.
Steve O'Brian, Chief Pilot at Sterling helicopters, who supplied the 999 helicopter said the balloon was delivered to the airport on the back of a truck.
"The whole event was set up, it was all arranged more than a month before it was filmed,” he said.
"The programme had been completely scripted, there was no real emergency - we were hired to play along.
"There would be no way someone would be able to fly over the country unless it was all staged.”
Mr Sanger-Davies, from Lindstrand Balloons, added: "The landing was not a crash. It obviously looked more dramatic on the TV - it was all a controlled accident.
"No one was in danger of getting hurt at any point, which was the impression that a lot of people got from the programme.
A Norfolk police spokeswoman said: "We did know the event was going on, we were warned a couple of months prior,” she said.
Top Gear producer Andy Wilman said May had been helped by another pilot to follow flying regulations.
He admitted the film had been shot over a period of three days and the airport scene had been pre-planned.
"The airport did know we were coming, it was a knockabout part of an entertainment film,” he said.
"The landing was a proper crash, it was an accident that was under control.
"This was purely entertainment and not taken seriously, James did fly and a crash did happen.”
He added: "It was intended as a fun film, it wasn't a race or review where we have to be impeccable with accuracy and above board.
"It was a tongue in cheek segment and I think people will have seen it as that - it was a piece of knockabout fun
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 439
Likes: 1
From: UK
At the last count nearly 400 readers of the D Mail had posted views on the story. 99.9% are telling the DM to shut up and behave.
Standby for a pre-Christmas rush of Daily Mail reveals : Bambi never existed, Spooks aren't really spies and, as for the man with the white beard, red coat and reindeer.........
Standby for a pre-Christmas rush of Daily Mail reveals : Bambi never existed, Spooks aren't really spies and, as for the man with the white beard, red coat and reindeer.........
Joined: Apr 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 10,959
Likes: 1,814
From: EGDC
Not sure why anyone should be surprised at the 'scripting' shock - surely no-one believes all of their 'races' which always end up with a dramatic and close finish ever really happened that way.
The target audience for the show is 14 year old boys who will hero worship JC and the gang without question and most of it is harmless entertainment but it's not real - it's TV.
The target audience for the show is 14 year old boys who will hero worship JC and the gang without question and most of it is harmless entertainment but it's not real - it's TV.
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 53
Likes: 1
From: EGHP
Rymes with Hillock
May may be a pilot, but he has put us all down with this stunt. I know its just television entertainment, and I know that the filming was fixed (multiple locations, days, tie ropes, etc). But James May is just a pillo(w)k.
Joined: Jun 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 252
Likes: 5
From: Norwich
Well watching those three tossers drive through one of Europe's poorest villages in 3 cars worth probably half a million quid, got my back up - They might as well have been waving wads of cash! But sadly it became clear 3 or 4 series ago that everything is set up. Just trying to get an Airship (or balloon in disguise) from Cardington to Norwich would probably take several hours on its own.
Shame, as the simple idea of a Caravan gondola under an airship started off with promise. Bring back William Woolard, Quentin Wilson and Noel Edmonds !!
Shame, as the simple idea of a Caravan gondola under an airship started off with promise. Bring back William Woolard, Quentin Wilson and Noel Edmonds !!
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
From: Upon the my oh my
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that Top Gear is morphing into Last of the Summer Wine - being the story of 3 elderly males having childish adventures - with a slightly younger target audience and occasionally involving cars? 
