The time I got to go to Top Gear #TopGear

It’s been over a year since Jeremy Clarkson was suspended, which ended the 22 seasons of Top Gear we had known since 2002. In those 13 years many caravans, cars and other things were destroyed, tested and joked about. With the Grand Tour starting soon on Amazon Prime, I thought it would be a great time to talk about the time I went to see the Studio filming of the show.

Now, some background. I have been very lucky and have had a privileged life. As you may have noticed from the first pictures caption that Kate Silverton is my aunt. For those who don’t know who Kate Silverton is, she is a newsreader and journalist who works for the BBC, who did breakfast news for a bit as well as the 6 and 10 o’clock news more recently, as well as doing some radio work. If you want to know more, look her up on Wikipedia. Being her eldest nephew and her not having any children at the time, she did a lot of cool stuff with me and my sister, e.g. taking my sister for a makeover and taking her to the premier of Twilight, taking the family to the BBC to watch her perform for Children in Need (and meeting many celebrities there), taking us to a private film premier in London where I met Jeremy Paxman and many more. These have been brilliant but the one I remember the best and most vividly is when I got to see the filming of Top Gear.

Back then the Star in a Reasonably priced Car was not organised just by the producer. My Aunt was and still is a good friend of Clarkson, and had talked about her being on Top Gear as early as February 2008. My Aunt had even promised to take me as a Birthday present. In the spring of that year Clarkson was guest hosting the popular news/ comedy show Have I Got News for You, and my Aunt was a guest panelist one of the weeks. At this show the filming dates were finalised - Wednesday 9th July 2008.

The show itself now, it was Season 11 episode 4. This season was only 6 episodes but season 12 was also in 2008 so there was plenty to watch. This particular episode had the Alfa Romeo 8C review and the Nissan GTR vs Bullet Train race (one of my favourites!) and had my Aunt and Fiona Bruce as the stars in the reasonably priced car. Back then when the celebrities weren’t queuing to be on the show, they used to put the really exciting races with the not so famous guests.

So the day itself. I remember getting up really early. My sister and I were allowed the day off school; it was only primary school, my mum was besties with the head at the time and we were doing really well so we were allowed a day off to learn about ‘the film industry’. My dad took my sister and I to London to my Aunts flat in Central London. From there we were chauffeured to the airfield. As can be seen on some of the pictures and the show itself the weather was awful! Even the Stig needed an umbrella! However, this didn’t put us off and we arrived. We were given a wristband each. Being classed as VIP’s, we got different coloured bands to differentiate us from the rest of the guests. Being VIP’s, we were allowed access to the Green Room. This being Top Gear however, the room was little more than a sofa, a broken TV, a mini fridge full of Coke and Red Bull and of course all the framed images of different celebrities and Guinness World records! We didn’t spend too long in the Green room, but we did try on all the different helmets. The one I was wearing in the picture below was actually Hammond’s personal one.

Despite the rain, it was time to head to the track to watch my Aunt hoon the Lacetti round the track. Whilst out there I met the Stig. Being a massive Top Gear fan and only 10 years old, I did the one thing any 10 year old Top Gear fanatic would do, and repeatedly ask him who he was. He did talk, but never blew his cover. Once I heard Ben Collin’s voice it did remind me of somebody but I couldn’t remember who at the time…

After being soaked in the rain we returned inside to have Lunch, which to be honest isn’t very exciting but as we were eating the rest of the crowd turned up which is when we went into the Studio.

With me and my sister being technically too young to be part of the audience, they made sure to hide us in the crowds as much as possible to avoid any complaints from higher up BBC officials. The filming was amazing, and is much better watching live than on TV. A few things to note however, the filming took about 4 hours including a 1 hour break halfway through. The applause is well done but is commanded by prompters to cut from one scene with the car to on the sofa or wherever the presenters are after each scene. The TV’s are plentiful around the studio and nothing is censored of course. That day I learnt 3 new swear words, and saw Clarksons “I went on the internet and I found this…”. Some things can’t be unseen, that being one of them! (and yes they do actually show a really disgusting picture!). During the break is where I first met the presenters. Although not for a huge amount of time as they went to hair and makeup, but Clarkson still managed to give me a quiz about the GTR!

During the star in the reasonably priced car segment we were allowed up front but to avoid any issues, we had to sit just below the main camera. Although uncomfortable, it was still a great experience to see my Aunt actually be on Top Gear.

After the show was filmed Hammond had to go home early. I did get a picture with him unfortunately the camera that it was taken on had SD card failure which means most of the good pictures were lost. These ones were taken with my sisters camera of which had less photos and videos on, but at least some of the pictures remained from the other camera. After a long day, and after chatting to Clarkson and May, having refreshments and food with them as well as getting some pictures we all headed home.

My experience at the filming of Top Gear was a truly amazing and brilliant day. It is one of these days I will never forget and will always cherish and be thankful for. As Top Gear is no longer running with Clarkson, Hammond and May, this was a truly mesmerizing day that unfortunately cannot be replicated. As a token to this day I still have the plastic armband which was so huge I could slip it off my wrist at the time, and 3 signed TG books each signed by Clarkson and May. I will probably keep these for as long as I live, as a token to that rainy day in 2008.

If you have any questions about this please feel free to comment them and I’ll try to reply as best as I can.

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