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The Top Gear Story

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The Top Gear Story

By: Martin Roach
Narrated by: Jerome Pride
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About this listen

 Reaching a peak in the 1990s thanks to presenter Jeremy Clarkson, the original series then faced the axe in 2001 - but Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman successfully pitched a new format to BBC bosses and Top Gear returned to become the irreverent, funny and often controversial show we now know and love. The addition of co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May completed the Top Gear dream team and ratings soared as viewers tuned in to see the latest Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, arguments over the Cool Wall and Power Laps by the mysterious Stig. Top Gear has long attracted criticism for its dangerous stunts and the presenters' controversial opinions, but thankfully 'the Hamster' made a full recovery and Top Gear has continued to pull in massive audiences across the world. This is the full story of the unstoppable rise of Clarkson, Hammond, May and The Stig - and how they have transformed an ordinary programme about cars into one of the most famous and best-loved TV programmes of the 21st century.©2011 Martin Roach (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Engineering Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Celebrity Transportation Funny Witty

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All stars
Most relevant  
one of the many books and biographies in the top gear franchise, a must read.

Vital Read!

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On the whole I really quite enjoyed this book. It wasn't the most in-depth, but it gave a good potted history of Top Gear and I learned quite a bit about the programme's development.



Some of the chapters consist of the author explaining what happened in certain episodes in much the same way an excited child would tell you about their favourite programme. As I'm sure everyone who reads / listens to this book will be a Top Gear viewer, I felt the detailed explanation of the episodes wasn't really necessary!



Saying that, the author delivers the book with good humour and made me smile a lot with the behind the scenes stories.



The only real bad point about this audiobook is that the narrator managed to mispronounce several names. I found a quick shout at the speakers with the correct pronunciation satisfied me!

A good light listen

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so much information I didnt know about the show
love the show even more know after listening to this book

brilliant listen

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What disappointed you about The Top Gear Story?

This is just a load of stuff written by a fan, anybody could do it, and probably do it better!

What was most disappointing about Martin Roach’s story?

All of it

How could the performance have been better?

Someone else could have done it all of it

Any additional comments?

Rubbish

I could have written this better.

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I’m a big top gear fan so I like learning the history behind a lot of it and how Jezza captain slow and hampster got recruited

Everything

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Would you try another book written by Martin Roach or narrated by Jerome Pride?

No

Has The Top Gear Story put you off other books in this genre?

Yes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He didn't; he was ok

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Any additional comments?

This was a dreadful book. The author basically watched every Top Gear episode and read loads of stuff in the newspapers about the presenters, and then he wrote a book.

All he does is describe the episodes - he doesn't take us into how the three work together, what they do, why they do it.

So much of the book is taken up by the author just telling you what happens in each episode, with a knowing wink so you know it was a joke or satire - but what the reader wants is to hear loads of stuff about the way these things are made, the way the presenters make the show work etc.

There's none of that in this book. Nothing of value at all - if you want to find out the contents of this book, just watch Top Gear. For example, the book is full of stuff like a description of an episode and then a statement like "and Hammond apparently has a terrible phobia of insects", just cos we see a scene in which he says he's terrified of insects - you don't find out anything about it, whether it's true or part of his Top Gear 'character' etc - the author simply watched the episode and made a note "oh, looks like Hamster is afraid of bugs, I'll say that in the book".

That's not what I want - I don't need technical details, but I want more than just "this is what they did on the show, and Jeremy wrote about it in his column and then this is what he said on an interview".

There is nothing of value in this book to a Top Gear fan. And if you're a fan of the presenters, there's even less - cos you'll already know it all. You don't get anything new at all.

Absolute waste of time and money

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Disappointingly, I have listened to just 2hrs of this and it appears to be just an audio description of what they did in the TV series. I thought there would be some behind the scene info or give some info I have not heard before. I've watched the episodes. I don't need an explanation of them.

An audio description of the TV series

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Really hated this one. Expected behind the scenes insight into the series but is a very boring version of what I have already seen on the TV. Waste of money

Awful

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