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#82 | |||
Ewige Blumenkraft
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ivory Tower
Posts: 16,250
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Brave little fella then... ![]()
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#83 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#85 |
Pi
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 16,853
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One of the three muppets saying 'yeah, it's all scripted', a newspaper article with 'I was the GT secret scriptwriter', out-takes where there's a script present and people are actually learning their lines. I don't actually think you're wrong, (although I think 'scripted' covers a really, really wide scope of stuff from roughly outlined to scripted word for word and blocked to the inch.) I just wondered if there'd been any actual revelation in the press or similar. Edit: I also didn't intend to sound quite as grumpy as I seem to have done. Sorry about that. |
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Up the River! |
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#86 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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There might be something like that but I'd have to check. Public revelations are unlikely because such things are always covered by NDAs or similar contractual agreements. I'm working under one right now from the entertainment industry and they are very stringent, and breaches are taken seriously. Aside from the info I got from my ex partner, I do recall a longer account of someone who worked with Derren Brown spilling the beans on his show; again, fully scripted and everything contractually controlled; that is to say, these 'independent' participants sign up-front clauses saying they will do as instructed and will not discuss the mechanics of the show with anybody outside of the production crew. That was unverifiable, for obvious reasons, but it fits in with what I've heard (and in the case of Brown, what is blatantly obvious).
"That's my secret, Cap, I'm always... grumpy." |
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#87 |
Scholar
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Bowen Island, British Columbia
Posts: 120
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People still get offended by Clarkson/Hammond/May after all these years?
Jeeps are very popular in my neck of the woods and a good chunk of them are considered Pavement Princesses, as they have fancy wheels which their owners are too afraid to scratch. The ones that do actually take them offroad, seem to break down and need rescue often. - a Suzuki 4x4 owner |
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#88 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,516
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The NDA for Top Gear may have become null and void after the Trio + Wilman's contracts were canceled. I think the show is roughly 90% planned out, but generally speaking there is no script written out. Sometimes things don't go as planned and they roll with it though. In Columbia they stopped for a day and modded their vehicles... anyone who thinks that wasn't planned is pretty dumb. Their production co certainly made arrangements to have all that stuff ready so they could be bolted on... ie the lift for Clarkson's Jeep. The lightning rolling in, and the hail storm on the mountain, that wasn't planned. Finding a dead and rotting Condor on the way back, I kinda doubt that was planned.
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#89 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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That's pretty much as I see it. As I said, it's not a physical script, but it's a very tight framework where the mechanics and outcomes are tightly orchestrated. Sure, unexpected things happen and that's where the editing comes in. It's a bit like a stand-up show where the comedian says and does broadly the same thing every time, although an unplanned heckler or two might make it onto the DVD.
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#90 |
Muse
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
Posts: 537
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The BBC cancelled the original "show about cars" because nobody watched it. The Clarkson reboot has always been about men messing about with cars in silly ways and I'm pretty sure that the presenters and the producer were pretty honest about that fact.
If you don't like it, that's fine, you didn't have to watch it and there are plenty of other car shows that probably would cater to your taste. Personally, I wouldn't watch a show that consists mainly of reviews of run of the mill cars that I can test drive myself played straight. |
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#91 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 11,578
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There was an episode where Clarkson announced TG had won a best unscripted show award, which he could not go and collect, because he was too busy writing the script.
I suspect they have a good idea what they are going to say, but a lot is off the cuff. Then they do have various catch phrases which keep on repeating, "what could possible go wrong?", "cock" when it goes wrong, and shouts of "HAMMOND!" They usually sabotage each others cars and deliberately crash into each other. They also like to build and drive over very rickety bridges. |
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#92 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 11,578
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Way back in 2004, Johnny Vaughan was one of the guests and he commented that they should make Top Gear (IIRC) "stag world, where men can roam free". He saw how it was developing and Clarkson, Hammond and May have transformed from reviewing cars, to presenting a show where some blokes get to do what many would love to do, muck about, have a laugh, do stupid things, build stuff (badly), drive cars and travel.
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Audiophile/biker/sceptic |
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#93 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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You wouldn't have thought they'd take 24 years to figure that out. The fact is that their format, after two decades, began to decrease in popularity and they decided to include a bit of comedy. Like everything else on TV, they chased the ratings and ended up changing the show's entire genre. There was still, and is still, a market for car shows that aren't sitcoms.
For the first five or six years of the Clarkson era it was still primarily a factual show. There's no comparison. One's a car show, the other's a sitcom based around vehicles. They are intended for different audiences. |
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#94 |
Ewige Blumenkraft
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ivory Tower
Posts: 16,250
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#95 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#96 |
Ewige Blumenkraft
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ivory Tower
Posts: 16,250
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#97 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#98 |
Nitpicking dilettante
Deputy Admin Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Berkshire, mostly
Posts: 41,735
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As you nearly admitted later, that isn't necessarily true, I'm pretty sure that while much of it is scripted, or at least following a pre-determine outline, there are almost certainly some improvised bits that work and are kept in the broadcast version.
I'm fully aware of the artifice involved in making television, but sometimes it is as it seems. I was at the recording of the TV version of Just a Minute (admittedly primarily a radio show), and what was broadcast was pretty much what happened live; the only retakes were of intros by the presenter, and none of the panelists was working from a script. The only slight deception was that since they were recording two episodes, they moved some of the audience around at half time. |
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.Bertrand Russell Zooterkin is correct Darat Nerd! Hokulele Join the JREF Folders ! Team 13232 Ezekiel 23:20 |
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#99 |
Quester of Doglets
Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,456
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Tesla walked off the set after reading the script.
The script detailed how Clarkson and co. were going to lie about the Tesla breaking down and running out of battery. Last episode I watched. https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2018/...-has-it-ended/ |
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We would be better, and braver, to engage in enquiry, rather than indulge in the idle fancy, that we already know -- Plato. |
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#100 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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OK, as closely as 'some' actors. Of course, if there's no formal script people are going to adlib or improvise, my point is that these shows are not what most people think they are. Some are worse than others. I imagine there are a few shows with no scripting, I don't know, but the content of TV shows for large audiences is not left to chance, why take the risk?
A bit like the episodes where each of the three idiots bought a second hand car, pimped it up and drove from A to B. We are asked to believe that all the predictably hilarious incidents, breakdowns, fender benders and police stops are simply recordings of what happened along the way as opposed to carefully planned and choreographed events. And people believe it, I guess. |
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#101 |
Meandering fecklessly
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,111
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#102 |
Uncritical "thinker"
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 19,945
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See below
The implausible deniability again - like the "slope" comment. Just because you can think up slurs that some people can't catch, it doesn't make it right or funny. If you are the target of the "banter", then you get to say whether it's over the line. Especially if you are part of a group that still suffers discrimination or violence. |
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OECD healthcare spending Expenditure on healthcare http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm link is 2015 data (2013 Data below): UK 8.5% of GDP of which 83.3% is public expenditure - 7.1% of GDP is public spending US 16.4% of GDP of which 48.2% is public expenditure - 7.9% of GDP is public spending |
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#103 |
Misanthrope of the Mountains
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 23,701
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Last time I was in San Francisco I saw more Porsches than Jeep Wranglers.
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"Because WE ARE IGNORANT OF 911 FACTS, WE DEMAND PROOF" -- Douglas Herman on Rense.com
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#104 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 13,224
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"How long you live, how high you fly The smiles you'll give, and tears you'll cry And all you touch, and all you see Is all your life will ever be." |
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#105 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,705
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Promise of diamonds in eyes of coal She carries beauty in her soul |
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#106 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,084
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"I know my brain cannot tell me what to think." - Scorpion "Nebulous means Nebulous" - Adam Hills |
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#107 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,084
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"I know my brain cannot tell me what to think." - Scorpion "Nebulous means Nebulous" - Adam Hills |
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#108 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,084
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In "Grand Tour" they address this directly in an 'unscripted' trip (to Portugal iirc), where they end up on dead end roads, can't hear the audio and set themselves incompatible goals because no-one's organising the show. I've always assumed that the challenges are planned in detail and the script roughed out (to cover the 'beats' of the conversation) and then actual dialogue improvised over several takes with the best bits edited together. There's certainly some spontaneity, bits like May throwing a rock at Clarkson's windscreen in anger after being rear ended seemed spontaneous anyway. I admit, I'd love their jobs, and income. But at the same time I do think that for TV presenters they work quite hard and put themselves at some personal risk for the shows. |
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"I know my brain cannot tell me what to think." - Scorpion "Nebulous means Nebulous" - Adam Hills |
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#109 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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I would have loved to do stuff like that in my 30s, not so much now. I don't think there's much risk in what they do, Hammond's accidents are just a result of him being a lunatic as opposed to anything inherent in his TV role. That said, it is risky to drive through Argentina in a car with the number plate H982 FKL, something the TG crew swore down was a coincidence - a coincidence that not one of them had actually noticed - but the entire rest of the world understood perfectly well was, you guessed it, a well thought-out and planned part of the script.
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#110 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 11,578
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edNo one would look at H982 FKL and instantly think of the Falkland War. At the time no evidence was presented by those who claim it was a set up/fake, that was an invented plate put onto the car for filming.
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Audiophile/biker/sceptic |
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#111 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,169
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"I don't think I'm getting the most out of my computer. I turn it on... and use it as a light." - Harry Hill |
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#112 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 6,390
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Here in the Netherlands hairdressers often drive Suzuki jeeps, black guys drive red Honda Civics, dentists drive Saab and Volvo etc etc.
Can we now longer point those patterns out in a humorous way? Can I still say Lesbians drive Subaru's? (OK, that happened because Subaru's marketing specifically targeted them as a demographic) |
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Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh! |
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#113 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 84,684
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I wish I knew how to quit you |
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#114 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,516
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There is actual, rather compelling evidence, that it wasn't a setup.
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ViewVehicle Pop in the plate #, answer yes and you get: "Date of first registration: May 1991". So it was the actual plate, registered since 1991, on the type of car that they often take on road trips. To suggest that they went around searching the UK for plates that might, kind of, allude to the Falklands War, and found one on an old Porsche, is ludicrous to say the least. |
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#115 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,588
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#116 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Liverpool, UK
Posts: 5,813
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Being surprised that Clarkson and the rest of his beyond-mid-life-crisis suffering gang of schoolboys are bellends is like being surprised that Boris Johnson is a bit of a soft arsed ********.
Stewart Lee said it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CnMQ4L9Pc |
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Generic proclamation of positivity: Scouse saying - Go 'ed, is right, nice one, boss, well in, sound, belter, made up. Usage: 'Go 'ed, lad, get us an ale in, nice one.' |
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#117 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 11,578
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...buying-it.html
"Mr Waring (seller of the Porsche) said the unnamed BBC employee who purchased the car in August was specifically looking for a manual 928 and would not have had much choice in the market place." The article reveals TG knew what the reg was when they bought the car, but of course they would since they have bought it and got the documentation required for the purchase and to export it. That does not mean anyone twigged to the reg number's numbers and letter sequence. " She (TG representative) subsequently admitted that they had received a copy of the vehicle’s registration document before buying it but claimed it “would not have been read in any minute detail” and that it was still bought "blind". “Top Gear buys a huge number of cars,” she said. “They just sign, they don’t read it in any great detail." The article also points out TG has another reg in the car "BE11 END". If they really were worried about the FKL plate, then they would not be replacing it with something daft like that. |
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#118 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,084
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The BE11 END plate was claimed in a couple of articles at the time to be a reference to the 'end' of the Belgrano, as opposed to the insult they often throw at Clarkson. The other two number plates were also claimed, by some, to have been chosen deliberately - because they were 'close' to the casualties on both sides or some such.
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"I know my brain cannot tell me what to think." - Scorpion "Nebulous means Nebulous" - Adam Hills |
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#119 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 5,342
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I think that the scriptwriters are not really a secret... are they?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p036fbwd |
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"I love sex and drugs and sausage rolls But nothing compares to Archie Gemmill's goal" |
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#120 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: As far away from casebro as possible.
Posts: 7,043
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Richard Porter also wrote a few books about TG.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Por...762&sr=8-2-ent And also has a web page, which can be quite funny. https://sniffpetrol.com/ |
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