The first series of the BBC motoring show Top Gear, starring presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and Jason Dawe alongside ex-Formula 1 driver Perry McCarthy as The Stig, premiered on the 20th of October, 2002 and concluded on the 29th of December, 2002 after ten episodes.
This series marked the major reboot of the well-known car show and saw Clarkson's first appearance on the show as a whole since 1999, with Richard Hammond having been hired due to his sustained role in Granada Television's Motor Week, and Jason Dawe as the substitute pick for what was originally intended to be James May, who only wanted to be a part of the show if it ended up popular.
Though the show's future seemed unlikely due to the radical transformation of the show's established format, the series was a hit, attracting an average viewing figure of 3.3 million each week, which albeit down from a peak of 6 million in 1998 by almost half, eventually led to the show being renewed for a second series. Series 2 would begin airing in May 2003.
Episodes[]
| Episode Number | Synopsis | Features | Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | Jeremy Clarkson starts with an introduction to Top Gear, and then goes on a Booze Cruise with the Citroën Berlingo. He also introduces the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment, and also meets Jayson Taylor, who shows how to run a car on Vegetable Oil. And Richard Hammond, with the help of The Stig, tries to prove a myth - is it possible to beat a speed camera? |
|
20/10/2002 |
| 2 (2) | Jeremy meets some Ford RS Club members, before testing out the new Focus RS "somewhere with miles and miles of empty roads". He then checks out "a supercar from a shed in Leiceistershire". Richard sees how many motorcycles a double-decker bus can jump, and has a go in his childhood dream car. |
|
27/10/2002 |
| 3 (3) | Jeremy finds out what on earth is an Aquadrome, while comparing the new Mini One to the Toyota Yaris Verso, and meets car designers Peter Horbury and Ian Callum. Richard show what he thinks is the most beautiful car, and sees if grannies can do donuts, before taking "a bed spring with a bike engine" around the track. |
|
03/11/2002 |
| 4 (4) | Jeremy heads to the Isle of Man to compare the Aston Martin Vanquish against the Ferrari 575, with the help of Damon Hill, and then interviews Richard Burns. Richard tests some family saloons F1 style, and Jason Dawe buys a used Nissan Skyline. |
|
10/11/2002 |
| 5 (5) | Jeremy fails to review the voice-controlled systems of the new S-Class Merc, before comparing it to its rival. Richard tests the luxurious Maybach, and, together with Edd China, showcases Top Gear's own Bond Car. Jason tests some used 206s. |
|
17/11/2002 |
| 6 (6) | Jeremy takes the Renault Vel Satis to Swindon, his own car to the track, and, back in the studio, introduces the Cool Wall. Jason directs round 2 of the granny challenge and sees if grannies can do handbrake turns. |
|
24/11/2002 |
| 7 (7) | In this environment-themed show, Jeremy looks at the M4 Bus Lane and Richard reviews the Saab 9-3 while being stuck in a traffic jam. Not relating to the environment, Jeremy learns how to drive a Lotus Elise properly, Richard finds the fastest faith, and Jason finds out what is the children's favorite supercar. |
|
01/12/2002 |
| 8 (8) | Jeremy compares yet another Merc to yet another Audi and looks at the new Maserati coupe. Richard compares a selection of superminis, finds out the fastest white van driver, and sees if a Lada can be improved. |
|
08/12/2002 |
| 9 (9) | Jeremy finds the ultimate car for School Runs, and checks out the new Golf. Richard looks at the Subaru Forester, Jason strips out a Jaguar XJ-S, and The Stig races an aerobatic plane. |
|
22/12/2002 |
| 10 (10) | Jeremy tests some off-roaders in the countryside. Richards tests a concept TVR coupe. Jason finds some used Nissan Primeras, and directs round 2 of the fastest faith race. |
|
29/12/2002 |
The Best of Top Gear[]
After the series had originally aired, 3 'Best Of Top Gear' compilation episodes were shown on BBC2, which included the best moments from Series 1.
| Episode Number | Features | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 |
|
26/01/2003 |
| Part 2 |
|
30/03/2003 |
| Part 3 |
|
06/04/2003 |
Production[]
After spending much of late 2001 and the first half of 2002 making executive decisions on how the rebooted Top Gear would look, in addition to a 2001 Awards special airing in February, production commenced in mid-2002 once Wilman and Clarkson had secured the rights to use Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey as the show's fixed location. One of the hangars was then slowly turned into the studio (a process which was still ongoing for much of the first series), and a small CGI sequence was filmed which appeared to show the Top Gear logo painted on the roof of this hangar.
Though initially the show was not planned to be called Top Gear, mostly due to the proposed format differing too much from the established programme which had preceded it for a quarter of a century, with a favoured name being Carmageddon according to director Richard Porter, the name was used as it had been kept from Channel 5, who named their successive show Fifth Gear, and would otherwise only remain as the name of BBC's automotive magazine.
Originally, it had been intended for Top Gear to take a hiatus throughout 2002 and lightly restructure into a similar series designed to take on Fifth Gear, with Carmageddon as a solo project in a similar vein as Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld and Clarkson's Car Years, but by March 2002, it had been decided to combine the two ideas as a revamped version of Top Gear.
The host selection process began almost immediately following the news that Clarkson was to return to the show in March 2002, and a provisional line-up would most likely have featured Clarkson alongside Jason Barlow, who hosted the final 53 episodes of original format Top Gear, and Dominic Littlewood, a used car expert who also appeared on the cover of the June 2002 issue of Top Gear Magazine. As the latter two appeared at the 2002 Birmingham Motor Show feature that BBC produced on the same week as the first episode of the reboot, it is possible that Suzi Perry may also have played a part, as it was rumoured that Richard Hammond was found due to having the same agent as a hopeful female presenter.
Filming began on the 23rd of August, 2002, with a segment on the Renault Vel Satis. Though intended for the show's pilot episode, it was pushed back to the sixth episode of the series on account of various production problems with the episode's first two sets of studio segments. The first of these pilots was to feature French footballer David Ginola in a non-driving role, as the concept of Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car had not yet been devised. Filming of the studio segments resumed in September and continued through to December.
Airing History[]
Series 1 originally aired on BBC 2 from October to December 2002 in its only known unmodified broadcast. The UKTV network would then make various cuts to each episode in order to shorten them to 45 minutes long for commercial broadcast and syndicated re-runs, but would otherwise leave copyrighted footage and music untouched. Series 1 would later leave British syndication and eventually be pulled from the BBC Worldwide sales catalogue once successive host James May had starred in a sufficient number of episodes.
International Distribution[]
Top Gear would first air internationally on BBC World, as its predecessor had done shortly after its original transmission in the UK. These versions of the episodes would be reduced to around 22 minutes in length to accomodate commercials, and were separate cuts from the UKTV versions. In 2005, these episodes were re-aired in a longer, yet still cut form on BBC Prime as Top Gear Xtra. These airings would lose most of the copyrighted soundtracks and footage.
Series 1 is known to have aired in Canada in 2006, and in Australia in 2008 on the SBS network. It then allegedly aired in Hungary in mid-2009 in its last documented international airing. The Australian airings would be the closest to the original BBC 2 airings, and so would often be circulated on the Internet once they had been recorded by viewers, but still suffered from some cuts and a loss of copyrighted content.
Parts of Series 1 would air in the United States in 2005 as part of Top Gear on Discovery, along with other assorted segments from the first five series. It would not re-air as part of the "Lost Seasons" once Top Gear entered syndication in the USA.
Thanks to its survival through online file sharing site Uloz, it is also known that Series 1 aired in a dubbed, largely-uncut format on Czech television channel Prima COOL. This is possibly the only foreign dub of Series 1 which exists, or at least the only one which remains extant.
iPlayer[]
In September of 2021, all episodes of Top Gear (including those from Series 1) were made available online on BBC iPlayer.
Reception[]
The show's IMDb page rated this series at an average score of 6.9/10, indicating a positive reception overall.
[]
| Series 1 (2002 format) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Presenters | Jeremy Clarkson | Richard Hammond | Jason Dawe | The Stig (Perry McCarthy) | |
| Episodes | Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 Episode 9 | Episode 10 | |
| Unaired Pilots | Unaired Pilot Episode 1 | Unaired Pilot Episode 2 | |
| Series (2002 format) | |
|---|---|
| 2016+ | Series 23 | Series 24 | Series 25 | Series 26 | Series 27 |
| 2002 - 2015 | Series 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 | Series 4 | Series 5 | Series 6 | Series 7 | Series 8 | Series 9 | Series 10 | Series 11 Series 12 | Series 13 | Series 14 | Series 15 | Series 16 | Series 17 | Series 18 | Series 19 | Series 20 | Series 21 | Series 22 |