The fourth episode of the first series of Top Gear aired on the 10th of November, 2002. It was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, Jason Dawe and The Black Stig. Steve Coogan was the guest star. It was the 4th episode overall.
Synopsis[]
Jeremy heads to the Isle of Man with Damon Hill to compare the new Aston Martin Vanquish, fresh off its appearance in Die Another Day, to the new Ferrari 575M Maranello. Dawe reviewed the Nissan Skyline through it's R32, R33, and R34 generations, and Richard tests a wide range of sports saloons by pitting them in an F1 style race.
Tonight...[]
- Steve Coogan has a go in our reasonably-priced car...
- Buying a used Nissan Skyline?
- And we give World Rally Champion Richard Burns a taste of his own medicine.
Airing History[]
Series 1, Episode 4 originally aired on the 10th of November, 2002, on BBC 2. It was aired nationally in all regions except for the East Midlands. It was then regularly reshown on channels such as BBC Prime through to at least June 2005, along with the rest of Series 1. Some point after these re-runs, the episode was pulled from the BBC Worldwide sales catalogue. It would resurface in November 2019 as part of acquisitions made by Motortrend On Demand. As of the 13th September 2021, It was added to BBC IPlayer.
Scenes edited/removed in rebroadcasts[]
- During The Stig's power laps of the Aston Martin Vanquish and Ferrari 575M Maranello, Clarkson references the racing driver having bought a Boston CD, with their hit single "More Than A Feeling" playing briefly. This track is replaced with stock music on subsequent broadcasts and Clarkson's lines during the power laps are removed almost in their entirety.
- A scene involving Richard Burns discussing his accident at the 2002 Rally New Zealand was removed due to copyrighted footage from the WRC; the BBC Prime, SBS and Motortrend versions of this episode cut straight from Burns admitting his fault to the days of his youth, also omitting the announcement of his autobiography Driving Ambition. Only the original 2002 BBC airing and UK Horizons cut of the episode retains this scene.
- Footage from the 1979 French Grand Prix was removed due to copyrighted footage from FOM.
- Footage from the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day was removed due to copyrighted footage from Eon Productions.
- Jeremy Clarkson saying 'bastards' during the interview with Steve Coogan was cut out of the UKTV version.
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