The first episode of the sixteenth series of Top Gear aired on the 23rd of January, 2011. It was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Tiff Needell, who was filling in for The Stig. John Bishop was the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car, with actress Sienna Miller, who had previously been the star for Series 13, Episode 5 making a brief cameo appearance.
Synopsis[]
Returning following a month since their previous two specials, Series 16 commences by stating how nice it is to finally be back on BBC 2 at 8:00 PM on Sunday, unless there's a Snooker tournament happening, in which case he jokingly wishes the audiences in the studio and at home a "Happy Easter." Following a humourous rant into the unreliability of the BBC's iPlayer service and making it seem as though he's buffering, he turns his attention to the car in the studio; the Ariel Atom, which was to be driven by a "man born in a stable; James May".
Tonight...[]
- A dog won't get in a car...
- A flipchart falls over...
- And a man from Liverpool drives a car.
Trivia[]
- This episode marks Tiff Needell's first appearance on Top Gear since prior to the conclusion of the Original format of the show in 2001, wherein he left after Series 45, Episode 36 to jump ship to Channel 5 and present its rival show, Fifth Gear, leaving Jason Barlow to present the final episode on his own.
- Before this point, he and Vicki Butler-Henderson had previously appeared in the Live shows for a number of years, in addition to Jeremy Clarkson's Duel home video.
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