The fourth episode of the second series of Top Gear aired on the 1st of June, 2003. It was presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Black Stig. Boris Johnson was the guest star. with British Journalist A.A. Gill presenting the week's "Greatest Car" segment, later omitted from future broadcasts. It was the 14th episode overall.
Synopsis[]
This episode is noted by Jeremy Clarkson as having a 'Jaguar theme', who decides to introduce the episode with the only R-Coupé in the world, a concept produced by Jaguar as what the company envisioned to be the future of their company. The episode then looks back on Jaguar's history from their humble beginnings towards the present day.
Tonight...[]
- A Member of Parliament in our reasonably-priced car...
- A nice, relaxing smoke in a new Aston Martin...
- And a mad Jag, gone bad.
Segments[]
Cool Wall[]
Cool Wall for Series 2, Episode 4:
| Car | Ranking |
|---|---|
| Jaguar XJR | SZ |
| Jaguar XJ | U |
Airing History[]
Series 2, Episode 4 originally aired on the 1st of June, 2003, on BBC 2. It was then regularly reshown on channels such as BBC Prime and UKTV People throughout the mid '00s, along with the rest of Series 2, before indefinitely ending up as a permanent fixture on Dave from the channel's 2007 debut onwards, albeit in a cut 45-minute version. It would have its Australian premiere in August 2008, and later appear on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime as part of the earliest available series of the show. Full version ultimately added to iPlayer in 2021.
Episode Names[]
Though never given a name upon its original airing, much like every other episode of Top Gear, two slightly different names were retrospectively applied to the episode by the BBC years later:
- Top Gear's section on BBC's website calls it "Clarkson Doesn't Get Bored of Driving".
- Top Gear's own website calls it "The one with Jeremy's big stress test".
Thumbnail[]
Trivia[]
- Jeremy mentions the numberplate of a Ford Mondeo - as a joke about that car (presumably one he's seen on the road on his daily travels) lane hogging. That numberplate does actually belong to a 1996 Mondeo, whose MOT expired in 2013, 10 years after the release of this episode.