The mystery of exactly what Jeremy Clarkson and James May were doing tooling around the West End on bikes recently looks set to be revealed on Sunday when Chris Boardman will be on a panel that assesses the “public information film” the pair were filming.
The Top Gear presenters were spotted on bikes earlier this month, Jeremy Clarkson on an upright hybrid bike that appeared to be rather too small for him, and James May aboard a Brompton. The pair appeared to be filming their faces with GoPro cameras attached to the handlebars.
According to the Radio Times, they were making a ‘public information film’ to promote safer cycling. The feature will be shown in the fifth episode of the current series, which goes to air at 8pm this Sunday on BBC Two (10pm in Wales).
The film will be presented to a panel of experts including British Cycling policy advisor Chris Boardman and members of Westminster Council, one of the London boroughs most notoriously negative about cycling provision.
Chris Boardman couldn’t tell us much about the segment as he hasn’t seen the final edit.
“Anything to do with Top Gear is playing with fire, which is why people watch it,” he said. “On the flip side, it’s also a chance to reach a wider (motoring) audience and portray ourselves as ‘one of you’ rather than cycling fanatics. Just normal people with a sense of humour, who’d like to see more cycling.
“I’m not in control of the edit but knowing a bit about making telly, I could see how they could cut it to look several different ways!
“We’ll see on Sunday if the gamble has paid off.”
The theme of the segment explains why Mr Clarkson and Mr May had gone to some lengths to equip themselves with safety gear, including matching helmets, hi-viz jackets and gloves, and sunglasses despite the gloomy day.
It seemed Mr Clarkson’s jacket was so new he hadn’t removed the tags, leading to speculation he was planning to return them after filming.
54 thoughts on “Chris Boardman to assess Jeremy Clarkson’s cycling safety public information film on Sunday’s Top Gear”
God help all cyclists
God help all cyclists
Replacing top gear by an hour
Replacing top gear by an hour showing the carnage inflicted by cars would be the best public information film. They could even let fst mouthy narrate it.
We had to scrap our car
We had to scrap our car earlier this year. There have been a couple of occasions when I’ve missed it, but in general I’ve been enjoying the increased disposable income and reduced exposure to morons.
We got rid of our telly and stopped paying the licence fee a few years back. There have been a couple of occasions when I’ve missed it, but…
You get the idea.
Good on you. They’re both
Good on you. They’re both things that feel a bit dated now.
Mr Agreeable wrote:We had to
Did the same about 15 years ago, and you’re so right, it just keeps getting better.
The tag thing has been a
The tag thing has been a running joke for years
“The theme of the segment
“The theme of the segment explains why Mr Clarkson and Mr May had gone to some lengths to equip themselves with safety gear, including matching helmets, hi-viz jackets and gloves, and sunglasses despite the gloomy day.”
You mean that safety on the road is going to be thought of in the same non-evidence based, victim-blaming, just-buy-something-to-be-safe, usual old drivel.
Of course it is worthwhile getting through to a motoring audience, but this does not bode well for doing it properly. Chris Boardman is normally bang on when it comes to cyclist safety (see this for an example http://rdrf.org.uk/2013/04/27/get-britain-cycling-is-chris-boardman-right-to-be-angry-at-the-pms-response/) . He is good at refusing to have anything to do with initiatives that don’t really support cycling when they claim to, so let’s wait to see him storm away from anything in this case that is not really helpful.
Which is what is likely to happen.
I mean, really…
Clarkson and cycling
Clarkson and cycling generally means one thing looking at past reports.
Bad news!!!!
Lets hope not?
Oh let’s hope Clarkson
Oh let’s hope Clarkson suffered a punishment pass despite dressing as a luminous lemon and goes to remonstrate with a driver who idolises him… might explain the taped mouth. But I fear it won’t be that good.
Being a massive PetrolHead
Being a massive PetrolHead and cyclist gives a certain conflict in interest but I think this does have positive impact on cycling. TG has a big folllowing, and yes im aware some are narrow minded but the other year they did the race across LDN and the bike was well used. JC is in the public eye so ofcourse hes going to gob off from time to time, he lays the bait and different people bite.
My point being, until people with more power make the changes necessary to provide for the bike above the car we are always going to have these litte snipes at eachother.
How are matching helmets
How are matching helmets ‘safety gear’?
Despite the commonly quoted
Despite the commonly quoted statistics for how many cyclists have a full license and drive, there are still people that for some reason think being pro-cycling must naturally be anti-motoring.
My own experience is that I’ve found more petrolheads amongst riders than average. In particular, I can think of a few cycling co-workers from past jobs who had expensive performance cars tucked away for weekends and evening. That just weren’t daft enough to try to commute into London in it during the day, and the money saved on fares probably helped buy it.
I bet someone at Top Gear has worked out how many of their audience cycle. I’m sure they’re going to rip on the subject in a pretty daft way, but thats just the humour of the show. Boardman’s clearly walking into this with his eyes wide open. Join in and have a chuckle at the cliches.
It’ll be a lark. Japes. The
It’ll be a lark. Japes. The usual mindless nonsense.
And in a few months time when Boardman tries to make a serious valid point the mass media will swing and refer back to whatever it was the editors of Top Gear made it sound like he said.
It’s a hatchet job masquerading as light entertainment.
Comment about how shit it is
Comment about how shit it is after its shown not before, glad you lot are not on a jury, judged and sentenced before the the evidence has been shown, you just make cyclist look like a bunch of whiners.
mikeprytherch wrote:Comment
As far as I am aware, a jury would not paid a handsome wage via a tax on virtually everyone in the country and then given the opportunity to increase those earnings by selling their verdict to various other idiots abroad. I’m also fairly certain that a jury is to provide a verdict on the evidence they have been shown, not to provide fat, oafish, walking mid-life crises a soapbox from which to spew forth their cretinous views time and time again, marginally hiding behind the pretense that it is supposed to be humour but mainly protected by the fact that they make a lot of money for those that are supposed to be keeping them in check.
I could be wrong though.
farrell wrote: I’m also
Which was the point the guy before was making! All your post does is reek of jealousy more than anything that you’re not oafish or boorish enough to earn lots of money making TV programmes.
mtm_01 wrote:farrell wrote:
I often feel such envy! Deluded self-belief and a complete lack of desire to think critically about what you are saying seems to be a recipe for success in today’s media. Don’t worry about constructing careful rational arguments based on evidence and reason, that’s boring and won’t get you noticed, instead just suppress all moral qualms and be bullying and provocative (but always with an elegant prose style). Professional trolling is the way to go!
Wish I had what it takes!
To be fair, it also needs a very thick skin, given the animosity such a career can generate in sections of the public. I don’t think I could take the heat.
mikeprytherch wrote:Comment
Yeah, because nobody can ever make a judgement about something based on prior knowledge and experience. Ever. Don’t have a view on a possible BNP government till you’ve tried it, don’t assume anything about how a particular paper (whether its the Mail or the Guardian) will cover a particular story, and don’t believe decades of evidence tells us anything about Jeremy Clarkson’s attitudes, or about the nature of TV-audience-chasing, because everything is a blank-slate, everything should be approached with the innocence of a new-born child!
And a jury? Are you saying this programme may be a crime? Will we have some sort of legal authority over its makers that gives us a strict burden of neutrality? I wish!
My prediction is this will be somewhat annoying, with plenty of the usual “I pay road tax” sort of guff, but not as bad as expected, because JC is a smart guy and probably at some level understands the issues a lot better than do most of the audience he happily panders to.
(“Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t understand” – as Homer Simpson put it)
FluffyKittenofTindalos
Yeah good. I hope it all comes up because then Boardman can nail it. You need Clarkson to bring it all out for Chris to address. There is no point having a soft ride and then people saying that Clarkson never asked him about Road Tax and was soft on Boardman cos it would be too hard for him to answer.
Drag it all out. Let’s be having it. So the whole audience sees it all dealt with on prime time telly. That’s what the opportunity provides.
It’s been shown.
It was shit.
It’s been shown.
It was shit.
…
…
I’m expecting some humorous
I’m expecting some humorous attempts at satire with what the production team deem an important message tucked away in the middle of it. Like they always do. Whatever is coming they’ve been building up to for a while, with Clarkson claiming to own a bike now for some time. There’s no way a man with a reputation for preparation and planning like Boardman would go into this with his eyes closed either.
I expect that if they try and
I expect that if they try and twist or make stuppid arguments that CB will be more than up to the task of putting them straight, taking them down a few pegs and putting the message across in a sensible, coherent and well thought through way. Hopefully he won’t need to, but i’m sure he can do.
‘As far as I am aware, a jury
‘As far as I am aware, a jury would not paid a handsome wage via a tax on virtually everyone in the country’
Stopped reading at that point. It’s really not a tax, now, is it. It’s an optional payment, which you only need make if you use the product.
andyp wrote:’As far as I am
Try telling that to Crapita, who constantly harass any household that does not buy a TV Licence. They just cannot believe you can live without a TV.
Stopped watching Top Gear long ago, it’s the same script every week, slightly different cars, slightly different countries that they are sent to at TV Licence payers expense, to take the piss out of “foreigners” and drive cars nobody can afford.
Is it me? I just want to punch Clarkson in that wrinkled face. ~X(
Anyway, Top Gear creates
Anyway, Top Gear creates vastly more revenue for the BBC than it costs to produce. It’s an obscenely profitable franchise worldwide.
Clarkson is on record as
Clarkson is on record as really getting urban cycling: http://road.cc/content/news/56433-jeremy-clarkson-turns-cycling-advocate-he-praises-copenhagens-approach
This is know.
Boardman is a
This is know.
Boardman is a really good advocate for cycling
Boardman is savvy media operator
Boardman is a good businessman with independent income that doesn’t need to play politics. I trust him.
Boardman does not go along to get along with stuff he doesn’t think helps cyclists
Top Gear is a massively popular programme
Clarkson has the attention of a lot of motorists
If you want to get a message to a lot of motorists Clarkson is the “go to Guy”.
This may be risky.
It may yield high rewards
Clarkson et al may stitch Chris up. Could happen.
But Boardman is an Olympic medallist.
He is able to get media attention
He is a formidable opponent articulate, knowledgeable, he drives 25k miles a year, he is not a beardy, sandalist, type of cyclist.
If you wanted to try and stitch someone up on Top Gear he would not be your low hanging fruit.
Let’s see how it goes shall we. But if you want to do something about driver attitudes there’s no point to talking only to the faithful and preaching to the choir. You need to campaign amongst the heathens as well.
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
Charles Spurgeon
Allez Chris and chapeau!
oozaveared wrote:This is
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when I was at the British Cycling #ChooseCycling launch earlier this month, he was most certainly sporting a beard.
Didn’t think to look at his footwear, I’m afraid.
Simon_MacMichael
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when I was at the British Cycling #ChooseCycling launch earlier this month, he was most certainly sporting a beard.
Didn’t think to look at his footwear, I’m afraid.— oozaveared
I have sported a beard and worn sandals. But even if I had done both at the same time I still wouldn’t have been a beardy sandalist in my heart. If you follow my drift?
Not sure if people are aware
Not sure if people are aware that mrs Clarkson is a very keen cyclist she even rode with the injured soldier ride (blezma) last year finishing with a lap of the top gear test circuit. So will be interesting to see how cycling will be portrayed on Sunday. Either way im sure jc will get greif if not from us but from her.
dmc wrote:Not sure if people
I’d imagine that if she was going to give him stick about anything then his portrayal of cyclists would probably be well down the list, you know, far behind him leaving his family and him shagging other women. That sort of stuff.
Anyone remember that episode
Anyone remember that episode of TG where he presented his “P45” car to Dragon’s Den? And they ripped it to pieces.
Or the one where they had to make an advert for a car and present it to a panel of advertising executives?
Obviously both very staged but very funny. I can see this one going the same way, it’ll be staged and scripted and done more for laughs than anything. Chris Boardman has got a very dry sense of humour, I can see him doing pretty well out of this. Looking forward to it, I like Top Gear – take it for what it is, a staged, scripted piece of light entertainment of (as Hammond once described it) “cocking about with cars”.
crazy-legs wrote:Anyone
Obviously none of us has seen the feature yet, but I suspect this will get it pretty much spot on.
This isn’t Panorama, so it’s perhaps naive to expect that it will be some reasoned debate between Boardman and Clarkson on the merits of cycling. It’ll be the usual scripted, tongue-in-cheek humour that Top Gear is about these days.
Remember though, that this is
Remember though, that this is all down to the edit – Chris is no fool, but they could probably make it look that way…
“public information film”
So
“public information film”
So it won’t be a complete stitch up by the BBBC? the British Biased Broadcasting Corporation, famous for its multitude of amazingly bad features about cycling? and its continual propaganda campaign about helmets?
Strange that they never picked up on the recent Chris Boardman story about how useless helmets were, but I’d wager my house that if he’d said they were effective it would have been in every one of their news reports.
I’m afraid that the BBBC has proven so biased that I have no faith whatsoever that this feature will be factual, unbiased and truthful.
I love riding and I really
I love riding and I really enjoy driving my car. How strange some people think I can only possibly want to be one or the other? I even have a motor cycle licence. I see idiots in crass, on bikes, walking and riding horses. I guesstimates being human we all like different things. I really like top gear! Mr Clarkson certainly knows how to gain interest in the thing he does… Just look at all the posts
Lance Armstrong ( who he? Ed
Lance Armstrong ( who he? Ed ) had a fair few post conversations too. It didn’t make his behaviour valid. The trouble with Clarkson is he’s a clever man too lazy to do good with his intelligence. He always plays to prejudice and easy stereotypes and much as I’d like to see him do some good for cycling I suspect he won’t be able to resist a comic fudge which leaves us where we are now.
I can see it now, JC or May
I can see it now, JC or May will be tootling along when a car screams past them, so close they wobble and nearly come off. Its all caught on camera and when its shown it will be “nearly got knocked off” and “thats why its not safe to cycle in London so use your car”.
It will get the point over that its dangerous to cycle in London but not that it should be made safer.
I predict Clarkson to go on a
I predict Clarkson to go on a monologue about how tough and scary to actually was, how he now has utmost respect for anyone with the balls to get out there on a bike. I’d put a tenner on it.
They are able to do more serious stuff from time to time, like the rally car racing with the injured soldiers etc. so I’m expecting this cycling piece to be the series’ serious segment. Otherwise Boardman wouldn’t be involved.
Just watched it. If I take
Just watched it. If I take off my London commuting hat and put on my comedy hat, and some of these were funny. No really (“work hard – buy a car” anyone?)
So a wasted opportunity – they could (and should) have put a serious message at the end about sharing roads, give cyclists space but sadly missed that opportunity.
Oh well, good comedy , didn’t make anything worse (although there were some cringeworthy moments)
goggy wrote:Just watched it.
6 feet / 1.85m according to the short one.
It was funny, but they did spend rather a long time saying very little, it’s primarily entertainment though, and it did it’s job.
Gawd. TopGear at its most
Gawd. TopGear at its most brilliantly worst. Pillorying would be too good for them. I nearly wet myself.
And Mr Boardman did NOT appear amused…
Chris Boardman deserves
Chris Boardman deserves better than that. Inviting him on the show to just show a few edits of his face is more than a little disrespectful and there is no way they would treat other guests like that. Boardman did comment that it was all in the edit so one wonders what was cut.
All very drole and all the rest of it but perhaps cycling around London without a film crew might give you a more realistic experience of what it’s like. I doubt it would be as amusing and oh so jolly.
I think T/G did make a
I think T/G did make a serious point in the end, that none cyclists who only think of them selves may take an ever so slightly different view if cyclists. Instead of the, your slowing me down get out of the bloody way attitude perhaps they just might think one cyclist equals one less car in my way.
Many small steps equal a major change over time. I have no idea what commuting is like in London and I hope I never have to as it looks pretty bad and so I can see why people get so angry.
I commute most days leaving my car in work as I cant do my job with out it and yes I have had some real arse holes in vans and BMW’s (I’m sure they drive other cars too) but on the whole I think driver attitudes are changing very slowly and the more cycling is seen as “normal” and not for odd people on tights (yes like me) the better it will be for us all.
Cycling on T/G is a step in the normalisation of cycling and I would suggest that is what Chris B wants to achieve and so agreed to a bit of piss taking.
I think it was very funny and even the worst petrol head will have taken a lot of the tongue in cheek stuff as exactly that. =D>
Actually … hmm. Weird.
Actually … hmm. Weird. Maybe that’s just me, but I actually thought it was really good. All the main clichés were addressed with a more than obvious tongue in cheek, and the end bit was hammering home the message to be considerate of cyclists and to give them enough room, even if only for the simple reason they’re not out to annoy you, the motorist, but actually making your life easier by not clogging up the streets with even more cars.
Having never seen Top Gear before and only knowing about Clarkson from his recent tirades on Twitter, this made me revise my opinion of him quite a bit.
In fact I think we, the cyclists, need more of this: more presence, more normalisation.
*thumbs up*
I think if too much attention
I think if too much attention is given to the hyperbole / entertainment aspect of the TG program a massively important part of the message that Jeremy Clarkson delivered will be missed.
I have long regarded buses and bus drivers as posing the greatest risk to me when on the road, and not just in an urban environment. More needs to be done to educate the minority of bus drivers that appear to have total disregard for the safety of other road users and not just cyclists.
Fairly or unfairly, I’ve lost
Fairly or unfairly, I’ve lost a bit of respect for Boardman over this. He went into this with his eyes open, as would have the other two gents. They should have point-blank refused to participate in what became a charade without some sort of guaranteed right of rebuttal – even a few sentences like:
“95% of cyclists own cars and hold driver’s licences”
“The average income of cyclists is above that of motorists”
“cycling to work, even in London, gives you the fitness of someone 10 years younger”
“Cycling is as safe as driving or walking, per hour”
etc etc…
Those basic facts, more than anything, would have at least got the audience thinking. Huge missed opportunity.
@KiwiMike
I think that you’re
@KiwiMike
I think that you’re expecting too much from both Top Gear and Chris Boardman.
Top Gear made 2 positive points:
People cycling = less congestion (not more).
An inch no not sufficient space to leave a cyclist, drivers should be leaving 6foot / 1.85m.
I think it is better for Boardman to have the opportunity to talk to Top Gear people rather than him not because he made demands upon them. The meeting with him was cut very short, we don’t know what went on off-camera.
People driving past too close is by far my biggest grief and is a cause in 25% of cyclist deaths. The other factors which kill cyclists, I have control over, this one I don’t.
kie7077 wrote:
People driving
Sorry – it was a total throwaway, was not mentioned again, and was argued against. No-one watching that thought ‘gee, I better leave cyclists more room tomorrow on my commute’.
And the ‘cyclists are good for congestion’ bit was again a throwaway used as a setup for a joke – a shot of a sportscar racing down a deserted Whitehall or wherever at 50MPH. So utterly impossible/unlikely that the message that every bike is one less car was lost, or even made into a negative/lie.
No, the overarching outcome of this was re-enforced stereotypes – nothing more.
You don’t get through to
You don’t get through to thick muppets by lecturing them. You *do* get through to *some* of them by wrapping your message in a joke. The others you won’t reach with anything else anyway.
Top Gear is the perfect outfit to get some messages across in an entertaining way. Anyone who expected a lecture doesn’t quite get what that show is about and what it can do.
That cycling segment last night was a *good thing* (TM).
userfriendly wrote:You don’t
It’s a very nuanced thing, I accept – but the basic factual rebuttals could have been worked in nicely and not detracted from the ‘humour’ as it was (actually rather lame). As it was I’ve not seen a single bit of the Twittersphere or Book Of Face show anything else today other than re-enforced contempt / the view that only smelly losers ride bikes and deserve what they get.
Someone with the gravitas of Boardman handing a fat Clarkson his arse would have been perfect comical fodder for May & Hammond to play off. Huge missed opportunity. Instead we got prolonged shots of Clarkson pretending to fondle himself.
I’ve just watched the program
I’ve just watched the program on BBC iPlayer (I was out riding my bike when it was aired live)
I was so angered at the negative stereotypes, victim blaming, misinformation and appallingly insenstive depiction of mangled bikes and injured cyclists that I complained to the BBC.
First time in 50 years I’ve ever done that.
I just watched it too, and
I just watched it too, and though it is a stereo typical view, it would appear he did manage to point out that bus drivers (and wagon drivers) seem to be the largest vehicles with the least tolerance!