Living On The Edge
“I’ve got 10,000 horse power and possibly the biggest accident you’ve ever seen in your life” - Richard Hammond, a few minutes before the biggest accident I’ve ever seen in my life.
It is quite something to have a show about cars watched by 100 million people worldwide, but that is what the BBC have on their hands in Top Gear. It is also quite something to have a show about cars that goes up in the schedules against the final installment of the most controversial Big Brother shows there’s ever been… and win. Then again, it’s not every show about cars that features the first ever footage of what has become one of Britain’s most famous car accidents.
I was really intrigued to see how the return of The Hamster would be handled and I can say, hand on heart, that it was one of the best bits of TV i’ve seen so far this year. Switching seamlessly from laugh out loud funny (Clarkson’s Princess Diana quip, and the Sopwith Camel comment from James May), to the heart warming (the very genuine “man hug” and choking up moments), to the astonishment of Richard Hammond’s quote above, and finally to the jaw dropping terror of the crash itself. While it’s based on a near-tragic accident and impossible to script or recreate (thankfully!) it was powerful stuff. Only one way way to end this review though and that is with another pre-crash Richard Hammond quote:
“I’m so alive! I’m so alive!”
….and he is.
Tags: bbc2, Crash, Factual, Jeremy-Clarkson, Richard-Hammond, Top-Gear
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