• Top Gear has been on hiatus since 2023 after host Freddie Flintoff was badly injured in a crash.
• Now, the BBC's head of entertainment has confirmed the beloved TV show will return.
• There’s a lot of speculation about potential hosts, including comedian Jimmy Carr.
  

There's no denying that the show that host Jeremy Clarkson frequently referred to as “our poky little motoring show” changed the world. Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman's reboot of the sensible Top Gear consumer show into a hilarious hour every week set the template against which all other car-based entertainment would be measured. It was lightning in a bottle, and the BBC has been trying to capture it again ever since Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May left. Now it's going to have another go at it.

The last iteration of Top Gear actually worked quite well, hosted by Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff, and Paddy McGuinness. Harris can drive not just quickly, but spectacularly, capable of making nearly any car look exciting on screen. You get the sense he could drift a Prius. McGuinness provided a center as an experienced actor and comedian, and charismatic cricketer Flintoff rounded out the crew with all three capable of handing out and shrugging off plenty of banter with good humor.

Previous Top Gear hosts (L-R): Chris Harris, Paddy McGuinness, and Freddie Flintoff.

We'd probably still be watching the three of them had tragedy not struck. When filming a segment involving a Morgan Super 3 in 2022, the car flipped and dragged Flintock beneath it for over 150 ft. He broke ribs and suffered a disfiguring injury to his face. The BBC announced that Top Gear would be paused indefinitely.

Last week, BBC director of entertainment Ed Havard spoke at the Edinburgh TV festival and confirmed that Top Gear would be returning. There's no word about the format, or who the new hosts will be, but that hasn't stopped the speculation.

Before we get to who might be selected for a rebooted Top Gear, some words from extremely popular oafish TV uncle Mr. Jeremy Clarkson. In his regular column in The Sun newspaper, he wrote, “I wish them well with the project and will even tell them about the secret sauce I used to make the show a ratings winner around the world. To attract the viewers, they have to make a show the BBC absolutely hates.”

Original Top Gear hosts (L-R): James May, Jeremy Clarkson, and Richard Hammond.

To be fair, much of the appeal of the Clarkson, May, and Hammond era was the cheeky sense that the trio was having a laugh at the expense of their stuffy BBC overlords. Really, though, what made the show magic wasn't so much cars as it was the chemistry between the three. The first season didn't quite get things right, and it wasn't until James May came on board as a regular host that the show properly gelled.

You can see the same thing with Jezza's own Clarkson's Farm, which wouldn't be nearly as appealing were it not for the back-and-forth with young farmer Kaleb Cooper, agricultural advisor Charlie Ireland, and the rest of the crew. The mass of viewers aren't really interested in how a seed-driller works; they want to see Jeremy be funny and then get yelled at a bit.

New The Grand Tour hosts (L-R): James Engelsman, Thomas Holland, and Francis Bourgeois.

So far, the reboot of The Grand Tour, the trio's new Amazon Prime home after Top Gear, seems to have balanced the chemistry element well. Hosts James Engelsman and Thomas Holland have already proved their mettle on YouTube, and adding in train-mad Francis Bourgeois is tipping a little James May-ish seasoning into the mix.

Thus far, one of the front-runners speculated to be a potential Top Gear host is comedian Jimmy Carr. It seems an unusual choice, but he was at the top of the leaderboard in the show's Reasonably Priced Car lap challenge. He's also an accomplished quiz show host, something that's a big part of the U.K. television landscape.

Comedian Jimmy Carr.

Having said all that, the BBC could find success in Top Gear again if they left the laddish days behind. Before May and Hammond came on board, Top Gear was more of an ensemble show, a bit more focused on consumer information. The BBC is an established institution in an age where there's plenty of flashy media everywhere, and it could probably craft a show that provided a more even-handed approach. Whatever the case, if Top Gear is going to succeed again, it has to be about more than just the cars.

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Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.