Topic: Anything Thread

So, the Dalai Lama was on stage at Glastonbury with Patti Smith. That must've been a weird gig.

Jeremy Clarkson.....oh wait....

Was that actually a 'Billy and Jonny' pun from the Hale n Pace era? LOL

yup but my name is also Billy.

Did you see the last episode of Top Gear? It was very strange without him...

Yeah, it was a poor end to an era. He was such a knob to do what he did and ruined it for himself and the TG watching public. I'm not sure how the BBC will change it or how Evans will make it work. At least it'll be interesting finding out.

@Red620Ti - yeah. Very odd show. Shame he's been a dick as TG was fun to watch. Won't be the same with Chris Evans.

I can imagine that with these 'challenges' its quite stressful being a Top Gear presenter. Not just the challenges themselves but the situations they find themselves in. Lack of sleep, difficult areas with potentially serious consequences - look at the one in Argentina etc. Whilst it doesn't excuse Clarkson's behaviour it does perhaps go some way to explaining the circumstances. From what I gather, he had been on a very long day, and nothing much to eat so tired and hungry wanted something more than a sandwich... That last show wasn't the best without Clarkson and it certainly felt like the end of an Era!

Chris Evans is possibly the closest in terms of personality in a lot of ways. He is of course a car fanatic himself and has been on the show before - not just as a 'Star in a Car' but also has had his car collection featured - James May drove one of his vintage Ferraris. Not known for his driving ability though and may be captain even-slower... As a presenter, he has also had a lot of controversial moments too. Will be interesting to see who co-hosts it with him - Jodie Kidd is rumoured (I don't think confirmed yet) but she can drive...

I do think the format will need to change a bit - more of a reboot than a remake. I understand Clarkson, May and Hammond will be back in their own version soon and on ITV. It will be like watching Daves Top Gear re-runs with the Adverts... I quite like Fifth Gear too but it doesn't have the same atmosphere and humour and its obvious its trying to be 'Top Gear'.

@BAMozzy Do you think that 'Top Gear ITV' will work? I have my doubts that they will be able to recreate the magic they have on the BBC. I also think that they will be hampered by the advertising - say if they rubbish a Vauxhall and go to commercial break and the first ad is for that same Vauxhall.

Fifth Gear has adverts and that 'works'. Top Gear on Dave has adverts and that works. If they do rubbish a particular brand and then we see an advert for it, all that does is show the credibility of the review in my eyes. I would be more dubious if they praised a vehicle and then it was advertised or the programme was sponsored by it. I am sure they would still have the same chemistry but I do expect it will have a slightly different format to set it apart. Top Gear itself is often broken up into segments anyway so separating them by adverts is no different. Obviously there will be a bigger interval between parts but that's the unfortunate nature of advertisement funded television. Given the choice I would rather see no ad breaks in any programme even if it means more Ads between them - kind of like Sky Movies or when they show football matches - they don't have Ad breaks during the film or whilst the match is playing!

I really can't see Clarkson conforming to say a poor car is good just because they are advertising during the show. I doubt they know what cars are due to be advertised when they make the programme anyway. I think it will be more likely that car manufacturers will want to advertise during a show on cars but I doubt they would want to advertise a car slated during that specific episode - more likely to advertise a different model or advertise it on a different week.

Top Gear is dead to me without Clarkson, Hammond and May. Chris Evans is an annoying, arrogant little £$%& and hell will freeze over before I watch him or any other pretenders try to replicate my favourite TV show. This is the final nail in the coffin of the BBC for me - I now am forced to pay £12 a month for the privilege of NOT watching a load of rubbish I never asked for or wanted, or a load of radio stations I couldn't give a stuff about. Seriously - I don't watch ANYTHING on the BBC and I vehemently detest having to pay them a single penny so they can carry on making their liberal PC dross. They don't even have the F1 any more so I have to pay Sky £20 a month for all the sports channels just so I can have the F1 channel (not interested in any other sport).

Anyway that was turning into a bit of a rant - I'll stop there and just say that I really hope that Clarkson and co find a new home very soon - in the meantime I'll have to fall back on Dave and my extensive collection of Christmas Clarkson DVD's

Bloated Bad Channel(s)

You may want to check with Sky on that. We had the F1 channel as part of the 'family' bundle and did not have Sky Sports. I only know cos when I phoned to complain about the annual price hike, the guy asked if I watched F1 as I could save £5 a month by getting rid. By my logic, you 'should' be able to scrap sports and pay a fiver for F1 only if you have the other channels. BTW I don't have movies either - they got canned about 3 months ago.

so today we had to say goodbye to the dog, a constant companion for 14 years and one day. My heart is breaking.

Sorry to hear that mate. Sucks, doesn't it?

I still remember the day I had to say goodbye to my dog...Probably 8 years ago now and I still can't face having another. When we received her ashes we decided to put them in the river, because she used to love swimming. I'm stood there on a rock in the middle of the river, looking at this box, and my daughter, who about 5 at the time, said "Daddy, has Kasha gone to be a star in Heaven?" and I just bawled like a baby. Even now I can feel myself welling up.

Hope you're doing ok, mate...

That sucks mate. They are not pets, they are family. We lost one of ours two years ago and still miss her. Hope you're feeling better soon.

That sucks, sorethumbed. Sorry to hear it

Can any of the pc gaming guys give an opinion? Cdkeys have civ 5 goty for £4 on pc and I was thinking of getting it for my son. Is it any good and do I need a super computer to run it or will a windows 7 laptop be ok?

@crippyd: I've heard it's good and it shouldn't take too much to run. You should get it.

@Vincent294 Thanks for your input. I've been reckless and spent a massive £4 on it and its just installing now