Harry's Blog

Poor relation it may be to Top Gear, but Channel 5's Fifth Gear has always been watchable, if a little dull. However the new series started last night and in my eyes at least the new format is an utter disaster.

Take for instance the way the new one hour format is hosted. The ever lovely Vicki Butler-Henderson is joined by Tim Lovejoy in a London cafe, where they share some banter and introduce new features. However it felt so scripted and stilted that at times was embarrassing viewing.

It's obvious what the producers are attempting to do - capture some of that entertaining chat from Top Gear. But here it felt very forced. And the cafe location didn't even bring the whole of the cast together - so it lacked that team feel. The show actually felt like a collection of features from entirely different production companies.

It all felt a little old-hat too. Tiff raced against a stunt plane, Top Gear did this kind of thing years ago. Then we had a race between the new Mini GP and a radio controlled car. Remember though, Top Gear has played with some full-size radio controlled cars.

Obviously Top Gear is a very different show, more entertainment than consumer-led these days, so it's sad that Fifth Gear is trying desperately to ape it. I enjoy Top Gear much more than the Channel 5 show, but Fifth Gear at least had a definite style and agenda different from the BBC show. Now in trying too many stunts yet at the same time attempting to keep the consumer roots it just seems awfully forced and disjointed.

The real problem with Fifth Gear last night was that it was boring. Now that takes some effort. Even the high-speed race between the Mitsubishi Evo 9 FQ360 and the stunt plane just felt really dull.

Yes this was just the first episode of a new format, so I guess it will take time to bed in. But on the current showing the presenters really need to calm down and relax and the producer's need to let them adlib more than follow what seemed like a very corny script.