**The Making of Top Gear: Behind-the-Scenes Insights**

As we take a peek into the world of one of the most iconic automotive television shows, "Top Gear," it's clear that the production is not just about high-octane driving and exciting stunts. The team behind the show has to navigate the complexities of planning, filming, and editing, all while maintaining their unique brand of humor and camaraderie.

**The Size of the Team**

"We've got around 30 people on set for each episode," explains an insider, who wishes to remain anonymous. "But when you include the crew, it's a much bigger operation." The production team is indeed massive, with hundreds of people working behind the scenes to bring the show to life. Whether they're filming at a racing track or exploring exotic locations around the world, the team is always on the move.

**Filming Challenges**

One of the biggest challenges facing the "Top Gear" team is the technical aspect of filming. With the introduction of 4K resolution and other high-end camera equipment, the show's production values have increased significantly. This means that filming can take longer than expected, with some segments taking days or even weeks to complete. The team has to carefully plan each shot to ensure it meets their high standards.

**Concept Development**

So, where do the team get their ideas for each episode? "Anyone can come up with an idea," explains the insider. "We've always operated in an environment where anyone can throw a suggestion into the ring." From cars and locations to problems and schemes, the possibilities are endless. The team likes to encourage free thinking and creativity, which often leads to some of their most memorable segments.

**Next Year's Lineup**

When asked about upcoming episodes, the insider reveals that there aren't any major new car releases on the horizon. Instead, manufacturers are focusing on electric and hybrid vehicles, which means next year's lineup will be all about those models. The team is excited to explore these new technologies and features, but also acknowledges that some fans may not be as enthusiastic.

**Season Two**

The "Top Gear" team has just finished filming the first season of their revamped show, and they're already looking forward to the next chapter. "We'll be back in London soon," explains the insider, "and we'll start planning for next year's shows." The production team is eager to build on this year's success and try new things, but also acknowledges that not everyone will appreciate their changes.

**Global Locations**

One of the unique aspects of "Top Gear" is its global scope. The show has filmed in some of the most exotic locations around the world, from California to Johannesburg to Finland. Each location brings a new set of challenges and opportunities for the team, who are always on the lookout for the next big adventure.

**The Studio**

The "Top Gear" studio in London is often referred to as their "home away from home." The insider describes it as a "special place" where the team feels comfortable and creative. Whether they're discussing cars, debating topics, or simply enjoying each other's company, the studio is at the heart of everything they do.

**Looking Ahead**

As the "Top Gear" team looks to the future, they're excited to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible on television. With their unique blend of humor, camaraderie, and automotive expertise, they've established a loyal following around the world. Whether they're driving exotic cars or exploring new locations, the "Top Gear" team is always up for an adventure.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enRichard Hammond thanks for talking today pleasure um so the new show is The Grand Tour first episode premiered uh on Amazon Prime on Friday and you guys have 11 more episodes coming out weekly yep okay um so the opening was pretty epic but also uh maybe even a tad wistful um was it meant to reflect on what you and the other guys have been going through making this transition from Top Gear to this new show on Amazon yeah I don't know that we necessarily take the time to reflect or engage with anything as closely as that on our show we've always got by by simply charging ahead and trying to do the best show we can it felt right at the start of this show to say look we're moving on um this is a transitional stage we've been blessed with an amazing opportunity as three middle-aged guys on what previously we made an enormous television show about cars now we've been given the opportunity to reinvent and hoping very much that people will come with us and enjoy the ride and thus far from all that we seen that appears to be the case um and the first episode also featured the Holy Trinity the uh 918 spider P1 La Ferrari um uh obviously you guys uh tried to get that done on Top Gear um so how did you get it done for this show how long was it in works we we really wanted to get the three hyper cars in the first show because we wanted to say we wanted to say look we're making a car show the best way we can the best car show we can so we wanted to have those cars in it how we went about actually getting them usual means annoying nagging keeping on at them I mean you've you've never met Andy Wilman our producer the boss who is the world's most persistent human being and uh when he decides he's he wants something he'll go and get it so yeah I think it was largely him he just annoyed the hell out of them until they gave it to yeah it seems like it would require a bit of persistence to get those three um as far as other stuff on the show it seems like kind of a familiar format um similar to uh Old Top Gear did you guys ever uh think about really changing things up or did you just sort of want to keep stuff from the old CH look it's a really difficult thing about what we changed and what we didn't change for one thing do please know that there was no cynicism or science in the creation of the show initially we never sat down and said right if we do this it'll get this part of the demographic and if we go for this it could gather them in as well and then that part of the world it never was done like that we simply set out to make the best car show we can we've been doing it for 13 14 years and we now have the chance to start again we haven't wasted that opportunity to reinvent Revitalize renew that's great at our stage in our careers but equally we can't it would be artificial to try and stop being us what we have and what people seem to like is our particular take on the motoring world looking at our chosen subject with prism of the Viewpoint of these three Brits we wouldn't throw that away that would be really silly so we're still at us it's still familiar people come to us because they like what we've done historically we would be stupid to throw all that away and artificially we create ourselves as something else we did what we've always done but we've changed it up it's now shot in 4k the cinematography filmic and editorially it's been enhanced it's set to 11 instead of 10 I'm sure fans are very pleased to sort of keep that familiar for that um so we had a lot of um new cars on the first episode uh can or will we see more older stuff or perhaps less expensive stuff like uh what kinds of cars can we expect in the later episodes when you say less expensive stuff that always sounds like a loaded question are you saying what because most people can't afford a one and a half million pound hyper car you're right like I know you guys love a hot hatchbacks so like do a hot hatchback we will still keep and it it happens automatically again we don't sit and try and artificially generate a spread of cars across a season we simply follow the subjects the opportunities the topics as they arise but yeah of course we do and we're still we're never happier as as the three of us than when we're driving around in some hideous old leaky Relic we enjoy that massive because those cars have more personality to say about themselves they have flaws and faults and that's where the interest lies although it has to be said the industry as a whole right now car industry as well as the television industry is under going a massive sea change so there's never been a better time for us in making a show on TV when TV is changing we're now delivering it in a new way there's not been a factual show shot in 4k traveling around the world and delivered on demand before it's never happened likewise our subject the focus of that show in that changed environment is also changing hugely there are new cars coming out with new forms of engine new forms of propulsion which means manufacturers at last have the chance to get it wrong again so we have the chance to say that doesn't work which happen for decades mhm so uh yeah cuz uh it seems like you guys suffered quite a bit in the old uh cheap car challenges on top de but you really do like driving around in these older uh eat up cars yeah we love the challenges we love um driving around in old cars that challenge in difficult and inappropriate circumstances it's great fun of course it is it is genuinely punishing we are often asked you the places we've shot in the past on the old show no doubt we'll do as extreme again in the new but the North ho and deserts and jungles in the Arctic and volcanoes and all those places people often yeah but you stay at a hotel around the corner really don't you no you can't if you're in the middle of the naib desert we've just been filming there there are no hotels it's a desert so you have to Camp you have to rough it and it's not remember obviously it's not just us three when we're there there's a crew of 40 to 50 people it's huge so the camaraderie the fun to be had along with the logistical challenges of keeping that many people on the road fed warm safe with all the equipment being charged and maintained every night the camera Crews have to strip the cameras down put them on charge download all the footage especially now we're shooting in 4k I mean just the business the data storage we have to have a digital input team now inest team rather coming with us all over the world so there's a couple of guys that spend their lives sitting in the back of a van ingesting all the stuff that we've shocked that must be a fun job they have a great job that's I mean the 4K thing has changed a lot for us because obviously I mean expense wise our annual spend now on data stor is huge huge chunks of of data coming in and in the field just the the cameras cannot carry cars big enough to carry much of this stuff so the D inest team they are with us constantly downloading that stuff on drives what that means is we have two guys who are not not out up to their next in mud filming with us they're in their van and they've watched everything all of the rushes and remember this is thousands of hours special and that's really useful that's something we've never had so you can go and talk to these two guys did you see that bit about oh yeah is it oh it worked good or I'll go and well I tell you what if I go and find a little bit like this it'll go with that and work and make something special so that's one of the many ways in which this new way of working is bringing new stuff to us so uh you talked about the 4K and the uh of data storage the uh number of people you bring on each Sho um how does the budget for all this stuff compare to Top Gear um there's so much speculation across the media all over the world is the amount of money we're supposed to be spending the budget isn't massively wildly beyond what we were spending on the old show um it's how it's spent that matters and believe me it is being spent on camera you know it it wouldn't do for us we felt from the outset okay we're going to stick together because We Are Better Together something happens when we all work together it's four of us with the team around something happens that won't happen otherwise so that's loyalty and if fans are going to be loyal to us and come with us and we have to give them our best we have to say we have really tried here so part of that as well as the editorial the creative part of that is simply budget is simply say okay let's go to incredible places let's afford ourselves the time occasionally if a director says oh can I just wait a bit longer to get that yeah okay time is money and we now know it's our business and when we're there 52 of us in the field every hour is money but we are spending that time making that effort because we've got to we've got to give people back okay you've come with us well that's that's the best we can do there it is um what's it like working for an American corporation instead of the BBC I think whoever we were working for this would feel very different now because at the BBC it was like being in the military or at boarding school everything's done for you really we simply had to make the show then we came out um Amazon licensed the show from us so we had to set up a production company to make it suddenly we're involving ourselves in things we've never had to think about before I personally loved the process in fact we all three four have at various points really enjoyed that um our job remains to come up with ideas to work up with ideas that other people in the team come up with to editorialize around them and to be there to make a great show we know that but equally the running of the business has been really good F and and employing a new team and we took all the original crew with us so everybody with us out in the field we've work with them for 10 15 years every camera operator sound technician but the production in the office key players a few key players are with us I mean serious producer level but the rest are new which means we've got this huge resource now of fresh mindes haven't yet been tainted by experience hating to S cynical we' reached a Point inevitably in the past when somebody would think I've got an idea but we won't do that these guys are new so they'll just throw the idea out there who knows one in 10 of them might be brilliant so we've loved that process of building a new team how how big is that team overall how many people there's about 30 I'm going to guess I think there about 36 38 of us in production but then obviously there's a lot more when you bring in a crew so it's a big operation and when we're out we're going to do specials again where we we go off on a big long journey and when we're doing that yeah there' be 40 50 it's a huge undertak it's a big circus it's great fun oh I'm sure looks like you guys are having tons of fun in the uh trailer we do no we have of course we have fun we have to and and the crew does we all do that's not to say it isn't sometimes tougher than at other times um so for one segment like um say the Holy Trinity segment from the first episode how long does it take you to actually film all of that uh well once the ideas will conceed and produced up and actually the time in that one was getting the cars together and getting all the manufacturers to play ball and to play nicely and to agree to it there I mean an average film or something like that when I guess we were a couple of days at the track would be a couple of days you probably have a week some pieces take two weeks very seldom do we get a film that's done in you know less than a couple of days these days because it simply takes so long using the new kit 4K and if you're going to shoot in 4k you've got to the material you've got to have the rushes you've got to have the stuff to justify the technical quality you need the creative quality to balance against that so it's it's yeah it takes time there's none of it quick to make um so speaking you were talking a little bit about new ideas old ideas where do you actually get the concepts for the episodes like um we have always operated and still do in an environment where in anyone can come up with ideas and that's critical because you just don't know where a really good idea is going to come from don't forget people often ask are you going to run out no and there's never been a more interesting time to talk about cars because of these huge changes they're going through said no have ideas it's a great does it start with like oh we really want to drive this car do we really want we really want to go to this location it can do it can start with a specific car a type of car a piece of technology a plan a problem a place a scheme honestly it can come from anywhere um is there anything you're looking forward to driving in particular that you haven't yet um well next year product wise there's not going to be massive amounts of new stuff because the manufacturers are all working on their electric cars hybrid cars which are held back for the year after so I I'm looking forward to the next Discovery I'm looking forward to the next land rri Defender um the Gen 2 GT3 RS I have a gen one 991 um yeah I mean there's always there's always stuff to be interested in driving but I think the next few years it's probably the year after there'll be some really big ones coming but we'll see your Ford GT i' quite like to a crack in that though that one looks pretty impressive is beautiful looking team um so can you tell us anything about season two nope we finished season one I mean we we we've still got three more Studios to do okay so then we wrap that the next two three weeks and then we will be straight I mean day after we get back from the last shoot which is in Dubai back to London back into the office s down right clean sheet let's plan next year there'll be learning to take from this year I hope of course there will and we are trying new stuff so we expect hope that some of it people go don't like that if if they don't we're not trying hard enough so we should be pushing it a bit so hopefully they'll be learning to take from this season and apply next year um and the studios are all in different locations you in California for the first one Johannesburg for the next one and um where else are you heading to um we've been to Finland um Holland Germany Nashville we just done a couple in Scotland Whitby in North Yorkshire in the UK um Dubai I would there's a lot of the world that can roll around season by season and keep popping up we felt that was a it's an incredibly expensive and technically demanding exercise but it gives it a uniqueness in USP that I think makes it tremendous it really does work and the tent already that's our place it feels like our home it feels special when we're in there we love it so definitely very impressive all right well thank you very much welcomeRichard Hammond thanks for talking today pleasure um so the new show is The Grand Tour first episode premiered uh on Amazon Prime on Friday and you guys have 11 more episodes coming out weekly yep okay um so the opening was pretty epic but also uh maybe even a tad wistful um was it meant to reflect on what you and the other guys have been going through making this transition from Top Gear to this new show on Amazon yeah I don't know that we necessarily take the time to reflect or engage with anything as closely as that on our show we've always got by by simply charging ahead and trying to do the best show we can it felt right at the start of this show to say look we're moving on um this is a transitional stage we've been blessed with an amazing opportunity as three middle-aged guys on what previously we made an enormous television show about cars now we've been given the opportunity to reinvent and hoping very much that people will come with us and enjoy the ride and thus far from all that we seen that appears to be the case um and the first episode also featured the Holy Trinity the uh 918 spider P1 La Ferrari um uh obviously you guys uh tried to get that done on Top Gear um so how did you get it done for this show how long was it in works we we really wanted to get the three hyper cars in the first show because we wanted to say we wanted to say look we're making a car show the best way we can the best car show we can so we wanted to have those cars in it how we went about actually getting them usual means annoying nagging keeping on at them I mean you've you've never met Andy Wilman our producer the boss who is the world's most persistent human being and uh when he decides he's he wants something he'll go and get it so yeah I think it was largely him he just annoyed the hell out of them until they gave it to yeah it seems like it would require a bit of persistence to get those three um as far as other stuff on the show it seems like kind of a familiar format um similar to uh Old Top Gear did you guys ever uh think about really changing things up or did you just sort of want to keep stuff from the old CH look it's a really difficult thing about what we changed and what we didn't change for one thing do please know that there was no cynicism or science in the creation of the show initially we never sat down and said right if we do this it'll get this part of the demographic and if we go for this it could gather them in as well and then that part of the world it never was done like that we simply set out to make the best car show we can we've been doing it for 13 14 years and we now have the chance to start again we haven't wasted that opportunity to reinvent Revitalize renew that's great at our stage in our careers but equally we can't it would be artificial to try and stop being us what we have and what people seem to like is our particular take on the motoring world looking at our chosen subject with prism of the Viewpoint of these three Brits we wouldn't throw that away that would be really silly so we're still at us it's still familiar people come to us because they like what we've done historically we would be stupid to throw all that away and artificially we create ourselves as something else we did what we've always done but we've changed it up it's now shot in 4k the cinematography filmic and editorially it's been enhanced it's set to 11 instead of 10 I'm sure fans are very pleased to sort of keep that familiar for that um so we had a lot of um new cars on the first episode uh can or will we see more older stuff or perhaps less expensive stuff like uh what kinds of cars can we expect in the later episodes when you say less expensive stuff that always sounds like a loaded question are you saying what because most people can't afford a one and a half million pound hyper car you're right like I know you guys love a hot hatchbacks so like do a hot hatchback we will still keep and it it happens automatically again we don't sit and try and artificially generate a spread of cars across a season we simply follow the subjects the opportunities the topics as they arise but yeah of course we do and we're still we're never happier as as the three of us than when we're driving around in some hideous old leaky Relic we enjoy that massive because those cars have more personality to say about themselves they have flaws and faults and that's where the interest lies although it has to be said the industry as a whole right now car industry as well as the television industry is under going a massive sea change so there's never been a better time for us in making a show on TV when TV is changing we're now delivering it in a new way there's not been a factual show shot in 4k traveling around the world and delivered on demand before it's never happened likewise our subject the focus of that show in that changed environment is also changing hugely there are new cars coming out with new forms of engine new forms of propulsion which means manufacturers at last have the chance to get it wrong again so we have the chance to say that doesn't work which happen for decades mhm so uh yeah cuz uh it seems like you guys suffered quite a bit in the old uh cheap car challenges on top de but you really do like driving around in these older uh eat up cars yeah we love the challenges we love um driving around in old cars that challenge in difficult and inappropriate circumstances it's great fun of course it is it is genuinely punishing we are often asked you the places we've shot in the past on the old show no doubt we'll do as extreme again in the new but the North ho and deserts and jungles in the Arctic and volcanoes and all those places people often yeah but you stay at a hotel around the corner really don't you no you can't if you're in the middle of the naib desert we've just been filming there there are no hotels it's a desert so you have to Camp you have to rough it and it's not remember obviously it's not just us three when we're there there's a crew of 40 to 50 people it's huge so the camaraderie the fun to be had along with the logistical challenges of keeping that many people on the road fed warm safe with all the equipment being charged and maintained every night the camera Crews have to strip the cameras down put them on charge download all the footage especially now we're shooting in 4k I mean just the business the data storage we have to have a digital input team now inest team rather coming with us all over the world so there's a couple of guys that spend their lives sitting in the back of a van ingesting all the stuff that we've shocked that must be a fun job they have a great job that's I mean the 4K thing has changed a lot for us because obviously I mean expense wise our annual spend now on data stor is huge huge chunks of of data coming in and in the field just the the cameras cannot carry cars big enough to carry much of this stuff so the D inest team they are with us constantly downloading that stuff on drives what that means is we have two guys who are not not out up to their next in mud filming with us they're in their van and they've watched everything all of the rushes and remember this is thousands of hours special and that's really useful that's something we've never had so you can go and talk to these two guys did you see that bit about oh yeah is it oh it worked good or I'll go and well I tell you what if I go and find a little bit like this it'll go with that and work and make something special so that's one of the many ways in which this new way of working is bringing new stuff to us so uh you talked about the 4K and the uh of data storage the uh number of people you bring on each Sho um how does the budget for all this stuff compare to Top Gear um there's so much speculation across the media all over the world is the amount of money we're supposed to be spending the budget isn't massively wildly beyond what we were spending on the old show um it's how it's spent that matters and believe me it is being spent on camera you know it it wouldn't do for us we felt from the outset okay we're going to stick together because We Are Better Together something happens when we all work together it's four of us with the team around something happens that won't happen otherwise so that's loyalty and if fans are going to be loyal to us and come with us and we have to give them our best we have to say we have really tried here so part of that as well as the editorial the creative part of that is simply budget is simply say okay let's go to incredible places let's afford ourselves the time occasionally if a director says oh can I just wait a bit longer to get that yeah okay time is money and we now know it's our business and when we're there 52 of us in the field every hour is money but we are spending that time making that effort because we've got to we've got to give people back okay you've come with us well that's that's the best we can do there it is um what's it like working for an American corporation instead of the BBC I think whoever we were working for this would feel very different now because at the BBC it was like being in the military or at boarding school everything's done for you really we simply had to make the show then we came out um Amazon licensed the show from us so we had to set up a production company to make it suddenly we're involving ourselves in things we've never had to think about before I personally loved the process in fact we all three four have at various points really enjoyed that um our job remains to come up with ideas to work up with ideas that other people in the team come up with to editorialize around them and to be there to make a great show we know that but equally the running of the business has been really good F and and employing a new team and we took all the original crew with us so everybody with us out in the field we've work with them for 10 15 years every camera operator sound technician but the production in the office key players a few key players are with us I mean serious producer level but the rest are new which means we've got this huge resource now of fresh mindes haven't yet been tainted by experience hating to S cynical we' reached a Point inevitably in the past when somebody would think I've got an idea but we won't do that these guys are new so they'll just throw the idea out there who knows one in 10 of them might be brilliant so we've loved that process of building a new team how how big is that team overall how many people there's about 30 I'm going to guess I think there about 36 38 of us in production but then obviously there's a lot more when you bring in a crew so it's a big operation and when we're out we're going to do specials again where we we go off on a big long journey and when we're doing that yeah there' be 40 50 it's a huge undertak it's a big circus it's great fun oh I'm sure looks like you guys are having tons of fun in the uh trailer we do no we have of course we have fun we have to and and the crew does we all do that's not to say it isn't sometimes tougher than at other times um so for one segment like um say the Holy Trinity segment from the first episode how long does it take you to actually film all of that uh well once the ideas will conceed and produced up and actually the time in that one was getting the cars together and getting all the manufacturers to play ball and to play nicely and to agree to it there I mean an average film or something like that when I guess we were a couple of days at the track would be a couple of days you probably have a week some pieces take two weeks very seldom do we get a film that's done in you know less than a couple of days these days because it simply takes so long using the new kit 4K and if you're going to shoot in 4k you've got to the material you've got to have the rushes you've got to have the stuff to justify the technical quality you need the creative quality to balance against that so it's it's yeah it takes time there's none of it quick to make um so speaking you were talking a little bit about new ideas old ideas where do you actually get the concepts for the episodes like um we have always operated and still do in an environment where in anyone can come up with ideas and that's critical because you just don't know where a really good idea is going to come from don't forget people often ask are you going to run out no and there's never been a more interesting time to talk about cars because of these huge changes they're going through said no have ideas it's a great does it start with like oh we really want to drive this car do we really want we really want to go to this location it can do it can start with a specific car a type of car a piece of technology a plan a problem a place a scheme honestly it can come from anywhere um is there anything you're looking forward to driving in particular that you haven't yet um well next year product wise there's not going to be massive amounts of new stuff because the manufacturers are all working on their electric cars hybrid cars which are held back for the year after so I I'm looking forward to the next Discovery I'm looking forward to the next land rri Defender um the Gen 2 GT3 RS I have a gen one 991 um yeah I mean there's always there's always stuff to be interested in driving but I think the next few years it's probably the year after there'll be some really big ones coming but we'll see your Ford GT i' quite like to a crack in that though that one looks pretty impressive is beautiful looking team um so can you tell us anything about season two nope we finished season one I mean we we we've still got three more Studios to do okay so then we wrap that the next two three weeks and then we will be straight I mean day after we get back from the last shoot which is in Dubai back to London back into the office s down right clean sheet let's plan next year there'll be learning to take from this year I hope of course there will and we are trying new stuff so we expect hope that some of it people go don't like that if if they don't we're not trying hard enough so we should be pushing it a bit so hopefully they'll be learning to take from this season and apply next year um and the studios are all in different locations you in California for the first one Johannesburg for the next one and um where else are you heading to um we've been to Finland um Holland Germany Nashville we just done a couple in Scotland Whitby in North Yorkshire in the UK um Dubai I would there's a lot of the world that can roll around season by season and keep popping up we felt that was a it's an incredibly expensive and technically demanding exercise but it gives it a uniqueness in USP that I think makes it tremendous it really does work and the tent already that's our place it feels like our home it feels special when we're in there we love it so definitely very impressive all right well thank you very much welcome\n"