For those of you who just can’t wait until the New Year to see the 2012 series of Top Gear aired on television, there is a Christmas present waiting for you right after Boxing Day. After all the frenetic unwrapping of gifts on Christmas Day and repeats of classic films on Boxing Day, here is one special offering that will revive your interest in entertainment in the festive season.
Navigate your way to BBC2 and BBC HD on 28th December at 8pm and you will find Top Gear’s India Christmas Special. This is certainly a welcome inclusion in the schedules of Top Gear fans, who have been without new episodes for far too long now. The waiting is over; the fix will be here soon.
This special edition certainly promises to excel in everything that you expect from the boys on their missions. Renowned for choosing locations which are most certainly off the beaten track for their expeditions, we can be sure that this assignment will equal their past ones. It may even exceed the adventures we saw them get up to in Botswana’s desert, the North Pole, America’s Deep South, and South America’s jungles and mountains.
Intending to tread in the footsteps of empire-builders and missionaries, the boys envisage themselves as emissaries of British commerce. These trade ambassadors will be anything but conventional however in their persuasion of local businesses and consumers, so this is likely to be highly entertaining. One can only imagine what they will get up to in their usual offbeat manner. Knowing that the diplomatic skills of Jeremy in particular, and the other two to a lesser extent, are somewhat undeveloped, to say the least, the stage is set for some compelling viewing.
Given their perceived importance of building the British brand abroad, the team has this time disposed of more than just the handful of pounds which usually is theirs to buy their equally-unconventional cars. Each had seven thousand pounds to get on the round and promote British motor vehicles to boot. Jeremy’s 1995 Jaguar XJS 4.0 litre would seem to have the edge on Richard’s Mini Cooper. James’ 1976 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow however piqued the curiosity of the other two, and as per usual we should see him bearing the brunt of their jokes.
Watching how these cars cope, as well as how the local communities cope with the invasion of Top Gear, will be a great addition to the days in between Christmas and New Year. What we know will be most amusing are the coping mechanisms that the presenters display as they take on their cars, the territory, and the welcoming committees. This is one Christmas special which will prove to be a cracker as they Carry On up the Khyber.