Top Gear is BACK tonight: ‘First’ cars plus McLaren and Ferrari

Top Gear returns to BBC tonight for a new series – Series 27 – with Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness joining Chris Harris for ‘New New’ Top Gear.

Has Top Gear been the same since the departure of Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May? No, of course it hasn’t, but let’s not kid ourselves; later series of Top Gear with the original trio had become a bit predictable and a bit samey.

Sadly, the Chris Evans Top Gear didn’t work at all, with Evans unable to gel with his co-presenters and trying at every turn to dominate proceedings; great presenter, not great Top Gear presenter.

But Top Gear got back on track with the trio of LeBlanc, Harris and Reid, although more laid back than the original, the chemistry between Leblanc and Harris, in particular, made the show very watchable.

But now it’s (almost) all change again, with the arrival of ex-cricketer Freddie Flintoff and comic and presenter Paddy McGuinness joining Chris Harris for an all-new Top Gear -Series 27 – and it’s back on BBC2 tonight.

Anecdotal feedback on filming of the new series seems to be positive, and there’s a chance Top Gear with Flintoff and McGuinness could work very well – or it could be a big kids acting daft disaster.

Tonight we’ll see Flintoff, McGuinness and Harris spend a few grand on the best versions they can buy of their first car, and take them off to Ethiopia to see if they survive.

Chris Harris gets to go and play  with the Ferrari 488 Pista and McLaren 600LT to see if McLaren’s ‘budget’ model can take on Ferrari’s track day monster.

There’s more, and no doubt some format changes, but you’ll have to wait until 8pm on BBC2 tonight – 16 June 2019 – to find out.