КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ

НАУЧНО-ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИХ И ТВОРЧЕСКИХ РАБОТ

«ПЕРВЫЕ ШАГИ В НАУКЕ-2016»

Тема: Влияние телешоу TOP GEAR на культурную жизнь людей

Направление: Лингвистическое

Автор: Кондратьев Александр Сергеевич

Муниципальное автономное общеобразовательное учреждение

средняя общеобразовательная школа №8, 10А класс

Руководитель: Уварова Марина Александровна

учитель английского языка

Красноуральск

2016г.1

Contents

Introduction………………………………………………… 3

Basic part ……………………………………………………. 5

1. Automobiles in our life............................................................... 5

2. Do you know what Top GEAR is?............................................... 7

2.1. History of the show................................................................ 8

2.2.Brief biographies of the leaders of the show .................... 13

2.3 .Top GEAR in Russia and abroad..............................................17

2.4 .Top GEAR today...................................................................... 20

2.5. Future of the show.................................................................. 21

3. The opinion poll............................................................................ 23

Conclusion………………………………………………………... 26

List of literature …………………………………………………. 28

Appendix………………………………………………………… 29

2

Introduction

Last ten years TVshows have strongly entered a grid of a broadcasting of the

majority of domestic TV channels. If for the western viewer various talk-shows,

reality-shows and other entertaining telecasts became an integral part of leisure, they

are rather a new product in show business for Russians.

Obviously, the leaders among the countries which are engaged in production of

TV shows are the USA and the UK. The License versions of talk- and reality-shows

of these countries occupy bulk of the entertaining time in Russian television

programs.

But do you know many TVshows that influenced the life of many generations?

Our contemporaries should know about one of the most popular BBC shows

Top Gear. I am sure it made revolution in our country because the quantity and

quality of cars used here are increasing gradually with every year. And people want

to use good-quality cars.

This show is very popular in our country too. Not many shows can be popular

for some decades but Top Gear could. Their manner of performing is unique. And I

shall try to prove that it will live in spite of its present day problems.

The actuality of the research: There are not many first-rate TV shows that

made some contribution and influenced the human’s culture and standards of living.

The problems: 1. What made the show so well-known and popular?

2. Will it return to life?

I tried to find the answer to these questions too, having tracked the history of

the show in the Internet (Wikipedia, the sites of Top Gear in Britain, Russia, the USA

and forums of Top Gear’s fans in Russia and abroad).Working with different

material I was interested in if the show had influenced the life of people in my

hometown so I made a survey about the influence of cars on life of people of our

town;

Hypotheses: True cultural values don’t disappear, each generation sees the

heritage according to the spirits of times they live in.

3

The aim of my work: Telling my contemporaries about the show Top Gear

defining the influence of cars on cultural life of different generations;

Tasks: 1. To study the history of the show;

2. To find out among people of different ages what they know about the show;

3.To develop and make a survey about the influence of cars on life of

different generations of our town;

The object of the research:The history of the show.

The subject of the research: The films, web-sites, forums of fans of the show;

Methods of the research:

1.Studying different literature about the show Top Gear in the Internet and

analysis of it;

2. Watching video-films about the show;

3. Making a survey among different generations (pupils and grown-ups) about

the cars and the show in Krasnouralsk and analysis of the results;

4

Basic part

1. Automobiles in our life

Cars have become a defining feature in our culture. To love or hate them, all

people have been deeply affected by the automobile. Cars have changed our

lifestyles, altered our landscapes, and captured our imaginations. For some people,

cars are truly ‘more than a machine.’ Besides the safety benefits, there’s quality of

life to consider: for example, a typical American commuter spends 250 hours a year

in his or her car.

Cars… everywhere: at home, at work, while travelling. Nowadays, I am sure,

people cannot live without cars. Cars in life of different people are different: some

have expensive cars, others – very expensive ones and others only dream of them.

Cars reflect people’s material well-being.

What do people have cars for?

The Car As a Daily Necessity

Today the majority of people consider their cars to be a daily necessity for

getting around. The car is used every day to go to and from work, drive over to

friends’ houses and so on and so forth. When these people need to go down to the

store which is less than a mile away, they drive rather than walking or bicycling

because it is just what they used to do. People who drive in this manner generally

just take having a car for granted.

These drivers may use the car for travelling but the majority of their driving are

done within five or ten miles of home. Since they drive daily, the majority of the

places they go are the same places over and over again. For these drivers, the car

plays the role of being the major mode of transportation around the area where they

live and work.

The Car for Commutes

There are some people who drive their cars every day but they don’t

necessarily use the car for little trips. These are people who drive daily specifically to

commute from work.

5

Many people drive from their home to their work and back again but leave the

car in the parking lot or the driveway when they are not in one of these two places. In

other words, the person commutes to work but then may walk or take a bus to get

lunch and run other errands during the workday. For these people, the car plays a

specific role of getting them to and from the two primary places where they spend

their time.

The Car for Day Trips and Travellings

Thereis a category of drivers that for the most part don’t drivebut however, if

they have to get to a place which requires a car then they don’t hesitate to borrow or

rent one to get to where they want to go. For example, if they want to go hiking then

theyneed to rent a car to do that. They also have to rent a car whenever they travel

back to their hometown or to other places where cars are needed to get around easily

(and where other modes of transportation just don’t seem to work as well).

For them, the car plays the role of allowing them to get a bit further away from

home. It’s a bit limiting to them in the sense that they would prefer to walk or take a

bus if they could. However, it also gives them freedom in the sense that they can go

further away from home if they have a car. Typically the car in this case plays a role

that combines the role of the daily driver with the role of the commuter. For example,

they may use a car specifically to get from home to a primary location (such as a

hiking spot) or they may use a car in a city that’s not their own for daily driving and

getting around. The difference is that their use of a car is rare compared to other

drivers.

The Car As a Luxury

There are two ways that a car may play the role of a luxury item for someone.

The first is in the case of people who can not afford cars and who therefore see the

car as a luxury of life that they can not have. The second is in the case of those people

who have more than one car or a car that is very expensive and for whom, therefore,

the car is basically a status symbol.

Believe it or not there are some people who still can’t afford a car and for them

the car is a luxury. They take a bus because they have to and they don’t travel far 6

because they can not afford to. For these people the car represents the role of a luxury

item that they can not obtain. It may be a goal in their lives to eventually obtain a car.

In contrast, there are those people who have a few cars or who have high-end

luxury cars. These people may be daily drivers or commute drivers or even, in rare

cases, just day trip drivers but the difference here is that they also consider the car to

be a status symbol for their lives. The car itself tends to take on meaning for these

people instead of just being a tool for getting around.

The Green Car Driver

There is also one other kind of drivers who combines some of these roles of the

car into one and that is the green driver. These are drivers of electric vehicles, hybrid

cars and the cars that get the best gas mileage. These drivers may be daily drivers,

commute drivers or day trip drivers. More importantly, they have a bit of the luxury

car driver in the sense that the car for them is more than just a car but also a symbol

that is representative of something more. In their case, though, the car is a symbol of

their concern for the environment so it is not a status symbol in a traditional sense but

is still a way to tell the world around them what kind of driver they are.

7

2. Do you know what Top GEAR is?

Every self-respecting car enthusiast certainly at least once watched Top Gear.

It is one of the most popular television programs in the world, gave birth to the

magazine, the website, Live-shows and many other products. But how did Top Gear

begin? Where is it now? And will the franchise be able to survive without Mr

Clarkson because of his leaving the BBC?

What do you think, how old is this show? 10? May be 20?- No.

The monster show that now bestrides the globe actually began in 1977- 39

years ago as a straightforward regional motoring program produced by BBC

Midlands that looked at cars and road safety.

2.1. History of the show

1977: Start of Top Gear.

When everything only began, Top Gear became the broadcast telling about

new cars and the other accompanying things as traffic safety. It was born at the BBC

studio in Birmingham and was broadcast on the channel BBC 2. William Vullard and

Noel Edmonds were leaders, and musical theme screensaver took the song "Jessica"

is now a forgotten group The Allman Brothers.

1987: Clarkson's appearance

In 1987, one of the producers of the show was John Bentley (no, he has

nothing to do with the well-known names). He immediately invited as leading

motorsport guru and former F1 driver Tiff Nideli and the magazine columnist

Performance Car Magazine Jeremy Clarkson. They made the program more critical,

live and in something even disputable. Such approach justified itself and was met by

a significant increase in popularity. In addition to this new organized competitions,

such as, for example, the "rally drivers", the main prize of which was participation in

the RAC Rally, the British round of the championship of the world.

1990: Connecting with women.

In the nineties the show received even more new faces. In 1990 the show

invited a woman presenter Michelle Newman, later Steve Berry appeared,

8

specializing in motorcycles and in 1997 one more woman pilot Vicki Butler-

Henderson joined it.

In the periods show received a lot of criticism for advocating irresponsible and

dangerous driving and what not to pay attention to environmental protection. Despite

these charges, and perhaps because of them, the show continues to attract and retain

the huge army of loyal fans.

With the increased popularity came a new perception of the attention factor

that is particularly strong effect on the opinion automakers. One negative review of

Top Gear could potentially undermine the sales of a particular model, or vice versa,

to raise them, but as it turned out, this influence was greatly exaggerated. For

example, the criticism of the Toyota Corolla in general does not impact on sales, and

a lot of praise to the Renault-Alpine GTA / A610 is essentially nothing to help it.

1999 - 2001: Falling popularity and closing.

In the period 1999-2000 leading show began to leave its popularity, one of

them turned Clarkson. In addition, the other of them was Brendan Coogan, who

joined the team in 1998, but was accused of drunk driving. The audience of the show

has plummeted from six million and a half viewers to three. In 2001, the

transmission, which at that time was 24 years old, was decided to close.

2002: Fifth Gear ("fifth gear") - Top Gear with a new name.

In 2002, commercial television "Channel 5" has launched a new car program

Fifth Gear with many former leading Top Gear starring Quentin Wilson, Vicki

Butler-Henderson and Tiff Nideli. The name was changed because the rights to the

name remained in Top Gear BBC, despite the fact that the show was done by the

same producer John Bentley. Along with all the new program removed almost all the

old crew and only one man, Jason Barlow concluded a contract with the BBC to

produce a new transmission 'Wrong Car, Right Car', for which they took a total 23

episodes.

2002: Restarting Top Gear.

After the release of the first episode of "Fifth Gear" BBC decided to resume

Top Gear, completely changing the format of the show with "coffee" in the studio. 9

Jeremy Clarkson was invited as the main star who was joined by Richard Hammond

and Jason Dawe. The last participated only in the first two seasons and was replaced

by James May, after which the composition has not changed until now. The program

turned out so different that even the previous format of the show were called "Old

Top Gear".

The new series format incorporated a number of major changes from the old

show. The running time was extended to one hour. It has developed a quirky,

humorous style.

Top Gear's studio was located at Dunsfold Park, a privately-owned aerodrome

and business park in Waverley, Surrey. Top Gear used a temporary racing circuit

which was designed for the show by Lotus Cars and was laid out on parts of

Dunsfold's runways and taxiways. A large hangar was used for studio recording with

a standing audience who apply to the BBC for free tickets, albeit with an estimated

21-year waiting list.

New segments were also added, including "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car",

"The Cool Wall", "Car News", "Power Laps", and one-off features such as races,

competitions and the frequent destruction of caravans.

The new look was the last hour of the transfer and its debut Stig (The Stig), the

anonymous driver. The mysterious person added even more interest and more

intrigue and became famous even outside the classroom shows.

The original Stig was completely "black", but when Perry McCarthy

declassified himself as a man under the black hat, he was immediately fired and

replaced by the familiar "white" Stig.

2006: We move or not?

In 2006, the BBC banned the use ofDunsfold, and they planned to move out of

the Top Gear survey in Oxfordshire, but the county council did not give permission

to move because of the noise and pollution. However, shooting in May was still

produced in the old place, even with the lack of resolution.

2006: Accident.

10

September 20, 2006 Richard Hammond was seriously injured in the accident,

the jet dragster right during filming. BBC broadcast was postponed and declared that

the show would be delayed as long as Hammond recovered. After a few weeks

shooting was resumed.

2007: Ratings and HD.

Ratings continued to grow with every episode of the first season of the show 9

drew more viewers than the finale of the popular show "Big Brother." In 2007 the

world also saw the release of a special episode of Top GearPolar Special, the first

shot in HD. Jeremy Clarkson and James May were the first who reached the magnetic

pole on the car using its GPS-navigator.

In 2007 it was one of the most pirated television shows in the world.

2008: Top Gear Live.

2008 became the year of the first adaptation of TV shows in the live show in

the arena called «Top Gear Live». The tour was kicked off London and eventually

visited fifteen countries around the world, demonstrating the power of the brand Top

Gear. New Top Gear Live Show in 2015 would be the circumnavigation tour.

2009: Too predictable?

When the popularity of Top Gear had grown to the heavens, the British

tabloids had done everything possible to reveal the identity of the Stig. Despite the

fact that motorsport collaboration was an open secret, BBC refused to disclose the

secret. At the beginning of the season 13 Clarkson said that the identity of the Stig

revealed:

In fact, the second Stig was Ben Collins, the British driver, while other pilots

sometimes wore white suits for filming as Michael Schumacher at the wheel of his

own Ferrari FXX in the episode above. When Collins betrayed himself by publishing

a book about his adventures on the show, he was subjected to the same fate as Perry

McCarthy was fired.

The identity of the new Stig is still a secret. All that we know ... he is called the

Stig.

11

During the 14 seasons the show received a lot of criticism over the fact that the

program has become too predictable and overly relied on tricks and jokes, rather than

become a little more serious. During the growth of its popularity the focus was

shifted from a serious and objective information to more light entertainment format

on automotive topics.

In addition, on Top Gear have been increasingly used jokes "on the verge",

commenting on the Albanians, America, the Asians, the mentally retarded, Mexicans,

Muslims, Nazis, prostitutes, Romania, truck drivers and so on. Although banter

considered an integral part of Top Gear, a feeling that carefree jokes sound innocent,

but clearly designed for you to create controversy. And it happens often enough to be

an accident.

2014: Dispute more.

Last year's season was the peak for generating of controversy jokes. One of

electronic tabloid published a video in which Clarkson muttered some racist poem,

and in Argentina the film crew was attacked by a crowd of angry locals due to

provocative license plate for Porsche of Clarkson, hinted in the Falkland conflict.

2015: Is an end Top Gear?

Before the start of each season, the debate inevitably arise about how

long Top Gear would last in the current format. So far, no signs of completion were

not visible. Besides, very soon the team would go to the biggest tour.

Three leading stars together for over a decade and transmission remains the

most popular automobile show on the planet, and the Top Gear brand on BBC still

continued to bring a lot of money. Apparently, everything would stop only when

Jeremy Clarkson decided that he had had enough, or he would eventuallybe fired for

too controversial jokes.

And it happened...

In March, 2015 Clarkson was fired from Top Gear as a result of a juicy scandal

with producer. After Clarkson's leaving May and Hammond refused to renew their

contracts with BBC.Later, the British trio agreed to do a new road show to the U.S.

streaming service Amazon Prime.12

2.2. Brief biographies of the leaders of the show

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson, aka "The Orangutan"

and "Jezza", (aged 54) is a British broadcaster and journalist

who specializes in motoring and was one of the presenters on

the hit BBC show Top Gear from 2002 until 2015. He writes

weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun, but he is

mostly recognised for his role as host of the BBC TV show Top Gear, a show that he

helped to make. The show won an International Emmy in 2005, and Clarkson himself

has won the 2007 National Television Awards' Special Recognition Award. He and

James May were the first people to reach the North Pole in a car, which was

broadcast in a Top Gear special on 25 July 2007 on BBC Two. Clarkson appeared in

the first twenty-two series of the current format of the show until he was dismissed by

the BBC on the 25th of March, 2015.

He was born on 11th of April 1960 in Doncaster to teacher Shirley Gabrielle

Ward and travelling salesman Edward Grenville "Eddie" Clarkson.

For an episode of the first series of the BBC's “Who Do You Think You Are?”

broadcast in November 2004, Clarkson was invited to investigate his family history.

It included the story of his great-great-great grandfather John Kilner (1792–1857),

who invented the Kilner jar: a receptacle for preserved fruit.

Clarkson married his agent and manager, Frances Cain, in May 1993 in

Fulham. The couple currently live in the town of Chipping Norton, situated in the

Cotswolds, with their three children (Emily born inAugust 1994, Finloborn in March

1996, and Katya born in November 1998). Clarkson also has a flat in Bayswater as a

base in London for working. The couple bought a lighthouse as a further home on

Frances' family home of the Isle of Man. Known for buying him car-related gifts, for

Christmas 2007 Clarkson's wife bought him a Ford Street Ka in 2005. He was

previously married to Alexandra Hall for one year.

Clarkson is allegedly smug, self-centred, opinionated and courts controversy

just to inflate the viewing and income for the BBC. It has been said he is protected 13

from all the controversy by the BBC because of the financial injection by Top Gear.

Clarkson has featured in 657 episodes of Top Gear, in the shows of modern and old

format. This makes him the longest-running presenter on the show.

James May

James Daniel May (born on the16 of January 1963) is a

British television presenter and award-winning journalist, who

was one of the presenters on Top Gear. May fronted the show

from 2002 to 2015 alongside co-starsJeremy Clarkson and

Richard Hammond. He also writes a weekly column for The

Daily Telegraph's motoring section.

On Top Gear, his nickname is "Captain Slow", due to

his 'careful', relaxed driving style. He also earned the nickname "Captain Sense of

Direction", due to the fact that he always gets lost, always gets distracted by an

irrelevant subject and always arrives late. He is, however, a very smart man (who

likes to lecture) who has carried out some exceptionally high-speed driving. He

became one of the very few in the world to have taken a Bugatti Veyron to its top

speed of 253.45 mph (407.90 km/h), precisely one-third of the speed of sound at sea

level, and hit 259 mph in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

May and Jeremy Clarkson - together with an Icelandic support crew - were the

first people ever to reach the Magnetic North Pole in an automobile (a modified

Toyota Hilux). The expedition was broadcast in a "Top Gear" special on BBC Two

on 25 July 2007. Clarkson described May as being "the first person to go to the North

Pole who didn't want to be there."

Born in Bristol on 16th January 1963, May is one of four children; he has two

sisters and a brother. May attended Caerleon Endowed Junior School in Newport. He

spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire where he attended Oakwood

Comprehensive School in Rotherham and was a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church.

During the early-1980s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later

Autocar magazine, from which he was sacked in 1992 after putting together a hidden 14

message in one issue. At the end of the year, the magazine's "Road Test Year Book"

supplement was published. Each spread featured four reviews and each review started

with a large red letter. May's role was to put the entire supplement together, which

"was extremely boring and took several months". He described it as: 'a real pain in

the arse.'

May has written the book titled “May On Motors”, which is a collection of his

published articles, and co-authored Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure, based on

the TV series of the same name.

May is refined, wise, protective, with very very polite attitude (When meeting

new people he often starts with 'hello'). Initially, James is considered to be the most

mature and sensible presenter as he is not as out-going and imaginative as Jeremy or

Richard. However, just like his colleagues, he shows confidence and toughness

during any task or situation on the show. His favouritecolour is said to be a greyish

shade of brown. His least favourite place in the world is the nurburgring. He never

builds anything before naming all his tools and arranging them in a descending order

of size.

Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond is one of the co-presenters of

Top Gear, working on the show from 2002 to 2015 in

series one through twenty-two of its current format.

Known for being the shortest presenter of the three, he is

often affectionately named Hamster.

Born in Solihull in December, 19th 1969, Richard is the eldest of three children

to Eileen and Alan Hammond. He is the grandson of workers in the automobile

industry. Originally from the West Midlands, in the mid-1980s Hammond moved

with his family to the North Yorkshire market town of Ripon where his father ran a

probate business in the market square.

In 1995, Hammond began working at a London PR company, where he

developed a romantic interest in Amanda Etheridge. Hammond persuaded a friend to

ask Amanda out on a date on his behalf due to being too nervous to do it himself. 15

After several dates they began to grow closer which resulted in Amanda's pregnancy

in 2000. After they became married in 2002, their first daughter whom they named

Isabella (or Izzy for short) was born and a few years later, they had another daughter

named Willow.

Early in his career, Richard worked at many radio stations, including Radio

York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, and Radio Lancashire, before going on to present

a number of daytime lifestyle shows and motoring programs on Men & Motors.

He presented the Crufts dog show in 2005, the 2004 and 2005 British Parking

Awards, and appeared on School's Out, a quiz show on BBC One where celebrities

answer questions about things they learned at school when they were younger. He

even hosted the UK Version of "Total Wipeout", also hosted "Sports Relief 2008",

hosted his own show "Richard Hammond's Crash Course" and hosted the special "50

Years of Bond Cars", where he interviewed Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live

and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun director Guy Hamilton, Sir Roger

Moore who played James Bond from 1973 to 1985, current James Bond actor Daniel

Craig, former the Stig Ben Collins who also stunt doubled for Craig in 'Quantum of

Solace' and was amazed when he taught Bond baddie actor Ola Rapace on how to

drive the Audi in the beginning of 'Skyfall' and visited the Istanbul set.

The Stig

The Stig is an anonymous race car driver, who is

featured in Top Gear. Currently, the Stig is a white

version, as The Black Stig, featured in Series 1 and 2,

had "died" on the HMS Invincible British Ship.

There are also several other versions of the Stig,

most of them being one of his many cousins, living in many different parts of the

world.

The Stig's name derived from presenter Jeremy Clarkson's days at Repton

School; where, according to Clarkson, new students were always called "Stig". A

proposed name for the Stig was originally "The Gimp" until protests from Perry

16

McCarthy nixed the idea. There have been three official Stigs on the show, while

various other Stigs have made cameo appearances for particular episodes.

Ben Collins

Ben Collins was the 3-rd Incarnation of

The Stig.

Ben Collins (born on the 13 of February

1975) is a racing car driver from Bristol, England.

He has competed in motor racing since 1994 in

many categories, from Formula Three and Indy

Lights to sportscars, GT racing and stock cars.

On 19 of January 2009, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph ran a story

claiming that they had "outed" Collins as being one of the people behind the white-

suited incarnation of The Stig, at the same time noting that "Collins, from Bristol, has

always denied being the Stig".

The Times, in a follow-up article, stated that the "identity of the white-suited

Stig ... has been an open secret within the motoring world for some years, with

newspapers refraining from publishing his name, to uphold the spirit of the program"

which concluded that "a newspaper broke with the convention to out Mr Collins, 33,

after following up a story in a Bristol newspaper". Similar allegations were repeated

by The Sunday Times during August 2010.

2.3. Top GEAR in Russia and abroad

Top Gear is the biggest motoring

TVshow in world history. Top Gear's U.K.

version has been licensed to more than 230

territories globally. New episodes of Top

Gear are initially broadcast in the United

Kingdom on BBC Two, on Dave, BBC

America.The popularity of the show has led to the creation of several international

versions, with local production teams and presenters in Australia and the United 17

States, China, Russia and South Korea and a number of other television channels

around the world. It is watched by about 350 million viewers across the globe. It is –

according to the chaps at the Guinness Book of World Records– the most-watched

factual television program IN THE WORLD.

In Italy, the U.K. version is currently shown on DMAX, a Discovery channel.

Sky Italia is a part of pan-European pay TV giant Sky, in which Rupert Murdoch's

21st Century Fox owns a 39 percent stake. Top Gear already has a strong and

established presence in Italy with the original U.K. series and the magazine proving

huge popularity. Adding a local version to the mix in a country steeped in motoring

history is fantastic for Italian audiences. Top Gear brings together great entertainment

with passion and competence for cars and speed, a perfect mix for their subs is even

more successful thanks to the talent of Joe and Guido.

The Italian announcement follows the launch of a local version in France.

French network RMC drew its biggest audience for a show ever when the series

debuted earlier this year.

Whether it’s testing the most exotic cars to their limits, attempting ambitious

road trips in vehicles entirely unfit for purposes, or destroying caravans in the name

of humanitarian progress, Top Gear has always pushed the very boundaries of

automotive possibility. Some call it ‘cocking about’ and prefer to think of it as

‘cutting edge consumer research’.With 22 series down and more to come, it is the

spot for all the latest news and behind-the-scenes gossip from the TVshow.

Top Gear Specials are special episodes of the popular UK motoring show in

which the three presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond,

head to an international location for a road trip. These specials differ from regular

episodes in that they are longer than the standard sixty minute episodes; the Top Gear

studio is only used at the beginning of the episode and there are no power tests or

SIARPC segments. Generally, these specials air at Christmas time in every second

series.

To date, there have been twelve specials, the first one being the Winter

Olympics Special which aired in 2006. The most recent special, the, Patagonia 18

Special aired in 2014, as part of Top Gear's twenty-second series. Typically the

specials are one-off episodes but more recent specials - the Africa

and Burma Specials - have been broadcast in two parts.

Top Gear in Saint-Petersburg

In 2014 Top Gear visited Russia,

the film-making team arrived to the large

Russian city of St. Petersburg. The main

task for the leaders was to find out by

means of what type of transport it is

easier and more convenient to move in the city. In St. Petersburg scenes for the new

22-nd season of the cult British television show about cars Top Gear were shot.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and the Stig tried to travel by all

available forms of St. Petersburg transport, including the subway.

According to witnesses, James drove the electric Renault, Richard Hammond

went by bike, Clarkson travelled around the city by boat and the mysterious Stig did

not take off his helmet even in the subway.

Top Gear in the Crimea and Ukraine

The producers of the show told the leaders to choose three small cars and to

arrive to Yalta that is on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine. Richard Hammond

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arrived the first by a new Ford Fiesta. Jeremy Clarkson was the second by

Volkswagen. The last was James May by Dacia Sandero.

Then they were given the task to go to a little place that is between Yalta and

Sebastopol along a magnificent coastal road. The leaders reached the base of

submarines (Balaklava). Having enjoyed the history the leaders went to the city of

Sebastopol where they stopped for the night. Next morning they drove 1200

kilometers to Kiev. It was a very boring road for them. On the road they stopped to

have a bite. They decided to stay in Kiev for a while where the next morning they

were met by unusually big crowd of admirers. Then they received one more task: to

visit Chernobyl.

2.4. Top Gear today

On the calendar 2016.

Top Gear is a BAFTA, multi-NTA and International Emmy Award-winning

BBC television series about motor vehicles, mainly cars. It is also the world second

most expensive show in the world at £1.2 billion.

The show regularly features various races.

There have been a number of epic races where

Clarkson or one of the other presenters drives a car

against other forms of transport, typically involving

Hammond and May taking the same journey by

combinations of plane, train or ferry.

A number of smaller scale 'novelty' races have

also taken place that demonstrate various strengths

and, more often, weaknesses of cars. These races

involve one of the presenters, in a carefully chosen

car, racing head-to-head against an athlete in conditions that favour the latter. The

program has also featured a variety of small races, typically lasting a couple of

minutes, that pit two similar cars against each other, for example old vs. new.

The show has received considerable acclaim for its visuals and presentation, as

well as a number of criticisms for its content and comments made by presenters. 20

Columnist A. A. Gill described the show as, "a triumph of the craft of program-

making”.

Groups such as the Environmental Investigation Agency have criticized the

BBC for allowing Top Gear to film in environmentally sensitive areas such as the

Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana.

Currently the future of the show is in a period of uncertainty with the BBC

announcing its intentions to renew the show for a twenty-third series. Little is known

for sure that the show will return and that Jeremy Clarkson will not be resuming his

role as a presenter on the program.

2.5. Future of the show

While the work was making in February,11 2016 the BBC announced the full

list of the leaders of Top Gear. The transmition in the new format will be made by six

people, as well as the mysterious racing driver the Stig, whose identity is, as before,

was not disclosed.

The official website of Top Gear

reported that the company named earlier,

Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc will be

joined by a German racer Sabine Schmitz,

a popular British autoblogger Chris

Harris, a former racing driver and

businessman Eddie Jordan, as well as an

automotive journalist Rory Reid.

Sabine Schmitz has previously advocated for BMW and Porsche in different

touring car series and also participated in the 24-hour endurance races. In 2005,

Schmitz appeared in one episode of Top Gear, after driving one lap of the track in a

van Ford Transit in 10 minutes, 8 seconds.

Eddie Jordan (pictured second right) has worked at the BBC as an expert

Formula 1. In the 1990s, he was team Jordan Grand Prix, which featured such racers

as Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Damon Hill, Nick Heidfeld, Jean Alesi

and JarnoTrulli.21

Chris Harris (third from right) worked in the publications Autocar and Evo,

and also making reviews of cars for the You Tube channel Drive. He runs his own

video blog Chris Harris on Cars.

Rory Reid (left) is currently the editor of Recombu and the host of the show

Gadget Geeks on Sky 1.

The new season will air in May 2016.

The former leaders of Top Gear

Jeremy Clarkson is preparing to relaunch

his career with a new motoring show Amazon

Prime after being axed by the BBC in

March.The new show, rumoured to be

called Gear Knobs, will reunite the petrol head

with fellow ex-Top Gear hosts James May and Richard Hammond. But the trio have

been recognized for their contributions to the BBC show with a nomination in the

Factual Entertainment category.

The trio of the former leaders of Top Gear united for creation of new show

again.The British showmen Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James Mai

announced a series of live shows under the plain name Clarkson, Hammond & May

Live. Earlier the similar performances of the British were called Top Gear Live, but

the rights for this name remained with the BBC company after departure of showmen

from the telecast of the same name.

So far leaders placed some videos foretelling new shows. The first of them will

take place in May 22 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Other performances will take place

in South Africa, Norway, Australia, Poland and Great Britain.

The British Mirror edition reports that Clarkson, Hammond and May prepare

for start of yet not announced TV show which will become TopGear'sanalog.

According to own information of the newspaper, the program will extend through the

paid Netflix service and will receive the name House Of Cars.

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3.The opinion survey

It was interesting to me what my contemporaries know about the show, what

role cars play in people’s life nowadays and what cars are popular (bought) in our

town. (See Appendix №1,2)

As for me  I am a resident of Krasnouralsk and it is not a very car-friendly

town and I have not bothered to have a car. I am able to walk to most of the places I

want to go. But my dad drives a car to or from work. We travel somewhere that

requires using a car but I only spend a handful of days a year in a car. May be it is

because I do not drive a car myself because I do not have the driving licence. But as

soon as I am 18 I hope to get the driving licence and drive a car myself.

In contrast, my cousin lives in Ekaterinburg. He drives everywhere to get to

most of the places that he wants to go. He is in the car every day. And he loves it. He

enjoys driving. He drives around just to see things. For him, the car is a fun tool for

getting around. For him, it is a tool of freedom.

There are a lot of fan clubs of Top Gear around the world including Russia.

They try to gather admirers of Top Gear together. Are there many fans in our town?

I would like to present you the results of the opinion survey made by me. I

made it among the pupils, teachers and workers of our school.

My task was to work out and make a poll among people of different ages to

find out what they know about the show and compare the influence of cars on life of

different generations.

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I worked out a common form for filling it for 2 age categories: till 18 years old,

and over 18 years old.(See Appendix № 1)

I represented the results of the opinion survey in tables and diagrams.(See

Appendix №1- 3) Questions №№1 and 2 were:

1. Have you heard about the show?

2. Do you see the show?

We can see from the Table№1 that a half of the interviewees have heard about

the show and watch it but I was not surprised that some pupils and grownups heard

nothing about this show .

Questions № 4 was: Do you consider the show popular?

Less than a half interviewees consider it as a popular show.

Questions № 5,7 were about the leaders of the show and their work (films):

5. Do you know the leaders of the show?

7. Do you like any their films?

As we can see from the Table №1 and diagrams we- teenagers know more

than the grownups. From the Table we can see that teenagers know some names of

their films but not many. (See Appendix № 6) And it is understandable. We-

teenagers live and grow up in time when we can watch different TV programs thanks

to digital TV. What is more, nowadays teenagers get a lot of information not only

from books as the grownups did: we surf the Internet a lot and come across a lot of

interesting information, films which the grownups were be able to find nowhere

because of their lack of access to the Internet.

Questions № 6 was about the Future of the show:

6. Do you think if the show will be popular in future?

Let’s look at the Diagram №6 and the negative answers: only 8 people (13%)

do not believe in its popularity in future.

How does age of people influence the popularity? I think it depends on what

we are comparing. The history of Top Gear began about 40 years ago. It is rather a

long period for a show. Do you remember any show that was popular at least 20 years

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ago? But these diagrams show us that it is still popular and will have their audience in

future. Top Gear is actual and interesting to a certain circle of youth.

The next survey was devoted to cars in our life and in life of families. There

were two questions: 1). Do you have a car?( if “Yes”- name the brand);

41 families have one car, 4 families have two cars, 1 family has four cars-

every member of the family has a car. Altogether-53 cars.

What about the brands: the first place belongs to Japanese cars-11(TOYOTA,

MAZDA, SUBARU, MITSUBISHI, NISSAN), the second place share cars from

Korea-5( Hyundai, Kia ), Germany-5( OPEL, VOLKSWAGEN ) and

Russia-5 (!) (VAZ, GAZ).

As we can see from the Table №2 and 3 citizens of our town prefer to buy

foreign automobiles: they are more reliable and beautiful than ours, they say.

But from the conversation with a policeman I found out that young people

prefer to buy VAZ- cars (08, 09, 99, 13, 15 makes): they are older but cheaper for

them, for their experiments with cars, when they make tuning after watching such

programs as Top Gear, for example.

2). What does a car mean for you and your family?

As we can see from the Table №2:

38 people use cars as everyday necessity;

15 people go to and from work by car;

15 people use the car while travelling and for rest;

for one person his/her car is a status item.

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Conclusion

Top Gear is the most popular British telecast devoted to cars. For the first time

it was transferred in 1977. The program was in a format of a serialized television

program which didn't change for a long time. In 2002 the show was restarted in a new

format and with new leaders therefore modern Top Gear— with humour, tricks and

firm tests appeared. Then the program was submitted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard

Hammond, James May and the superconfidential masked test pilot -The Stig.

The audience of the program contains about 350 million people from around

the world, making it the most watched show worldwide. It is one of the most pirated

television shows in the world. It is also the second most expensive show in the world

at £1.2 billion.

Almost twelve months passed from the moment of closing the show, but in

spite of the present day difficulties the ratings of Top Gear is high.

What is the secret of its popularity not only in the UK but also abroad.?

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Top Gear made a great impact on human culture because the show promotes

cars and people cannot live without cars nowadays. Cars in life of people play

different role but they influence the life of differen tgenerations greatly. People

want to have not simply a car but a high-quality and beautiful automobile. (See

Appendix №3 )

People around the world continue to watch their films that have become

classics. Top Gear never repeated the jokes, didn't speak the same things, as the

majority of celebrities do now. Their wit and spontaneity were drew attention to them

as to the extremely original persons.

I think, the purpose and problems of my work - are carried out.

The hypothesis is confirmed: True cultural values do not disappear. Each

generation sees the heritage according to the spirits of times they live in. The show

lives and will live in the hearts of people who love cars. (See Appendix № 1,

diagram-6)

Practical value of work: The materials of this work can be useful for elective

courses and at the lessons of English, at schools and class hours and also in others

educational institutions: Vocational School, College, the English language courses to

expand the outlook of students, for preparation for examinations, in correction work

of English teachers.

This is the story of Top Gear, with all ups and downs. As for me, as one of

their fаns, I am full of optimism and believe that the show will return and be with us

for a long time. In my opinion, next year I will be able to compare the shows of new

and old teams and tell you if the new team could keep the show as the most popular

one in the world.

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List of literature /Internet resources

1. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear

2. http://www.topgear.com/show

3. http://topgearrussia.ru/

4. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bbcs-top-gear-italy-sky-

811185

5. Raceport История Top Gearhttps://www.drive2.ru/b/1638504/

6. Top GEARwikiahttp://topgear.wikia.com/wiki/Top_Gear

7. Top Gear (U.S. TV

series)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(U.S._TV_series)

8. Кларксон ушел. TopGear закрытhttps :// motor . kz / post / klarkson - ushel -

top - gear - zakryt -26987/

9. Топ 10 наиболее популярныхТ-шоу в мире http :// brjunetka . ru / top -10-

naibolee - populyarnyih - tv - shou - v - mire /

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4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

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