New series of Top Gear started this Sunday. Seems to have started where it left off last series. A few years back, that would have been a good thing. Sadly, for me, and I suspect many others, this is no longer anywhere near the case.

Let me just make it clear though that bad Top Gear is still watchable. It’s still series linked on Sky and it would still be iPlayer’ed if the Satellite/HD box failed again.

But that’s about the limit of it. It’s completely lost sight of what made it great. The stunts used to be funny. They aren’t any more. The jokes used to be funny. They aren’t any more. The chemistry between the presenters used to appear genuine. It doesn’t any more.

Whether this is because I’ve seen it all before, I don’t know. I just can’t quite put my finger on it. Everything just seems that bit more contrived and scripted. I fully accept that it probably isn’t any more contrived or scripted than it has been right from the start but something in the chemistry of me watching the show has shifted. Old Top Gear on Dave still holds the attention more.

As near as I can work out, if Top Gear is going to return to something that I look forward to again, I think it has to stop trying so hard. Let the stunts speak for themselves. A Veyron racing a mile horizontally whilst a Eurofighter races a mile vertically is an epic spectacle no matter how it’s shot. An Apache flying around with an Exige screaming around under it is great to watch. Turning a Robin Reliant into a Rocket was truly spectacular. Deliberately reversing a lorry into a car and pretending it’s not entirely scripted is just utterly yawn educing.

It needs to forget the scripting, go on its trips and voyages, find the roads an scenery worth finding and show us the cars worth seeing and let the scripts write themselves. Why every voyage has to have a whole pathetic section where the presenters pretend to get lost or have technology go wrong or miss a train or just make a ferry is beyond me. Whether my take on what I want Top Gear to be would lead to exciting, watchable TV I don’t know but I’m fairly sure it would be better than what we currently have.

Top Gear evolved and made a name for itself again after it got boring simply watching review after review of Euro-boxes. It needs to evolve again if it is to remain watch-worthy.

Top Gear is at it’s best when it recognises great engineering, great scenery, great photography and great cars. Top Gear is at its worst when it tries to inject tension, scripted jokes and fake stunts. Sadly, it appears that the later are prevalent and the former, scant.

I don’t want Top Gear to disappear from Sunday nights. I want it to get good again and make a Sunday night. 6 more episodes to go in this series and for my faith to be restored.