Brace yourself Top Gear fans. We know you're eagerly awaiting the new series this summer, but it seems as if the wait will be slightly longer. How long, you ask? Well, um…until 2013. Ouch. I know, I know, such a devestating blow will take a while to sink in. As a self-confessed Top Gear fanatic myself, I feel your pain.
Appearing on a South African radio show promoting the current Top Gear Live Tour, Jeremy Clarkson casually mentioned the bad news: "It is going to be, it better be absolutely fantastic, it's also about the only time the three of us are working together this year because there's no Top Gear on this year."
It seems plausible, sadly, when you consider that the Olympics are going to be dominating UK airwaves throughout the summer and then the boys will be fronting the new Top Gear Live Tour in the Winter. I've already ordered my tickets – as a testament to my fandom, this will be the seventh consecutive year I've attended. And I happen to be wearing last year's tour t-shirt as I type this. Not that I'm obsessive or anything.
Fifth Gear on the other hand will be back in July, despite rumours that it had been canned, in a new one hour format on the Discovery channel, as confirmed in a recent Tweet by Tiff Needell: Best of all news – now looks like Fifth Gear will kick off on Discovery not in September but in July!!! Lots of great stuff already filmed!"
We can only hope that they can at least salvage another Christmas special. Looks like I'll be rewatching my comprehensive Top Gear episode archive for the forseeable future…