Top Gear is a long running BBC television series about carss, motorcycles and motorsport. Starting off as a fairly middle-of-the-road magazine show reviewing new car models and other car-related issues, such as road safety, it saw a massive boost in its audience in the early 1990s when it became a far more controversial, unashamedly petrolhead-oriented program, fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, with Quentin Willson, a former used car salesman, Tiff Needell, a keen racing driver, and Vicky Butler-Henderson, also a racing driver.
Despite enduring criticism that the show is overly macho, encourages irresponsible driving behaviour, and ignores the environment, under Clarkson's presentation it pulled in huge audiences. It has also become hugely influential with the motor manufacturers, since a critical word from the Top Gear team can spell disaster in the sales department. Every year since the early 90s the team have named and shamed the worst (and the best) of the year's new cars in the J.D Power Top 100 survey.
Since Clarkson left to pursue other aspects of his TV career, the show became more toned down once again, but still retaining something of its influence. The show's format has been widely imitated since the huge success of the mid 90s, for example by Channel Four's Driven show, and ITV's Pulling Power. In 2002, the show's presenters moved to Channel 5 with a virtually identical show called 5th Gear when the BBC decided to discontinue the show. However, they changed their minds and once again Clarkson returned to host the show, with a new set of presenters - Richard Hammond, Jason Dawe and James May. It is now (November 2003) in its third series since its return to BBC 2.
Top Gear has used the Allman Brothers Band song Jessica as its theme tune for many years, so much so that many viewers are unaware that the track exists as a separate entity from the show.
