BBC’s Top Gear in Warwickshire
This Sunday the BBC’s Top Gear programme will show the three presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, working against the clock to complete the resurfacing of a Warwickshire road!
The programme will be screened in the first programme of the new series on BBC 2 this Sunday 28th January at 8.00pm.
Warwickshire County Council’s County Highways, played host to the Top Gear Team last September, just prior to Richard Hammond’s horrific accident. With assistance from the County Councils contractors Carillion and Tarmac, the three presenters undertook the task of completing a road resurfacing scheme at Grafton Lane in Bidford-On-Avon, Warwickshire, in 24hrs. This was originally part of a planned programme of works scheduled to be completed in 5 days.
County Highways Network Team Manager, Tony Iwanikiw, explained, “BBC’s Top Gear production team approached over 30 Highway Authorities requesting to be allowed to take charge of and film a road building project. The concept proposed being a “Challenge Anneka” type scenario where the presenters could take on the task of completing a road construction project in an impressive and challenging short period of time.
Over 70% of Highway Authorities approached turned down the request. Warwickshire obliged following agreement that the BBC would fund the overtime costs of the contractors workforce.
Both Carillion and Tarmac were keen to be involved although both corporations held reservations given what some would consider the unpredictable and sometimes maverick nature of the show.
The works costing £85,000 involved localised patching and resurfacing of over 1.7km of a typical rural road in Warwickshire were carried out on the 11th and 12th of September.
In typical Top Gear style and enthusiasm the presenters tried their hands at virtually everything from driving the planer, excavator, the paver, lorries, rollers to top-soiling verges, erecting signs and line marking!”
Tony Iwanikiw continued , “I was on site throughout the filming and enjoyed watching the Presenters at work. I am sure that it will be very entertaining and will not be too contentious, and I hope it will raise the profile of Warwickshire’s road maintenance activities which are undertaken in partnership with our contractors Carillion and Tarmac”.