Blowing smoke

I see the good burghers of Top Gear are in trouble again. Not Jeremy Clarkson this time, but James May, for a fabricated sequence in which he's blocked in traffic by a bunch of learner drivers whilst trying to road-test a classic Ferrari. It turns out this was actually filmed more than two years ago and it was instructors, not learners, driving the cars. Was anyone surprised?

I have long been a fan of Top Gear but who still takes it seriously? As far as I can see, it's a sitcom. Any resemblance to a motoring programme past or present is purely coincidental. The presenters have become parodies of themselves: the brash, opinionated head of the household; the young, preening one; and the slow, arts-loving boffin. Even their hairstyles play along: Clarkson is clearly a man stuck in the 70s, May is a free thinker and doesn't care who knows it, Hammond could advertise grooming products. All this is blended with the petrolhead view of cars as representing freedom, far detached from the tax-motorists-till-they-bleed reality of modern Britain. Speed is king, which is why the testosterone-overloaded threesome often head to the open roads of mainland Europe to let rip in shiny supercars - that, and the consequent suntans, and possibly the opportunity to mock their own Britishness and their hosts' foreignness.

Some of the scripting is utterly brilliant. Give a medal to the man (somehow I don't think it was a woman) who wrote the lines by which Stig was introduced each week. And the imagination that lies behind some of the trio's adventures, is right up there with some of the great sitcom scenarios. The cross-channel challenge was excellent, so to the attempt to cross the Bering Sea. James May attaching a caravan to a hot air balloon? Genius. Richard Hammond building his own steam train replacement? I loved it.

My problem is that the programme too often crosses the line into clear "that's made up" territory. I haven't seen the driving lesson episode - it's among a backlog of recordings on my digital box - but recently Hammond and Clarkson filmed themselves directing the second unit of the film The Sweeney. They blew up a mobile home, destroyed several cars, argued about the finer points of traction control, crudely edited the rushes into a ridiculous chase scene (and plugged the film). They also met Ray Winstone and he had no idea who Hammond was. This is a man who, as a recent Pointless question highlighted, was The Star in a Reasonably Priced Car not so long ago. He was thus revealed as an actor, acting. This does beg the question: how many of the other "unwitting participants" in Top Gear are following instructions? Was the impressive train stunt in the India special completely fabricated? Is any of it real? I suspect the answer is that, like many great (and some dire) comedies it is improvised to a loose script, not spontaneous and uncontrolled as they would have us believe.

James May sells us a vision of freedom and ends up constrained, as part of a humorous construct? That seems an apt metaphor for Top Gear itself. Stop thinking so deeply about it, people; just sit back and enjoy the insults and the tyre smoke.