Aptly named, the special ‘One for the road’ follows the trio across Zimbabwe in cars they’ve always wanted to own, and will be streamed in over 240 territories. It is important to know that this marks the end of an era for television as Top Gear still holds the Guinness World Record for most widely viewed factual TV show in the world and was, before they moved to amazon prime, one of the BBC’s most profitable shows to date.
All this being said, the reason I am emotional for the end of Top Gear, I think is the same as many people’s. I grew up with this show, its actually older than I am so I have literally never known a world without it. Before my family moved to the UK, we used to watch the show every Monday after coming back from Scouts and it was one of the few moments I remember us being together as a family every week, work and school and stress forgotten for a half hour or so.
Top Gear is ending with their new special ‘One for the road’, and though they will be remembered for the numbers they achieved and the controversy that followed them, I think they will largely be remembered fondly by people who have personal stories with the show, by people who used it to learn English, by people who used to watch it with their families, and by people who followed and loved the show for 22 years. I do suspect that it will even be missed by people who actual like cars.
