For the first time ever, the famously ludicrous and superbly entertaining British television programme Top Gear is coming to Denmark. Over the years, the show has earned a reputation for testing motor vehicles far beyond the conventional km/litre consumer requirements. Cars on the show have been transformed into boats, houses and trains, used in a race from Italy against a propeller plane, converted into a mobile helicopter landing pad, drowned and rolled. As a crew, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond have used scooters to propel rafts in Vietnam, tested a Range Rover Sport’s performance on a tank testing ground and blamed the population decrease in Sheffield on the 1970s popularity of the three-wheeled Reliant Robin.
Unfortunately, two blows: Richard Hammond is absent because he’s presenting Sport Relief; and they won’t be repeating the stunt in which they prove the durability of the Toyota Hilux diesel by placing it on the roof of a building about to be imploded.
Instead, Jeremy Clarkson and James May will be recreating their unique brand of funny and judgmental commentary, replete with supercars and bizarre vehicle modifications at the stunt arena inside Forum. Ticket sales began on November 11 last year, and extra shows have been added to meet demand. Platinum level tickets include a backstage tour to get up close with the automobiles.
Top Gear’s anonymous stunt driver The Stig will be featured, along with a great deal of pyrotechnics and certainly some destruction. The Stig was in Denmark in early March promoting the event in an Aston Martin Rapide. He drove to a track near Kastrup Airport, where he showed off his skill and gave rides to the daring.
Anders Breinholt, the host of the late night show ‘Natholdet’ on TV2, will also join the live show with Clarkson and May. “I have always been a Top Gear enthusiast, and I believe that I have some stunts in me from my days as an ambulance driver. I am sure that it is going to be four crazy days in Forum, and that is all I am going to reveal for now,” he said in an interview for the event.
Denmark has occasionally suffered in Top Gear for its stifling rules on automobile ownership. In July 2010, Jeremy Clarkson wrote a column about the BoCart, a Danish, more advanced go-cart, commenting: “In fact, on really, really quiet days I have found myself wondering what exactly is the point of Denmark?”
But he has been informed now. “I like bacon. I like Bang & Olufsen. I like Helena Christensen. In fact, I can’t think of a single Danish thing I don’t like and on that basis I’m amazed we haven’t brought our live show to Denmark before,” he said when the event was announced in November.
The exact model names of the supercars and adapted eccentricities on display have been kept under wraps for the event. Whatever turns up, there is sure to be plenty of fire and brilliant gems of commentary, as in the 2007 test of the Ariel Atom, where Clarkson summarises the benefits of not driving a motorbike: “I don’t have to wear a helmet, so my epiglottis is full of bees.”
Top Gear Live
Forum Copenhagen; Julius Thomsens Plads 1, Frederiksberg 1925;
Thu (March 29) 20:00, Fri (March 30) 17:30 & 20:30, Sat (March 31) 14:30 & 17:30, 20:30, Sun (April 1)12:30 & 15:30; tickets 420-1,270kr, contact 7026 3267, www.billetlugen.dk; www.topgearlive.dk
