Top Gear Patagonia Special.....

[ToraToraTora]

http://gavindrake.co.uk/2014/11/11/argie-bargie-foi-act-request-discloses-truth-behind-top-gears-h982-fkl-car/
It seems the Clarkson, The BBC and Top gear were being honest when they said the plate was coincidental. Looks like the Argentines would not listen to reason. Just watched this and the actions of the locals was disgusting. Just thought you'd like to know the truth.

[Dizmo]

I watched it yesterday on BBC Iplayer and thought the same TTT. Clarkson can be so annoying at times (most people will say all the time) but this time they generally feared for their life. The film crew were hounded and pelted with eggs then rocks - I'm shocked the police couldn't of done more than they did. They were just looking after their own I suppose.

I was really looking forward to the car football as well.

[andy-hughes]

I have absolutely no time for Top Gear or its presenters, but I saw Richard Hammond interviewed about this situation, and he said that there was no way they would risk their lives, and those of their crew for such a stupid stunt, and his sincerity was so palpable that I had no trouble at all believing him.

[Mick-the-Miller]

I thought the whole program was stupid - the presenters were trying to be funny but they just came across as ridiculous. I refuse to believe that the whole number plate thing was a set up and manufactured by the desperate crew who realised the rest of the program was absolutely dire!

A complete Turkey!

[Mick-the-Miller]

...of course I meant to say I refuse to believe the whole number plate stuff was NOT a set up!

[Retrochic]

I dislike intensely this programme and its overgrown schoolboy presenters and when OH and son watch it I have to leave the room. It was, like everything else they do, a set up that went wrong,this time a bit more wrong than they anticipated which initiated an almost sincere denial of any wrong doing. Like the 'N' word incident, and winding up USA citizens in the bible belt. I doubt any of the idiots could lie straight in bed. They should all change their names to richard and join the cranium family.

[ToraToraTora]

did you read the link mick/retro? DVLA confirmed the plate was on the car when first registered, explain how it could be a set up? The whole program was excellent and I would have loved to have seen the car football but the argentine mob saw to that.

[chrissa1]

The whole thing [was] set up, imho but, by the Production Team. I think they found the car number plate on a Porche and decided that they would base the programme around, old Sports Cars.

The whole programme was dire, apart from the last 10 minutes.

[Zacs-Master]

I think I agree with chrissa. Just because the plate is original to the car doesn't mean the production team didn't find it and base the whole programme around it.

[jd_1984]

The locals really did appear to act disgracefully.
I want to believe that Clarkson the well known antagonist was innocently caught up in this, on this occassion. Even if he himself thought the number plate was amusing, the BBC and the show producers surely would not have let him go ahead with the idea on purpose. BUT how none of the 60 strong crew noticed baffles me some what!

[Baldric]

http://www.theladbible.com/articles/a-second-number-plate-has-been-revealed-in-jeremy-clarkson-s-argentina-porsche

[ToraToraTora]

right so they found a plate and based the whole show around it! PMSL so if the plate was on a lambretta they'd have been doing it on scooters would they? right oh!

[Zacs-Master]

Probably. I don't know why you're being so dismissive of the idea. After 21 series it must be hard to come up with new ideas. Do you really believe non of the cast or crew made the connection?

[Ellipsis]

I agree with chrissa and Z-M - it's likely first came the number plate and car (handily a Porsche), then came the idea ... and it wasn't subtle. Nowhere near as subtle as the slant gag on the previous special, for example.

That said, having watched the program, the number plate seemed to have little to do with the attack and the actions of the locals was disgusting.

[Slapshot]

All very cynical... stick to soaps then folks. I can't quite see how they could "find" the very car they wanted with that number plate... lets type, H982FKL into a search and see what it;'s attached to..... Okay lets run some V8's down through Patagonia to pi$$ off the Argies...

[ToraToraTora]

the plate was everything to do with the attacks, elipsis. someone noticd it and tweeted and it snowballed from there.

[Tuvok]

I remember postin on either here or on DS and asking why they did not just show the logbook there and then.!!!

[Ellipsis]

If that's the case then it excuses the locals' actions a little, TTT ...

[Zacs-Master]

It only takes a researcher, someone in the motor trade who wants to make a few quid or other member of the team to happen upon the plate and then suggest the idea. To think otherwise demonstrates a degree of naïveté

[Slapshot]

Yeah lets excuse some local violence.... off you pop to Patagonia in your nondescript ford focus and see the exact same reaction from these yobs when Brits are around... Belgrano hangs very heavily over Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego and it's populus

[Ellipsis]

Exactly why you should not drive down there in a car with a provocative number plate, with a film crew in tow, whether or not you realised it was a provocative number plate (and they must have).

I did say that the locals' action was "disgusting" and that their knowledge of the number plate only mitigated things "a little", so please don't paint me as some Argie-vigilante-lover ... :)