Top Ground Gear Force
| Top Ground Gear Force | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Presented by |
Jeremy Clarkson Richard Hammond James May |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 1 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | 720x576 |
| Original release | 14 March 2008 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
Top Gear, Ground Force |
Top Ground Gear Force is a one-off TV special, featuring the cast of BBC's Top Gear, which originally aired on BBC Two at 22:00 GMT on 14 March 2008 as part of Sport Relief 2008. It was repeated on Easter Monday, 2008.
It borrowed its format from Top Gear of the Pops, a similar one off special which aired as part of Comic Relief 2007. Whereas Top Gear of The Pops combined Top Gear with Top of the Pops, this episode combines the motoring show with Ground Force, a gardening makeover show which ran on the BBC from 1998 to 2005.
Regular Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond take over sportsman Steve Redgrave's garden, to dispense advice on creating a zero maintenance lawn, installing an impressive water feature and getting rid of unwanted plants. Naturally, disaster ensues. Top Ground Gear Force was then included as a page in the 2009 Big Book of Top Gear, giving advice to garden problems including concreting the garden over, petrol bombs and flash fires.
Like Top Gear of the Pops, the title screen and music is changed to suit the programme. Instead of having cars in the background, images of gardening were shown instead. The images bore a strong resemblance to the Top Gear title screen (e.g. dirt coming out of a spinning pot, similar to a car wheel spinning and kicking up water from the ground) Hammond was seen pushing a spade into the ground, and then holding it over his shoulder. May was seen holding a wheelbarrow, and breaking a gnome in half (in replacement of him pushing a button on a remote control in the Top Gear title screen). Clarkson was seen with a pair of open hedge trimmers, which he then snaps shut.
The Top Gear ending credits are also adapted to suit the programme's resemblance to Ground Force – the presenters' names were listed as Alan Clarkson, Handy Hammond and Charlie May (references to Ground Force presenters Alan Titchmarsh, Tommy Walsh and Charlie Dimmock respectively). The rest of the crew were all listed as having the first name "Monty". This 'mocking' was also used in special editions such as the Top Gear Polar Special, in which the presenters' first names were changed to 'Sir Ranulph', as a reference to Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
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