Top Gear
Rating: 
The Lakes of Simon Reeve
Rating:
Eddie Kidd: now there’s a name to conjure with. He was once Britain’s answer to The Fonz, Evel Knievel and Donny Osmond all rolled into one.
There wasn’t much competition for the title, it’s true, but for a while in the 1970s, Eddie was the coolest person in the country.
While still in his teens, he had the look of a model with the style of a singer and motorbike stunts that were a step above the rest.
Top Gear (BBC1) honored the legendary motorcyclist with a beautiful half-hour show that culminated in some remarkable petrol-fuelled aerials.
Top Gear (BBC1) gave Eddie Kidd a half-hour of tribute (pictured).
Eddie is pictured here with Paddy McGuiness, one of Top Gear’s three presenters
Eddie, now at 62 years old, was involved in a terrible accident in 1996. He crashed into a tree and fell, resulting in him being in serious brain injury for the next three months. He speaks today with difficulties, sometimes with Len as his translator.
But the man’s burning desire for adventure has not been extinguished. He lives on the South Coast — and it could be a good thing he no longer rides bikes, because he still looks as if he’d jump the English Channel if he could, using the White Cliffs of Dover for a ramp.
Presenter Paddy McGuinness talked about how, as a boy, he idolised Eddie, before picking the highlights of his career — including a frankly insane leap across the Great Wall of China, into a Great Wall of Cardboard Boxes for a safety net.
We have seen similar tributes before, on Amazon’s The Grand Tour, commemorating racing legends such as Jim Clark and Niki Lauda. But Paddy’s salute had a warmth and generosity that Clarkson and his crew couldn’t match.
Eddie is pictured here with Paddy McGuiness, one of Top Gear’s three presenters
The show culminated in a remarkably moving display of petrol-fuelled acrobatics
Paddy was weeping as the monster trucks made somersaults in fire hoops at the end. ‘I think it were the petrol fumes,’ he claimed.
With his co-stars Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris, Paddy’s version of this veteran series is far better when they don’t try to emulate the arrogance and sneer of their predecessors.
They got off to a shaky start with a segment on top-of-the-range sports cars — announcing at the outset that the Porsche 911 is best, then leaving it in the garage while they tested an Alfa, a McLaren and an Aston.
Only after they had given the keys to F1 race drivers at Silverstone, did speed trials become interesting. That’s another piece of generosity that it’s difficult to imagine from Jeremy Clarkson.
Simon Reeve, a stubby mop-topped man with a moustache, was shocked by the supercar parade that he saw as he drove through Cumbria on The Lakes. (BBC2). ‘That’s a car worth as much as a house,’ he grumbled.
Simon Reeve went to BBC2 in order to showcase the magnificent lakes of Cumbria
He admired more a £1.5 billion nuclear submarine in dry dock at Barrow-in-Furness: ‘It’s like a cross between a spaceship and a dolphin.’
We will never see a series called Simon Reeve’s Secrets Of The Rich And Famous. He is drawn to people struggling to make a living — and few can have a tougher life than 18-year-old Angus, fighting to keep his family farm going after the death of both his parents in the past two years.
Two 17-year old school friends helped him get up every morning at 5 a.m. and work late each night. ‘Just got to get on with it,’ he says. ‘The animals still need feeding and looking after.’
Simon’s boyish enthusiasm and naive charm encourage even the most taciturn farmers to open up. ‘You don’t have to keep it in, you burly chap,’ he told one, a breeder of fell ponies.
He couldn’t help envying the horses’ flowing manes. ‘It’s quite the look, an incredible head of hair and a bit of a moustache,’ he said.
He couldn’t help envying the horses’ flowing manes. ‘It’s quite the look, an incredible head of hair and a bit of a moustache,’ he said.
It is likely that the ponies thought the same thing.