The original Top Gear was a boring old magazine show. It aired in 1977. Imagine a world without The Stig – pretty bleak, right?
Jeremy Clarkson didn’t join that version until much later. He wasn’t there at the very beginning, scribbling notes about fuel economy.
No, his first appearance was in 1988. That’s right – 1988. A full eleven years after the show started. Classic Clarkson, always fashionably late.
The “Unknown” Years
He wasn’t even a full-time presenter at first. He was just a freelancer, a cheeky journalist from Sheffield who wrote for car magazines.
Can you imagine him being an extra? “Um, excuse me, Jeremy, please stop yelling at the camera.” It’s almost impossible to picture.
But he got a big break in 1990. The BBC asked him to co-host the show full-time. And the world of television hasn’t been the same since.
Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear
1990 is your magic number then. That’s when the Clarkson era truly began. The era of “POWWWERRR” and questionable opinions about the Ford Focus.
