Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure

Top Gear turned gloomy Sunday nights into celebratory Friday nights.

It made household names of presenters Clarkson, Hammond and May, their unique chemistry and buddy movie antics proving irresistible to a vast global audience. With these three at the helm, Top Gear earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular factual TV show on the planet.

Then, a short while later, it was all gone.

How did a thoroughly sensible little consumer advice programme on cars turn into a global phenomenon in the first place, though? How did it all go wrong? And how did they rise from the ashes as The Grand Tour, and go on to scale even greater heights?