Top Gear

As my family knows, I have zero interest in cars. Once, a friend picked me up in her new car for lunch. Later, I mention this to Kenneth and he asked, "What model is it?"

Me: "Err..."

Kenneth: "Brand? What did the logo look like? Do you at least know if it's a Japanese or continental car?"

Me: "..."

Kenneth (underwhelmed by my powers of observation): "Big? Small?"

Me (in a desperate attempt to sound intelligent): "Oh, oh, I know the colour - it's silver!" (Pause) "Or beige."

It would therefore surprise you to know that lately, our favourite family tv show is a car show. This is even more unfathomable considering there's only one real driver in our household. Among the other three,

• one can't drive (Andre)
• one really hates to drive (me)
• and one has no desire to drive (Lesley-Anne)

And yet we all clamour in front of the telly to catch this hour-long motor show. It's called Top Gear and we love it because of its dry Brit wit. To give you an example, when one of the hosts Jeremy Clarkson was reviewing a car, he said, "There's space in the back for two children. And room in the boot for two more. A real family saloon."

In another episode, he was listing the features of a new car model and when asked if it was green, the camera zoomed into a close-up shot of the car with a dramatic voice-over: "No. It is red."

As you would expect, I don't watch the show for its cars - I watch it because it is possibly one of the funniest comedies on tv today. Each episode typically features a challenge of sorts - either a race or a competition to build some sort of car. This inevitably leads to some wacky concoction or accident, with hilarious results.

The show has become such a big hit that the hosts now practically get away with murder... literally. In some episodes, they annihilate quite a few cars. The challenges have also  become more outrageous, anything from constructing their own stretch limos and motor homes to racing against a fighter jet.

So if you're bored and looking for something to watch, you might like to tune in to this car show on BBC Knowledge. You don't even need to be a car enthusiast to enjoy it.

Here's an excerpt of an episode where the hosts had to transform cars into boats and sail them across a lake.