Top Gear: Vietnam Special
| Top Gear: Vietnam Special | |
|---|---|
| Presented by |
Jeremy Clarkson Richard Hammond James May |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Running time |
TV cut 75 minutes Additional Separate DVD Deleted Scenes 10 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | 720x576, anamorphic 16:9, Standard Definition |
| Original release | 28 December 2008 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Top Gear |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
Top Gear: Vietnam Special is a special 75-minute episode for BBC motoring program Top Gear, and was first broadcast on 28 December 2008, as part of the final episode for the twelfth series, with the special repeated for UK TV channel Dave, initially in an edited, 46 minute version on 19 January 2009, but later revised to a 90-minute format following complaints by viewers. The special sees hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, travelling 1,000 miles (1,600 km) across Vietnam with motorbikes, beginning from Hồ Chí Minh City (Saigon), travelling north towards Hạ Long city, and finishing at a floating bar within Hạ Long Bay, a journey that had to be completed within eight days.
Unlike normal episodes of Top Gear, in which the challenges were related to the abilities of the vehicles reviewed, such as the Toyota Hilux in the Top Gear Polar Special, producer Andy Wilman admitted that "the narrative of the film is a bit more skewed towards the three guys."
Arriving at Saigon, the presenters were each given a shoe box containing 15 million Vietnamese đồng to buy a vehicle with for an upcoming challenge. Although ecstatic about their budget, it quickly transpired that the amount they each had was the equivalent of around $1,000 (at the time of filming), which soon led to all three discovering that both new and second-hand cars were completely out of their price range; a standard Fiat 500 that May attempted to buy was around 560,000,000₫ (£17,239.60). Clarkson reasoned that it would be impossible to get a car of any kind due to them being only recently introduced and the heavy import costs as a result, leading Hammond and May to reasonably suggest, much to his chargrin, that they should purchase a motorbike, as many of Vietnam's inhabitants relied on them greatly. Upon making their purchases, the trio met at a museum containing American military equipment used during the Vietnam conflict - Hammond bought a Belarusian-built 125 cc Two-stroke Minsk, May opted for a four-stroke Honda Super Cub and Clarkson purchased a two-stroke green 1967 Piaggio Vespa. With bikes purchased, the trio quickly learnt that their challenge was to journey across the country from Saigon to the Hạ Long City in the north of Vietnam within eight days, a feat that the Americans couldn't achieve during the Vietnam War.
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