Top Gear films ‘drive-in show’ with live audience in their cars

Top Gear films ‘drive-in show’ with fans in their cars as it becomes the first major series to return with a live audience

  • The programme was taped at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey on an outdoor stage in front of 500 fans who were all in their cars 
  • The audience adhered to safety measures including temperature checks and parking positions were two metres apart 
  • According to The Guardian, presenters Paddy McGuinnes, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris have been regularly tested for Covid-19 
  • It reportedly took around 150 people three days to create the drive-in and the BBC are so pleased with it, they are considering making it an annual event 

Top Gear has become the first major entertainment series to return to TV with a live audience after the show was recorded in front of fans at a ‘drive-in’.

The programme was taped on an outdoor stage in front of 500 fans who were all in their cars with presenter Paddy McGuinness calling it a ‘Covid-compliant, socially distanced, classic drive-in show’.

According to The Guardian, the show was filmed at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey and the audience adhered to safety measures including temperature checks and parking positions were two metres apart.

Back in action: Top Gear has become the first major entertainment series to return to TV with a live audience after the show was recorded in front of fans at a ‘drive-in’

A marquee was set up for members of the production team who were partitioned into individual areas with plastic.

The publication reports that Paddy and fellow presenters Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris have been regularly tested for Covid-19 and have been served food in resealable bags.

Chris Harris described the show’s new look as a mixture between a low-rent rock festival meets a drive-in cinema from the 1960s.

He said the Top Gear team were ‘blessed we’ve got the chance to do something with a live audience. The producers have come up with some really clever solutions to the problems.’

Event: The programme was taped in front of 500 fans who were all in their cars with presenter Paddy McGuinness calling it a 'Covid-compliant, socially distanced, classic drive-in show'

Event: The programme was taped in front of 500 fans who were all in their cars with presenter Paddy McGuinness calling it a ‘Covid-compliant, socially distanced, classic drive-in show’

Paddy said: ‘If coronavirus wasn’t a thing and the producers suggested filming it outside I’d be thinking that’s not a very good idea. 

‘But I think because people have been kind of cooped up at home they will be excited to be out and at a show surrounded by other people.’

It reportedly took around 150 people three days to create the drive-in and the BBC are so pleased with it, they are considering making it an annual event. 

Top Gear resumed filming following the coronavirus pandemic in June when the presenters emerged from lockdown to reunite at Alton Towers Resort theme park in Staffordshire. 

Distancing: The show was filmed at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey and the audience adhered to safety measures including temperature checks and parking positions were two metres apart

Distancing: The show was filmed at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey and the audience adhered to safety measures including temperature checks and parking positions were two metres apart

While the park may have been closed to customers, Paddy, Chris and Freddie made the most of the empty resort and filmed an electric car race.

It was reported during the summer that Top Gear will use ‘strictly limited’ crews and adhere to government guidelines when it resumes filming, according to the BBC’s Charlotte Moore. 

Ms Moore wrote in The Telegraph: ‘We will work within Government guidelines. Crews will be strictly limited. Cast members will do their own hair and make-up. Social distancing will be in place.’ 

It's back! Top Gear resumed filming in June after the coronavirus pandemic halted the latest series of the hit BBC car show

It’s back! Top Gear resumed filming in June after the coronavirus pandemic halted the latest series of the hit BBC car show

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