The Show - Production Notes - Aston versus train
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Aston DB9 vs train race
Welcome to the origin of Top Gear's series of massive cross-Europe races. The premise was simple: if you were thinking of taking a holiday in the south of France, would it be quicker to drive or let the train take the strain? To find out, Jeremy got hold of an Aston DB9 while James and Richard were told to take the French TGV. But first they had to get to it, and they weren't allowed to use anything but public transport. The finish line was Casino Square in Monte Carlo. But getting there proved to be even more exciting than we imagined.
This was the very first of Top Gear's epic races across Europe. As with all of them, the first thing anyone asks is how do we get the pretty shots of the car driving along when we're meant to be under the time pressure of a race. The answer is that, once the race is over, the director and film crew take a couple of days to retrace the route and get more arty shots to fill in the gaps between all the on-the-fly stuff. So now you know.
The day before the race the DB9 was involved in a little 'incident' which ripped off the driver's door mirror. Cue a frantic dash back to Aston's base in Warwickshire for it to be repaired, and then a midnight run back to the Top Gear base, ready for the race start a few hours later.
As part of the meticulous planning for this race, the production team worked out that Richard and James would start with a tedious walk to a bus stop up the road from the Top Gear studio. It was only several months later that we found there's another bus stop that's actually quite a bit nearer. Oops.
This was the first time that James explicitly refused to run on television. The result of which was that he and Richard nearly missed the train from Paris to Nice.
The finish line was set as the cafe in Monaco's Casino Square, and arrangements were made to film there. One of the production team had gone on ahead, and turned up to find the manager denying all knowledge of any filming permission. Thankfully he changed his mind just minutes before Jeremy arrived, so long as the whole crew agreed to eat there later.
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