Top Gear Australia returns with a new cast, plenty of cars, thrills and spills along the way. B&T caught up with the stars of the show to find out their highlights, challenges and what they really thought about each other.
The Paramount+ show stars Jonathan LaPaglia, Beau Ryan, Blair ‘Moogs’ Joscelyne and The Stig, as they put the pedal to the metal across the world in a myriad of hot sports cars and some rather ropey automobiles.
The new series is fronted by actor and Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia; former footy star and Amazing Race presenter Beau Ryan; and musician, film producer and star of the YouTube series Mighty Car Mods, Blair ‘Moogs’ Joscelyne.
The boys visit South America, Rome, the Swiss Alps, Japan, France, Austria and Albion Park, among other beautiful spots.
Celebrities, including UFC champ Alexander Volkanovski, former politician Julie Bishop, fashion entrepreneur Pip Edwards and Ian Smith (Harold from Neighbours) also do hot laps in a ‘reasonably priced sports car’, in this case a Subaru BRZ.
B&T caught up with Ryan, Joscelyne, LaPaglia and executive producer Ciaran Flannery to find out more about what it was really like filming Top Gear Australia, their highlights and whether they got along with each other. The banter and chemistry between the trio did not disappoint, here are the highlights of that conversation.
B&T: How well did you guys know each other leading into the series and how well do you know each other now?
Blair ‘Moogs’ Joscelyne (Blair): We know each other too well, now. We hadn’t met each other before we did this. And they literally had thrown us into the deep end. But the thing is, when you’re travelling with people in your planes, trains, cars, you get to know each other very, very well. And you get to know Beau Ryan very, very well, maybe better than you need to know. But ultimately, you’re in other countries, you’re driving amazing cars, you’re having an adventure, and that shared experience means that we got really close really quickly.
Jonathan LaPaglia (JP): Blair only owns one pair of socks.
Beau Ryan (Beau): I think the Columbia episode sums up the series. Yes, it is about the cars. We drove some wonderful cars, but we celebrated a bit of the history of the area, visited local communities and plugged into the local culture. And we’re just three mates travelling. It was hot. It surprisingly got very cold. The air (up the mountain) was very thin. They were long days, but it was worth it. It can be gruelling and hard. We’ve had breakdowns and language barriers, but it’s just so much fun.
B&T: How gruelling is filming a TV series like Top Gear that requires a lot of travelling in a short period of time?
JP: What I found surprising was how many times we had to move hotels like we’re almost a different hotel every night. What you don’t realise when you watch the show, I certainly didn’t realise you’re literally you get up in you get up in the morning you’re out shooting, start shooting at seven in the morning until sundown and then just another couple of hours travelling to the next hotel and then you rinse and repeat do the same thing. A couple times from like be in a hotel for like two nights that was luxury
Blair: “When we’re in Colombia, there was lots of distance that had to be travelled. So you might get back to our hotel at 10 o’clock at night, get some food in, and then the next day you kind of get up at five and you’re going again.
JP: I just said that…
Blair: But what I’m saying is when you are in the hotel you are there for a few hours and filming is about four or five months.
JP: Can you come up with something original to say, like what the hell? It’s four months of this, I say something that is actually on point and then he just rephrases it.
Blair: Yeah it was four months of this, it was hard work too because he’s (pointing at JP) is intense.
Beau: A little bit psycho too.
B&T: Alright then, moving along, how would you describe each other in one word?
JP: Blair is Mr Happy, Beau is Mr Dopey, and I am Mr Grumpy.
Beau: Jonathan in a word, he’s very professional, but he’s intense. Blair is, erm, not professional and he’s very experienced and talented, but he’s overwhelming. Have you had those days where the walls are caving in, with Blair everything is constantly caving in. He’s a flame thrower, when he speaks he’s just flame-throwing the whole area and luckily I have a fire extinguisher.
Blair: I’m going to call Jonathan a professional brooder.
Beau: I already said that, and that’s two words, plus what’s a brooder?
Blair: Brooding, it’s why the older women like him, they like that sexiness.
Beau: Younger women like him too.
Blair: No they don’t. Beau is an emotional tornado. He is all over the place. There’s a centredness to Beau that is quite calm. But that’s all the way in the middle. Everything outside of that is a mess. And about myself, these guys actually gave me this term during shooting, I’m enthusiastically delusional.
B&T: When watching the Colombian episode, it felt like the camaraderie and banter was similar to the Clarkson, Hammond and May era of Top Gear UK, but obviously you have your personalities. Is that what you were going for?
JP: There’s a big compliment. Thank you. Well, I think the in terms of the way the format is structured, I think we’ve we’ve we have, what we’re doing is a bit of a throwback to that original Top Gear, I think the UK one has evolved into something a bit different, but we’ve kind of tried to routes that format. But having said that, you know, we are who we are. And I think we bring our own flavour. And so we’re certainly not trying to emulate those guys.
Blair: We didn’t really think about it like that. And I think it was important not to kind of go there with character profiles, and you’ve got to try and fulfil those because that I think is limiting. Certainly I didn’t think about, are you meant to be the grumpy one. You’re the crazy one and on the YouTuber.
B&T: Given the era that we are in and the rise of electric cars, will you be reviewing many of them?
JP: We do a whole story in Dallas actually on Evie pickups. And then Blair actually does some power tests on them.
Ciaran Flannery: We do a whole bunch of those cars and every single one of these EVs are unbelievable cars. Back in those Clarkson days, they were quite happy to kind of mock EVs back. But time has moved on and they are the future and we can’t be a show that just just worships petrol engines. You know, it’s we worship cars,
Blair: And super quick we had the sounds like it would be a good thing until you realise you have to be in a car with JP. Because most of the time we drive by ourselves, which is okay. But, I spent a day with JP in a car doing a race from Monaco to St Tropez in an electric car. And they’re amazing. I hadn’t had much experience with electric cars. And I think a lot of people might say, ‘I don’t want a microwave because I prefer my barbecue’. But once you try a microwave, they can be very efficient.
B&T: What was the highlight of the series for you and your favourite car to drive?
Blair: I had an incredible experience when we’re in Rome. And this is the thing when you’re making a show at this scale, that they managed to actually close streets down or just drive through. So I had a Maserati supercar. And I had a police escort and travelling to different locations, I was able to drive through the town, at speeds and with access that is unimaginable. It felt like playing a computer game and actually driving through the streets, which was amazing. I also really loved going to Colombia with the boys because we had cars that were not that reliable. I think one of my favourite cars was a little old Reno that I drove around in Colombia and one of my favourite locations was Rome.
Beau: This is probably to be a bit sentimental. We have an episode where we drive the cars that we idolised growing up and I had a Porsche 911 poster on my wall as a kid. To come back to Albion Park where I lived and film driving a Porsche 911 in those streets where I grew up, played footy, went to school was a moment that I really cherished. The supercars were always great, but I had a lot of fun in the movie. I did. I was in a Hummer EV had it in launch control and just sent it and absolutely smoked that guy from Texas beating him by about 400 yards.
JP: I really love the Columbia episode, it was just a fantastic adventure from top to bottom. But I’m gonna say that we did an LA story that I really liked. I live there. So it kind of really spoke to me. And I got to meet Jay Leno, and interview him and see his entire collection. And then we went downtown and looked at the lowrider culture, which I loved. But the best car that I drove in the series was the Bugatti – a million dollar car.
Beau: It’s one of the places that really just ticks every box. It is wonderful. So to be there for so long with these guys and go to places that we haven’t even heard of before where there’s literally no English, it was eye opening. It was wonderful to experience it with them.
Blair: I got an idea of the scale of the show when we’re in Colombia when they closed an airport for us. And when you are in Rome, they closed part of the city for you. They closed Mt Vesuvius in one episode as well.
B&T: Outside of the show, what is your favourite car to drive?
JP: It’s probably the car that I currently drive a 73 Dodge Challenger that I built.
Beau: You can see in the Columbia I’m a bit of a Jeep guy. My wife drives a Q7 and Ive been in Audi’s a bit recently. We had a Q7 that was a lot of fun driving so I’m just waiting for that to come down a bit in price.
Blair: There’s 35 cars in the garage currently. So there’s a lot of different cars and a lot of different styles. What I’ve been driving at the moment is I’ve got a modified Suzuki Swift Sport, early 2000s, and I got it for $6,000. It’s modified almost exclusively with Japanese parts, such as wheels, coilovers and seats. I took that out to the track the other day. It just reminded me how much fun it is to have a small underpowered car with really grippy tires.
B&T: There have been some tragedies with hosts of Top Gear in the UK, the tragic accidents involving Richard Hammond and Freddy Flintoff. Does this cross your mind and how do you ensure the safety or hosts and manage that risk?
Ciaran: Top Gear is a show that has been around for a long time, we’re really lucky to be working with BBC Worldwide in making the show. And the standard of health and safety is of another level is fantastically safe. The degree of precaution is taken on every stunt, every drive on every motorway and convoys. It’s hugely complex and extremely detailed about the level of health and safety. You can never eliminate all risk in anything we do in life. But I don’t think you could do more working with the safety consultants from the BBC in the UK and from here to make it any safer.
Beau: I’ve been in and around TV now for about 16 years and with all of the safety briefings and seeing how they look after the safety around you, I’ve never felt more safe. Yes, it’s organised chaos, there’s a lot of moving parts and we push the limits on occasions, but I didn’t really feel unsafe. I’m a young dad, I’ve got a family at home and yes, it does cross your mind. If push came to shove, and you needed to break or you needed to pull out or something, that’s what we did.
B&T: Final question, who is the best driver?
Blair: I would say the quickest is definitely Jonathan.
Beau: Blair is a terrific driver, confident at all times whether it’s on-road or off-road – everywhere. But Jonathan, he’s got balls of steel and is sending cars in places where I’m pulling out.
Blair: I’m a Swiss army knife, I’ve got all sorts of skills there, Jonathan is a machete slicing it up and Beau is a machine gun.
Ciaran: Can I settle this, raise your arms if you crashed a car, and also if it’s worth more than half a million dollars?
B&T noticed only one of three hosts had raised their hands, but believes it would be remiss to reveal their identity ahead of time. Watch Top Gear Australia on Paramount+ to find out more.
