Chris Harris Labelled as Next Jeremy Clarkson As Top Gear Series Released
The latest episode of Top Gear was released to the BBC yesterday evening and the reviews are already pouring in. For years since Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May left, the new hosts have constantly been compared to them. The current presenters Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff, and Chris Harris are getting the same treatment, with the Telegraph labelling Harris as Clarkson.
The Telegraph write:
“Harris has become Top Gear’s purring engine and it’s perhaps no coincidence that as each series passes, his delivery and presentation style becomes a little more Clarkson. The satisfied low growl as a motor car pleases him, that easy manner of chatting to the in-car camera and, most of all, that… slightly hesitant… grandstanding delivery… which always ends… with a flourish.”
When Harris first joined McGuinness and Flintoff in 2017, he was known as the ‘car nerd’ whereas the other two were more well-known and big personalities there to bring the viewers in. Since being on the show, Harris has quickly become a fan favourite for his passion and knowledge of the cars.
Top Gear has always been praised for its crazy stunts and fun adventures abroad, but also for the more serious moments where fans could see a motoring journalist get into a car and genuinely be excited about it. Chris Harris brings that to the table out of the three current hosts, and fans are loving it.
The segments of the show where Harris can delve into a car review and enjoy to drive the cars around the Top Gear track take viewers back to the Clarkson days and many can see the similarities, but many would argue that Harris still has his own style rather than branding him the same as Clarkson.
Harris has been in the motoring industry for years, and many car nuts were very excited by the announcement of him joining the Top Gear team. Harris has written for many automotive magazines including Evo and Autocar as well as presenting car reviews on his own YouTube channel, Chris Harris On Cars. In 2016, his YouTube channel was officially moved from YouTube to the Top Gear website and was later launched on BBC America.
Throughout his automotive journalism career, Harris has crossed paths with Clarkson, Hammond, and May many times and has even become close friends with at least May, so we imagine he wouldn’t be too upset with the labelling.
During the latest episode, the first of series 33, McGuinness, Flintoff, and Harris went to Thailand where Harris took the Rimac Nevera out for a road test. As he takes the hypercar out, Harris’ delivery to the in-car camera is in the ‘classic car journalist’ form with the right amount of pauses and excitement.
During the review, Harris says:
“The Nevera has a combined power output of just under 2,000 horsepower. That is… a lot.”
The Telegraph felt this was very Clarkson of Harris, writing:
“It was a classic right out of the Clarkson songbook. When Harris’s voiceover began the next scene with “and it doesn’t stop there…”, the audience could have mouthed the words along with him.”
The rest of the episode is filled with the usual funny moments and great chemistry between the presenters as they race modified pick-up trucks around a circuit close to Bangkok.
What do you think? Is Chris Harris bringing the same motoring journalism as Jeremy Clarkson, or do you think he brings something a bit different to the table?
