Christopher Robert Goffey (born 17 October 1945)Debrett's
is an English journalist and television personality, best known as a presenter of the

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motoring television series ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

''. He was with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

since the mid-1980s and worked with two motoring programmes (''The Motor Show'' and ''Wheeltracks'') before returning to ''Top Gear''. He has worked on many different corporate, instructional, and motivational films for a variety of clients.

Early life

Goffey was born in

Bury, Lancashire Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015. The town is within the Historic counties of Englan ...

. From 1965 he honed his skills with the Ruislip Northwood Post, the Bucks Advertiser (now the

Bucks Herald ''The Bucks Herald'' is a weekly newspaper, published every Wednesday and covering Aylesbury and its surrounding villages in the Aylesbury Vale area of Buckinghamshire, England. It was first published on 7 January 1832. History At its launch t ...

), and the ''

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

Evening Mail''.

Motoring press

Between 1972 and 1977 Goffey worked as a member of the editorial team of Britain's '' Autocar'' magazine, where for five years his responsibilities included the news pages. Recognition came in 1975 when he was designated News Editor. Leaving Autocar in 1977, he obtained his own editorship with the journal ''Motor Trader''. He is a member of the

Guild of Motoring Writers A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

Top Gear

Goffey's first foray into television was on the

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

series ''Drive In'' and its successor ''Wheels'' in the late 1970s but in 1981 he crossed over to the BBC to join Top Gear. His demeanour was deliberately understated, calm, and practical when dealing with all road tests on ''Top Gear''. His beard, formal attire, and common sense were a direct foil to the more in-your-face antics of his colleague

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...

. During a race among all the ''Top Gear'' presenters in

SEAT Ibiza The SEAT Ibiza is a supermini car that has been manufactured by Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since 1984. It is SEAT's best-selling car. The Ibiza is named after the Spanish island of Ibiza and was the second SEAT model to be named after a Spani ...

s in 1996, Clarkson noted that the last time Goffey had been on a track, he had been "tearing the tyres off an

Audi 80 The Audi 80 is a compact executive car produced by the Audi subdivision of the Volkswagen Group across four generations from 1966 to 1996. It shared its platform with the Volkswagen Passat from 1973 to 1986 and was available as a saloon, and s ...

Later career

Goffey was one of the presenters, alongside

Richard Hammond Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, mechanic, and writer. He is best known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and Jame ...

and

Brendan Coogan Brendan Coogan (born 17 July 1970) is a British television and radio presenter, from Middleton, Greater Manchester. In January 1999, Coogan briefly presented the BBC TV motoring programme ''Top Gear'', following the departure of former host Jer ...

, on the first series of Dream Deals, a motoring show which aired on the

Men & Motors Men & Motors was a men's lifestyle television channel in the UK. It was the last remaining station operated by the former Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, set up by Granada Television (now part of ITV plc) and satellite broadcaster Briti ...

channel, in 2001. In a May 2007 Top Gear Magazine column (now removed),

suggested that he would like Goffey back on the programme and would prefer a more serious approach but that the audience wanted them to "cock about".

Personal life

Goffey is the father of music video director Nic Goffey and

Supergrass Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz (lead vocals, guitar) and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn (bass, backing vocals) and Danny Goffey ( ...

drummer

Danny Goffey Daniel Robert Goffey (born 7 February 1974) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the drummer and backing vocalist for Supergrass. He briefly toured with Babyshambles in 2010, following their drummer's departure. C ...

. He married Linda Nolan in north-west Surrey in 1969. They live in

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a planned move to Didcot, the district's largest town. The a ...

, and have three grandchildren through son Danny.

References

External links

Chris Goffey profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goffey, Chris Living people 1945 births English television personalities English television presenters People from Bury, Greater Manchester People from South Oxfordshire District Top Gear people