Series 15 of ''

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 ...

'', a British motoring magazine and

factual television Factual television is a genre of non-fiction television programming that documents actual events and people. These types of programs are also described as observational documentary, fly on the wall, docudrama, and reality television. The genre ...

programme, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

and

BBC HD BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...

during 2010, consisting of six episodes that were aired between 27 June and 1 August; the new series was promoted with a special trailer that made use of a clip published on

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. This series saw the replacement of the

Chevrolet Lacetti The Daewoo Lacetti is a compact car manufactured and marketed globally by GM Korea since 2002. The first-generation Lacetti was available as a four-door sedan and five-door station wagon, styled by Pininfarina—and five-door hatchback styled b ...

by the

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as the Reasonably Priced Car. This series' highlights included the creation of home-made

motorhomes A motorhome (or motor coach) is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which offers mobile living accommodation. Features Motorhomes usually have sleeping spaces for two to eight people. Each sleeping space is either fixed or conv ...

, the driving of a modified

Toyota Hilux The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although they ...

up to the active

Eyjafjallajökull Eyjafjallajökull (; ), sometimes referred to by the numeronym E15, is one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, north of Skógar and west of Mýrdalsjökull. The ice cap covers the caldera of a volcano with a summit elevation of . The volcan ...

volcano during one of its eruptions, the testing of budget cars to see if they are suitable for track days, and the production of a tribute to the late

Ayrton Senna Ayrton Senna da Silva (; 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions, World Drivers' Championship in , , and . Senna is one of three Formula One drivers fro ...

. Two compilation episodes featuring the best moments from the fifteenth series, titled "Best of Top Gear", were aired on 8 and 15 August 2010.

Episodes

Best-of episodes

Criticism and Controversy

The fifteenth series faced criticism after the broadcast of the fifth episode, when Clarkson joked during a "News" segment that he had been in cab the other day and truly seen a woman wearing a burka tripping up on a pavement, upon which he could see that under it she was wearing a "red g-string and stockings". Following the broadcast of the episode, the BBC received a number of complaints regarding the joke, with the singer

Lily Allen Lily Rose Beatrice Allen (born 2 May 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. Her music career began in 2005 when she made some of her vocal recordings publi ...

writing on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that the joke was "distasteful", while a Mediawatch spokesperson said that Clarkson "should learn to keep quiet". However, in an article written for ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

'', Antonia Bland defended the presenter's joke, saying that Clarkson had done nothing wrong and that Muslim women who wore a burka had the right to "choose to wear gorgeous lingerie in private", adding that the joke proved a good example of the dangers faced by male drivers trying to concentrate on the road during Summer.

Notes

The viewing figures shown in the Episode Table above (with the exception of the first episode), are a combination of the figures from the BBC Two broadcast and the BBC HD broadcast.

References

External links

Top Gear caught in action. Embarrassing parents.
– Original YouTube video used by the BBC to advertise Season 15. {{Italic title 2010 British television seasons Top Gear seasons