Series 17 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 a ...

during 2011, consisting of six episodes that were aired between 26 June and 31 July. This series' highlights included the presenters making their own trains with cars and caravans, and using second-hand military vehicles to demolish houses. The seventeenth series faced criticism over its review of electric cars by attempting to mislead viewers.

Episodes

Criticism

The seventeenth series faced criticism following the broadcast of its final episode, over two elements in their Electric Cars review film. The first complaint focused on criticism of the presenters

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...

and

James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme '' Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from 2003 until 2015. He also ...

for parking their cars into two disabled parking spaces. Executive producer

Andy Wilman Andrew Neville Wilman (born 16 August 1962) is an English television producer who is best known as the former executive producer of the ''Top Gear'' show, from 2002 to 2015, as well as being the executive producer of ''The Grand Tour''. He was r ...

defended the presenters in an online blog on this matter, revealing that both had expressed deep concerns it would create a disrespectful impression, but only used the spaces when the car park's owner gave permission, adding that there had been three other disabled parking spaces available, before apologising to any viewers that had been upset by the scene. The second complaint was made by several parties, including

Nissan , trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun bra ...

, electric car enthusiasts and newspapers when it transpired that a

Nissan Leaf The , stylized as LEAF, is a compact five-door hatchback battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufactured by Nissan. It was introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, and its second generation was introduced in October 2017. The Lea ...

that had run out of charge, and required pushing in a scene in the film, had been run down to around 40% of its capacity before the car's test drive, leading to criticism on the programme's view on electric cars. Wilman rejected claims that the show was misleading viewers about the Leaf's charge and range, and stood by the consumer points that were raised in the film.

Notes

The viewing figures shown in the Episode Table above, are a combination of the figures from the BBC Two broadcast and the BBC HD broadcast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Top Gear (series 17) 2011 British television seasons Top Gear seasons