eBay

DVD FEATURES:
Description:
Top Gear: The Specials - Volume 2 "The Great Adventures" features Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May across Africa & Vietnam in two popular special Top Gear episodes.

Botswana Special:
The dynamic trio embark on the perilous quest from a tiny village on the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana that will culminate on the Namibian border. However, the three have to negotiate a dangerous and wildly varied terrain that includes rivers, the Makgadikgadi salt pans and the unforgiving Kalahari Desert.

(Botswana Special aired in the UK series 10, episode 4.)

10x4: Africa - Botswana Special
In a Top Gear special, Jeremy, Richard and James are sent to Africa and each told to buy a second-hand car, which they must drive across the wilds of Botswana. Obstacles facing them include massive salt pans, treacherous rivers and reserves full of animals.

On born-free Top Gear, the boys ditch their draughty aircraft hangar and head for the wide open spaces of Botswana, on a 1,000-mile safari across the spine of Africa. And, as a lesson for the people of Surrey, who think they need a 4x4 just because they live up a lane that sometimes has leaves on it, each of the Top Gear presenters were asked to complete the journey in a normal two-wheel drive car bought for just £1,500.

To reach their destination on the Namibian border, the boys had to negotiate the vast openness and primordial sludge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans, the choking dust of the Kalahari Desert, not to mention the treacherous rivers and hungry wildlife of the Okavango Delta.

Along the way, they encountered more or less every dangerous animal known to man, including hippos, elephants and the apparently testicle-crazed honey badger - as well as petrol shortages, flying vice-presidents and the Stig's African cousin.



Vietnam Special: The boys attempt to travel the entire length of the sprawling country in only eight days but in a unique twist, have to do so using motorcycles! (US Special aired in the UK in series 12, episode 8.) *12x8: Vietnam Special* Top Gear ends the series in epic style as Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May go to Vietnam and are told to travel the entire length of the country in just eight days, thereby achieving what the American military failed to do in ten years. First they must each buy some suitable transport for the trip, but the several million dong they have in their pockets prove to be rather less money than they thought, especially in one of the most expensive car markets in the world.

Cast List:

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy is Top Gear’s figurehead, looming large at the heart of everything Top Gear stands for. He’s the man who made cars interesting even for people who don’t drive thanks to a combination of infectious enthusiasm, polished wit and a realization that most folk don’t want to hear tedious mothering over economy and boot space, they just want to know if it’s fast and makes people fancy you more.

If Top Gear is like the playground gang you always wanted to join, Jeremy is the leader. He’s the oldest, the tallest and he can shout the loudest. Forever ribbing Hammond and May and disagreeing with their

opinions, he’s equally able to take their return fire, particularly when his own pig headedness means that one of his ambitious schemes goes catastrophically wrong.

Jeremy can utterly dismiss and destroy a new car with just one well turned sentence yet when he finds something he likes, no one else can be so boisterously passionate and tell you exactly why you should sell one of your kidneys to get one. That’s why he’s the gaffer.

Richard Hammond

Richard is the closest thing Top Gear has to a pin-up – although let’s face it, the competition ain’t strong – Richard Hammond brings boyish enthusiasm to go with his boyish looks.

Although Jeremy is forever pointing out how short he is, Richard is feistier than Clarkson and May put together which is why he’s always first in line to volunteer for Top Gear’s daftest and most dangerous stunts. He’s been drowned, frozen and struck by lightning, and yet still Richard comes back for more. And his enthusiasm for everything he does is truly infectious.

When Top Gear held a vote to find the Greatest Car In The World, Richard stepped up to nominate the Land Rover, as he would since as he owns several of them. His advocacy was so passionate and well informed that his choice absolutely romped it to win the vote by a mile. Not just a pretty face then.

James May

James is the ‘quiet one’, a well-mannered and thoroughly decent chap who often despairs of Jeremy’s obsession with screeching round deserted airfields at a million miles per hour. As such, he’s the perfect foil to the boisterous Clarkson and excitable Hammond.

James is a man of simple pleasures, never happier than when he’s thumbing through Auto Trader looking for a splendid old Bentley he can dream of buying or sitting at the bar in his local with a pint of brown beer and the crossword.

James gives Top Gear an underplayed wit and a quiet dignity, as well an added air of authority that only comes when you employ a bloke who genuinely goes home after the show to spend the evening cleaning up bits of his old motorbike over the bath.

The Stig's African cousin