Prime Gets Into Top Gear

Prime will screen the new-look Top Gear in HD a week after it premieres in the UK.

The revamped series, which Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc will steer, will air 7.30 Sundays on Prime from June 5.

It will precede the HD special, Cameraman to the Queen, and go to air the same week as a new local lifestyle double bill, Piha Rescue (which previously screened on TV One) and newcomer Crayfishers, which follows the seafaring fortunes of one of Southland’s biggest Maori fishing families (7.30/8.00 Tuesdays from June 7).

Reveals The Daily Mail in its Top Gear preview: “They tune in to watch daring off-road car challenges and 200mph laps in supercars, but fans of Top Gear may not realise that they are often watching stunt doubles …

“LeBlanc’s approach of admitting it ahead of the show is in contrast to his predecessors, including Jeremy Clarkson, who came under fire for ‘fakery’ when the use of stunt doubles was revealed years after popular episodes of the show.”

But LeBlanc has “rubbished” claims of a feud with Evans. “All this stuff that Chris and I are at war with each other is a big load of bullshit. We’ve never had a rift,” LeBlanc told Radio Times.

Meanwhile, the documentary Cameraman to the Queen profiles the Queen’s first personal cameraman, Peter Wilkinson.

According to The Daily Mail, “This programme has certainly helped him see things from a royal perspective, as he remarked to the Queen after a garden party. She said, ‘Have they stopped filming that film about you yet?’ I said, ‘I know what it feels like now, Ma’am.'”