Top Gear Live Hall 3, HCEC Reviewed: Saturday, February 21, 1.30pm
Billed as a live-action stunt spectacular, the show kicked off with presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and 'the Stig' screeching into Hall 3 in their favourite cars, before being joined by Hong Kong racing driver Marchy Lee. They seemed to be dis-Mayed, however as 'Captain Slow' (aka James May) was 'lost somewhere in Wan Chai', the presenters claimed.
The performances were at times loud, lively and sometimes well-rehearsed, ranging from an interactive lap of the Top Gear track, a French motorbike stunt troupe (below) performing in the Colander of Death (a 5-metre steel cage where up to four bikers rotated, hamster-like in unison) to a car-football match, where Hong Kong pipped England, 4-3.
Drafted in as a celebrity driver and translator, Marchy Lee was happy to act as part-time translator and general fall-guy in some car-related pranks.
Much banter ensued, with the presenters taking turns to be the butt of jokes - some obviously rehearsed - and many of them (Clarkson quips, in particular) of a positively adult nature.
'So far we've been to Dublin, Johannesburg, Sydney and Hong Kong. Think of it as a tour of places we [Britain] used to own,' Clarkson said.
