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Sunday, March 1st marks the last of the current series of Top Gear - nearly 44 years after the first edition. Memories of the programme are often defined by the first presenter you recall, rather in the manner of your favourite Doctor Who. Some will recall Noel Edmonds, who seemed to really dislike the Strada and whose report incurred the wrath of Fiat GB. Others will always associate the programme with Chris Goffey. Sue Baker or Frank Pope. And, of course, there was the great William Woollard of subsequent "Woollarding" fame, seen here reviewing a Lada, an FSO, a Yugo and a Skoda.

However, the original presenters were Tom Coyne, who some readers will remember presenting Midlands Today, and Angela Rippon. Top Gear was shown only in the Midlands region, and on Friday the April 22nd 1977 readers of the Birmingham Post were urged to tune in to BBC1 at 1045pm for a new motoring programme. TG was 'scheduled to appear monthly for the rest of the year' and the BBC commissioned a run of nine episodes.
The producer Derek Smith had recently shot a film about the Triumph TR7 rally programme, and he came to a conclusion that 'there was a lot of interest in motoring – and particularly motoring in this area of the country. We are very conscious that there is very little cover for the motorist's interest'. His son Graham later observed 'One day my father was looking out of the office at the car park and he thought the BBC should do a motoring show," said Graham. "He came up with the name and the type of programme, which included items on motoring matters such as safety and road tests.' The theme to the show was Jessica, a track from The Allman Brothers’ album Brothers and Sisters.
The first edition commenced with Ms. Rippon observing road conditions as she drove from Shepherd's Bush to Pebble Mill in a Ford Capri Ghia Mk. II - , complete with glimpses of the sound technician crouching on the rear seat. The highlight of the episode is almost certainly the review of the Granada Motorway Services with Datsun 100A Cherrys and Triumph Heralds in the car park and high prices. 'Egg & chips and a cup of coffee – a pound. That's not exactly cheap, is it?'

Top Gear remained a local programme until July 1978, when it was fully networked across the UK as a weekly series. Mr. Edmonds joined the series in the following year, much to the annoyance of The Observer's television critic – 'There are numerous first-rate motoring journalists yet the BBC persists in handing over cars to disc-jockeys with their nasty hair-dos and nastier voices'. Perhaps the writer owned a Fiat Strada, for NE's 1980 report on the new Ford Escort Mk. III is perfectly straightforward. Top Gear also infirmed viewers about a training school for driving examiners, where the main point of interest is Peter McCann's Mazda 323 Estate.

A major turning point for Top Gear came in 1987 when Jon Bentley was appointed the series producer and the format began to move from television magazine to more overtly opinionated and, yes, humorous. As for the earlier episodes, my favourite item has to be Mr. Goffey's attending an "anti-hijacking" course in a Ford Granada Mk. II, where he encountered a very unfortunate Fiat 128 and second-generation Cortina.