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EXCLUSIVE Top Gear Q&A | From public toilets to borderline banter, Paddy McGuinness bares all

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Fresh from the success of their first series together, Top Gear’s new line up of presenters - Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Chris Harris - get up to ever more mischief as they travel the globe in pursuit of hijinks and motoring mayhem. 

Since March 5 at 20:00 on BBC Brit (DStv channel 120), expect to see bungee jumping in a car, an epic race between a fighter jet and the latest McLaren hypercar, a spectacular road trip through Peru, plus top celebrity guests in the studio, and lots of laughs.

Having taken the world’s biggest motoring entertainment show to a whole new level in 2019, audiences will be on the edge of their seats in 2020.

Q&A with Paddy McGuinness 

Q: Is anything on Top Gear ever set up for the cameras?

A: No. Everything is genuine. We show it as it happened. We want to keep it as real as possible. It is sometimes very frightening, but it all makes good telly.

Q: Do you ever get nervous beforehand about the hair-raising stunts that you do in places like Peru?

A: No, because the producers don't tell us about them in advance. They don't give you the option. If they told you beforehand, "You're going to drive this road and it's really high up and windy", you might say, "Oh, I don't fancy that." But you just come to it in a car, so you can't do anything else. You have got to drive it. When you're there, you are that in it, you just do it. 

Q: Can you elaborate on that?

A: When I've seen footage recently of what we've done, I have thought, "Wow, that is high up." But you are that swept up by it in the moment, that you just get on with it. At the time, you are driven by adrenaline and you are usually tired and wet, so you just do it. It's is one of those things.

Shocking accommodation

Q: Do you always stay in luxury hotels when you're filming Top Gear?

A: No. It's not what you think. A lot of the places we go are so far off the beaten track that it's not like being a pampered Saturday night TV personality. It's a bit of a shock! 

Q: Are the public toilets any better?

A: No! Sometimes you go into the public toilets and you say, "That's like Trainspotting. It's got to be the worst toilet in the world." Then you do another 10 miles and pull in somewhere else and go, "No, actually, this is the worst toilet in the world!" We have seen some really bad toilets! We should do a little show on iPlayer about toilets of the world.

WATCH: They’re back! Top Gear returns for its astonishing 28th season of crazy car thrills

Q: Travelling the world, do you get a sense of the global popularity of Top Gear?

A: Yes. The thing that always amazes me is how often we get recognised in the most surprising places. Chris is very much the kind of guy who doesn't want to be in the limelight. But when we went to Ethiopia, as soon as we got off the plane, he was accosted by people saying, "Chris, Chris!" I thought it was a bit mad seeing that, but then I realised that's the thing with Top Gear. It's a worldwide show. That takes a bit of getting used to.

Q: Do people recognise you everywhere you go?

A: No. No one recognised me in Nepal, although they all knew Fred because cricket is so popular there. He did have his cricket whites on, though – "No, I don't want to talk about it! No, come on, I'm not here for this!"

Paddy McGuinness,The Stig,Chris Harris, top gear

Chris Harris (left), The Stig, and Paddy McGuinness. Image: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

The positive reactions

Q: Have you been delighted by the very positive reaction to the first series hosted by you, Freddie and Chris?

A: Yes. We are all very pleased. When you are filming it, you're having a laugh, weighing it up and saying, "Yeah, I think that'll be all right." But you never know until it's on, and some things work and some things don't. I always felt comfortable personally about what we had filmed. You can't do much more than that. But it's really pleasing to hear the positive reaction.

Q: Can you give us an example?

WATCH: Top Gear's Chris Harris lauded for honest review of the electric Porsche Taycan

A: The producers sent me a load of stats on the show. I was like, "God, that's quite impressive. We've gone up 33% in America." Genuinely, when we are filming it together, we feel like we are in a bit of a bubble, and we really don't think about viewing figures. So, it's very nice that people are falling in love with Top Gear again. It's lovely knowing that it's back up there and people are really enjoying it. 

Q: Tell us more.

A: Even in the days where Top Gear wasn't doing as well, there was a lot of negativity around it and everyone had an opinion on it, for whatever reason, I still felt viewers didn't want it to fail. People wanted it to be back to where it was. They don't want it off air. It is a British institution. People love the show. So I'm very glad we are all a part of that now. We just give it our best shot and that's all you can do. It's a lovely show to be involved with.

Paddy McGuinness,The Stig,Chris Harris, top gear

Paddy McGuinness (left), The Stig, and Chris Harris. Image: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

Dealing with the banter

Q: There is a lot of banter between you, Freddie and Chris, isn't there?

A: Yes. I have been saying to the executive producer, Clare Pizey, that we should put stuff online that doesn't make the show. There is so much that we do off-camera that might be a little too much for the episode, but if you put it on the iPlayer, people would probably watch it.

Q: Why do you think the chemistry between you three presenters works so well?

A: If you have to force something, the viewer can tell. When you watch the show, you think, "They've been put together because an exec has thought, 'That'll work.' They are trying their hardest, but it's not really working." With us, it's not that difficult. Nothing's changed since we started. We will take the mick out of each other quite savagely – more so when it's not on camera. We all know that, and all roll with the punches. But having said that, if one of us is having a bad day, we're always there for each other. Our relationship doesn't feel forced. That's the beauty of it really.

Paddy McGuinness,The Stig,Chris Harris, top gear
Paddy McGuinness (left) and Chris Harris. Image: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

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