9 Times Top Gear Crossed The Line

5. The Questionable Ambulance Episode

The idea behind this episode was, admittedly, one of sound reasoning. After all, the purpose of an ambulance is to respond to an emergency quickly, so it is a bit odd that an enormous Mercedes diesel van is the NHS's vehicle of choice. In fairness to the Top Gear team, it's an interesting idea that perhaps an alternative should be explored. In fact, if the idea had been explored with any shred of seriousness, it would probably have made for a truly stand-out episode. But in true Top Gear fashion, seriousness was hardly priority number one in this instance. The episode quickly becomes a farce as Hammond arrives in a van purporting to carry toxic waste on board, May arrives in a hearse, and Clarkson turns up in - brace yourselves - a Porsche 944 with a battering ram welded to the front. All are humorous ideas to have thrown around in the production office, no doubt, but to have actually followed through with what was surely a joke and spend an entire episode playing it off with faux seriousness was a somewhat misguided venture. The eyebrow-raising antics reach a new low when patient dummies begin spewing vomit across the three presenters, and plunge lower still as Clarkson is taken on a lap around the track with an artificial penis waving flaccidly in his face. Truth be told, it's a difficult episode to defend against those who have the show written off as childish and unnecessary pre-watershed foolishness.