When Top Gear first raced onto screens in 1977, no-one could have predicted how popular it would become. The motoring programme presented viewers with car reviews, road safety and consumer advice, with several of its presenters then becoming household names.
![[QUENTIN WILLSON, presenter of television programme 'Top Gear'. Licensed by Channel 5 Broadcasting. Contact Channel 5 Stills: 020 7 550 5583/5509/5544. Free for editorial press and listings use in connection with the current broadcast of Channel 5 programmes only. This image may only be reproduced with the prior written consent of Channel 5. All rights reserved. Not for any form of advertising, internet use or in connection with the sale of any product.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IP_1727573-9d9f.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
One of them was Quentin Willson, who was the show’s used car expert for a decade from 1991. During his time on Top Gear, Quentin worked alongside Jeremy Clarkson, Vicki Butler-Henderson and James May, but after the departure of Clarkson in 1999, ratings began to decline and the BBC cancelled the series.
Although the show was revived just a year later, and then saw a presenter switch-up again in 2015, earlier this year it was confirmed the series would not return for the ‘foreseeable future’ following a horror crash that nearly killed presenter Freddie Flintoff.
Despite all this, Quentin is hopeful that series or another might one day return to screens, but he’s not convinced it could happen. ‘We were very lucky to have lived through this wonderful golden age of cars and car programmes because you couldn’t make them now,’ he told Metro.
![[Chris Harris has surgery on hand after Top gear stunt goes wrong]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_174955715-7a59.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
‘It wouldn’t get screened, and people aren’t as interested…or at television commissioners aren’t as interested in cars as they were then. It was a lovely time to make a TV programme about cars at time when cars were much more socially acceptable than now,’ he added.
![[LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 07: Quentin Wilson speaks at the Technology with Heart: Jaguar Land Rover's Tech Fest at Central St Martins on September 7, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Jaguar Land Rover)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233204713-0151.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
