The Interceptors: Top Gear Parodies ITC Credits Sequences

The Interceptors: Top Gear Parodies ITC Credits Sequences

I suppose I'm a bit behind on this, but we get new episodes of BBC's Top Gear in America a few months after they air in Britain... and in my house we're a few weeks behind even on that, just catching up with On Demand. So while catching up last night I was delighted to hit upon a recent episode in which Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond decide to put on Jason King mustaches and create a Seventies ITC-style title sequence for a show in the vein of The Persuaders, The Protectors, Department S and all the rest called The Interceptors, all based around a new version of the Jensen Interceptor car, which immediately makes Jeremy think of Sixties and Seventies detective series. To that end, they all put on mustaches and cut their own very funny, spot-on ITC title sequence to the tune of Edwin Astley's Department S theme. Note the detail on the exploder remote, the model boat, the Tony Curtis driving gloves, the stock footage shot of Rio's Christ the Redeemer and what a great William Gaunt Richard Hammond makes. About the only thing they left out (and these car guys really should have known this one) is the famously reused shot of the white Jag going over the cliff that popped up in just about every one of these shows. (And, as my girlfriend pointed out, a shot of Jeremy angrily hanging up a phone, a la The Adventurer, would have been welcome as well.) But overall, it's pretty awesome. Awesome enough, indeed, that The Interceptors has already spawned a dedicated fan site!

For the benefit of a trio of twenty-something ladies, Jeremy starts by explaining what it's all about. "In the Sixties and Seventies, the TV schedules were awash with detective shows like The Baron, Department S, The Protectors, The Persuaders!, The Saint, The Avengers.... You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? Let me explain. They were all basically the same. Okay, every week, a good looking man would run into a swanky hotel, punch a swarthy-looking man in a fez, and then go to bed with a pretty lady. Anyone here old enough to remember that? The only difference was the cars they all drove. This is Brett Sinclair, Aston Matin DBS. Steed had a Broadspeed Coupe Jag [on The New Avengers], and there is the Saint with his Volvo P1800. Now the interesting thing is almost none of them ever drove the Jensen Interceptor...." (Actually, I think both The Protectors' Robert Vaughn and The Champions' Stuart Damon drove this car, though neither one regularly, and the Baron drove its crazy-looking relative the Jensen CV8.) Jeremy and his cohorts then set out to rectify that by devoting a whole fake show to the Italian-designed British car.