Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear is a British motoring television magazine series which has been broadcast since 2002. Originally shown on Channel 5 from 2002 to 2011 (and branded as 5th Gear until 2005), it began as a continuation of the original version of the BBC show Top Gear, which ran from 1977 until being cancelled in 2001. It moved to the Discovery Channel in 2012, then in 2015 to History; since 2018 it has been broadcast on Quest. The show is currently presented by Vicki Butler-Henderson and Jason Plato, with Rory Reid, Grace Webb and Jimmy de Ville featuring in some episodes. Its former presenters include Quentin Willson, Adrian Simpson, Jonny Smith, former racing driver Tiff Needell and Car SOS host Tim Shaw.
Fifth Gear was first broadcast on 8 April 2002, featuring the same format and many of the same presenters, including Willson, Needell, Butler-Henderson and Simpson, as the BBC's Top Gear. Channel 5 originally wanted to carry on using the Top Gear name, but the BBC refused as it still operated the Top Gear magazine; the BBC relaunched Top Gear with a drastically revised format later in 2002, placing a strong focus on comedy and general entertainment. Fifth Gear has been referenced in Top Gear, such as when a barn fire damaged Top Gear property, host Jeremy Clarkson satirically claimed that Fifth Gear had "burned our furniture."
Needell announced Fifth Gear's cancellation on 24 May 2016. On 14 June 2018, Needell announced on his official Twitter account that he had been doing some filming work for a new series of Fifth Gear which aired in September 2018 on Quest, but by 2019 had left the show to join Lovecars.com and their ITV4 programme On the Road.
Following a 2021 relaunch, with an emphasis on electric cars, it was rebranded as Fifth Gear Recharged. Fifth Gear Recharged was presented by Vicki Butler-Henderson, Sid North, Karun Chandhok and Jason Plato with Grace Webb and engineer Jimmy de Ville also involved in reports.
In 2024, North One scrapped the all-EV format, with the programme reverting to being Fifth Gear and with Rory Reid rejoining the presenting line-up.
Repeats of Fifth Gear also started being broadcast on UKTV channel Dave in April 2008 and later on Discovery Turbo, with early episodes of the show being streamed '24/7' via the British feed of Pluto TV in 2019.
The first seven series consisted of a 23-minute programme, not including approximately seven minutes of adverts. The eighth series returned in the autumn of 2005 in a longer format of 45 minutes, and the ninth series (which went to a 13-week run) was increased to a one-hour airtime slot (approximately 46 minutes excluding adverts). For series 17, the show had reverted to the original format of 23 minutes, which including adverts takes the show to half an hour. In Series 21, the show reverted to the previous one-hour airtime slot.
At the start of series 10, the show introduced between-feature links filmed at the Ace Cafe in London. In previous series, these links were filmed at the production company offices in Birmingham. Originally produced by Chrysalis Television, the Birmingham offices were situated on the top floor of the headquarters of 100.7 Heart FM (also, at that time, a Chrysalis Radio company), near Birmingham's Five Ways area. The team moved out when Chrysalis sold its television division to All3Media in September 2003 (the section which later produced Fifth Gear is now known as North One Television, part of the All3Media group).
In series 14, a location change from the Ace Cafe meant link sequences were filmed instead at the Millbrook Proving Ground, along with some of the vehicle testing features.
In 2005, the show's producer, Jon Bentley, also became a part-time presenter for a year before he went back to being solely the producer. Tim Lovejoy was hired in September 2006 for series 9 and 10. In August 2008, Tim Shaw became a presenter on the show for series 14. In October 2010, Ben Collins, formerly The Stig on BBC's Top Gear, came to Fifth Gear for series 18. Sid North, joined the presenting line-up for the all-electric Fifth Gear Recharged format in 2023, but was replaced by a returning Rory Reid in 2024.
Fifth Gear claimed to be 'world renowned' for its 'infamous' shoot-outs, between similarly priced, similarly powerful cars, or, recently, cars versus bikes. These shoot outs took place at the Anglesey Circuit on the Isle of Anglesey close to Aberffraw. During the refurbishment of Anglesey, shoot-outs were switched to Castle Combe Circuit.
In Series 19, a new segment was introduced, called the Team Test. This is where Tiff, Jason, Jonny and Vicki all did a group test on an important new car. They all scored the car out of 10, and added their scores together to get the score for the car.
Channel 5 executives had been quoted as saying, "Five is proud of Fifth Gear's contribution to the channel but after 16 series, feels it's time to try something new." On 27 November 2009, Jeremy Clarkson mentioned on The Chris Moyles Show that it was a shame that Fifth Gear had been cancelled.
In late December 2009, however, presenter Jonny Smith suggested via Twitter that the show could return for another series early in 2010. On 8 January 2010, Smith tweeted: "Fifth Gear IS coming back!", and in his next tweet, he said "Wow, such quick responses! Basically, we all know there's room for two car TV shows. FG will simply be a reviews based visual car magazine." Tiff Needell also tweeted saying "Home to the news that, after much negotiating Fifth Gear looks like it will after all be returning to your screens sometime in the Spring!" and also hinted the show will have a new format in his next tweet "Glad so many of you are delighted by the Fifth Gear news — and, yes the format will be moving away from the stupid ... but still having fun!"
On 17 January 2010, Vicki Butler-Henderson and Tiff Needell confirmed at the Autosport International Show that Fifth Gear will be returning in Spring 2010. The pair featured a car shootout in Fifth Gear style in the live arena show and said several times to the audience that the show would be back on air in Spring and to ignore the cancellation rumours.
The series started on 3 June 2010. The series ran for 10 episodes and the first one had Lewis Hamilton as a guest. On 1 October 2010, it was announced that Ben Collins (who played the original White Stig on Top Gear) would join the show.
On 14 May 2016, Tiff Needell announced the cancellation of Fifth Gear following its last episode repeat airing on ITV4. Following a three-year hiatus, Needell announced the show's return on 14 June 2018, having started filming for a new series to be aired in September 2018 on the Discovery-operated Quest TV channel.
Fifth Gear is now being broadcast in the United States on the MotorTrend channel. Season 27 started on February 15 (episode 2, but episodes 1 and 3 are scheduled on Feb. 22nd).
In 2021, the show was relaunched as an electric car show under the amended title of Fifth Gear Recharged. Former Top Gear presenter Rory Reid, joined the presenting team of Vicky Butler Henderson, Jason Plato and Karun Chandhok (with the former Formula One driver and Sky F1 pundit now being part of the core presenting team and not a guest), while consumer journalist Grace Webb and engineer Jimmy de Ville will contribute to the show in guest roles (Jonny Smith has left the series to present The Late Brake Show webshow). As well as testing purely electric cars such as the Cupra Born, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Polestar 2 and ATAE Munro Mark 1, the show will also feature hybrids such as the Peugeot 508 PSE.
Each year for a few series, the programme gives out various Car of the Year type awards:
During recording for Series 12, Episode 7, two accidents took place while on set.
Both accidents were shown on the episode.
Fifth Gear has been broadcast on the Speed Channel in the United States for a short period in 2004 to early 2007. It began airing on Velocity on Wednesdays after Wheeler Dealers as of 3 October 2012.
Fifth Gear began broadcasting in Australia in November 2009, on Seven Network's free-to-air digital channel 7mate (previously shown on 7Two).
Fifth Gear started Canadian broadcast on Discovery Channel Canada in 2008, beginning with 2006 series. This version ran in half-hour format.
Fifth Gear was also telecasted in Asia-Pacific in Discovery Turbo. It aired the 60 minute version.