Quentin Willson

## Quentin Wilson

**Quentin Wilson**(born July 23, 1957) is an English TV presenter, motoring journalist, author, TV producer and former car dealer, perhaps most widely known as a presenter of the motoring programmes Britain's Worst Driver, Fifth Gear, and the original incarnation of Top Gear. He lives in Warwickshire with his wife and three children.

## Early Life

Wilson, a twin, is the son of Professor Bernard Willson, latterly the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at University of Leicester, who was the first code breaker at Bletchley Park to decode the Italian NavyHagelin C-36 code machine.

Wilson was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys, a former state grammar school in Leicester, followed by the University of Leicester, where he studied English Literature.

## Career

### **Early Career**

After graduation, he founded a car dealership selling Ferraris and Maseratis. In the early 1990s, he was the deputy editor of the only magazine solely devoted to second hand motors, Buying Cars.

### **Television**

Wilson joined the BBC in 1991 to co-host the original version of Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson. Until the original format's cancellation in 2001, he appeared every week on the programme, typically as an expert on used cars.

Wilson later presented his own produced classic car series The Car's the Star, along with the first property show to talk about money, All The Right Moves, both for the BBC.

After Top Gear's cancellation, he left the BBC to present Channel 5's rival motoring programme, Fifth Gear. When Top Gear was relaunched, Wilson said of Clarkson that "it's a compliment that the BBC are so afraid of losing ratings to us, they've lured my old co-host out of semi-retirement."

While at Channel 5, Wilson created the Britain's Worst Driver format, which was nominated for best reality show in the Montreux Golden Rose Awards. A raft of similar shows followed, including Britain's Worst DIYer, "Worst Farmer", Worst Mother in Law, Worst Husband, Worst Teenager, Worst Builder, Worst Zookeeper and Worst FIFA 2002 Player. After Wilson's appearances on Britain's Worst series, comedian Harry Hill dressed up as him and announced "I used to be on Top Gear, now I'm on Channel 5. Welcome to Britain's Worst Career Move".

Wilson also participated in the 2004 series of Strictly Come Dancing, but ignominiously got the lowest score ever on the show with his one and only dance before being voted off. Wilson still holds the record for lowest score ever on Strictly with a grand total of eight out of a possible 40 points. Judge Craig Revel Horwood described Wilson as "Britain's Worst Dancer".

On January 12, 2009, and again on December 4, 2010, he appeared on BBC One's Breakfast programme giving advice on snow driving and which cars are better suited. On April 5, 2012, he once again appeared on BBC Breakfast talking about the Highway Code. He also regularly features on the ITV breakfast show Daybreak, when there are motoring related features.

In 2015, Wilson returned to Channel 5 to host The Classic Car Show.

## Campaigning

In the 1990s, both in print and on television, Wilson highlighted the artificially higher prices of new cars in the UK compared to Europe, campaigning for price parity for UK buyers. He is widely credited for drawing attention to uncompetitive pricing by the car makers which prompted the European Commission to take action and use block exemption regulations to force the industry to reduce UK list prices on new passenger cars.

Since early 2011, Wilson has been the national spokesman for FairFuelUK campaigning for lower government fuel duty. Since March 2011, Wilson and the FairFuelUK Team have successfully pressured the UK government to defer 11p of duty rises, reducing the overall tax take by £5.5 billion in fuel duty. His campaigning has appeared on BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live, Newsnight, Channel 5 News, Channel 4 News, The Sun, Times, Telegraph, Mail and other national newspapers. The House of Commons Back Bench Committee allowed Wilson to be present in the House at a Commons fuel duty debate in 2011.

## Writing

In 2004, Wilson was awarded Motoring Writer of the Year. He writes regularly for The Sunday Mirror and has also written ten books.

* "Top Gear": Good Car Guide by Quentin Wilson (BBC Books, 1993)
* "Top Gear": Good Car Guide by Quentin Wilson (BBC Books, 1994)
* Classic Cars of the World by Quentin Wilson and David Selby (DK Publishing, 1995)
* Ultimate Classic Car by Quentin Wilson (DK Publishing, 1995, Republished with David Selby)
* Classic American Cars by Quentin Wilson (DK Publishing, 1997)
* The Quentin Wilson Guide to Use Cars: Everything You Need to Know by Quentin Wilson (Virgin Books, 2001)
* Quentin Wilson's Cool Cars by Quentin Wilson (DK Publishing, Second edition 2001)
* Cars, A Celebration by Quentin Wilson (DK Publishing, 2001)
* Great Cars by Quentin Wilson (DK Publishing, 2001)
* Ultimate Sports Car by Quentin Wilson (DK Publishing, 2002)

## Consultancy and Speaking

Quentin Wilson is a consultant to many organisations and companies including the car warranty company Warrantywise. Wilson is also a former consultant to BP, BSI (British Safety Institute) and Castrol Oil in 2008-2010. He is also a regular face on the conference and after dinner speaking circuit. Quentin has been at the forefront of raising awareness about the dangers of buying stolen cars, fronting the "Real or Rogue" campaign in March 2009. He also appears in promotional videos on the website for Store First, a self-storage company seeking investors but currently the subject of a BBC investigation into concerns expressed by those investors.

## Videos/DVDs

 1999
 2009