Top Gear is great, honest Sunday night telly, says host Chris Harris

Chris Harris (left) with celebrity guest James Marsden (centre )and co-host Matt LeBlanc

It’s hard to watch Top Gear without a smile.

From fun-filled reviews to brilliant misadventures, the series, currently presented by Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid, has spent the best part of two decades earning the title of “The world’s biggest motoring show”.

“It is great, honest Sunday night telly, isn’t it?” begins Harris, 44.

“One of the accusations we face is that, at times, Top Gear isn’t discussing the motoring issues of the day.”

Gesturing at his co-star Reid, he adds: “We’re both car journalists and we have a wider repertoire than perhaps this show demonstrates.

“But do you want to be watching three blokes discuss Brexit and the effect on the car industry?

“I’d rather watch Rory trying to make a mountain out of some rocks in a silly little car, with a German woman shouting at him!”

With its trademark array of stunning photography, state-of-the-art supercars and celebrity guests plus The Stig poised to return, the show’s latest five-part run, its 26th season no less, certainly will not disappoint.

With former Friends star LeBlanc back in the driving seat, the trio will also measure just how scary the Porsche 911 GT2 RS is with its new-fangled gadget the Fearometer 3000, and find out if you can buy and race second-hand luxury cars for less than the cost of a Dacia Sandero.

Mad, maybe. But in the spirit of Top Gear, nothing is off limits.

“They have to give us just enough information so we are vaguely prepared,” Harris says of the increasingly more ridiculous series of challenges the producers give the team.

“Because you have to have the right clothes – you can’t go to the North Pole in a pair of budgie smugglers!”

Top Gear, BBC2, today, 8pm.