Has Top Gear returned to its former glory?

Following an array of controversies over the years, which ultimately lead to Jeremy Clarkson being fired, Top Gear appears to en route to its former glory, say critics.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"theweek_content_narrow","fid":"110202","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

"A welcome calm has descended upon Planet Petrolhead," says the Daily Telegraph.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Claiming "it feels like an age" since viewers of the BBC motoring show were being "distracted by off-screen punch-ups", the paper says the relationship between the show's new presenters - Matt Le Blanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid - is "finally gelling" and that they're developing a "cackling chemistry".

The Daily Mail agrees. Top Gear is "back to its best" after "endless poor reviews" last year, when Chris Evans was its main presenter, it declares.

Even the fans are impressed, with the Mail reporting that one viewer hailed Sunday night's show as "possibly the best episode in years".

Episode 4 saw Harris race from Dubai to Oman in the new Bugatti Chiron - a £2m hypercar with a limited top speed of 261mph.

Former Friends star Le Blanc, meanwhile, used a selection of vehicles, including a private jet and a luxurious speed boat, to gain the upper hand over his co-host and arrive first.

Harris's sheer enthusiasm for the Chiron proved "infectious", says the Telegraph, a complete departure from the "crass bragging" of former host Evans.

The paper adds that it was "one of the season's best" road trips - "gorgeously filmed" and harking back to the era of Clarkson and his fellow presenters Richard Hammond and James May.