Top Gear host Chris Evans is caught slumped up a wall swigging wine and drowning his sorrows in the street
Top Gear fans want presenter axed from motoring show... and series is only two episodes in
GRASPING a glass of wine in one hand, under fire Chris Evans slumps against a wall as his new gig fronting Top Gear is universally panned.
The 50-year-old looked weary as he sat on the pavement to take what looked like an uncomfortable phone call.
Moments before, on his way home from buying newspapers yesterday evening, Chris stopped by a local pub to buy a glass of wine.
However, he chose not to enjoy it in front of the watching eyes of strangers, and instead opted for an altogether more secluded spot.
As he walked across the road, he took large swigs, not pausing to swallow between strides.
But rather than head back to his North London home, he crouched down on the pavement, resting his back against a grubby whitewashed wall just a few metres from a pile of black bin bags.
He carried newspapers with him and swigged from a wine glass as he walked
Chris has never hidden his love of a booze-up, previously revealing that his decision to go sober when he was 45 was "a major shock to people who know me, and may even cause a few minor heart attacks where several restaurant- and bar-owners in the south east are concerned."
Wearing a pair of loose-fitting jeans, a faded green T-shirt, well worn baseball cap and sunglasses, Chris didn't look like a man rumoured to be the BBC's highest paid star estimated to take home a salary equal to £5 million over the next three years.
The first episode was branded boring, with the UK vs US theme playing out between Chris and "wooden" co-host Matt Le Blanc failing to capture the imaginations of Sunday night audiences.
In fact, ratings were down on the last outing of Top Gear, drawing an average of just 4.3million viewers – despite Chris admitting he would be “disappointed” if the ratings didn’t reach 5 million.
The figures for the much-hyped debut didn’t even come close to axed presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s average of 5.6million, with the old Top Gear’s highest ever episode hitting a whopping 8.4million.
A source said: “This really isn’t the start producers would have wanted. Chris made a rod for his own back by publicly predicting he would get five million viewers.
“The launch show was the one episode everyone thought would be a huge hit – given the unbelievable hype and mass promoting of the show for the last few months. But it was just an embarrassment.”
Usually chatty Chris dodged questions the Monday after transmission, arriving to present his Radio 2 show wearing a motorbike helmet.
And he might have wanted to keep it on when the show aired Stateside.
US audiences also failed to warm to Chris, which is sure to be an alarm bell to BBC bigwigs only too aware of the millions of pounds worth of revenue that the show brings in each year in international broadcasting rights.
The hashtag #RIPTopGear was included in many tweets as fans tore into the “scripted and soulless” feel of the show.
Some US fans didn’t think that Matt fitted in with the British humour of the programme, with one fan complaining: “Love #TopGear but Matt LeBlanc doesn’t fit. The British humor makes the show great, Matt doesn’t have it.”
Another tweeted: “Part of former #TopGear's charm was the Britishness of the show. That charm is gone #RIPTopGear."
This week's episode mustered up a pathetic 2.8m viewers and was trounced in the ratings by Antiques Roadshow.
During the show, fans took to Twitter to demand that Chris be replaced by broadcasting amateur Jenson Button, who impressed not only with his authoritative ease in front of the camera, but his knowledge of cars.
While no one can expect Chris, who has never hidden his love of fast cars, to drive like a Formula 1 ace, whispers from the set of Top Gear raised questions over his own skills.
In January The Sun revealed that while predecessors Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May would chat to a camera in the passenger seat, it was taking Chris up to ten attempts to perfect a single item.
One told The Sun: “Chris is really struggling to master the art of driving and talking to camera, which is crucial.
“It’s a skill. Jeremy, Richard and James could do it no problem, in one or two takes.
“Chris is in a massive sweat about it because he often ends up fluffing his lines.
“The professional drivers are doing a lot more to cover for him and the camera crew are getting frustrated.”
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Weeks prior, when Chris drove on the Top Gear track in Surrey for the first time, he crashed a new Jaguar.
It meant from the off the pressure was on - not only as he had big shoes to fill - but because every mistake and every day was totting up rapidly - and the Beeb would have to justify footing the bill.
One insider said: “When Chris was hired it was like the problem of what to do with Top Gear after
Clarkson left had been solved. But the problems keep on coming.”
There was trouble for Evans from the off.
A show insider recalled: “The first time Chris went round the Top Gear track he crashed the car.
“Unfortunately for him it was a brand new Jag that had been lent to the show.”
One toe-curling incident recounted by insiders concerned Evans recording a 12-page monologue for the cameras, before BBC bosses decided it was “totally unusable”.
The Sun revealed how the show’s well-respected executive producer, Lisa Clark, left after just five months, and was followed out of the door by script editor Tom Ford.
The shock departures came amid claims BBC bosses were piling the pressure on Evans — who insisted on an executive producer role — to deliver, while “meddling” in editorial decisions.
Insiders have told how ambitious BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw has become the “nightmare” chief meddler.
She was given her role in 2014 by former director of television Danny Cohen, who fell out with Clarkson - and promptly made revamping Top Gear her top priority.
BBC executives have pointed to the damage done to the show after Clarkson was sacked in March 2015 for punching Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon in the face.
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An ugly row erupted after Jeremy found out he wouldn't be having a hot lunch, and turned physical after he launched in to a forty minute rant at production staff.
As bosses tried to make new look Top Gear more about content than scandal, sources close to the show reportedly suggested pre-production had been “more Tiswas than Top Gear”.
They added: “They've brought in a production team that doesn't know anything about cars. Writers from Top Gear magazine have had to be called over to suggest ideas.”
Another source said: “Chris has struggled to get his head around pre-recorded videos, which is mostly what Top Gear is.
“Unfortunately, when you come to plan all this stuff, it can’t be done on the fly.”
Other instances of Chris - who is known for being a control freak - not playing by the rules include when he kept making announcements about the show without permission.
These included revealing the broadcast date, announcing on his Radio 2 show that viewers would be able to audition to be presenters, and other tit bits about his time filming new episodes.
As bookies slash the odds that he'll be dropped from the show, Chris' career looks like it could be about to take a downward turn - but it wouldn't be the first time he'd hit a bump in the road.
In 1995 he was fined £7,000 by the BBC after he presented his Radio 1 Breakfast Show just two hours after ending a 17-hour pub crawl.
He was later sacked from Virgin Radio before making his radio return with a BBC Radio 2 show in 2005.
He previously told the Daily Mirror that a "midlife crisis" had seen him visit Alcoholics Anonymous after waking up one day and wanting to meet himself sober.
He said: "Back in the day, I thought I had a problem... I may well have had.
"I went to an AA lady thinking a lot of my life has been based around alcohol.
"I realised I hadn't stopped drinking, at all, for more than six days in the last 25 years."