Motor Week (UK)

Motor Week (UK)
1997199820002000 (Alt)2001 Motor Week's 1st logo, used through to May 1998. Motor Week's 2nd logo, used from 06/98 until 01/00. Motor Week's 3rd logo, used from 02/00 until 07/01. Rare variant used early in Series 8. Motor Week's 4th and final logo, used until March 2002.
Episodes	235
First aired	1997
Country of origin	Great Britain
Status	No longer airing
Concluded	2002

Motor Week (later stylised as Motorweek during its final series but of no relation to the long-running American series of the same name) was the name of an automotive journalism programme created by the British Granada network, where it aired as part of their digital-only Men & Motors TV station. The programme aired from the 2nd October 1997 through to the 28th March, 2002 as a digitally-based competitor against the BBC's Top Gear. Nine series would air in total, in an unusual year-round format which saw the show on the air for all 235 weeks of the programme's duration, occasionally re-airing previously filmed content in order to make sure there was an episode every single week.

The programme launched the career of Richard Hammond, who debuted on the programme in June 1998, as well as serving as a refuge for the disgraced Brendan Coogan following his July 1999 DUI conviction. From February 1998 until January 2002, the programme would also see out the end of Chris Goffey's career as an automotive journalist, which begun all the way back in 1972. Following the completion of its ninth series in 2002, the programme was effectively cancelled due to Hammond signing on to present the relaunched Top Gear that October.

232 of the 235 episodes of Motor Week can be watched on Men & Motors' post-discontinuation YouTube channel. A 233rd, the 2001 Motor Show special in Germany, can be seen on Dailymotion, and two others, Series 1, Episode 19 and Series 8, Episode 24, remain missing for unknown reasons.

Series overview

All series of Motor Week contained 25 episodes, apart from the final series which contained 35.

Series	Episodes	Originally aired
		Series premiere	Series finale
1	25	2nd October 1997	19th March 1998
2	25	26th March 1998	10th September 1998
3	25	14th September 1998	4th March 1999
4	25	11th March 1999	25th August 1999
5	25	26th August 1999	17th February 2000
6	25	24th February 2000	10th August 2000
7	25	17th August 2000	1st February 2001
8	25	8th February 2001	26th July 2001
9	35	2nd August 2001	28th March 2002

Presenters

Below is a list of presenters for Motor Week. Note that this list is not exhaustive, and only includes hosts who were credited for at least one on-screen appearance.
Italicised names indicate presenters who were credited as lead host for at least one episode, whilst Bold names signify presenters who held this status for at least 5 episodes.

Name	Appearances	Series
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Richard Hammond	158 (100 as lead)		Minor	Major		Lead host
Ginny Buckley	134 (60 as lead)	Lead host						Major	Minor
Ian Royle	129 (18 as lead)	Major		Lead host		Major
Chris Goffey	78 (12 as lead)		Lead host	Major
Ken Gibson	74 (3 as lead)			Major
Peter Baker	43 (42 uncredited)	Minor		Major			Minor		Minor
Glenda McKay	42 (2 as lead)						Minor	Major
Mike Rutherford	39 (21 as lead)	Lead host	Major	Minor
Howard Stableford	38 (4 as lead)	Minor		Major	Minor	Major	Minor
Phil Sayer	21 (3 as lead)				Minor	Major
Rob Hallam	19 (3 as lead)							Minor	Major
Brendan Coogan	16			Minor				Minor		Major
Elisa Portelli	11					Minor	Major	Minor
Steve Fowler	6 (2 as lead)		Minor				Minor
Francesca Robinson	4						Minor
Beverley French	3 (1 as lead)					Minor
Jeremy Taylor	3		Minor
Louise Brady	3							Minor
Rachel Ford	1		Minor
Mark Lloyd	1					Minor
Tony Zenka	1						Minor
Helen Brumby	1									Minor
Paul Johnston	1									Minor

Note that main host status varied on an episode-by-episode basis; Rutherford and Buckley largely alternated this role until Chris Goffey's arrival in 1998, whereupon Rutherford was demoted to secondary host. From Series 7, the role was usually Hammond's.