Chris Goffey

Chris Goffey
Goffey competing in the Volkswagen G40 Cup.
Full Name	Christopher Robert Goffey
Nationality	Great Britain
Birthday	17th October
Sex	Male
Occupation	Editor of Autocar (magazine) Presenter of Wheels (TV series) Presenter of Top Gear (1977 TV series) Presenter of BBC Motor Show TV Specials Presenter of Motor Week (UK)
On-screen debut	Wheels/Series 1/Episode 1 (1980)
Final appearance	Motor Week: Series 9, Episode 21 (2001)

Christopher Robert Goffey was a British automotive journalist and Guild of Motoring Writers member who helped to present the original incarnation of Top Gear from its fifth series in 1981 through to its 37th series in 1997, appearing in over 177 episodes during that timeframe. He is also known for being the father of Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey.

Early life

Born in 1945 in Bury, Lancashire, Chris Goffey attended Gibraltar Grammar School and Bishop Wordsworth School in Salisbury, before joining the world of automotive journalism in his late teens. In 1965, he would get his first job at the Ruislip Northwood Post, before moving on to the Bucks Advertiser and the Slough Evening Mail. He would marry his wife and later Labour councillor Linda Nolan (not related to Linda Nolan of Nolan Sisters fame) in 1969, who would birth two sons; Nic Goffey, who became a director primarily for music videos, and his younger brother Danny, born in 1974, who would become the drummer for britpop act Supergrass.

Career

After approximately 6 - 7 years as an amateur writer, Goffey would turn professional in 1972 by joining Autocar as a member of its editorial team. By 1975, he had been promoted to the role of News Editor, which he held until 1977 before departing for the journal Motor Trader, where he wrote for the publication until 1980.

Thames TV & early Top Gear career

After 8 years as an exclusively print-based personality, Goffey would make his television debut on the 9th April, 1980, to present the very first episode of Thames' motoring programme Wheels, the less successful follow-up to its revolutionary 1970s programme Drive-In. Wheels would run for an initial series of 7 episodes from April until late May of that year, before returning for a second series in late 1981. Goffey would be absent from Top Gear's sixth series due to this, as he had debuted for the programme during its fifth series half a year earlier.

For a brief period in the 1980s, Goffey was associated with rival network Channel 4, presenting and producing the sole series of The Motor Show at the beginning of 1984 before returning a year later for Wheeltracks, which ran from April until June of 1985 as C4's first two of multiple attempts to capitalise on Top Gear's viewing audience. However, these programmes fell through and by late 1985, Goffey was presenting full-time for Top Gear once more.

Rise to fame

In 1986, in the face of a changing programme, producer Jon Bentley would successfully convince his higher-ups to present a segment between the two Italian "dream cars" of the era, the Ferrari Testarossa and Lamborghini Countach, which appeared in Series 15, Episode 10 of Top Gear as a 'tongue-in-cheek' comparison presented by Goffey, who Bentley felt was the programme's enfant terrible of the era. As the programme was not yet particularly known for airing segments on faster cars as it would during the 1990s and subsequent decades, the pair would film an "apologetic" intro and conduct the review at Bruntingthorpe aerodrome, shooting the footage on 16mm film cameras. That same year, Goffey would court controversy as he would slate the first diesel-engined Range Rover in favour of its petrol-engined antecedent, much to the chagrin of those who had helped to engineer it. In response, a team within Land Rover was set up specifically to spite Goffey and the programme, and a car known as the 'Beaver Bullet' was built to allow the diesel Range Rover to go after many diesel and endurance-related records, of which it would claim 27.

In 1989, Goffey published a sole book titled How To Buy a Good Used Car.

Later career

As Goffey's career started to wind down, he began making fewer appearances on Top Gear. His final review for the programme would be a piece on the retro-inspired Lea-Francis Ace of Spades along with a visit to the marque's factory, which aired in March 1997 as part of Series 37, Episode 10. He would then appear one final time on Top Gear television five episodes later to participate in a race against several other Top Gear presenters. He would leave Top Gear in 1997, before signing a new television contract with rival network Granada for their Men & Motors digital station.

In August 1996, Goffey paid a visit to the Coys International Historic Festival at Silverstone to report on the event, which included an interview with Formula 1 driver John Watson.

Men & Motors

Goffey's first appearance under his new employers came in April of 1998, for Series 2, Episode 2 of its Top Gear competitor Motor Week, where he was tasked with presenting a review for the Audi A6 Avant. For the next several years, Goffey's duties programme differed little from those he had previously on Top Gear, and would be one of the programme's main personalities alongside future Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. Along with this programme, Goffey's footage would be resampled in several of Men & Motors other programmes in order to maximise his screentime, such as Dream Deals and Car File, which continued to run throughout the early 2000s. He would step down from the programme in December 2001, presenting his final ever televised car review on the then-new Toyota Corolla.

Final appearances and later life

After his retirement from Motor Week, Chris Goffey would present 26 episodes of the shortlived game show Asking Price for Men & Motors until June of 2002. Goffey looks starkly different in these appearances, missing his trademark goatee, looking visibly thinner and having a higher-pitched, frailer-sounding voice. It is not known if Goffey was absent from the final 15 episodes of Motor Week due to his obligations to the channel, or if Asking Price was created as Goffey was no longer able to present in his previous capacity due to an undisclosed illness. Discounting these appearances, Goffey would retire after an uninterrupted 29 year long career which spanned from 1972 until 2001.

He'd also, write, direct and star in the television documentary Citroen: The French Connection, which released in either 2003 or 2004, as well as The Beetle Bug, where he was briefly re-united with fellow former Top Gear alumnus Steve Berry, before retiring from television for good in order to pursue a career in local politics, joining Oxfordshire County Council in 2005. In the May 2007 issue of Top Gear Magazine, Jeremy Clarkson suggested that he would have liked Goffey to have returned to the programme, even for just a cameo appearance in the reasonably-priced car, but politely declined each of these offers.

Jeremy Clarkson's dismissal from Top Gear

^{Main article: Jeremy Clarkson's dismissal from Top Gear}
In March 2015, Goffey was one of the few major figures who publicly endorsed Clarkson following his fracas with Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon, claiming that the latter "made" the show.

Selected filmography

^{Unabridged article: Filmography}

• Wheels: 1980 - 1981 (14 episodes)
• Top Gear: 1981 - 1997 (177 episodes)
• The Motor Show: 1984 (8 episodes)
• Wheeltracks: 1985 (6 episodes)
• Motor Week: 1998 - 2001

Trivia

• At 16 years, Chris Goffey holds the record for the longest continuous television career at one programme for a British television presenter (Top Gear), appearing in at least one episode every year from 1981 until 1997.
• He bests Tiff Needell's 14-year run at the programme from 1987 - 2001, in addition to several 13-year long runs at Top Gear and Fifth Gear including those of Jeremy Clarkson & Richard Hammond (2002 - 2015), James May (2003 - 2016), and Vicki Butler-Henderson (2002 - 2015).
• Until it was equalled and then surpassed by American journalist John Davis in 2004, Goffey also held the world record of longest continuous television career as an automotive journalist.
• Though Chris would not appear on the revived format of Top Gear, his son, Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, featured in the 2007 charity special Top Gear of the Pops.