Motor Week (UK)
| Motor Week (UK) | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| 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[1] conviction. From February 1998 until December 2001, 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[2] 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
Motor Week would be presented by the following (bold denotes main host):
- Ginny Buckley
- Brendan Coogan
- Steve Fowler
- Chris Goffey
- Richard Hammond
- Glenda McKay
- Elisa Portelli
- Francesca Robinson
- Ian Royle
- Mike Rutherford
- Howard Stableford
- Jeremy Taylor
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.
