Rally Report

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Copyright resides with the original holders, no reproduction without permission.

Rally Report was a BBC 2 series dating from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s, consisting of coverage of the Lombard RAC Rally of Great Britain, which was held annually in the autumn. The show went out each evening, and was quick turnaround. It was presented by Top Gear’s, William Woollard, from Rally headquarters with previews, live stages and twice nightly reports. It was shot on location, edited and transmitted from site. It was often a challenging production logistically. Tony Mason, presented the Rally stage reports. Rally Report was unusual as a sports programme, not made by BBC Sport. In later years it was renamed Top Gear Rally Report, to emphasise the fact that it wasn’t made by Sport, and that a lot of the Top Gear team were involved.

The producers included Phil Franklin, Brian Strachan (until 1986) and Tony Rayner with the executive producers including Derek Smith, Dennis Adams and Tom Ross.

Regional Top Gear – Jim Knight’s photos

Photos by Jim Knights, no reproduction without permission.

These photos date from the early days of a regional Top Gear programme.  It was a film shoot somewhere in Europe.  The director is Derek Smith, the PA is Claire (surname not remembered), Jim Knights is the camerman.

It looks like a good time was had by all – and the crew was certainly well fed and watered, even if the crew car wasn’t very impressive!

crew trying it on with the PA