Top Gear: Middle East Special

Planning for the episode began in January 2010,[9] with the concept of the Baby Stig added later as a plot device to introduce a new Stig following the departure of Ben Collins.[10] The Top Gear convoy included support vehicles for camera crews and the production team,[11] plus a medic and a private security team.[12] Filming took place during October 2010, with the convoy negotiating the Sheikh Hussein Bridge border crossing from Jordan to Israel on 19 October 2010.[9][13][11] Subsequent filming took place in Nazareth with the crew departing via Highway 6.[14] The Kurdistan UK Friendship Association, RUS Aviation (suppliers of the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane), and the Syrian Automobile club are thanked in the credits.[15]

Because it was a BBC production the Top Gear film crew were prevented from crossing the Iran–Iraq border.[16] During filming in Syria, presenter James May suffered a concussion having been knocked over by a tow rope,[3][17] and was collected from hospital by Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond who were wearing burqas as a disguise.[18] The film crew encountered food poisoning, landmines, and border controls.[19] May was greeted by locals using his name in Iraq and Syria.[20] Whilst crossing Syria the presenters discovered they were extremely popular and well known.[21]

The cars purchased with a budget of £3,500 each have number plates from the country of Georgia.[5] Clarkson is driving a Mazda MX-5, Hammond a Fiat Barchetta Riviera and May a BMW Z3.[5] The team arrives sitting in their vehicles inside a Russian Cargo aeroplane which opens the cargo door prior to landing and performs a go-around, before the starting location is revealed as Iraq.[5]

Experiments were made on bulletproofing the car doors.[22] During the trip the cars were decorated in a Bedouin-style,[23] with survival equipment, and one car with bull bars and a large hookah.[23] Hammond's car was fitted with a car stereo that played songs by Genesis non-stop, and was transformed to give the appearance of a nomadic tent.[22] May's BMW was camouflaged using inspiration from the Afrika Corps,[24] and Clarkson's Mazda received a Technicolour Dreamcoat-style paint scheme.[25] During a NASCAR-style rally race at a Roman circus, the Gladiator soundtrack is played along with music from Ben-Hur.[26] Clarkson narrates the words "Peace on Earth, and Goodwill to all men" from the Annunciation to the shepherds as the team are seen passing the Israeli West Bank barrier.[27] The episode ends with the presenters finding a miniature version of The Stig, complete with racing overalls and helmet.[28] The presenters' gifts are a gold-relief medallion, a shampoo bottle called "Frankincense" and a Nintendo DSi XL in lieu of myrrh.[5]

Along with the Top Gear: East Coast Road Trip it was one of two specials produced in 2010.[29] It was broadcast in the United Kingdom on 26 December 2010 and watched by 5.863 million viewers on BBC Two plus 546,000 viewers on BBC HD.[30] The following-day repeat had a 7-day total of 2.988 million viewers on BBC Two, plus 202,000 on BBC HD.[31] By the end of December 2010, it had been viewed 1.26 million times on the BBC iPlayer.[32] It was scheduled for broadcast in Australia on 8 February 2011 on Channel Nine,[33] and watched by 792,000 viewers.[34] The adventure was included in the "Top Gear – The Great Adventures 1–4" DVD box set released in 2016.[35]

After the screening of the episode the three main cars joined the World of Top Gear exhibition in the collection of the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu in England.[24][36][37] The cars were exhibited again at the ExCeL London conference centre for Top Gear Live in November 2011.[38][39] Unpainted HO scale and TT scale models were made available for 3D printing.[40]

At the time, The Daily Telegraph described it as "one of the best [Top Gear] specials yet."[29] In 2015 the Swiss magazine Watson (de) included the Middle East Special on their top-eighteen best Top Gear moments describing it as the best Christmas Special of all time.[41] In 2021, Clarkson described the Middle East Special as the best of the adventures to watch.[42]

For the Middle East Special the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee reviewed two rejected appeals in June 2011,[43] two in July 2011[44] and one in October 2011,[45] noting in all instances that they were "satisfied that the decision not to proceed with the appeal was correct."[43][44][45]

• "Top Gear: Middle East Special" at IMDb
• Top Gear: Middle East Special Gallery on Flickr