» DVD Review: ‘Top Gear – Vietnam Special’

Top Gear: The Great Adventures – Vietnam Special
DVD, © 2009 BBC Worldwide, 84 minutes

The Top Gear ‘Great Adventures’ episodes are now part of the show’s folklore with its fans, and the Vietnam Special simply proves to show how much this series enjoys pitting man against machine.

In this 84-minute DVD, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May head to south-east Asia and to the spectacular country of Vietnam.

Their challenge is to travel the entire length of the country in eight days, thereby demonstrating what the American military failed to achieve in ten years during the Vietnam War.

Sounds simple? Not quite… The problem that they have is that the several million dong (the local currency) proves to be rather less valuable than they’d hoped, leaving them faced with the only choice of buying motorbikes – or in Clarkson’s case, a scooter – for the journey in one of the most expensive car markets in the world.

The greatest challenge is getting Clarkson onto two-wheeled transport, with the very tall Brit having never attempted anything like this. The rest of the episode follows the trio’s journey to their destination in what is one of the most spectacular road trips the show has managed to produce.

There are some pretty good special features, including audio commentary, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes photo gallery.