Fifth Gear is back from the dead… again

Like a zombie that just wouldn’t die, Britain’s more serious motoring show Fifth Gear is set to return to our screens with Tiff Needell back at the helm. According to a tweet, filming for the new series has already commenced and the show will broadcast on Quest in September 2018.

The show’s revival shouldn’t really come as surprise, with Fifth Gear having been cancelled twice before – back in 2009 and again in 2016. The show itself originally rose from the ashes of the original Top Gear in 2002 and has continually faced lower viewer figures and a lack of funding.

Though it is unclear at this stage which of the co-hosts will return, Needell revealed that ex-touring car driver Jason Plato joined him for filming. Jonny Smith and Vicki Butler-Henderson haven’t been up to much since the show’s cancellation two years ago, so it is safe to say they’ll throw their hats in the ring again.

Fifth Gear has always existed in the shadow of the much more popular Top Gear, with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – but it was still able to build a unique audience of its own. Needell, Butler-Henderson, and Plato are all accomplished race car drivers, and as a result the show was more about cars as opposed to old men falling over.

The timing for Fifth Gear’s return couldn’t be better though, with the BBC’s Top Gear in turmoil after Matt LeBlanc announced he would quit the show at the end of the next series.