Production of the BBC’s long-running Top Gear TV show is to move to Bristol in the latest boost for the city’s media sector.
The programme, beloved by petrolheads since its first outing in 1977, is made by BBC Studios Factual Entertainment Productions. It will join a roster of acclaimed BBC factual entertainment shows filmed in the city, including Countryfile, DIY SOS, Antiques Roadshow, Fake or Fortune and Gardeners’ World. 
Bristol is also home to the BBC’s world-renowned Natural History Unit, which produces landmark titles such as Blue Planet II and the live Watches series including Springwatch and Winterwatch.
The BBC said Top Gear’s move would create a number of editorial and production management jobs.
Production for the iconic show’s 31st series has been taking place around the UK this summer while it has also completed its first international shoot since the pandemic when the presenters and crew visited Iceland.
The 33rd series, due on screens next year, will be the first to be produced from the new base in Bristol, although it will continue to use the track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey to put cars – and presenters – through their paces.
BBC Studios managing director for factual entertainment and events productions Hannah Wyatt said: “Our Bristol hub is an already incredibly successful and vibrant production base that makes many of our highly popular returning factual entertainment series and blue-chip natural history titles – so the Top Gear team will be in very good creative company. It’s an exciting move for the show.”
Top Gear’s move to Bristol comes just weeks after the BBC confirmed it is to relocate a large part of its Bristol operation from Whiteladies Road in Clifton to a modern city centre office building. 
BBC Studios, including Factual Entertainment Bristol, will move to 60,000 sq ft over three floors of Bridgewater House, part of the Finzels Reach development, later this year or early next year.
As well as producing content for the BBC, Factual Entertainment Bristol also makes programmes for other channels, including Inside the Duchy for ITV and Party at the Plaza for Channel 4.
Bridgewater House is a stone’s throw from the Fermentation Buildings, where Channel 4 opened its 3,200 sq ft creative hub just over 18 months ago.
Finzels Reach is also the base for BAFTA-award-winning creative media company BDH and creative studio OUTLAW.
Bristol’s profile as a vibrant hub for film and TV production has soared in recent years and, since the last lockdown ended, the city has had its busiest ever schedule – underpinning its reputation as one of the UK’s most successful TV and film hubs outside of London.
More than 60 titles have been produced at South Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios since they opened 10 years ago in disused wine warehouses on a seven-acre site owned by the city council.
Productions have ranged from high-end TV dramas Poldark and The Trial of Christine Keeler to films such as Hellboy and The Festival and light entertainment shows The Crystal Maze and Tipping Point.
The city is also home to Oscar-winning animators Aardman as well as smaller animation production studios such as A Productions, which recently received Daytime Emmy Award nominations for its work on The Monster at the End of This Story, pictured, and spin-off YouTube short Sesame Street: The Monster at the End of Your Story with Grover and Elmo.
Meanwhile, Bristol’s Wildseed Studios, which promotes and invests in new film-making talent, is experiencing rapid growth and delivering two new original series, The Last Bus for Netflix and Dodo for Sky, with multiple additional projects in development with Viskids, global streamers, as well as other territory-specific premium broadcast platforms.
Pictured: Top Gear presenters, from left, Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness. Image courtesy of BBC
