Alan Clarksmarsh, Jamesy Dimmock and Handy Hammond resurrect Ground Force for a Sport Relief special and redo a top celebrity sportsman’s garden. It is hilarious, a must watch for all Top Gear fans.
Top Ground Gear Force (once referred to as Top Garden Ground Gear Force) [1] was a one-off TV special, featuring the cast of BBC's Top Gear, which originally aired on BBC Two at 22:00GMT on 14 March 2008 as part of Sport Relief 2008.[2] It was repeated on Easter Monday, 2008.
It borrowed its format from Top Gear of the Pops, a similar one-off special which aired as part of Comic Relief 2007. Whereas Top Gear of The Pops combined Top Gear with Top of the Pops, this episode combines the motoring show with Ground Force, a gardening make-over show which ran on the BBC from 1998-2005.
Regular Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond take over sportsman Sir Steve Redgrave's garden, to dispense advice on creating a zero-maintenance lawn, installing an impressive water-feature and getting rid of unwanted plants. Naturally, disaster ensues!
The Top Gear team of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond decided, for Sport Relief to resurrect the show Ground Force, and provide a garden makeover to the garden of one of Britain's 'sporting legends', namely Sir Stephen Redgrave. Helping them was a team of Poles, and on hand to provide advice on Sir Steve's tastes was Lady Redgrave (who was erroneously addressed and referred to as "Lady Ann").
As the team's only 'country bumpkin', Hammond was the team leader. However, his garden plan failed to impress Clarkson and May, who wanted to include a water feature and a shed, respectively. They are sent to a Wyevale Garden Centre to pick up supplies, returning with their desired equipment.
Hammond used a small digger to dig a trench, to be used to create a 'river of gravel.' Clarkson earlier revealed his unique method for pulling up weeds and cutting branches off trees using a shotgun. Hammond's digger toppled over in the trench, so he returned with a much larger digger to pull it out, resulting in leaving numerous caterpillar track marks all over the garden lawn. Meanwhile, James and the Poles completed the shed, but Clarkson accidentally shot a hole in it, breaking a window.
Hammond 's tree seat is completed, however it's completed outside the tree trunk. He brought in a 14 ton crane to hook the seat so he could slip it over the tree. The crane was too heavy and sinks into the lawn, leaving huge holes in it. However the crane was long enough to hook onto the seat. However, because of Richard's inexperience with cranes, he accidentally swerved the seat sideways, destroying both the shed and the seat.
Clarkson and May pretend to attack Hammond with spadesClarkson decided to remove a rockery by using a homemade bomb. During the explosion one wall of the shed James had rebuilt, after it was destroyed by Hammond, was smashed by the blast. After this happens May stepped out of the shed with a plank of wood, and asked what time the programme will air. After being informed it was going to air after the watershed, he exclaimed 'you're a fu-'. At this point, the episode cut to the next scene.
Jeremy ordered some cement to pave over the garden, but he ordered too little, and only a small portion of the garden is covered. Hammond gets stuck in the cement, and Jeremy had to lift him out. James' shed was rebuilt for the third time while Jeremy erected some rugby posts (despite being told that none of Sir Stephen Redgrave's family plays rugby). However, he and the Poles accidentally droped the posts on James' shed, squashing the roof and part of the walls. This leaded to James angrily telling Clarkson to apologise while pointing a two-by-four at him. Hammond revealed his barbecue system, which uses a jet engine to rotate the meat and cook it. However, the blades rotated too fast and flung the chicken off the rotisserie and the fire from the engine sets James' newly-rebuilt (for the fourth time) shed on fire.
The team then received word that Sir Steve Redgrave was coming up the drive to the house. Redgrave was upset at the destruction of his garden, so the Poles ran away. Eventually, after Jeremy talking to him privately, his mood lightened. Jeremy then showed off his turbo-charged water feature, which blew the top off itself due to the water pressure and crashed into the greenhouse built by the Poles, breaking all the glass. Until then, the greenhouse was the only structure still intact (and the only item in the garden Steve Redgrave was pleased with).
The Ground Force 2008 Special is the funniest gardening show ever when the 'boys' destroy a beautiful country estate and is also the funniest action ever from the Top Gear Team.