Top Gear rolls into West Kerry to film for new series

A habitually late Chris Evans rolled onto the An Ghaeltacht pitch in west Kerry on the edge of the Atlantic just before lunch on Saturday to film for the new Top Gear, in a scene which already looked like part of a film set .

The sun shone, blue-green was the ocean and a looming Ceann Sibéal, the headland where a large metal track has been laid and beehive huts are being constructed for the next Star Wars Episode, overlooked the pitch.

Two and a half hours behind schedule Evans told the 400 strong crowd, around half of them women that they were always late, filming, but that was filming, Mr Evans said.

Few would have suspected so many women in Irish-speaking west Kerry were fans of Top Gear.

But then from the €400,000 new drophead (convertible) Rolls-Royce Dawn, stepped former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc , in a gleaming white shirt, and a loud speaker in his hand.

“How you doin?” asked Joey ( Matt LeBlanc) and as half the stand swooned.

“Aren’t the white leather seats lovely!” one blonde woman remarked to her partner about the new Rolls.

Whoever won - this was a competition with Evans- “there would be no hard feelings,” he said.

Two senior football teams had lined out since 10am. They were not the real seniors, but older minors and former footballers and rugby players who donned the football colours for the Top Gear visit .

Sean O'Cathain, of An Ghaeltacht club said he was sparing the An Ghaeltacht seniors for an expected cracker of a match against Laune Rangers in Killorglin later on that evening.

The straight talking O’Cathain had directed that “gluaisteain”, worth around €500,000 between them, to stick to the sidelines.

“I told them there was no driving on the pitch. No cars on the main pitch — they had to stick to the border,” he confided.

The real match was on the sidelines and the football match was the background: It is the new Dawn's first trip to Ireland and in order to showcase it a contest had been set up against its older version, the 1976 Corniche, also blue and driven by Chris Evans.

Looks, comfort, driveability all mattered. And the players in their muddy boots even got to climb into the cars as did a group of local children driven around by Chris Evans.

Referree Risteard MacLiam ( Ritchie Williams) had the final say as the crowd roared approval for Evans older model.

The polite BBC London accents of the film crew managed the crowd in the football pitch.

“Go to the stands, please! This way please!. If you head over there now, that would be fantastic!”

Afterwards Evans told reporters they had decided to film in Ireland because “it’s over the water”

“We had to come and film in Ireland. We had the Rolls Royce Dawn and we had to have one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world,” he said.

For his part Matt Le Blanc who had spent the night in Killarney after filming on the Ring of Kerry and Kenmare revealed at the end of the day he had his very first pint of Guinness.

Was it nice?

So good he quickly had a second, Evans remarked.

It is LeBlanc's first visit to southern Ireland and it was nice, the people had been lovely, and — in what will be a surprise for Kerry County Council - "the roads beautiful".