Just a second, “Captain America” fans.
While some may have gasped at the improbable pairing of superhero actor with a legendary BBC motoring show, it’s a different Chris Evans, not the “Avengers” actor, who will be taking over at “Top Gear,” trying to live up to his predecessor’s antics, like taking far-flung road trips, trying to destroy a Toyota Hilux and getting run out of Alabama.
British TV and radio personality Chris Evans, with his distinctive red hair and thick-rimmed glasses, will replace Jeremy Clarkson as lead presenter of a new “Top Gear” line-up, the BBC announced Tuesday.
Clarkson was fired in March after striking a producer who failed to produce a hot meal for the presenter.
Given the furor that accompanied Clarkson’s sacking, any replacement was bound to be contentious.
The 49-year-old Evans, a veteran TV and radio personality with a long history of working with the BBC, has had his share of controversy, but his high-octane personality and love of cars makes him a natural choice for replacing Clarkson.
An avowed “petrolhead,” and a good friend of “Top Gear’s” erstwhile front man, with his own collection of classic cars, Evans brings a different energy to the show compared to the more laconic Clarkson.
New host: “Cheeky” and “unpredictable”
“I am so delighted that Chris will be presenting the next series of Top Gear. His knowledge of and passion for cars are well-known and combined with his sheer inventiveness and cheeky unpredictability he is the perfect choice to take our much-loved show into the future,” Kim Shillinglaw, controller of BBC Two and BBC Four, said in a statement.
Evans came to fame in the UK in 1992, with morning TV show “The Big Breakfast” on Channel 4 — a hyperactive, ramshackle mishmash of games, witty back-and-forth and phone-ins, after making a name for himself on London radio.
Prior to his broadcasting work, he had a number of part-time jobs in his hometown of Warrington, notably as a “Tarzanogram.”
Evans enjoyed years of fame and notoriety as the host of the Big Breakfast and a host of subsequent light entertainment shows, including “TFI Friday,” another breathless format involving bands, celebrities, outlandish stunts and in-jokes.
The anarchic show had as many detractors as fans, and was often in hot water, with the likes of rocker Shaun Ryder unleashing a volley of abuse, and an arm-wrestle-turned-make-out session between Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and Australian pop star Kylie Minogue.
As a media mogul with his production company Ginger Productions — so-named for his distinctive hair color — he bought Richard Branson’s Virgin Radio in 1997, partly in response to a public feud that he had with BBC and its flagship Radio 1, where he had previously been a presenter.
Returning to the BBC in 2005 as host at BBC’s Radio 2, he won the Sony Radio Personality of the Year award the following year, thanking the broadcaster for giving him a “second chance.” He went on to win the award again in 2007.
No stranger to Britain’s tabloid press
However, his boozy celebrity friendships — such as with disgraced footballer Paul Gascoigne — and relationships with the likes of Halliwell and pop singer Billie Piper, who he would later marry, made him regular tabloid fodder.
His hard-drinking image during his heyday — he was no stranger to big “nights out” with his celebrity friends — meant that he often courted controversy. However, he was fired from his hosting job at Virgin Radio in 2001 following a very public drinking binge with then-wife Piper.
More recently, in 2013, he got in hot water after impersonating deceased serial sex-offender Jimmy Saville live on air to 10 million listeners.
However, as his long and often-tumultuous career has proved, it would be a mistake to write him off.
He already has a legion of detractors in “Top Gear’s” Clarkson loyalists, but it would not be out of character for the BBC’s comeback king to stage another revival.
