Yes, much of it is clearly scripted, but Flintoff, Harris and McGuinness seem genuinely to get on and find each other funny. When they repeatedly slapped each other's faces in a childish game of snap it felt spontaneous, a tiny bit fetishistic, and I did actually laugh.

Although these three have a gentle chemistry (much improved when McGuinness isn’t shouting), the mediocre banter does occasionally feel like they are trying too hard. ... In between races, the baggier bits of the episode dragged. But overall, this was an encouraging direction for Top Gear to take.

There’s little sense that [Freddie (né Andrew) Flintoff's] heart is in cars. At the other end of the track is Chris Harris who can achieve high speeds but is no performer. Completing the current trinity is Paddy McGuinness, essentially a foghorn with a driving licence. ... It’s as if Top Gear can’t help meta-critiquing itself. It’s genuinely awful, isn’t it? Alas there’s no way of enhancing what used to be a magazine show about cars.