At the end of the day the new Top Gear production team are clearly desperate for the new format to work. They was given the go ahead by Westminster Council so they did not just dive into a car and off they went. Unfortunately in the battle for ratings against the original TG team when they get going on Amazon Prime, I fear we shall be seeing a lot more of these ill thought out projects/scenes in the future while the spirit of one-upmanship lives on.
Rather sensationalist headline. Yes, they were in the vicinity of the Cenotaph but not as close as the telephoto lens indicates. They didn't do donuts around it, even desperate BBC directors and producers are not that stupid!
They were given permission to film in the area, but Westminster Council claim they didn't expect burnouts - I guess the programme is too lowbrow for their members to have watched it
However, you do wonder what happened in the programme discussions when someone suggested filming noisy cars near the Cenotaph, a national shrine to the Country's fallen soldiers. No alarm bells? I guess the oldest person there would be under 40 which may explain it.
I'd give Matt leblanc a little leniency tbh I'm sure he wouldn't have done this if he'd have known what the cenotaph represented. He is a foreigner after all and doesn't know the area or landmarks