Former Friends star to host new Top Gear

Former star of the Friends TV show Matt LeBlanc has been announced by the BBC as one of Chris Evans' co-hosts for the new series of Top Gear, which will tho the airwaves in May of this year.

It's a welcome shot of good news for what is increasingly looking like a troubled production. The build up to the first series of Top Gear not to feature the infamous Jeremy Clarkson since 2002 has been bedevilled with apparent problems including the departure of a key series producer (Lisa Clark, whose departure was considered a major blow for the show) and tales of rows between Evans and senior BBC executives over the tone and content of the new series.

LeBlanc is best known to most of us as the gormless Joey Tribiani from Friends, which ran for 12 series. He has also starred in some major Hollywood blockbusters such as Lost In Space and Charlie's Angels, and has worked with the BBC before in the comedy series Episodes, which lampoons the world of television production and in which LeBlanc played a narcissistic and vain version of himself.

Amongst his petrol-head credentials, LeBlanc is known to be a major Porsche enthusiast, and owns a small collection of high performance cars. He also currently holds the record time in the Top Gear ‘Star In A Reasonably Priced Car’ competition, setting a 1min 42.1secs lap in the Kia Cee’d hatchback on the Top Gear Test Track at the Dunsfold airfield in Surrey.

Car nut

“As a car nut and a massive fan of Top Gear, I’m honoured and excited to be a part of this iconic show’s new chapter,” LeBlanc told the BBC this morning “What a thrill!”

Chris Evans said of his new TG presenter: "Matt's a lifelong fellow petrolhead and I'm thrilled he's joining Top Gear. Acting out our craziest car notions on screen is a dream job and I know we'll both be debating some epic road trip ideas. We can't wait to share what we've been up to on screen later this year."

It's thought that Evans and LeBlanc will also be joined on screen by German racing driver and TV personality Sabine Schmitz (who memorably raced a Ford Transit van around the Nurburgring race track for a previous episode of Top Gear) and motoring journalist Chris Harris.