Quentin Willson

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Quentin Willson (born July 23, 1957) is a British TV presenter and personality.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Quentin’s career began respectably enough by studying English Literature under Philip Larkin, but after university he ‘went completely off the rails’ and started up a car dealership selling ancient Ferraris and Maseratis. Which is how he amassed his now famous knowledge of everything on four wheels and made him unique among motoring pundits.

He first came to the public's attention in the early nineties as deputy editor of the only magazine solely devoted to second hand motors, Buying Cars, and was soon poached by the BBC to co-host Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson. His deep knowledge of the market changed the way British consumers bought used cars and caused most carmakers to regularly reach for their Valium. For a decade he appeared every week on Top Gear, routinely exposing shoddy service and poor product, educating car buyers on how to beat the system as well as pressurising the industry to lower new car prices in the UK.

He also presented his own classic car series The Car's The Star along with the first property show to talk about money, All The Right Moves, both for the BBC. He then left Top Gear to present Channel Five's rival motoring programme, Fifth Gear. While at Five he created the Britain's Worst Driver format which was nominated for best reality show in the coveted Montreux Golden Globe Awards. A raft of Worst derived shows followed, including Britain's Worst DIYer, Worst Mother in Law, Worst Husband, Worst Teenager and Worst Builder to name just a few.

The Worst format is now an international brand and has been televised in 30 different countries including America, Canada, Holland, Australia, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium. A familiar face on most channels he regularly appears on BBC Breakfast, GMTV, Panorama, Watchdog, Tonight with Trevor McDonald, This Morning, Richard and Judy and most news and current affairs programmes.

Quentin’s voice is almost as recognisable as his face and he's narrated Driving School, War and Piste, Cops Uncut, How To Live Longer as well as network TV ads for Barclays Bank, Carphone Warehouse, Kellogs, Parcelforce, Shell Optimax, Black and Decker and Tic Tac. He’s also a Bafta Judge and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He admits to being particularly proud of achieving the lowest ever recorded score on the BBC’s second series of Strictly Come Dancing – a toe-curling 8 out of 40, which is still an unbroken record. He claims he is ‘to dancing what Frank Bruno is to English literature’ and dances ‘with all the finesse and elegance of a hoard of Mongol storm troopers on a three day pass’. Quentin pens regular columns for the Sunday Mirror and Classic Cars magazine as well writing for scores of other newspapers and periodicals. He’s also written 10 motoring books.

Quentin is married with three children and has homes in Warwickshire, London and Saint Emilion, France.

[edit] Top Gear

For eleven years from 1991, Willson was co-presenter of the BBC's Top Gear motoring magazine alongside Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson.

[edit] The move to Fifth Gear

After Clarkson's departure in 1999, Top Gear began to steadily lose viewers, and with the end of the show's 22 year run in sight, Willson and his remaining co-presenters defected to Channel 5 where 5th Gear, a clone of the Top Gear format, began in 2002.

[edit] Recent years

Recently Willson has gained more TV exposure, developing and presenting:

and making appearances on shows such as:

[edit] External links

edit
Top Gear
1977 to 2001 - 2002 to present
Presenters
Current: Jeremy Clarkson - Richard Hammond - James May - The Stig
Previous: Jason Barlow - Steve Berry - Julia Bradbury - Vicki Butler-Henderson - Brendan Coogan - Jason Dawe - Noel Edmonds - Chris Goffey -

Kate Humble - Tony Mason - Tiff Needell - Michele Newman - Angela Rippon - Quentin Willson - William Woollard
Episodes and Broadcasters
Top Gear Episode List - Top Gear Broadcasters and Video Releases
Featured segments
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car - The Cool Wall
Spin-Offs
Rally Report - Top Gear Motorsport - Stars in Fast Cars
Related articles
Top Gear Magazine - Jon Bentley - Fifth Gear
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