Quentin Willson

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Quentin Wilson

Born 23 July 1957 (1957-07-23) (age 50)
England
Occupation Television presenter, author and journalist
Website
www.quentinwillson.co.uk

Quentin Willson (born 23 July 1957) is a British TV presenter and motoring expert. He is perhaps most famed as a presenter of the motoring programmes Top Gear, Britain's Worst Driver, and Fifth Gear.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Early years

After studying English Literature at the University of Leicester he started up a car dealership selling Ferraris and Maseratis. In the early nineties he was the deputy editor of the only magazine solely devoted to second hand motors, Buying Cars. He lives in Warwickshire with his wife and three children, called Mercedes, Max and Mini.

[edit] Top Gear

He joined the BBC to co-host Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson. For a decade between 1991 and 2001 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.

[edit] Post Top Gear

After Top Gear's cancellation he left the BBC to present Channel Five's rival motoring programme, Fifth Gear. When Top Gear was relaunched Willson derided his former colleague, Clarkson, saying "It's a compliment that the [BBC] are so afraid of losing ratings to us they've lured my old co-host out of semi-retirement."[1] The relaunched Top Gear has gone on to be a "massive success"[2] with an audience of 8 million in 2007.[3]

While at Five, Willson created the Britain's Worst Driver format, which was nominated for best reality show in the Montreux Golden Globe Awards.[citation needed] A raft of similar shows followed, including Britain's Worst DIYer, Worst Mother in Law, Worst Husband, Worst Teenager, and Worst Builder.

Willson also participated in the 2004 season of Strictly Come Dancing, but ignominiously got the lowest score ever on the show with his one and only dance before being voted off.

[edit] Writing

In 2004 Willson was awarded Motoring Writer of the Year. He writes regularly for The Sunday Mirror and has also authored 10 books.

  • "Top Gear": Good Car Guide by Quentin Willson BBC Books 1993
  • "Top Gear": Good Car Guide by Quentin Willson BBC Books 1994
  • Classic Cars of the World by Quentin Willson and David Selby DK Publishing 1995
  • Ultimate Classic Car by Quentin Willson, DK Publishing 1995. Republished with David Selby.
  • Classic American Cars by Quentin Willson, DK Publishing 1997
  • The Quentin Willson Guide to Used Cars: Everything You Need to Know by Quentin Willson Virgin Books 2001
  • Quentin Willson's Cool Cars by Quentin Willson, DK Publishing. Second edition 2001
  • Cars, A Celebration by Quentin Willson, DK Publishing 2001
  • Great Car by Quentin Willson, DK Publishing 2001
  • Ultimate Sports Car by Quentin Willson, DK Publishing 2002

[edit] Other

[edit] Conviction

In his early car trading days Willson was once convicted for supplying a car that had its mileage doctored by a third party.[citation needed] He has since campaigned for greater legislation to protect buyers from clocked cars.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Methven, Nicola. "Car wars; Exclusive Quentin's dig at 'old hat' Clarkson", Daily Mirror, MGN, 2002-03-27, p. 22. 
  2. ^ "Top Gear's chequered past", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2006-09-21. Retrieved on 2007-02-15. 
  3. ^ "Top Gear sets new ratings record", Digital Spy, 2007-03-06. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 

[edit] External links