Top Gear lads are still in the thick of it 'I BELIEVE there is a load of reasons why Top Gear is popular," the show's executive producer Andy Wilman said recently. For one thing, families like it; for another, "girls like to watch men being thick - and we do that with aplomb." He's right of course but, more than that, the loud, abrasive, nanny state-hating Top Gear is funnier and zippier than most TV sitcoms.