Jeremy Clarkson and James May were seen on BBC TV at Hilltop Garden Centre, Witney, in last Sunday’s screening of ‘Top Gear’, drinking “hot sweet tea to calm their nerves”  during filming of the worst car parking ever.

As part of a “History of Peugeot” feature, the two BBC Top Gear presenters took to the road “as if they were not interested in cars at all” in a Peugeot 307CC and a Peugeot 407, stopping off at the Hillview-owned Hilltop Garden Centre for a coffee and to film a parking sequence in which several cars and plants were seriously damaged as part of the “plot”.

“We were contacted by the Top Gear team last summer about using the centre as a location and then shrouded in secrecy to keep the event quiet” Hillview CEO  Boyd Douglas-Davies told GTN Xtra.  “Now that the episode has been broadcast we are anxious to re-assure customers that James May and Jeremy Clarkson will not be bringing their old Peugeots and that style of driving to the centre any more.  We don’t usually have incidents like that in our car park.”

You can see the episode on the BBC iplayer by clicking  this link. The “History of Peugeot” starts at 41:50 into the episode and the hapless pair are seen arriving at Hilltop Garden Centre at 56:45.

During the feature, Clarkson’s Peugeot catches fire while he is driving. That, and the location, has proved useful publicity successful for the centre, which reported a barbecue sale as a direct result of the BBC2 broadcast.  “A customer remembered he’d planned to buy a new one last year and that prompted him to come in and buy this week” they told GTN Xtra.