It's lost the spark of genius... pass the jump leads: QUENTIN LETTS gives his view from the sofa on the new Top Gear 

Same old music, a similar studio set-up, familiar features: BBC TV has not so much reinvented Top Gear as given it a minor paint job. There was nothing particularly revolutionary as it returned to our screens last night.

It was rather like watching a tribute band going through the motions. Quite fun in places yet oddly undaring. Still running in, perhaps. Or possibly just an inferior model.

The motoring show, as you may possibly have heard, has changed its three former presenters. Instead of Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May it is now fronted by disc jockey Chris Evans and American actor Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends).

LeBlanc, grizzled, husky, looking at home in a leather jacket but still happy to ham it up in a Reliant three-wheeler, was a success. He displayed a dry, droll humour.

LeBlanc, grizzled, husky, looking at home in a leather jacket but still happy to ham it up in a Reliant three-wheeler, was a success. He displayed a dry, droll humour

The motoring show, as you may possibly have heard, has changed its three former presenters. Instead of Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May it is now fronted by disc jockey Chris Evans and American actor Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends)

Evans? Hmmn. The jury may need a little longer to decide.

Things began with the bespectacled Evans leaping round the studio, shouting, shouting, shouting. Mr Whippy on speed. He is a self-congratulatory little fellow, his first words being ‘Brilliant! Marvellous! Amazing! Beautiful!’

The studio audience had been programmed to show enthusiasm. This it duly did, but the applause felt less than spontaneous. 

Evans had brought along the staff from his local curry house – apparently solely so that he could say ‘we don’t talk about catering on the show any more’. This was a dig at Clarkson’s notorious tussle with a Top Gear assistant over a steak – the row that led to the old show being dismantled.

The first package last night was an over-long film testing two American cars, the Dodge Viper ACR and the Corvette Z06, at the Top Gun US naval base in Nevada. 

‘It’s about as cutting-edge as a rusty crowbar,’ yelled Evans about the Dodge Viper. As allusions go, it was not particularly zippy or comical. How much funnier Clarkson might have been.

And did the old Top Gear not do a feature once which combined sports cars and warplanes?

The high-speed sequences, including lots of burnt rubber, were as impressively shot as ever. No expense seemed to have been spared when it came to the technical production values. But what about the casting of Evans, his script and quips?

The high-speed sequences, including lots of burnt rubber, were as impressively shot as ever 

Star chef Gordon Ramsay and another American actor, Jesse Eisenberg, were wheeled on to do the celebrity slot where they discuss their past motor cars and do a circuit in a test car

Next came a sequence back in Britain – a trip to Blackpool with the two presenters driving Reliant Rialto three-wheelers. One was painted with a Union Jack, the other had the Stars and Stripes. There was a wearisome amount of British-American jockeying. Let us hope this fades as the series continues.

The Blackpool film was funnier, LeBlanc rising to the occasion with some good gags about the mayor of Blackpool, and hailing his hopeless little Rialto (which conked out repeatedly) as ‘this gem of an automobile’. If nothing else, he showed that Americans CAN do sarcasm.

Star chef Gordon Ramsay and another American actor, Jesse Eisenberg, were wheeled on to do the celebrity slot where they discuss their past motor cars and do a circuit in a test car (quite neatly modernised so that it includes some muddy track and a jump). 

But how samey it all felt. How derivative – and not just the green car seats in which they sat for their studio interview. 

Evans even used the same phrases as were used in the old show, and his intonation was sub-Clarkson, echoing his predecessor but not bettering him.

The show’s pet racing driver, known as The Stig, has been retained. ‘We got custody!’ screamed Evans.

The Blackpool film was funnier, LeBlanc rising to the occasion with some good gags about the mayor of Blackpool, and hailing his hopeless little Rialto (which conked out repeatedly) as ‘this gem of an automobile’

Gone, however, is the chemistry and the Home Counties banter between the old trio. Absent: The trademark, deadpan disdain of Jeremy Clarkson, the sardonic repartee between him and Richard Hammond, the Pooterish stoicism of James May.

There was some swearing but it did not compensate for the absence of political correctness which always made Top Gear such salty fun.

LeBlanc did a decent one-man film testing the Nomad off-roader in the north African desert. I kept thinking what a good guest he would have made for Jeremy and Richard and James in the old show. 

But his camaraderie with Evans felt forced. ‘That was a lot of fun,’ growled LeBlanc as last night’s episode ended.

It was reasonably entertaining. But it has lost its spark of genius. It all felt a little middle-lane and underwhelming, really. Gaskets remained unblown. Pass the jump leads, someone.