Top Gear is moving to BBC One

Top Gear’s next series will launch later this year… on BBC One. Yep, we’re leaving our BBC Two home – where we’ve been since 1977 – for series 29, hopping over to the UK’s favourite telly channel. Watch out, Countryfile.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast today, Freddie and Chris – fresh from their adventures in Peru in episode 3 of series 28 – confirmed the move. Missed the ep? UK viewers can catch up here on BBC iPlayer, though be warned: there is a dangerous amount of Orange Firebird contained within.

Charlotte Moore, director of BBC Content, said: “The time is right to move the world’s best motor show to the nation’s most popular channel and bring it to an even broader audience on BBC One.”

BBC Studios director of content Ralph Lee added: “Paddy, Freddie and Chris’s effortless chemistry and humour has struck a chord with audiences of every age and taken the show somewhere special, so I suspect things will get bigger, better and crazier when we arrive on BBC One.”

BBC Two controller Patrick Holland said: “From Peaky Blinders to Line of Duty and now Top Gear, BBC Two is a place where unique shows can evolve and thrive before moving to even broader audiences on BBC One.”

The current series will continue on Sunday nights, BBC Two at 8pm, and we’ll have more news for you on the time and specifics of the new series closer to its launch date. But it’ll be… later this year. And called series 29. And on BBC One.