Clutch trouble

The re-birthing of Top Gear seems to be going through severe labour pains. Carrot-topped petrolhead Chris Evans has parted ways with his chosen executive producer Lisa Clark, who has been replaced by Alex Renton. Alex has at least ten years experience of work on the show, and was series producer when Jeremy Clarkson punched Oisin Tymon.

According to The Sun, script editor Tom Ford (£10 an hour) has gone, too. That may be wrong - Tom's Twitter feed says he's working on "not Top Gear" for BBC Brit, and does some writing for the Top Gear website.

The Sun also says that David Coulthard will join Chris as part of the presentation team (is that because he's not expecting to follow F1 to Channel 4 ?). Motoring journalist Chris Harris, who makes a living posting YouTube video reviews of fast cars, could be there too - though, according to Wikipedia, he's had previous run-ins with Ferrari and Lamborghini, who've stopped giving him cars to play with.

Also joining, according to the Sun, is 46 year-old German car fanatic and tv presenter Sabine Schmitz, born and brought up almost within the Nurburgring. And known to Top Gear viewers.