The hit BBC show Top Gear was at its all time best last week when the team; Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May decided to take a road trip across the USA. The only difference being that instead of hiring a car, they were going to buy one second hand and see how far they could get.

Setting off with just a measly $1000 each they split up and visited several different used car salesmen.

Eventually after hours of searching, Jeremy Clarkson managed to lay hands on a Chevrolet Camaro, Richard found himself a Dodge Ram pick-up, and James turned up proudly in a run down Cadillac.

After being dropped off in Miami, their target destination was revealed by the producers to be New Orleans; over 700 miles away!

They each set off in their chosen cars, and whilst Jeremy and Richard were boiling to death in their cars, James was the only one sensible enough to have picked one with air conditioning that actually worked, much to Richard and Jeremy’s disgust!

They travelled across America taking on various different tasks from the producers along the way, such as testing the brakes on their cars by driving at high speed then slamming the brakes on in order to stop (hopefully!) before they charged bonnet first into alligator infested waters.

Both James and Jeremy were fine with their attempts, but poor old Hammond almost ended up in the lake, just managing to jump out in time. Needless to say, his brakes were the worst!

Their next challenge was to spend the night camping, but to only eat whatever they could find on the side of the road (Road kill) Urgh!! Jeremy came up trumps when he disappeared for hours and finally turned up with a huge dead cow on the roof of his car, the guys decided not to eat it but that it was a pretty impressive, yet totally crazy result from Jeremy.

The next day, with a car stinking of dead cow Jeremy, James and Hammond set off again, their next challenge was to spray paint each other’s cars in the most offensive way possible then drive through a religious town in Alabama, this almost ended in real disaster when the guys were literally chased by a group of unhappy locals. Easily the best part of the show!!

They made it to their location in the end unscathed, and upon seeing the devastation still surrounding New Orleans they decided to give their cars away to the needy rather than sell them. Even this was fraught with difficulties though because they couldn’t even give one of the cars away, and were nearly sued by a lawyer representing the mission who they offered the cars to because allegedly one of the cars didn’t meet the specification that they had suggested.

All in all it was a fantastic hour of viewing and brilliant to see ‘The Hamster’ back in full swing after his almost tragic accident. Long live Top Gear!

Dancing on Ice is the latest in a long line of reality TV shows to hit our screens this year, now in its second series this is one of the rare shows that actually does take serious talent and dedication to be able to pull off.

Taking to the ice this year are: Clare Buckfield, Kay Burley, Neil Fox, Stephen Gately, Phil Gayle, Duncan James, Ulrika Jonsson, Lisa Scott-Lee, Lee Sharpe, Emily Symons and Kyran Bracken.

DJ Neil Fox was the first one to leave the show on week one, and despite giving the performance his all, didn’t quite manage to live up to the standards of the other ice skaters. I felt a bit sorry for the poor bloke really though as you could see he was loving taking part and that he really was putting everything into his performance.

Actress Claire Buckfield gave a particularly brilliant performance this week showing that she was not afraid to skate with courage and confidence.

On the second week the competition was just as fierce, and it was the turn of newsreader Phil Gayle to leave, the judges said that he just wasn’t as good as some of the others and that maybe his height was proving to be an issue as it is obviously harder to get the moves and precision right on the ice when you are taller.

Claire Buckfield shone again this week with a great little solo piece at the start of her performance and Duncan James and partner once again got great scores.

Week three has recently seen the loss of Ulrika Jonsson from the competition; I must say that I thought this was a wise decision from the public and judges this week as she really looked uncomfortable on the ice and wasn’t getting her steps correct or in time with the music.

Sky News presenter Kay Burley aka ‘The Ice Queen’ quite literally lost her cool this week when she suffered a nasty bang on the head in rehearsals after being swung too low in a choreographed move. She took to the ice on the night and managed to pull it off live though so she definitely deserves a big pat on the back, she’s clearly got a lot of guts.

I’m interested to see how the show will progress and without doubt the competition is much tougher this time for the celebs than last year.

I would say that Duncan James has a fair chance of winning, based on his popularity with the female public just as much as his skating skills! Claire Buckfield is definitely in the running too.

If they manage to make the final show as entertaining as last year with all the wire work etc it will definitely be a show not to be missed!

Cast list for Dancing On Ice 2007: Andrei Lipanov, Clare Buckfield, Daniel Whiston, Duncan James, Emily Symons, Frankie Poultney, Fred Palascak, Holly Willoughby, Jason Gardiner, Karen Barber, Kay Burley , Kristina Lenko, Kyran Bracken, Lee Sharpe, Lisa Scott-Lee, Maria Filippov, Matt Evers, Melanie Lambert, Natalia Bestemyanova, Natalia Pestova, Neil Fox , Nicky Slater, Pam O’Connor, Pavel Aubrecht, Phil Gayle, Phillip Schofield, Robin Cousins, Stephen Gately, Tony Gubba, Ulrika Jonsson.

Showing on Film4 Thursday 8th Feb at 9pm is ‘Domestic Disturbance’ a great little film starring John Travolta and Vince Vaughn.

The film revolves around Frank Morrison’s (John Travolta) broken down family as we learn that he is separated from his wife Susan (Teri Polo) and that she plans to re marry wealthy businessman Rick Barnes (Vince Vaughn).

Desperately trying to move on with his life Frank genuinely tries to be happy for his ex wife but when their attention seeking young son Danny claims he has witnessed his stepfather killing a man Frank finds himself unable to stop digging until he finds out the truth about Rick and his shady past.

Facing an uphill battle in trying to prove his son is telling the truth for once, Frank begins to find himself in dangerous terrain and must work fast to keep his family out of harms way.

Although this film isn’t a big blockbuster and doesn’t boast the huge action sequences you would expect from a John Travolta film these days I can’t help but think that it received a rather overly frosty reception when it was first released back in 2001.

Sure, the film does tend to have a ‘Made for TV’ type atmosphere at times but let’s not forget that given its cast and interesting plotline it was a pretty good effort from everyone involved in putting this film together.

Vince Vaughn is fantastic in this film and it is refreshing to see him playing a serious and menacing role rather than the comedic characters we are used to seeing him portray over the last few years of his career. He delivers a believable and realistic performance as Rick Barnes and I can honestly say he was perfect for this role.

Travolta on the other hand was slightly disappointing as Frank, the desperate father trying to clear his son’s name and keep his family safe. I feel that he could have given his character more depth and given him that extra bit of fighting spirit that you are waiting to see him show through out the film.

There is a brief but brilliant appearance from Steve Buscemi as the short lived character ‘Ray’ and as usual fans of the cult actor won’t be disappointed with what he brings to the table.

All in all, Domestic Disturbance is a tense thriller that is definitely worth taking the time to watch.

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Full cast list for the film Domestic Disturbance: Aaron Fiore, Angelica Torn, Benton Hill Jr., Betsy Jordan, Brad Lloyd, Brad Merritt, Bridgetta Tomarchio, Charles E. Bailey, Chris Ellis, Darryl Warren, David Bridgewater, David Schifter, Debra Mooney, Dianna Catterton, George Christy, Holmes Osborne, James Lashly, Jim Meskimen, John Travolta, Lee Venters, Leland L. Jones, Leroy Harper, Marc Siegel, Matt O’Leary, Michael Tomlinson, Nick Loren, Patt Noday, Paul Ligotino, Rebecca Tilney, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ryan Sweeney, Sara Graves, Steve Buscemi, Steve Roberts, Susan Floyd, Suzanne Nystrom, Tait Ruppert, Teri Polo, Terry Loughlin, Ty Sears, Vince Beard, Vince Stout, Vince Vaughn, Vipin Patel, William Parry, Zach Hanner.