Matt LeBlanc’s at full throttle for new series of Top Gear

MATT LeBlanc is hanging with a whole new bunch of friends these days. And unfortunately for us, it doesn’t look like he’ll be reuniting with his old Friends any time soon,

Despite fellow sitcom Will & Grace’s successful return to our screens, and plans for Roseanne’s reboot later this year, there seems little chance Matt’s most famous character Joey and his gang – Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe – will get back together.

“I don’t think so, not that I’ve heard, but maybe you know some thing that I don’t?,” Matt tells Watch over the phone from LA. “I just don’t see it happening ... in all the powers-that-be opinions, it’s just not a not a show that’s revisitable.”

So while we won’t get to see if Joey Tribbiani managed to find love, Matt assures me he’s doin’ OK, living in California and feasting on sandwiches every day. But back to those new friends Rory Reid and Chris Harris and the thrill of Top Gear, which has just returned to Nine.

Matt says the show – technically in its 25th season, but only the third for Matt, Rory and Chris – will have a broader appeal this year.

“We’ve worked hard and really pushed the envelope hard to try and make the films as funny as possible,” he says. “(We’ve tried to think) outside the box to take a car show to people who might not necessarily like cars.

“I try to look it as an hour of entertainment not just a car show, it still focuses on cars obviously but I try to have jokes in there as well.”

And it seems the boys have found their humour and a new groove that had been somewhat missing after original hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond left in 2015. And it’s with this new direction in mind that sees Chris take Matt for a drive in rural France in his own Citroen 2CV in an attempt to celebrate a classic motor. The two tease their way through the French film, joking around the idea that the car was designed for tradesmen and doctors working in the French countryside in the 1930s. Mobilising people in post-occupied France, it’s suspension was supposedly designed to cope with being taken across an unploughed field while carrying a basket of eggs, none of which are permitted to smash. So, naturally, Chris and Matt try to do just that with hilarious results.

“That was a special little car to drive and he and I are in the same car together which we don’t do a lot of , Usually we’re in different cars. He has a very passionate love affair for that car and he won me over,” Matt says, admitting as a cynical American he took some persuading.

On the other end of the spectrum, and perhaps more typical, Matt’s in the new Ferrari 812 Superfast with all the bells and whistles you’d expect. “We drove that in Italy in the mountains near where the Italians had captured Mussolini,” Matt says. “(Do you) remember on that mountain where the ski resort was where the German special forces parachuted in and rescued him.”

This season the boys traverse the globe from Italy, France and Norway, to Japan and California and Utah, and it’s this experiencing new cultures and scenery that Matt loves the most.

“The studio part is fun but it’s not as exciting as going to faraway places and experiencing the culture and changes and differences and also driving on different roads all around the world,” the 50-year-old says.

And while a trip to Down Under isn’t on the cards this season, Matt reassures fans it’s not out of the question. “Schedule-wise it gets a bit tricky, it’s a long flight, I know that production wants to come over there and are possibly trying to organise it all,” he says. “We just couldn’t make it happen this year – I’m sure we’ll make it happen sometime.”

It could prove tough for the father-of-one who admits his schedule is currently jam-packed despite wrapping Episodes, in which he played a satrirical version of himself. He’s starring in Man with a Plan, and was surprised, but tickled to learn it’s showed in Australia: “I didn’t realise it was playing down there, how is it doing? Is it well received? Tell people, I said thanks for watching.”

How he manages to squeeze in Top Gear is almost a mystery – even to him.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I just look at the schedule and go ‘there is no way this is going to work’ but somehow between my team and the producers on the shows everyone’s been able to work together and get it all done,” Matt confesses. “It’s a lot of work, but I’m having a good time. I can’t complain, I can think of worse problems.”

The Golden Globe-winner admits he took some time to settle into the role of presenter, but it’s a case of third time lucky as he’s found his mojo. “I kind of approach it like anything else, so for me I play the part of a presenter,” he laughs. “I’m not really a presenter, I’m an actor so I act like one.”

He’s similarly humble when I tell him about reviews that suggest he’s helped save the Top Gear brand after the particularly painful Chris Evans era.
“I don’t think I can take credit for that, I think it’s a pretty competent team,” Matt says. “I’m a new face on the show, but I really can’t take credit for turning the show around, I’m just doing what I’m told.”

Matt chuckles when I ask him for tips on how to get my own daughters to do exactly what they’re told, before adding “Ah, when I figure out how to work that with my own I’ll let you know.”

Speaking of big kids – cars and motorcycles captured Matt’s heart at a young age. So, he’s particularly loving living out his childhood dreams with the inclusion of machinery such as diggers and tractors this season. “I’ll always be a little kid when it comes to that,” he says. “It was me that suggested we do that kind of stuff on the show – you know, to bring in more heavy machinery. I still think it lends itself to funny because it’s so foreign to everybody including myself and the other presenters, so to put us in that stuff and watch us drive around (is funny).”

Really it seems like the best job ever, hanging out with your new friends, driving fancy cars, world travel ... what’s not to love?

“Yes, it’s not bad, I tell you,” Matt laughs, before adding it’s not all champagne and fast Ferraris but a lot of hard work too. “It probably seems a lot more glamorous than it is, but we put in a lot of work and long hours. We have a really hard-working, truly dedicated team, everyone works really hard. And we do a lot of long hours on minimal sleep. Everybody pulls together and we try to get as much of the budget up on screen as possible so the accommodation and the catering are not really spectacular.”

And let’s not forget the perils of jet lag. “You know we’ll get to some faraway place and have to get straight to work and you’re just kinda ‘whoa, I just got off the plane’,” he reveals.

So how is Matt, to quote his old friend Joey, really doin? “It’s a lot of fun we get to play with some really interesting automobiles and some cool motorcycles and tractors and bulldozers,” he says. “It’s just been really, really fun. I’m enjoying it.”

Here’s hoping his new viewer friends will too.

TOP GEAR, WEDNESDAYS, 7.30PM, 9GO!