The Edinburgh Fringe (comedy) is not the only festival that Scotland hosts, in August, each year. Another is the Edinburgh International Television Festival (here) – something Jimmy has attended or contributed to several times over the last 20+ years (here).

At this festival over 2,000 TV leaders meet up, from around the world, to “talk shop”. Contacts are networked, deals are made and new talent sought out.

The festival story that the MSM latched on to this week was whether Top Gear would be rebooted and who would be hosting.

The BBC has a new Director General (Matt Brittin) and the BBC team were always going to be questioned about commissioning as they have recently announced that they will no longer be producing a number of long-running shows such as Live At The Apollo. Celebrity Mastermind, Winterwatch and Blankety Blank.

The Director of Entertainment (Ed Harvard) confirmed that “Top Gear is coming back” but, in relation to Jimmy hosting it, said:

Jimmy would be a great host but I won’t be discussing that today. We will have more information on Top Gear shortly.

So, no real update but, if you haven’t noticed this post, Jimmy offered a tease a couple of days ago.

All Top Gear related posts are here.

Jimmy’s Edinburgh TV Festival Contributions

• 2008 – Live 8 Out of 10 Cats special (here)
• 2009 – spoofing Britain’s Got Talent (here)
• 2017 – interviewing Comedy Central President on stage (here)