If you, like me and the rest of the world (read: The UK, and who gives a damn) who has read The Observer last Sunday and silently or more vocally agreed with Steve Coogan's remarks about Top Gear, you are not wrong. It was essentially a good show that just wouldn't end and dragged on forever like a sick, sad puppy. I remember shows and articles dating a while back in which producers said it's been going on for too long and presenters' personalities are overpowering the rest of the content. Essentially, it was a bit like a cult of personality, rather than a cult of cars.

Coogan was right to say that car reviews are hardly innovative and you'd be pushed to find something exciting in terms of features - and that rich white men bashing the poor (in this case the Mexicans) is essentially wrong. I'm no petrol-head but I can tell when something good turns bad out of too much popularity and Top Gear has become a caricature of its former self. It should have been shelved ages ago in its 'glory days' because you can only climb so high. And on the way down...it'll be one heck of a fall. It narrowly escaped the sexist remarks that have been floating around after the Sky Sports drama (because they make a point of filling their front rows on shows with women..mostly). I doubt this will take it off the air, but it's been long overdue.

There's a problem with falling in love with ideas - and just as I was writing this entry I hear that W+K London is retiring Cravendale's cow, pirate and cyclist. It's a good decision because like with all good ideas, you can only milk it for so long before it stops giving. And what they're doing is superb, even though they're just fictional characters. In terms of going out in full glory, it's rumoured that in ancient Greece women with greying hairs would retire their vanity mirrors to Aphrodite, thanking her for having blessed them with good looks in their youth. This may well be a myth or a random story but there's some wisdom in it.

Top Gear didn't know when to end - and that's the problem with a lot of things. That's why most good ideas are battles (as Sagmeister put it). A battle to not fall in love with them and to not perpetuate them past their expiry date. It's tough but necessary.