SOME say, it’s not a patch on the Clarkson-Hammond-May incarnation.

And that Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc have as much chemistry as a gerbil and a corned beef hash.

All we know is… it’s just as well they kept custody of The Stig.

Early days, though, at BBC2’s all-new Top Gear, which only a fool would dismiss on the strength of one episode.

But boy, does it need turning around in a hurry.

They’ve been so concerned with tailoring it for the US market they’ve forgotten what makes the show great, even with a wholesale change of personnel — unashamedly British charm and humour.

Instead, we had an incongruous Top Gun “dogfight” between Evans and Sabine Schmitz in Nevada that made no sense; The tweaked Star in a Rallycross (no longer Reasonably Priced) Car, now a racing duel, between grossly mismatched MasterChef USA judge Gordon Ramsay and American actor Jesse Eisenberg, who doesn’t even appear to own a car; And a pointless UK v US challenge between the two hosts involving three-wheeled Reliants and a road trip to Blackpool.

Which would have been fine, had Clarkson not famously had the last word on Reliants on the show in 2010 and if there’d never been a Top Gear road trip to Blackpool two years earlier.

Seen in isolation, this is a decent enough programme.

But, obviously, it can’t be seen in isolation. Comparisons with the previous era are everywhere, and almost none so far are favourable.

The big one Evans and co would flag is how inclusive they’ve made the place.

Sunday’s opener began with staff from his local Indian restaurant sat on a car. Evans: “Tell everybody why you’re here. What are you here to represent?”

“We represent one metric tonne of downforce.”

Really? Because I could’ve sworn you were here so Top Gear could proclaim: “Look how diverse we are! There’ll be no jokes about Mexicans anymore!”

Taking over from the last lot is, of course, a poisoned chalice.

You clearly can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater when the series is watched by 350 million people in 214 territories.

But by making small-scale changes they’ve ended up with a Top Gear tribute act.

It remains one of the best produced, gorgeously shot and sharply edited shows on TV.

You only have to see LeBlanc’s Moroccan desert Ariel Nomad film to realise that.

That was, however, by far the best segment, which made me wonder.

Rather than hope blindly that the chemistry between the pair will click over time, should Evans become a behind-the-scenes showrunner and give LeBlanc the on-screen reins?

Because as it is, when Evans said of the Dodge Viper: “Top speed? 177mph. Noise? Tooth-shattering,” I assumed it was self-criticism of his excitable, shouty studio demeanour.

The script is clunky, burying the news section on BBC3’s Extra Gear loses fertile ground for running jokes and continuity errors produced magically swapping Reliant Rialtos on the hard shoulder.

But German Sabine has promise, not least the language barrier turning her into Yoda during the Top Gun routine: “You can be anytime my wingman.”

Lost that lovin’ feelin’, you have, Top Gear.

Spudulikes...

Dioraleze advertising its diarrhoea tablets during ITV2’s Love Island.

Emmerdale winning the big one for the first time at the 18th British Soap Awards.

Springwatch’s fussy-eating golden eagle chick.

ITV’s Lorraine stand-in Fiona Phillips lowering her voice and telling Michael Sheen of his Soccer Aid teammate: “Ronaldinho put on a lot of weight, didn’t he. No, sorry, that was Ronaldo.”

And Alex Jones’s One Show link from a Buzz Aldrin interview about 17,500mph space travel to a film about average-speed cameras: “Speeding down here on Earth is fast becoming a thing of the past, especially if you’re travelling on the A9 in Scotland.” To Inverness… and beyond!

Spuduhates…

EastEnders charging Bobby Beale with the completely made-up “unlawful killing”.

Love Island bunny boiler Zara.

BBC2 drama Versailles’s sex, violence, £21million budget, 427 cast and crew and an animatronic, illegitimate, royal, black dwarf newborn failing to disguise a massive turkey.

Dr Mark Evans using DNA to prove the Abominable Snowman is a bear, on C4’s Yeti: Myth, Man or Beast, three years after using DNA to prove the Abominable Snowman is a bear, on C4’s Bigfoot Files.

And Springwatch’s Michaela Strachan: “I can scratch my own badger. It’s something you can all do,” and Chris Packham on seeing a falcon: “I’ve reinforced my trousers with kevlar because I’m stroking them so furiously in delight.”

She’s 50. He’s 55.