Jeremy Clarkson and co’s new Top Gear show on Amazon Prime might genuinely be called ‘Gear Knobs’

Trademarks might point to name or new features of the show

(BBC)

Amazon Prime has promised Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May they can make the show they want, and this freedom that you don’t get with TV broadcasters might extend to them naming it.

‘Gear Knobs’ certainly doesn’t sound like it was invented by suits in a board room, a wilfully stupid and self-deprecating title you could quite imagine the trio coming up with.

BuzzFeed spotted that it was quietly registered as a trademark by Clarkson’s law firm Olswang just a couple of weeks before the Amazon Prime show was formally announced, meaning that the phrase can be used for television, merchandise, magazines - just about anything.

The variant ‘Gear Nobs’ was also registered, along with ‘Speedbird’, which could be some sort of Stig-esque character or regular segment.

This is all very speculative at the moment (and they could just be trying to throw everyone off the scent), but given the trio’s general irreverence, it wouldn’t be surprising if they went for a jokey title for the show - poking fun at the BBC in the process - rather than meaningless car-based titles like ‘Top Gear’ and ‘Fifth Gear’.

The show reportedly has an eye-watering £160 million budget, with more money being poured into it per episode than House of Cards.