The fourth episode of the first series saw Jeremy Clarkson bring the brand new Aston Martin Vanquish to the Island.

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First broadcast on November 10, 24 years ago, Clarkson’s short feature, using the car which featured in what was the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day, turned out to be one of the programme’s most charming early detours.

Jeremy Clarkson driving the Aston Martin Vanquish along the Freshwater Bay sea wall (Image: BBC)

Jeremy Clarkson puts his foot down along the Military Road (Image: BBC)

The episode opened with the Vanquish crossing the Solent on a Red Funnel vehicle ferry to East Cowes.

The deck was so unusually empty, it looked as if the entire service had been commandeered solely for the show’s benefit.

The visual unintentionally elevated the moment into something resembling a Bond-establishing shot, as though the supercar were en route to a covert MI6 outpost, rather than East Cowes.

Once the car rolled off the ferry, Clarkson took it to busy Cowes town centre, which immediately prompted curiosity from local residents and shoppers.

At the time, the Vanquish carried a price tag of £158,000.

Nowadays, you can pick up a used model for as low as £30,000 — but it was quite the car in its heyday and still a head-turner today.

Clarkson, never one to miss the chance to stir some fun debate, asked shoppers whether they would rather own the car, or a house.

The Aston Martin Vanquish on board a Red Funnel ferry heading to East Cowes (Image: BBC)

Jeremy Clarkson chats to a local woman about house prices at an estate agent’s shop window in Cowes town centre (Image: BBC)

Jeremy Clarkson puts his foot down along the Military Road, near Freshwater Bay (Image: BBC)

To reinforce the point, he took a local woman to the window of Pittis estate agents in Cowes High Street, and asked her if she would rather have a three‑bedroom family home in Gurnard for £172,000 — or the Vanquish.

She chose the Vanquish in a heartbeat.

Clarkson delighted in showing off the Vanquish’s 6.0‑litre V12 engine, describing its soundtrack in pure Clarkson fashion.

In one of the episode’s most memorable lines, he likened the engine note to sounding like Tom Jones in a roar of agony, which Clarkson duly tried to emulate.

It was an image that ensured viewers would never again listen to Delilah, without involuntary flashbacks to a rumbling V12 on the Island’s roads.

The review also leaned into some of the quirks of early‑2000s supercars.

Clarkson lamented the absence of a traditional gear lever — replaced by a ‘paddle‑shift’ system he found totally pointless, “unless you drive a Formula One car”.

An eyebrow-raising sequence showed him attempting a three‑point turn on the narrow stretch of the Freshwater Bay sea wall — the Vanquish filling the available space like an oversized sardine.

The Aston Martin Vanquish, driven by Jeremy Clarkson, exiting a Red Funnel ferry at East Cowes (Image: BBC)

Jeremy Clarkson doing a three-point turn in the Aston Martin Vanquish outside Freshwater Independent Lifeboat Station (Image: BBC)

Jeremy Clarkson puts his foot down along the Military Road, near Freshwater Bay (Image: BBC)

And when he ran out of path, Clarkson exploded trying to make a three-point turn without a manual gear stick, without crashing into Freshwater Independent Lifeboat Station at 140mph.

It was the kind of mischief that defined early Top Gear — harmless enough to be funny, daring enough to be memorable and impractical enough that no viewer would dream of attempting it themselves.

The programme also made excellent use of the Island’s stunning West Wight scenery.

One stand-out clip saw Clarkson take the car along the Military Road — from Freshwater Bay to Chale — a stretch often chosen by television crews for its sweeping coastal views and dramatic bends.

Although the broader episode also featured a comparison with the Ferrari 575M, driven by ex-Formula One world champion Damon Hill, that portion of the programme was filmed on the Isle of Man.

More than two decades later, Top Gear’s Isle of Wight piece stands as a warm and witty slice of early‑2000s television.