Britain’s love affair with the madcap motoring team from Top Gear has seen the show take out the honour of being the decade’s favourite television program.

In a poll specially commissioned by Channel 4 which will go to air next week Top Gear, which underwent a successful transformation earlier this decade, took out top honours as Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson were acknowledged for revolutionising the motoring industry to the mainstream television public.

First broadcast by the BBC in 1977 the show was deemed tired and outdated by 2001 when producers decided on an overhaul. At the time several of the key presenters that had featured heavily over the years abandoned the series in favour of a new show, Fifth Gear, which debuted on Five. However, the unique chemistry of the overbearing Clarkson, the studious May and cheeky Hammond delivered a blend of humour and information that rose to global stardom.

Top Gear headed the poll from The Office, Doctor Who, QI and The Simpsons to be officially named The Greatest TV Show of the Noughties by C4. The rankings were decided by new measures to determine fan favourites rather than relying solely on viewing and ratings numbers.

Elsewhere, the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol was voted best tune of the noughties in an additional poll on C4 that looked at the greatest musical hits of the decade. The ER theme song beat competition from Rehab by Amy Winehouse and Mr Brightside by The Killers, with Artic Monkeys and James Blunt rounding out the top five.