No, Captain America is not hosting Top Gear

Chris Evans and Chris Evans, one is Captain America and one is new host of Top Gear. Photo / AP

Who is this Chris Evans? A guide to Jeremy Clarkson's replacement on the BBC motoring show Top Gear:

1. This Chris Evans is a 49 year-old British radio veteran, not the guy who who plays Captain America in The Avengers also named Chris Evans.

2. He grew up on a council estate in Warrington in Cheshire near Liverpool and Manchester. He was bullied at school for his red hair. He also once hit a teacher with a chair after the teacher punched him in class.

3. One of his early jobs was as a strip-o-gram. Later in his radio career, he asked women to strip in the studio, one of the outrageous antics which made him a big, often controversial name and a figurehead of the UK's lad culture during the 1990s.

4. He was a big deal on British radio and television in that decade and made a lot of money from it. Though he might have made more if didn't keep quitting his radio gigs and getting fired, mostly for not turning up on time.

Evans began his radio career in Manchester in the early 1980s. He worked as a producer for Jonathon Ross and moving to London bouncing between radio and television gigs including Channel 4 television show The Big Breakfast.

He started on the breakfast show of the BBC's Radio 1 in 1995, doubling that with Channel 4's TFI Friday. After falling out with BBC management over his on-air and off-air behaviour he quit the station, shifting to Virgin Radio.

When Richard Branson put Virgin Radio up for sale Evans' Ginger Media Group bought it for $190 million.

In 2000 Ginger Media, including its television interests, was sold to Scottish Media Group for $550 million which made Evans worth an estimated $168 million.

The same year TFI Friday was canned. Evans continued to host the Virgin breakfast show until he was fired in 2001 for repeatedly failing to show up to work after going on a six-day bender.

Evans sued Virgin. He lost with the judge observing: "He has the temperament of a prima donna."

5. Evans returned to the BBC, joining Radio 2 in 2005 eventually shifting to the breakfast show replacing Sir Terry Wogan.

Evans attempted a return to television in 2005 with OFI Sunday on ITV. It was canned after a few shows.

Evans is now a Friday presenter on the BBC television early evening magazine programme The One Show.

A one-off 20th anniversary episode of TFI Friday screened in the UK last week attracting nearly 4 million viewers and sparked talk of it returning to the air permanently.

6. Evans has been married three times. His second wife was pop star Billie Piper who he married in Las Vegas in 2001 when he was in his mid thirties and she was 18.

They divorced in 2007. He also once dated Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, though it's suspected that was a ruse created by Evans as a PR stunt.

These days, he's now married to professional golfer Natasha Shishmanian who he met at a celebrity tournament.

7. Evans was fined and banned from driving for in 2001 after he was clocked driving at 170 km/h on the A3. Four years later Evans crashed his Ferrari 575M Maranello.

His Ferrari collection includes a 1961 250 GT Spyder California formerly owned by 1960s American movie star James Coburn bought at auction for $10.3 million and a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO bought for $27 million.

8. He's licensed to fly helicopters.

- nzherald.co.nz