James May quits Top Gear
“It has to be the three of us," says May, who follows exits Top Gear, but not the BBC.
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It’s now clear that the era that was Top Gear is no more with James May announcing he has no plans to return without Jeremy Clarkson.
Speaking to MediaGuardian, he said: “Me and Hammond with a surrogate Jeremy is a non-starter, it just wouldn’t work. That would be lame, or ‘awks’ as young people say.”
“It has to be the three of us. You can’t just put a surrogate Jeremy in and expect it to carry on. It would be forced. I don’t believe they would be stupid enough to try that.”
May admitted that he wasn’t ruling out a return to the show in the future, seeming hopeful that all three hosts would be back together at some point.
“It doesn’t mean I won’t go back, we may all go back in the future. It might just be we have a break from it. I don’t know.
“It would be a bloody tough call to do Top Gear without Jeremy, that would be a bit of a daft idea.”
But he still hopes to remain with BBC for other projects.
“The BBC still want me to make some documentaries for them, including about cars. I’m not out of making TV programmes about cars and motoring and car history.”
Meanwhile Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman has also resigned from the BBC, fuelling speculation that he will reunite with Jeremy Clarkson on a rival motoring show.
Wilman, a long-time friend and colleague of Clarkson, was the driving force behind the show and was responsible for reinventing Top Gear with Clarkson when it returned in its modern incarnation in 2002.
It follows an earlier story speculating on his exit, following an email he said was for staff only.
Lastly BBC2 has also confirmed Jeremy Clarkson’s final scenes in Top Gear will screen later this year.
Source: Evening Standard, Guardian
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10 Responses
Hope we get some news soon about the new show there doing, top gear is a very witty funny show the world has lost something great
Can’t wait to see the unreleased segments and how they plan to present them.
Hopefully all four (including Wilman) reunite on a new show /network.
It doesn’t mean he’s quit. He just won’t work with a 3rd. They could. Still continue with May and Hammond
If prevention is better than cure, then the BBC have proven to be woefully inadequate in their talent management of Jeremy Clarkson. He is a bit of a character with well known weaknesses. It was wrong of him to punch and abuse long time colleague Oisin Tymon. But Oisin should never have been left in that position in the first place, the BBC should had a couple of experienced PAs in place 24/7 to look after JC and his 2 siblings. They should have been ‘fixers’ who ensured their lives flowed smoothly during filming. TG was worth approx $100million in revenue for the BBC annually. Any exec of any company who allowed this 100mil to be losy in any other business would be fired…..as should the senior bbc mgt
Shows could not function if talent required minders and PAs between them and the crew. There’s a level of trust and collaboration that is standard, along with not bopping your co-worker on the nose.
He wasn’t saying the punch was good, he said it wasn’t he just said they should of had someone who did everything for him and make him happy, clearly he wasn’t happy when he got in a rage for not having steak or something, most celebrity’s are rude like this and have unreasonable request, they are the money makers,
For me they should of just stood down Clarkson and fine him, and bring him back in a year or something, like footballers get
The man is not “a bit of a character with well known weaknesses”, he’s a crude thug with anger management issues and an entitlement complex.
It’s not up to the BBC to “manage” him it’s up to Clarkson to learn to modify his behaviour and act like a decent human being.
I’m sick and tired of people constantly finding excuses for this boorish behaviour, just because the man is ‘amusing’.
In other words the BBC weren’t prepared to give him a massive pay increase in the new contract.
But what is Hammond doing?
I don’t think money has a lot to do with it, while not on as much as JC May and Hammond are by no means poor and could quite easily retire today if they wanted to.
My be is the BBC will relaunch the show with 3 new hosts and new producer but will it be the same show, I doubt it. This will basically be Top Gear’s 3rd act and if it works will largely depend on the viewers and what the guys do on a rival show on another network like Sky.