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Top Gear producer denies quitting after leaked “resignation”

"The email I wrote yesterday was not a resignation statement," insists Top Gear exec producer.

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Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman has denied quitting the show after an email he wrote to staff acknowledging the ‘end of an era’ was leaked to an online motoring website Jalopnik.

“Well, at least we left ‘em wanting more. And that alone, when you think about it, is quite an achievement for a show that started 13 years ago,” he wrote. “I know none of us wanted it to end this way, but for a moment I’d like us to look back and think about just what an incredible thing you all had a hand in creating.

“Our stint as guardians of Top Gear was a good one, but we were only part of the show’s history, not the whole of it. Those two words are bigger than us.”

Wilman (pictured left), who helped relaunch the show with Jeremy Clarkson in 2002 has since denied it was a resignation email, saying it was a private “note of thanks” to the show’s 113 staff.

“The email I wrote yesterday was not a resignation statement, and nor was it meant for public consumption,” he has said in a statement published by BBC.

“It was a private note of thanks to 113 people who have worked on the show over the years, but clearly one of those 113 is a bit of a tit, because they shared it with a website.

“I don’t get this modern obsession with sharing, linking, forwarding, retweeting; whatever happened to a private moment?

“And if I were to resign, I wouldn’t do it publicly, I’d do it old school by handing in my, er, notice, to someone upstairs in HR.

“I work behind the camera and I wouldn’t presume for one moment to think people are interested in what I do. Now, everyone back to work.”

Meanwhile The Guardian reports Wilman is working with BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw to see what can be saved of the films shot for the three episodes of the show pulled after Jeremy Clarkson’s suspension, and how it would be packaged.

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