Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has made a surprising statement about the future of the show. The BBC chose not to renew his contract in 2015 after unaired footage of Jeremy emerged – including racist comments – and his co-stars James May and Richard Hammond decided to resign rather than go on without him.
The trio moved on to host The Grand Tour with Amazon Prime Video, and after many guest presenters were eventually replaced by Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness.
Top Gear seemingly came to an end in 2023 following an investigation into the 2022 accident that injured Freddie, but left things open-ended. At the time, the cricketer was in a Morgan Super 3 car with no roof, which flipped and caused him life-changing injuries.
The BBC hasn’t given any further concrete update about whether or not it will reboot Top Gear after the crisis, but Jeremy, 65 – despite his bad blood with the broadcaster – has urged them to bring it back.
“It would be sad if it never came back, that would be very sad,” he told The Times. “There’s room for a car programme at the moment because cars are changing so fast and electrical cars are coming along and nobody really understands what’s a good one and what isn’t.”
However, he made it clear that even if the beloved show came back he had no plans to be at the helm. “I just don’t understand or like electrical cars, so I wouldn’t be interested in doing it,” Jeremy quipped.
Richard agreed with Jeremy, sharing in a separate statement that he used to watch the original format of Top Gear back when he was a kid, which focused more on informing consumers than showing off crazy stunts.
The presenter said that with the rise of alternative and climate-friendly cars, Top Gear was more important than ever. “All of these options are going to be available to us … So any programme that can tell us about that is going to become more important rather than less,” he said.
The BBC has left Top Gear in TV purgatory, and hasn’t said whether the show is over for good despite stopping all filming back in 2023. At the time, it said that it would “continue to support” Freddie “with his recovery”.
The broadcaster added: “Under the circumstances, we feel it would be inappropriate to resume making series 34 of Top Gear at this time. We understand this will be disappointing for fans, but it is the right thing to do, and we’ll make a judgment about how best to continue later this year.
“This has also impacted the production team, who we continue to support. Finally there will be a health and safety review of the show, in line with our procedures.”
Even at the time, Jeremy suggested that while he felt for Freddie he still wanted execs to reboot Top Gear. “I can quite understand why he would choose to do something else in future,” he said. “I do hope, however, that my old mates who run the show can find a way of saving it.”
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