Jeremy Clarkson has finally broken his silence after quitting Prime Video’s The Grand Tour after five series.
The 63-year-old signed a big money deal with the streaming service in 2015 to continue his motoring adventures with former Top Gear co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May.
But now the trio’s 20-year-long partnership will draw to a close after Jeremy revealed there was nothing else for them to do.
Telling The Times: ‘I’ve driven cars higher than anyone else and further north than anyone else. We’ve done everything you can do with a car. When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air’.
He also branded himself ‘unfit, fat and old’ as another reason that it was time for the ‘immensely physical’ show to end, following the hosts camping on beaches and racing speed boats in pervious series.
Jeremy Clarkson, 63, has finally broken his silence after quitting Prime Video’s The Grand Tour after five series
Jeremy (C) signed a big money deal with the streaming service in 2015 to continue his motoring adventures with former Top Gear co-hosts Richard Hammond (R) and James May (L)
He also brushed of any suggestions of a feud with his co-hosts saying: ‘We’ve spent more time in each other’s company than our families’ over the last 25 years,
‘So I don’t think it would have lasted as long as it did if we’d hated each other as much as James likes to think,’.
Before revealing that there options were ‘being explored for a new incarnation’ of show, which could offer the trio a possibility to reunite on screen.
An insider told the Sun last year that the ‘surprising’ decision ‘very much marks the end of an era for the three presenters’, who have worked together since 2003.
They added that although the show is one of the streaming platform’s most watched shows ‘the guys have made no bones about the fact they’re all advancing in years and they have lots of other projects to pursue.’
The source told the publication that the broadcasters ‘felt like the time was right and wanted to go out on a high when the show remained popular’.
Jeremy, Richard and James shot to superstardom after taking over BBC’s Top Gear, turning it from a niche car programme into one of the corporation’s hottest properties and selling spin-offs around the world.
Their time on the show wasn’t without controversy.
But now the trio’s 20-year-long partnership will draw to a close after Jeremy revealed there was nothing else for them to do
Saying: ‘I’ve driven cars higher than anyone else and further north than anyone else. We’ve done everything you can do with a car. When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air’
He also branded himself ‘unfit, fat and old’ as another reason that it was time for the ‘immensely physical’ show to end, following the hosts camping on beaches and racing speed boats in pervious series
Richard was nearly killed when he was involved in a 320mph crash while filming a stunt for the show, with the impact leaving him in a coma for two weeks and ‘Hamster’ himself admitting he fears getting early onset dementia as a result.
The trio also became the focus of a number of racism rows, with the ambassador for Mexico complaining when his people were branded ‘lazy’, ‘feckless’ and ‘flatulent’ on the show, sparking an apology from the BBC.
They were also hounded out of Argentina by an angry mob after a row over a number plate used while filming the series. Officials claimed that H982 FKL on a Porche – which was registered in May 1991 – was a reference to the 1982 Falklands War.
That same year, Ofcom ruled that there had been a breach of the broadcasting code by including an offensive racial term during the programme’s Burma Special.
They dramatically left the programme in 2015 after Clarkson was sacked by the channel following a bust-up with producers, before returning on The Grand Tour in 2016.
Jeremy, Richard and James shot to superstardom after taking over BBC’s Top Gear , turning it from a niche car programme into one of the corporation’s hottest properties and selling spin-offs around the world (pictured)
Jeremy was dropped from Top Gear in 2015 over what the BBC called an ‘unprovoked physical and verbal attack’ on producer Oisin Tymon (who he is pictured with)
Since then they have hosted 44 episodes of the series, which has taken them around the world on specials to Cambodia and Vietnam, Reunion and Madagascar, Scandinavia, and eastern Europe.
Late last year their former bosses at the BBC announced Top Gear, which turned the trio into superstars, was being axed in the aftermath of a horrific crash involving presenter Andrew Flintoff.
The show’s production has been halted since host Flintoff, 45, was taken to hospital in December 2022 after being badly hurt in an accident at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.
Following the crash, the BBC announced that it would pause production on the show, co-presented by Take Me Out host Paddy McGuinness and automotive journalist Chris Harris, as it was felt it would be ‘inappropriate’, adding there would be a health and safety review.
McGuinness later thanked fans ‘for the love’ in a ‘goodbye’ message.
And after the BBC’s announcement to ‘rest’ the show for the foreseeable future, Paddy posted a gallery of images on Instagram starting with a picture of the trio in white Top Gear outfits.
He wrote the caption: ‘We were always going to be b*****s but we were your b******s.
‘Thanks for all the love over the years folks, it was very much appreciated.’
Late last year their former bosses at the BBC announced Top Gear, which turned the trio into superstars, was being axed in the aftermath of a horrific crash involving presenter Andrew Flintoff (R) pictured with co-hosts Paddy McGuinness (centre) and Chris Harris (L)
