Fans of The Grand Tour have expressed concerns after rumours Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were reuniting… again.
The trio first hit screens on Top Gear in 2003, before moving over to their Amazon Prime Video motoring show in 2016.
Last year, The Grand Tour came to an end with two emotional specials, and it’s since been claimed a new TV project is in the pipeline.
The Not Very Grand Tour is due to air next month, with few details released, but some fans are already dreading it and claimed Clarkson is a ‘liability’.
The Clarkson’s Farm star, 64, has sparked immense controversy in the past, with incidents including his shocking column about Meghan Markle which he later apologised for after a record number of complaints, and before that, an ‘unprovoked physical and verbal attack’ on a Top Gear producer which led to the end of his time on the show.
And now, Metro readers have declared they wouldn’t want him to return to a motoring show alongside May and Hammond.
One fan called Julie commented on a recent Metro Facebook post about the rumoured reunion saying: ‘Honestly they really don’t have to in fact I’d rather they didn’t.’
‘I would rather stick needles in my eyes,’ reader Roy wrote, while Karen said: ‘Not keen on these 3 to be honest.’
‘How utterly boring,’ Ivan added, a comment John echoed by saying: ‘The most boring ppl on TV.’
Jason also fumed: ‘Great until Clarkson says or does something that makes the three of them unemployed again, he’s a liability.
‘I watch some of the older Top Gear shows on repeats sometimes and the jokes they got away with were shocking.’
‘I thought the world had advanced,’ Steve added, while Nigel simply said: ‘That’s a shame.’
Some people admitted being fans of the trio’s older programmes, but weren’t so keen on the news of a reunion, with Stewart asking: ‘Why, the only time they were worth watching was on Top Gear.’
Other fans however rushed to defend Clarkson, sharing their excitement over a rumoured return.
Duncan said: ‘Hope this is genuine, be great to see the magnificent three back in harness.’
‘Anything these chaps do together is brilliant,’ Grant echoed, with several more calling the news ‘fantastic’.
Unfortunately for those fans, the truth behind the rumours has been revealed, and it’s been confirmed that Clarkson won’t be a part of the programme.
The Not Very Grand Tour will see Hammond and May looking back on old clips from their time on screen with Clarkson.
The BBFC has described the programme as ‘a motoring comedy documentary series’ with a 12 rating due to ‘moderate sex references’ and a language warning.
As well as ‘infrequent implied strong language’ (‘f**k’), the first episode is also expected to include ‘milder terms’ such as ‘c**k’, balls, ‘s**t’ and ‘Jesus Christ’.
There are also ‘additional issues, including a joke aimed at French police offers, and a quip about horse poo.
A timeline of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s TV programmes together
- 2003: The trio first hosted Top Gear together in 2003, with Hammond and Clarkson having presented the first season with Jason Dawe in 2002, before May took over.
- 2006: Hammond was involved in a near-fatal crash while filming Top Gear, when the front-right tyre of the Vampire Dragster he was driving failed while going at 319mph. He was in a coma for two weeks and suffered a brain injury, and has spoken how he is still triggered by the horrific crash.
- 2015: Their time on Top Gear came to an end when Clarkson was sacked for an ‘unprovoked physical and verbal attack’ on a producer. He later apologised and agreed to pay damages, while May and Hammond followed Clarkson and quit the show soon after, saying they came as a ‘package’.
- 2016: Clarkson, Hammond and May announced they were reuniting for an Amazon Prime Video series, before the first season of The Grand Tour aired later that year. When the news first broke, Clarkson said: ‘Piers Morgan said we would have 100,000 viewers but I don’t think it will be that high. Amazon Prime is relatively small in the UK so we’re not going to have huge figures.’ If he only knew…
- 2023: The BBC officially made the decision to ‘rest’ Top Gear for the ‘foreseeable future’, after Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash in December 2022.
- 2024: The Grand Tour comes to an end with two emotional specials, filmed in Mauritania and Zimbabwe.
What have Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May said about a TV reunion?
Though the trio have not addressed the new programme, they’ve said plenty in the past about not returning to screens together again.
‘I wouldn’t rule it out, but you do have to bear in mind that we’re all getting on a bit,’ May, 62, said after the end of The Grand Tour.
He echoed his thoughts in another interview, saying that although there was a need for a new motoring show, it would not be up to him and his former co-stars as they’re ‘too old’.
As well as a TV show, May shut down reports of any other ventures like a podcast, saying: ‘I think people would only really like us doing cars, despite what some people say – “Oh, I think you should all go off and do cooking or you should all go and do a podcast about nothing.”
‘But I don’t think so, I think we should let it lie, what we did.’
Hammond meanwhile thought The Grand Tour could continue, but without them as hosts, telling Metro: ‘It will be carrying on. The Grand Tour continues. We’re stepping away as the hosts, but Prime will be continuing it. So I can’t wait to sit on my own chair and watch somebody else do it. That’s amazing.’
He added: ‘It’s not for us to shape it anymore. We’re stepping away. We made the show that we made.
‘It’s a bit like you’ve got your favourite old… whether it’s a pair of shoes or a jacket that once you’ve worn it, it only fits you. That show was what you get if you put us forward together and the brilliant team around us. But there’ll be a different team doing a different show, and they’ll devise the show that fits them.’
As for Clarkson, he said their show together came to an end because they were ‘unfit and fat and old’, and the physical demands of the programme had become too taxing.
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host said: ‘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 continued to The Times that the show ‘is immensely physical and when you’re unfit and fat and old, which I am,’ making some parts like camping, a stretch.
Addressing any rumours about feuds with his co-stars, he clarified: ‘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.’
‘They do as they’re told,’ he added.
The Grand Tour is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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