James May has called for a new motoring show after the BBC axed Top Gear and Prime Video have paused The Grand Tour filming.
It was reported in November last year that James, along with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, are set to walk away from the Grand Tour, a show they have hosted since 2016.
Now, James claims that there is an audience out there ready for fresh motoring content, but added that the legendary trio are ‘too old’ now.
James told The Sun: ‘If you wanted to make a serious, slightly more consumerish car show there’s never been a better time for it because it’s a very interesting topic.
‘What is going to happen to the car, car ownership, attitudes to the car, how we use it, dispose of it, how we power it?
James May has called for a new motoring show after the BBC axed Top Gear and Prime Video have paused The Grand Tour filming
It was reported in November last year that James, along with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, are set to walk away from the Grand Tour, a show they have hosted since 2016
‘It’s all interesting stuff, it’s the most interesting time in the car’s history since it was invented. So I can’t believe somewhere or other, a slightly more modern car show won’t emerge.
‘But we can’t do it as we’re too old.’
It comes after James revealed he ‘wouldn’t rule out’ filming more TV shows with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond amid reports they are set to leave The Grand Tour .
The presenter claimed the trio, who rose to fame hosting BBC ‘s Top Gear , have ‘filmed the last one [episode], for now’ and joked he was ‘technically unemployed’.
May, who made the remarks on Radio 4’s Today programme which he was guest editing on Wednesday morning, said he still speaks to Clarkson and Hammond, who he first began working with in 2003.
He said while they are ‘getting on a bit’ in age, if the right idea or opportunity arose he could be tempted to step back in front of the camera with them.
The 60-year-old added that the three of them had always wanted to finish their time on the Grand Tour ‘with grace rather than fly it into a cliff’.
It was reported last month that May, along with Clarkson and Hammond, were set to walk away from the Grand Tour, a show they have hosted since 2016.
Speaking to Today host Justin Webb, May revealed two more episodes of the programme will come out next year but after that the future is uncertain.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, which he was guest editing, May said: ‘We’ve filmed the last one, for now.’
When asked if the trio, who have become household names with their motoring antics, could be brought back together, he said: ‘I wouldn’t rule it out, but you do have to bear in mind that we’re all getting on a bit.’
Richard Hammond (left), Jeremy Clarkson (centre) and James May in a promotional photo for BBC’s Top Gear, which they presented from 2003 to 2015
He added: ‘We’ve got two [episodes of the Grand Tour] in the bag, there’s one coming out very soon, and another coming out a bit after that, but what happens between now and then we’ll have to wait and see.’
‘I suppose that makes me technically unemployed,’ he joked, ‘I can hear the cheers rolling around the country.’
When asked by Webb whether they had any projects in the works as a trio, May said: ‘I can’t reveal that because the brutal truth is I don’t know yet. But I do still speak to them.’
He then claimed that depending on what it was he could see himself working with Clarkson and Hammond again, but it would have to be something that would work well.
‘Part of our conversation has always been how we land it with grace rather than fly it into a cliff,’ he said.
‘I do think that despite us obviously coming to the end of our time doing this and the cancellation of Top Gear, there has never been a better time [for there to be a motoring programme].
‘Things like the future of autonomous cars, new means of powering cars, a change of general attitudes towards cars and driving, there’s never been a better time for a car show. And the car show itself needs reinvention.’
It was reported last month that May – along with Clarkson and Hammond – was set to leave the Grand Tour, shocking fans.
The trio being filmed on a race track during The Grand Tour’s eastern Europe special – Eurocrash
Richard Hammond nearly lost his life when he was involved in a 320mph crash while filming a Top Gear stunt at York’s Elvington airfield back in 2006
The show itself could continue without the presenters, with Prime Video exploring options on how to move forward without them – and it is believed the trio are not against new hosts being hired.
Fans of the show will still have some more helpings of The Grand Tour to look forward to – two special episodes which will follow Clarkson, May and Hammond to Mauritania and Zimbabwe are set to be released next year.
The trio also have other projects in the pipeline – Clarkson recently filmed a third season of Clarkson’s Farm and a fourth is in the pipeline, while May has another set of Our Man In… travelogues to be released.
By moving on from the programme it would bring together an extremely successful association between Clarkson, aged 63, May, aged 60, and Hammond, aged 52, stretching back 20 years.
The group 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.
Richard Hammond 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 presenter was in a coma for two weeks and the incident left him with serious head injuries. Pictured: The mangled car
Top Gear was criticised by the Mexican ambassador after his people were branded ‘lazy, feckless and flatulent’
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.
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.