James May issues brutal response to working with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond again after Grand Tour stars split
JAMES May has issued a brutal response to working with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond again.
Last year, the former Top Gear trio broke off their working relationship after over two decades together.
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond started working together on the famous BBC One show in 2002.
After controversially leaving the corporation, they launched a new show called The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime in 2016.
However, the show came to an end in September last year as the trio bid farewell to doing programmes together after 22 years.
Now, after rumours that they could do more projects, James May has spoken out about the prospect of getting the band back once again.
However, it’s not necessarily the good news that fans may have been hoping for, especially with his utterly savage response.
Apart from a set of upcoming specials of the Amazon Prime motoring show, it seems James is done for good after working “over a third of [his] life working with those two idiots.”
He told ABC News Breakfast: “Yes we have disbanded. There isn’t going to be a reunion.
“We’re not like Led Zeppelin or anything like that. In many ways, we’re not like Led Zeppelin.”
Led Zeppelin have reunited on a number of occasions after they first ‘ended’ in 1980.
They last conducted a concert together in 2007, which was 27 years after the group disbanded following the death of John Bonham.
However, James May did admit that the end of the long-running partnership was ’emotional’, as they had been working together for so long.
“Well it was emotional I supposed, I’ve been in that job longer than I’ve been in any other job by a long, long way,” he remarked.
“I also think that it was time to stop because we always said we would land it with dignity not fly it into the cliffs.”
However, the TV presenter said that it was the ‘right time’ for the famous trio to part ways as they embark on other projects.
The Grand Tour episode guide
How many seasons of The Grand Tour are there and where do they take place?
The Grand Tour launched on Prime Video in 2016 and quickly became one of the streamer’s biggest hits as hosts Jeremy, 63, James, 60, and Richard, 52, felt it was time they move on from Top Gear hit the road.
They have now brought five epic series of motoring adventures to the small screen, each taking place in different locations and even featuring celebrity guests.
Series 1
- Series 1 aired from 2016 to 2017 and took the presenters to a number of foreign locales, including Jordan, Morocco and Italy.
- The series is comprised of 13 episodes, with episodes 7 and 8 making up a two-part special set in Namibia, where the trio embarked on an epic beach buggy challenge.
Series 2
- Jeremy, Richard and James returned for more motoring actor in series 2, and drove their way across Europe as they tested out some of their dream vehicles like the Bugatti Chiron and the McLaren 720S.
- This series, which aired from 2017 to 2018, is made up of 11 episodes. It features regular ‘studio segments’ filmed in the team’s permanent tent in the Cotswolds, and had regular participation from celebrities with two guests going head-to-head on timed laps every episode.
Series 3
- In 2019, the presenting trio crossed continents – from North America, to South America, to Europe and Asia – putting both new vehicles and classic sports cars through their paces.
- This series was the last to feature the regular studio segments, car reviews and timed laps.
- To mark the end of this era the final episode’s last segment includes a montage of scenes featuring the presenters over the course of their career as a trio, not only from this programme, but also from their time hosting Top Gear.
Series 4
- This series marked a complete change in format for The Grand Tour as it consists entirely for feature-length specials which aired between 2019 and 2021.
- The first two chronicle Jeremy, Richard and James’ epic adventures across Asia and Africa, while the third and fourth episodes saw them put foreign cars to the test on their home turf. And fitting American vehicles through Scottish roads is no easy feat.
Series 5
- Following the same format as series 4, the fifth and final series of The Grand Tour also consists of four feature-length specials.
- The first of these hits screens in 2022 and follows the trio as they travelled through Norway, Sweden and Finland in three Rally-Inspired Sports Saloons.
- The second episode was another Euro adventure while the third took the presenters back to Africa.
- The fourth instalment of the series and final ever episode of The Grand Tour, titled One for the Road, premieres on September 13, 2024. It promises to be an emotional one as the trio set out on one epic final adventure in Zimbabwe and reflect on their 22-year-long working relationship and friendship.
As well as his column for The Sun, Jeremy Clarkson is now the main face of his global smash hit documentary reality series Clarkson’s Farm.
James also thinks that it should be up to emerging talent to think of new ways to bring the genre of motoring programmes to life.
The star admitted: “It was probably the right time to stop. We are getting on a bit, our view of the subject is probably becoming a bit dated.
“It’s time for a younger generation to re-evaluate it and think of a new way of talking about things like cars.”