'Top Gear' host James May won't return to show without Clarkson
James May refuses to return as a host on the popular British automotive show, “Top Gear,” without Jeremy Clarkson, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
“Me and Hammond with a surrogate Jeremy is a non-starter, it just wouldn’t work,” said the 52-year-old May. “That would be lame, or ‘awks’ as young people say.”
“It has to be the three of us. You can’t just put a surrogate Jeremy in and expect it to carry on. It would be forced. I don’t believe they would be stupid enough to try that.
“It doesn’t mean I won’t go back, we may all go back in the future. It might just be we have a break from it. I don’t know.”
While May remains adamant that he won’t return to the show without Clarkson – whose contract was not renewed by the BBC after a “fracas” with producer Oison Tymon - it is reported that there is very little, if not any, talks going on with Richard Hammond, meaning that - if “Top Gear” returns - it could do so with an entirely new group of presenters.
But May remains optimistic.
“In the future when all this has blown over there might be an opportunity for three of us to get back together on the BBC to do Top Gear or a car show of some sort,” said May.
“The BBC haven’t completely closed the door on Jeremy’s return. They’ve not banned him or fired him, only just not renewed his contract for the moment. It’s a subtle difference but an important one.”
Additionally, BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw confirmed that there is nothing stopping Clarkson from returning.
“Jeremy will be back on the BBC,” said Shillinglaw. “It is serious and unfortunate what happened but there is no ban on Jeremy being on the BBC. It’s a big deal what happened and Jeremy, as any human being would, needs some time out.”
May took to Twitter to reassure his followers that he had not quit the BBC:
