Just a few short days ago Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May announced that after seven years of creating motoring mayhem for Amazon Prime with their Grand Tour program they would be dissolving their partnership and pursuing solo projects, many of which seemed to involve pub ownership.
Back in 2015, Clarkson was famously fired from the BBC’s Top Gear show after a bust up with a cocky producer, his partners in crime quickly followed him in a show of solidarity. Ever since then, the three have recreated the vibe albeit on pay-to-view Amazon.
Since that time Top Gear has failed to recreate the excitement or the mayhem with hosts that whilst good just did not have the chemistry of Clarkson et al. As a result ratings fell and the show was taken off the air, sort of in suspended animation awaiting the recovery of co-host Freddie Flintoff after he had an accident during filming. Now the venerable Beeb (aka the BBC) are set to bring back at least Jeremy Clarkson to the famed 8pm Sunday time slot according to a report carried on the YorkshireLive portal.
The 8pm time slot on BBC 2 for me was a magical time of the week. I would await the time eagerly to watch the antics of Messrs Clarkson, Hammond, and May. If I was going to be out or late the show would be recorded on my VHS player.
It was one of a few must-watch shows. So perhaps the announcement to end the Grand Tour was no end of an era moment just the harbinger of things to come.
Early this year when Top Gear was cancelled Clarkson and Hammond were quoted in a Daily Mail article that they suspected that the show would return to air sometime as someone was bound to ‘pick it up’ although they claimed it would be a very different show.
The most recent rumour seems to come from a trailer for ITV’s Who wants to be a Millionaire where he references ‘going back home’ and he insists that it is real and will happen, but no details on when have been forthcoming.
Some of the rumours come from the fact that the Beeb have created a new YouTube channel called Top Gear Classic that features loads of great footage from the halcyon days of Top Gear. Bosses at the Beeb state that the new YouTube channel is not a comment on the shows future and exists merely to serve the fans of the program. The channel showcase restored clips at previously unseen quality apparently.
I for one cannot wait to see my favourite motoring presenters in action again on Top Gear even if Mr Clarkson did recently say that electric cars are a bit like driving a washing machine – or something like that.
