RICHARD HAMMOND SAYS HE WOULD HAVE CONTINUED THE GRAND TOUR

Richard Hammond said he was willing to continue The Grand Tour when its original team left the programme in 2024. Speaking on the High Performance podcast, he said: "If the others had said let’s carry on, I’d have carried on." Hammond said he accepted the decision to stop because Jeremy Clarkson, James May and producer Andy Wilman were ready to leave. He said all four needed to want to make the programme for it to continue with that team.

Hammond, Clarkson and May previously presented the BBC’s Top Gear, with Wilman working as a producer. Hammond and Clarkson appeared on the programme from 2002, and May joined in 2003. All four left in 2015 after the BBC did not renew Clarkson’s contract following an altercation with a producer. They launched The Grand Tour with Amazon in 2016. Hammond described their time working together as “a 25-year career together”.

The Grand Tour has since returned with Francis Bourgeois, Thomas Holland and James Engelsman as its new hosts. Hammond, Clarkson and May have appeared in cameo roles in the reboot. Wilman said Clarkson watched audition tapes of the new hosts before supporting the line-up. Wilman also said Clarkson had made his endorsement conditional on Wilman liking them.