Richard Hammond was once fired from job because of message left by Jeremy Clarkson and James May

Richard Hammond has revealed that his Top Gear co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May once got him fired from a job.

The trio have since decamped to Amazon for The Grand Tour after Clarkson was sacked by the BBC for punching a producer, though even that show is getting nearer the end of its run according to May.

The trio have been working together for 20 years now and have stuck by each other through thick and thin, albeit with the occasional crash into each other and argument for comedy value.

However, there was one time when Clarkson and May managed to get Hammond fired from a gig he'd scored doing the adverts for supermarket Morrisons.

There was a time when the supermarket thought the best way to get people to shop there was with an advert that showed the then Top Gear presenter pushing a shopping trolley all over the place before finding their store.

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However, Hammond told The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Friday (25 August) that he'd been hoping to do more of the ads when his fellow presenters scuppered his chances.

He said: "I've not told this [story before]. I'd done the [Morrisons] advert, it's going quite well and they said 'we'd like another one of those.'

"So it's all booked in the diary and it pays reasonably well. It's worth doing."

"We were doing our live stage show at the time at Earls Court and my dear colleagues thought it'd be very funny if on the side of our cars we had a message."

Hammond went on to explain that he drove out first at the live show with the supermarket's logo daubed on his car, getting a big laugh from the crowd as they'd seen the advert.

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However, he was then followed by May who had the word 'are' painted on his car before Clarkson drove out with his vehicle decorated with what Hammond called 'a less than complimentary word'.

That word was not quite 'rubbish' but Hammond thought it best conveyed to the radio show what Clarkson's car actually said.

You can use your imagination to work out the actual word.

While they all thought it was a pretty funny gag, it was only when Hammond went backstage that he realised a bunch of Morrisons executives had been sitting in the VIP seats for the Top Gear live show.

Hammond admitted that he 'lost the gig that day' and missed out on being in future Morrison's adverts, though his career seems to have survived.

Topics: Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Top Gear, Celebrity

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

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