Jeremy Clarkson makes final decision on future Top Gear return and says ‘it’s needed now more than ever’
Jeremy Clarkson has spoken out on whether or not he thinks Top Gear should make a return to TV screens.
Clarkson first started to work on Top Gear in 1988 back when it was mostly car reviews and consumer advice, with that iteration of the show cancelled in 2001.
He was then instrumental in relaunching it the following year where it became a major BBC show that still heavily featured cars but had plenty of viewers tuning in for the antics that Clarkson and his co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May.
During his time on Top Gear, it became the most watched show on BBC Two, until 2015 when he was suspended from the show after punching a producer.
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He, Hammond and May then departed the BBC for Amazon Prime and The Grand Tour, which has now ended its run, while Top Gear went through a number of combinations of presenters before settling on Chris Harris, Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff.
The new version of the show seemed to settle into a good rhythm with the trio, but Top Gear was put on indefinite hiatus after a horrific crash involving Flintoff where the car he was driving flipped over and left him with serious injuries.
While the BBC said the show was being 'rested' following Flintoff's crash as they decided it would be 'inappropriate' to continue filming afterwards and Top Gear would not be back for the 'foreseeable future', the door is open for a potential return at some point.
That's not to indicate moves in that direction have been made, Top Gear appears to be on the shelf with no plans to bring it back any time soon.
One person who's spoken out about this is former presenter Clarkson, who according to The Times reckons the show really needs to return given the changes in the car market.
He said: "It would be sad if it never came back, that would be very sad.
"There’s room for a car programme at the moment because cars are changing so fast and electrical cars are coming along and nobody really understands what’s a good one and what isn’t."
It sounds like he might want the show to be more like the consumer advice programme it was back in the first iteration, so viewers could know what was actually going on in their cars.
"Back in the 1950s motoring journalism was important because all the car companies were trying new things - different types of engines and different types of gearboxes - and you needed people to steer you through the complexity," Clarkson said.
“Then by and large it was unnecessary for the last 40 years and now it’s necessary again because [when] I look at a kilowatt per hour car, I have no idea what that means.
“I need someone like Chris Goffey or Frank Page from the old Top Gear to come along with a sensible jumper, and William Woollard, and tell me ‘this is a good one, that isn’t a good one,’"
However, anyone hoping that Clarkson would be angling for a return to Top Gear himself is going to be disappointed, as he also said he 'wouldn’t be interested in doing it' as he doesn't 'understand or like electrical cars.'
Topics: Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear, TV, BBC
Joe Harker