Jeremy Clarkson explains real reason TV partnership with Richard Hammond and James May has ended
They say all good things must come to an end, and apparently, that also applies to TV partnerships with your best pals.
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have finally called time on their illustrious 22-year alliance, but their bidding fans farewell by heading on one last adventure.
Longtime viewers have already been left close to tears after watching the trailer for their last special on The Grand Tour - which is fittingly titled 'One for the Road' - so it's safe to say the trio are going to be missed on our TV screens.
Even Clarkson, 64, has admitted their last dance is an 'emotional' one, therefore you've got no excuse not to be armed with a box of tissues when you tune into the episode which will air on Amazon Prime on 13 September.
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The motor-mad presenter has now revealed the reasoning behind the decision to pull the plug on his professional relationship with his Top Gear co-stars after more than two decades together.
He gave himself, his two sidekicks and their crew a pat on the back for creating such great shows, while explaining why it was time for them all to move onto pastures new.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the Clarkson's Farm star said: "After 36 years of talking about cars on television, I’m packing it in, because I’m too old and fat to get into the cars that I like and not interested in driving those I don’t.
"What this means of course is that my 22-year partnership with James May and Richard Hammond is now over. You can see our final road trip together on Amazon Prime very soon. It’s emotional.
"What makes the three of us happy, though, is how we ended it."
Clarkson explained that the trio decided to come full circle by 'finishing up back where we began', rather than going out in a 'blizzard of outrage and tabloid headlines' as he reckons a lot of people expected them too.
Hammond shared a similar sentiment when he opened up about the trio's demise in an interview last week.
Clarkson said they had 'thought long and hard' about how they would wrap things up, but in the end 'just went to the end of the alphabet' and decided on Zimbabwe as all three of them 'absolutely love' being in Africa.
Describing the continent as their 'happy place', Clarkson went on to reveal why they decided that the country was the right place to say goodbye to one another for good.
He continued: "There was another reason why we chose Zimbabwe, though. We would drive across it from east to west, as usual, but then we could cross the border and finish up where we began all those years ago: the Makgadikgadi salt pans in Botswana.
"Was it sad when the director called, 'That’s a wrap,' for the very last time? Yes, it was," Clarkson confessed.
"Especially as some of the crew had been with us when we were there before. People think of Top Gear and The Grand Tour as being James, Richard and me. But it isn’t. We’ve had the same crews for years.
"We’ve all grown up together. We’ve camped together. Shat our lungs out together, laughed our arses off together. "Casper, Ben, Russ, Kit, Marky Mark, Steve, Toby, Catweazle and a load more besides. These are the guys who really made those shows.
"But I can’t say it was much of a wrench when our juggernaut came to a halt because, two days later, I was with the same guys again making the farm show."
They just can't stay away from each other those three, can they?
Which is why when Clarkson was asked whether he would miss Hammond and May, he responded: "Not really."
"I can see them whenever I like," he explained. "But what I will miss is the excitement of crawling into a city such as Harare or La Paz or Hanoi at three in the morning in a car with no headlamps, one gear and only three wheels.
"I never thought I could have a job that would let me do stuff like that. There wasn’t a job that allowed me to do stuff like that. We invented it. And I hope that whoever replaces us realises that while they’ll get several diseases and arrested and bashed about until they are just a walking bruise, they are the luckiest people on earth."
Despite insisting that they will keep in touch, Clarkson reckons that only one of his co-stars will visit his swanky new boozer.
But, on the other hand, May has hinted that this won't be the last we will see of them together on our TVs.
Leaving the door cracked open for a reunion in the future, he said: "I'm sure there will be something, but it won't be as big as [The Grand Tour] and I don’t need it to be. I’ve done that."
Topics: The Grand Tour, Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond, TV
Olivia Burke