James May explains honestly why he split from Clarkson and Hammond after 22 year TV career

We are told that all good things must come to an end. And that has certainly been the case when it comes to the legendary TV trio of James May, Richard Hammond, and Jeremy Clarkson.

The trio have been forever present in the British psyche for more than two decades, starting out on Top Gear where they turned the programme in to a cultural phenomenon.

After leaving the show and the BBC, Amazon were quick to snap them up for their own spin on motoring programming via The Grand Tour on Prime Video.

But after 22 years, the three of them are now saying goodbye to their working relationship.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, May was honest about them being a little bit long in the tooth.

The trio have called it a day (Dave J Hogan / Getty Images)

He candidly said: “We are getting on a bit and everything does have to end. To be honest, we wanted to end it on our own terms.

"As we always used to say, we want to land it safely, not fly it into a cliff."

May, who runs his own pub just like Clarkson, also said the trio had 'largely exhausted our take on the subject' - but added the subject itself remains fruitful for others to step in and take their own spin on it.

He said: "There’s space, I think, for a new approach to it, but it can’t come from us. We’re a bit too stuck in our way of doing it.

"I sometimes wonder if it is the friendship. We wind each other up so badly but it definitely started out as cars and our enthusiasm for them and even, dare I say it, our knowledge of them."

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Clarkson's Farm star Jeremy was a little more blunt in his wording of the reasoning for the end of their time together on television.

Clarkson 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.

They're still mates, they just wont be working together (Kym Illman/Getty Images)

"What this means of course is that my 22-year partnership with James May and Richard Hammond is now over.

"What makes the three of us happy, though, is how we ended it."

The final episode of The Grand Tour aired in September and was titled 'One for the Road', taking the trio back to a very familiar site from one of their very first legendary specials.

Fans loved the send off. On X, one said: "The last Grand Tour special brought me to tears. From getting me through hard times to moulding countless aspects of my life, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond have had such an influence on me.

"Sad to see it go, but glad I could be there for the ride."

Another said: "For longer than my entire life them three have been creating entertaining car journalism for us and now it's just one."