James May has left the car door open to a reunion with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond after they park their Prime Video series The Grand Tour for a final time.
During BBC Radio 4’s Today program, which he was guest editing this morning, he responded to a question about the future of the series by saying: “Well, we’ve filmed the last one for now. I suppose that makes me technically unemployed — I can hear the cheers rolling around the country.
“We’ve got two in the bag, though, so there’s one coming out very soon. I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say here. Then [there is] another one coming out a bit after that.”
In November, Clarkson told The Times newspaper that the trio were “done” after 34 years of car review programs. However, Prime Video is yet to officially cancel The Grand Tour, which is among its highest-rating original series.
Amazon declined to comment today.
We understand Clarkson, Hammond and May returned from shooting in Zimbabwe last month for a program that’s being treated internally as a “final special” with the trio. Options for a new incarnation of the show are being explored, though this hasn’t reached greenlight stage yet.
The next Grand Tour special, set in Mauritania, is to launch in 2024.
During the Today broadcast, May was asked if there could be another project brewing with Clarkson and Hammond following The Grand Tour and their time on Top Gear, the BBC format that they fronted to mega-ratings for 14 years. “I wouldn’t rule it out, but you do have to bear in mind that we’re all getting on a bit,” he responded. “I have been doing it for 20 years-plus and I don’t think any of us ever thought it would last that long.”
The comments came following the BBC’s decision to “rest” Top Gear for the “foreseeable future.” Production had been suspended on the latest season of the show after hosting Andrew Flintoff was badly injured in a crash.
May last month lashed out at people suggested he and his fellow co-presenters should return to “rescue” the BBC Studios-produced show, whose ratings have never matched those during the trio’s long run. They left the show after Clarkson punched a producer and then set up The Grand Tour at Amazon.
On the Today show, May said: “Despite us coming to the end of our timing doing this and the cancelation of Top Gear, there has never been a better time… for a car show,” adding that changes in car design and attitudes to drivers mean “the car show itself requires reinvention.”
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