Being introduced to Top Gear viewers by motormouth Jeremy Clarkson as a “blithering idiot” was the shape of things to come for long-suffering James May.
The floppy-haired presenter would accept with a world-weary grace becoming the amiable butt of Clarkson’s schoolboy pranks and banter.
Richard Hammond completed the trio of petrol heads whose infectious on-screen chemistry has powered BBC ’s Top Gear and then Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour to global success for 20 years.