Jeremy Clarkson has revealed the reasons behind ending his long-running partnership with Richard Hammond and James May.
The trio, known for their work together since 2002 on BBC’s Top Gear and later on Amazon’s The Grand Tour, will conclude their on-screen collaboration with an upcoming special titled One for the Road.
Clarkson, who is currently experiencing renewed success with Clarkson’s Farm, discussed his decision to step back from the car shows in an interview with The Sunday Times.
He 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."
This decision marks the end of his 22-year collaboration with Hammond and May.
Clarkson said: "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."
Reflecting on how they chose to conclude their journey, he shared: "We thought long and hard about how we should end our 22-year partnership, but in the end, we just went to the end of the alphabet" and chose Zimbabwe as the setting for their final adventure.
He added, "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."
Clarkson said he was relieved expressed satisfaction that their partnership didn’t end "in a blizzard of outrage and tabloid headlines," but rather "landed safely and gently."
He acknowledged the emotional weight of the final moments on set, even though he admitted he didn’t shed a tear.
Speaking about the end of The Grand Tour: One For The Road, Clarkson said: “I’m not saying this in a derogatory way by any means but James has the emotions of a stone. “He just doesn’t do emotions, so there were no tears from him. Hammond, yes.
“I was surprisingly unemotional in a weird way because I can see James and Hammond any time I want to, they’re only a phone call away, and I’m sure we will.
“And I’ve done enough of the travel, I was worn out by it.”
He added that he “would have been emotional” with the crew but they work on his Prime Video show, Clarkson’s Farm, where he attempts to run his farm in the Cotswolds.
Clarkson said: “There I was with all these guys that I’ve known and worked with for 24 years and I said, ‘I’ll see you all on Monday morning’ because they all work on Clarkson’s Farm.
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“I’m 100% convinced I would have been a lot more emotional without the farm show.” "Was it sad when the director called, ‘That’s a wrap,’ for the very last time? Yes, it was.
“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."
He also paid tribute to the crew members.
He said: "We’ve camped together. S*** our lungs out together, laughed our arses off together. These are the guys who really made those shows...”
The final Grand Tour episode will be available on Prime Video on September 13.
