Top Gear presenter James May has ruled out a return to the BBC show without Jeremy Clarkson on board, saying a show without the original presenter would be “lame.”
May called a return alongside fellow co-host Richard Hammond with a new presenter in place of Clarkson a “non-starter,” the Guardian reports. Clarkson’s attack in March on a producer got him axed from the show.
“Me and Hammond with a surrogate Jeremy is a non-starter, it just wouldn’t work. That would be lame, or ‘awks’ as young people say,” May said.
“It has to be the three of us. You can’t just put a surrogate Jeremy in and expect it to carry on. It would be forced. I don’t believe they would be stupid enough to try that.”
Clarkson was fired from Top Gear, which the trio has hosted for 12 years, after a ‘fracas’ in which he physically and verbally attacked producer Oisin Tymon, leaving Tymon to seek hospital treatment.
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