It’s not the individual talents of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond that have made Top Gear and the Grand Tour such great shows – it’s the connection between them, says Will Cooling
This Friday will truly mark an end of an era, with the former stars of Top Gear completing their last televised adventure, this time across Zimbabwe. It is not hard to find fans online who are genuinely emotional about their adventures coming to an end, indeed an impromptu paid screening with Jeremy Clarkson at his new pub sold out within minutes.
As Amazon’s publicity department has not been shy about telling us, it is 21 years since James May joined Richard Hammond on Clarkson’s bold reimagining of the car magazine programme that made them household names.
But hang on, back then the Amazon was a rainforest and only water streamed! It was on the BBC that the three men became global superstars, and not only did they all leave Top Gear in somewhat fraught circumstances nearly a decade ago, but the BBC put the show on permanent hiatus last year after one of their successors was seriously injured.
So, what era is actually ending on Friday? It’s not the careers of the three men in question. The fourth season of Clarkson’s Farm is already being edited for release next year and May only recently came back from America where he was filming his latest travel programme for Amazon. And while the two older members of the trio seem less interested in cars than when they were younger, Hammond has a docu-drama series on Discovery about his new car repair shop and produces content for a car-focused YouTube channel. It’s also surely not the end of their collaborations, given that Hammond and May have already appeared in a couple of podcasts together since this special was filmed and Clarkson enjoys throwing friendly barbs at them both in his many newspaper columns.
And this question got me thinking about the surge of interest in Oasis getting back together next year, and the outrage over ticket prices. Lost in the controversy is the fact that whilst it’s been over a decade since Oasis last performed together, no one has been left short of opportunities to watch either Gallagher brother perform their back catalogue. But to many people who grew up listening to Oasis, it just wasn’t the same.
The magic of Clarkson, Hammond and May
Part of that is simple nostalgia. But there is something deeper going on. What made Oasis special was the lightning-in-the-bottle chemistry between the two brothers – seeing two incredibly talented men grapple with the challenge of fulfilling their potential and working well with a sibling. Their solo projects lack that spark because we know the people around them are hired solely to make them sound good and will be jettisoned if they get out of line.
It was exciting, it was unpredictable and at times it seemed destined to all go horribly wrong. And the same was true of the show that ultimately became The Grand Tour.
Over the last 21 years, Richard Hammond and James May went from being unknowns hired by one of the most famous men in Britain to to being his friends and peers. Fans of course enjoy them producing programmes by themselves, but there’s something special when they are together, because we are seeing three men produce thrilling television whilst pushing themselves, their cars, and their friendship to the limits. Yes, they were incredibly talented and increasingly rich, but by being open about how much they relied upon each other, they allowed us to see themselves in them. After all, we may never drive a fast car across the Makgadikgadi or write a brilliant guitar solo, but we all know what it’s like to need our friends or love our brothers.
Will Cooling writes about politics and pop culture at It Could be Said Substack