With the firing of Jeremy Clarkson, the main host and driving creative force behind Top Gear, it’s a bit unclear as to the future of both the show and co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond. Both co-hosts are, however, now being forced to weigh in.
May was the first to be hounded by reporters, and the statement he gave outside his Hammersmith home can really only be described as emotional and unsure:
Well apparently they have shot him. I’ve only found this out by prising the information out of various BBC sources, nobody has actually told me officially until a few moments ago when they emailed.
I don’t really have anything to say about it. It’s a tragedy. I’m sorry that what ought to have been a small incident sorted out easily has turned into something big. I don’t really want to say anything more than that at the moment, I’ve only known for the past minutes. I have only known for the past few minutes and if you excuse me I very desperately have to write the eBay listing for my Ferrari.
When asked if Top Gear could continue, he responded:
I’m sure Top Gear will continue in some way, it existed before us. It’s been re-formatted several times, but exactly how...
But when asked if he, specifically, would be staying at whatever new form of the show will now exist, he didn’t sound as positive:
Well, I don’t want to talk about that too much. But I think we’re very much, the three of us as a package works for very complicated reasons that a lot of people don’t fully understand. So, that will require a lot of careful thought.
Much as I think he’s a knob, I quite like working with Jeremy.
Despite a fake tweet going around masquerading as May’s genuine Twitter account, he has not officially resigned from the show yet.
Hammond and May have both updated their Twitter profiles to reflect the current situation. May is already a “former TV presenter,” while Hammond is going for the more Facebook-ish “it’s complicated,” saying he “can’t explain it really.”
Clarkson, for the record, hasn’t given any public statements yet besides changing his own Twitter profile description:
It’s bound to be a rough day for everyone involved with Top Gear, not least of which producer Oisin Tymon, who was involved in the incident with Clarkson.
We’ll let you know when we hear more.