Top Gear's original trio preps Amazon show as new team revamps original
BBC unveils former F1 driver, female racer, YouTube motoring journalist as new Top Gear co-hosts
The outspoken Clarkson, known for provocative statements, and colleagues Hammond and May posted images Monday of moving into new offices for their new series, which they are producing for streaming service Amazon Prime.
We moved into our new offices today <a href="https://t.co/WTiEhwNPtU">pic.twitter.com/WTiEhwNPtU</a>
—@JeremyClarksonDon't be misled by Clarkson's picture. My new office is fully equipped. <a href="https://t.co/2MIbzLfKPI">pic.twitter.com/2MIbzLfKPI</a>
—@MrJamesMayOur new office: we're in. Everything is ready, they're just, er, checking a thing. <a href="https://t.co/vKHj8Yu9MQ">pic.twitter.com/vKHj8Yu9MQ</a>
—@RichardHammond...and best of all, we get to make our own office furniture out of cardboard boxes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/newoffice?src=hash">#newoffice</a> <a href="https://t.co/FKPQin9pSO">pic.twitter.com/FKPQin9pSO</a>
—@RichardHammondThe band is back together and it feels brilliant. <a href="http://t.co/UNBozqx1Ca">pic.twitter.com/UNBozqx1Ca</a>
—@RichardHammondThe BBC fired Clarkson from Top Gear — which set a record in 2012 as the world's most widely watched factual TV program — in March 2015 after he punched a producer in an off-set altercation. Co-hosts May and Hammond left shortly thereafter, along with Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman.
Top Gear team expands
- Motorsport commentator and former British Formula One driver David Coulthard.
- German BMW and Porsche race car driver Sabine Schmitz, who has previously participated in Top Gear driving challenges.
- British motoring journalist and popular YouTube video blogger Chris Harris, who has earned a devoted online following for his no-holds-barred reviewing.
It's very hard to be new and innovating when you're producing that many shows every year and the audience becomes wise to your tricks...There are very few formats that survive. It's usually three or four years max. Top Gear had that format for about 12 or 13 years.- Ben Collins
Evans has vowed to shake up the Top Gear format and Ben Collins, who was the program's masked mystery stunt driver The Stig for seven years, agrees the show needs to be reinvented.
"It was an absolute riot coming up with this off wall stuff, but it's very hard to be new and innovating when you're producing that many shows every year and the audience becomes wise to your tricks and they expect more with bigger and better all the time and it does become very hard," he told the Mirror in an interview published earlier this month.
"I think there are very few formats that survive. It's usually three or four years max. Top Gear had that format for about 12 or 13 years so it was a very long time and I think that definitely everyone gets to come back with something different."