RICHARD HAMMOND IS AN IDIOT!

Without fear or favour, James May sets the record straight about the Top Gear trio's brilliant 22-year bickerthon as he finally goes it alone with a shedful of ideas for the future

- By James Rampton

JAMES May has just one word for why his 22-year onscreen relationship with fellow TV presenters Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond worked so well - "needle".

The veteran broadcaster reckons bickering was always crucial to the trio's success on Top Gear and then The Grand Tour.

"The relationship was partly about friendship and partly about rivalry three is a crowd, there is no doubt about that," he says.

"It's true in reality, and it's also true on television. Three is a magic number in religion, but it's a difficult number in TV. So that needle made it work on Top Gear and The Grand Tour."

The madcap motorists came together in 2003 when May replaced Jason Dawe in the second series of a Top Gear reboot already fronted by Clarkson and Hammond.

Their instant chemistry or the fact "we got on each other's wicks quite badly", as James likes to describe it clearly contributed to the programme's immense global popularity.

Not only was Top Gear the BBC's top export for many years, the presenters' hilarious fractiousness also turned The Grand Tour, their second show together, into a worldwide ratings juggernaut for Prime Video. Sadly, that came to an end last year when all three decided to bow out at the top, while viewers were still saying "We want more!", rather than, "Oh no, not that tired old trio again!".

James stresses it was the right time to finish the onscreen association with his two amigos.

"We thrashed the subject pretty thoroughly, we were running out of places to go," he says.

"And there comes a point when you have to end these things with dignity, rather than waiting for them to disintegrate. The expression we always used to use was 'landing it safely, rather than flying it into a cliff'."