The Top Gear Story by Martin Roach Read Free Book Online Page B

sent along too as he shared an agent with a woman that they were interested in.
    Hammond was a long-time fan of the show and avidly watched old Top Gear as a kid. As we have seen, he had been making good progress on various cable TV channels but in mainstream terms, he was a relative unknown. At his audition, he made a good impression and was initially asked to make some short films for a possible Top Gear spin-off.
    The Guardian quoted a ‘former BBC executive’ as saying, ‘We interviewed lots of high-profile motoring journalists and half of them were scared shitless of Jeremy. The remarkable thing about Richard is he was naturally funny and he took the piss out of Clarkson, which Jeremy loved.’ The Top Gear job was Hammond’s. It was 2002 – a big year for Richard, as he also married his sweetheart, Mindy. Later, speaking to Times Online , Hammond made no secret of how excited he was to be on the series: ‘Even when we were recording the first episode and Jeremy said, “Hello, and welcome to Top Gear ”, my immediate thought was, “Oh great, Top Gear ’s back!” Then I suddenly realised, “Oh s***, I’m on it!”’
    Alongside the show’s patriarch Clarkson, Hammond’s other co-presenter was Jason Dawe, a Cornish native who first started selling cars in 1986 when he worked at a local car dealership(including two separate brands crowning him ‘Salesman of the Year’) before graduating to become a sought-after motor industry trainer. After 16 years in the motor trade, he began working in journalism and picked up a reputation for championing consumers, helping them pick their way through the minefield that buying a car can prove to be. Dawe’s participation in the new Top Gear therefore introduced a highly credible and investigative tone to the brash programme. His role quickly took the form of ‘consumer’s champion’ with the more light-hearted features generally being presented by Clarkson and Hammond. However, at the start of the second series of the new generation, Dawe was replaced by James May.
    Following the demise of the previous incarnation of Top Gear , May returned to his revered magazine columns. He was barely settled back in his journalist’s chair before the new Top Gear producers called as they were looking for a replacement for Jason Dawe, who was to leave the programme after the end of series 1 in 2002. Despite earlier reservations about being too similar to Clarkson, May was the archetypal British gent: a more cerebral, stylish and pedestrian partner to the firebrands of Clarkson and Hammond. He has since proved the perfect foil for the other two’s more exuberant personalities.
    Speaking to the Guardian in 2008, a BBC executive recalled his audition for the new formatted show: ‘James had a 14-year-old Bentley at the time. At the audition he said, “I’ve found out if you spend £50 at Tesco, you get £5 of free petrol. Now I can drive anywhere I like; the problem is my house is full of rotting food!” Everyone in the room laughed, Jeremy laughed. That landed him the job.’
    With James May on board, the BBC now had the presenting line-up that would, over time, turn Top Gear into a programme watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.However, although different to its predecessor in many ways, the new format was not an immediate ratings hit; where the BBC played its trump card was in allowing the show to grow , giving Wilman and his production team the creative freedom and time to produce unusual features while allowing the presenting triumvirate of Hammond/Clarkson/May the opportunity to develop their characters on-screen.
    The more caricatured elements of the three characters have only really developed over the span of several series and the show’s ratings have subsequently gone up and up and up … Wilman himself was quoted in the Guardian describing them