'I worked with Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear - this is what he's really like off camera'

A crew member who worked behind the scenes on Top Gear has revealed what Jeremy Clarkson is really like. The TV presenter, 65, co-hosted the motoring programme alongside James May and Richard Hammond from 2002 until 2015. The trio worked with hundreds of cast and crew members over the years, and one has now revealed what Clarkson and his two co-stars were like when they weren't filming. Taking to Reddit, a social media user said: "A really good friend of mine is a camera operator on The Grand Tour and operated on Top Gear from 2008 - 2017. He always said Jeremy, James and Richard have always been exceptionally kind to the crew, which says a lot.

"I've never worked with him myself, but generally when an actor or entertainer is kind to the crew, that's a pretty good inclination that they are good people, because they most certainly do not have to be." Their time on Top Gear came to an abrupt end after Clarkson was sacked by the BBC for an "unprovoked physical and verbal attack" on a producer who worked on the show.

May and Hammond quit shortly after their co-star's departure, revealing they came as a "package". Opening up about the incident, May, 62, admitted it was "unfortunate", but believes it didn't mean their time on the show needed to end.

"I thought it was very unfortunate and I don't actually think our Top Gear had to end because of it," he told The Times. "I think it could have been patched up and put down to a bit of high stress and flightiness, to be honest."

"Maybe these things are ordained and it was time for us to move on. We had been doing it by then for a decade, I think, more. And I never imagined it would last as long."

He added: "Without being big-headed about it, we were Top Gear and we were one of the biggest TV shows in the world at the time. It was quite an intense environment and it's not entirely surprising that it occasionally went off the rails. If we'd been AC/DC or Thin Lizzy, nobody would have been the slightest bit surprised."

A new set of presenters joined Top Gear following the trio's exit, including Chris Evans, Matt Le Blanc and Rory Reid. In 2019, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness became hosts on the programme.

However, in 2023, the BBC announced that the motoring show was on hiatus "for the foreseeable future" after a crash involving Flintoff. Despite the former England cricketer, 47, detailing his near-fatal injuries in a recently released documentary, Clarkson has called on broadcasters to reboot the series.

He said: "There's room for a car programme at the moment because cars are changing so fast and electrical cars are coming along and nobody really understands what's a good one and what isn't."

Despite this, the Clarkson's Farm star quickly ruled himself out of starring in the reboot, adding: "I just don't understand or like electrical cars, so I wouldn't be interested in doing it."