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BBC Top Gear James May

James May calls out BBC double-standards over Top Gear compilations

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By John Glenday, Reporter

January 19, 2016 | 2 min read

Ex-Top Gear host James May has accused the BBC of double standards in its decision to air a compilation of Jeremy Clarkson’s career highlights at the helm of the long-running motoring show mere months after letting him go.

james May, Top Gear, BBC

Pointing to the recruitment of Chris Evans to fill Clarkson’s shoes, May claimed it was ‘harsh’ on the new presenter to highlight how ‘brilliant’ the old version was.

Speaking to the Radio Times may said: “The BBC may have ruled me out, but I don’t rule out the BBC.

"I was surprised they showed lots of Top Gear compilations over Christmas. I thought, ‘Oh, so now they’re celebrating us,’ but I also thought it’s harsh on Chris Evans. Just as he’s trying to launch his version of the programme, the BBC is saying, ‘Look how brilliant it was before.’

“I’d like to see Chris’s Top Gear do well. It’s a ballsy call to continue it. I wouldn’t want to be the one presenting it when we’d just finished, but there must be a way of reinventing it. We always said it would survive beyond us. I think the stories about Chris’s version being in trouble might be an elaborate hoax, before it explodes onto our screens in brilliance.”

Evans’ stint as Top gear host has had an inauspicious start with tabloid tales circulating that he is unable to speak to camera whilst driving and photographs apparently emerging of him abandoning a test drive after becoming queasy.

BBC Top Gear James May

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