James May Reckons He And Clarkson Will Be “Too Old” To Make The Grand Tour In Five Years

Speaking to the Radio Times, May suggested that he and Jeremy Clarkson are too old to be making The Grand Tour for any more than five years

He, Clarkson and Hammond have signed up for three years of the The Grand Tour, but in a recent interview May has indicated that he might step down from the small screen after just five years. Clarkson will be close to 60 by then.

“We have to accept that fairly soon we will be too old for it,” May said. “Richard Hammond is a reasonably fit bloke who looks after himself. Me and Jeremy aren’t.”

Jeremy is particularly decrepit and I find growing within me – I try to fight it for some reason, but I’m giving into it – a much stronger, nesty sort of instinct. Within the next five years, I don’t want to be fart-arsing around.”

“I don’t have to do it for ever. Eventually, I want some other people to do it,” May said. We had more energy in the old days, because we were younger and less knackered.”

They may have had a filming schedule similar to a rock group’s world tour but it seems age has caught up with them. May says: “We don’t live like AC/DC or Led Zeppelin did. We don’t fall out of the back of limousines vomiting or snorting drugs from the navels of nubile 22-year-olds. Often we have a cup of tea and go to bed.”

Supporting his show James May: The Christmas Reassembler, which airs on December 28 on BBC Four, the presenter admitted that there’s no way Jeremy would ever appear as a guest on his show – because they are very different people.

“No. He’s not interested,” May said. “We’re so different. I don’t want Jeremy Clarkson anywhere near my shed or my toolbox or my piano. He’s interested in fashionable restaurants and celebrity gossip – I’m not interested in those.”