And for all those thinking that the producers were forcing JC&co to do crazy stunts (and if Hammond was "frced" to do this one):
From JC's The Sun article:
The idea to drive a jet car actually came from Hammond. He skedaddled into the office one day and, bubbling with his trademark enthusiasm, said: “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere and drive really fast? I don’t mean supercar fast. I mean REALLY fast.”
We all liked the idea. But what we liked even more was the idea of James May being given the assignment.
James is known to his fans as Captain Slow. He thinks dawdling is reckless and practises the art of what he calls “Christian Motoring”. Mostly, this involves letting people out of side turnings and generally being Edwardian.
Putting him, and that ’70s barnet, in a 370mph jet car was a bit like putting just Jane Austen at the helm of a space shuttle.
Immediately, James discovered a prior engagement and said he couldn’t go. I, meanwhile, decided that I spent most of my thirties upside down in jet fighters and helicopter gunships, vomiting, and that these days I was far too fat.
That left Hammond, who was bouncing around like the donkey in Shrek shouting, “Pick me. Pick me”.
And so we did.
Today, people who have absolutely no idea at all of how television works, (Yes, columnist Neil Lyndon — that’s you, you sanctimonious, rent-a-soundbite little t**d) are saying that our producers push us to do more and more dangerous stunts in a bid for ratings.
Rubbish. Our producers spend their whole lives filling in health and safety forms and asking “are you sure?”
It’s the presenters who come up with the hare-brained ideas and trans-continental races . . . not the backroom boys or the suits.
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ANd the part about future of TG:
Somehow I doubt it though. The campaign to have us taken off the air — sparked curiously, by the BBC’s own news website — will now be ramped up, fuelled by the environmentalists and spearheaded by muddle-headed road safety campaigners.
Richard is winning his fight. And now mine begins. To make sure that he has a show to come back to.
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Maybe we should start a e-mail campaign for TG here at JW?
[email protected]