Hammond: End of Top Gear ‘broke my heart’

Richard Hammond has admitted he feels broken hearted, as the sun sets on the ‘Clarkson, Hammond and May era’ of Top Gear, but has promised that it’s not over yet for the three most popular men in the world.

“We’ve had a hell of year, but we’re alive. We can only do one thing so we have to find a way of doing it,” Richard told Fairfax Media. In less than 48 hours time, the final episode of Top Gear featuring Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May will go to air in Britain on BBC2.

“I hope people will watch it and think ‘Wow, that was amazing’,” Hammond said of the episode. “Because it broke my heart, I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it.”

The episode will feature two previously unseen films which were originally shot for Series 22, but ended up being cancelled after the whole ‘fracas’ thing went down. The two films are unrelated to each other, so studio links from Richard and James will help tie both stories together.

“The studio links were just to get in between the bits of the films that go up to make the show. We felt that we owed it to the audience, we made it for them and they own it, so it had to go out,” Hammond said.

No comment on Netflix rumours

Amid speculation the boys are soon to announce a new deal for a future show with Netflix, Hammond said he couldn’t comment on negotiations but added:

“We’re not dead, we’re not over. And by the grace the god, and more importantly for our audience, we’ll find a way of carrying on. We’ve had a great time and we’re not ready to stop yet. We’ll stop when the audience tells us to stop. Legacy seems like a big word because the whole thing was embarked upon with honesty and sincerity and no more ambition beyond making the best show we could. That was the extent of it. Every series would come round and we would say, ‘well what are we going to do this year, let’s just make the best car show we can.’ That’s all we ever did. There was no science, there was no cynicism in the creation of it year in, year out, we just did the best we could.”

He said they knew the show had to end someday and that they would “soldier on”.

“It’s a shame but we’re not dead, there’s more life in us yet,” he said.

As far as announcement dates go, I’m  expecting that we’ll hear something from the boys during the month of July, but I’ll keep you all up to date as it happens.