The world was shocked earlier this year when Jodie Kidd turned down the offer of becoming a Top Gear presenter – in what would have been a perfect fit for the self-confessed petrolhead – but she has admitted that it was surprisingly easy to turn the BBC away when they came knocking on her door.
Jodie told The Sun : “I don’t care what anyone says, no one can review a car with wit and brilliance like Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May”.
Despite being a good friend of Mr Shouty himself, Chris Evans, Jodie was wise enough to see that the light at the end of the Top Gear tunnel was not a beacon of hope like Evans must have thought, but rather the headlight of the rapidly approaching Grand Tour Express with Clarkson, Hammond and May at the helm. So she sat back and watched the fiasco that was Top Gear Series 23 unravel with mixed emotions.
So did Jodie regret her decision to pass on Top Gear? “Am I relieved I didn’t take the job last year? I’m very relieved,” she said. “Tour de Celeb is one of the reasons I didn’t do Top Gear — it was already on the cards”.
The gruelling show will see her attempt to complete race L’Etape du Tour alongside eight other celebrities. “It’s painful, it’s nasty — it really is. It takes you to somewhere very strange”.
Sounds a bit like Top Gear, then.