{"id":3917,"date":"2025-07-16T21:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/3917\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:44:10","slug":"james-may-reveals-why-his-career-is-flourishing-after-parting-ways-with-jeremy-clarkson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/3917\/","title":{"rendered":"James May reveals why his career is flourishing after parting ways with Jeremy Clarkson"},"content":{"rendered":"

James May<\/a> has revealed he\u2019s having his \u201cbusiest year\u201d in a decade – just months after the end of The Grand Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The presenter, 62, cut ties with long-time co-stars Jeremy Clarkson<\/a> and Richard Hammond with the finale of their Amazon Prime Video series<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The trio ended their working relationship last summer for the first time since they began hosting Top Gear<\/a> in 2003.<\/p>\n

May has now said his career has been thriving since their farewell, so much so that he\u2019s been putting off retiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about my retirement since I was a teenager,\u201d he told the i Paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c2025 was going to be my trial retirement year, but I\u2019ve been accepted to speak at a couple of history festivals and charity events, I\u2019ve got two TV series and then I\u2019m doing a live show in Australia, New Zealand and around the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond promoting The Grand Tour (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

May continued: \u201cThis is the busiest year I\u2019ve had for about a decade. I haven\u2019t had a day off in months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both May and Clarkson have turned to hospitality in recent years, with May opening The Royal Oak pub in Salisbury in 2014, while Clarkson opened The Farmer\u2019s Dog in Oxfordshire last August.<\/p>\n

Clarkson joked at the time that May wouldn\u2019t visit his pub<\/a>, but their co-host Hammond would.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see them whenever I want,\u201d he said on Times Radio, when asked if he misses May and Hammond<\/p>\n

Considering whether they might make a trip to his pub, he said: \u201cJames probably won\u2019t, but Richard will. I talked to Richard only yesterday. We\u2019re mates and we\u2019ll still see them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t possibly have imagined we\u2019d be together 22 years when we started out. And so it\u2019s a wrench, thinking, \u2018God, we\u2019re never going to do that again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

Jeremy at the opening of his pub, The Farmer\u2019s Dog, in Asthall (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

May, Clarkson and Hammond fronted beloved BBC motoring show Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 and the trio went on to host The Grand Tour on Prime Video until last year.<\/p>\n

The Grand Tour ended after six series with its special final episode, One For The Road.<\/p>\n

May later said it was time for a \u201cnew generation\u201d to helm the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019d exhausted the subject, we are getting on a bit. I believe it\u2019s time for a new generation to find a new take – I don\u2019t know what it is,\u201d he said on Sunday Brunch in February.<\/p>\n

When asked by host Simon Rimmer if the decision felt right, he said: “Yes, I think so. You can\u2019t overstay your welcome. You\u2019re supposed to leave the audience wanting more. It\u2019s the rule of show business.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James May has revealed he\u2019s having his \u201cbusiest year\u201d in a decade – just months after the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,2573,2503,2572,2574,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-3917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-james-may","11":"tag-jeremy-clarkson","12":"tag-richard-hammond","13":"tag-the-grand-tour","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}