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So that’s that, Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear are no longer one and the same. James May and Richard Hammond have gone on record as saying they will stick with Jeremy so I guess that means the whole team may pop up elsewhere, but not on the BBC.

For those of you who don’t know I was the original third presenter on Top gear with Jeremy and Richard, replaced after the first series by James May as the channel felt that my bit on used cars didn’t translate well abroad. So I guess that gives me a bit of a unique status and one that the press have wanted to explore since the news broke that Jeremy had been suspended.

The calls and emails came thick and fast, BBC5 Live, Sky News, Radio Times, Channel 4….the list kept growing. What was my opinion? Should he get sacked? What was he like? Anyone and everyone wanted to know what I thought. But I said nothing, I didn’t utter a word. I didn’t talk, write or even discuss the situation with anyone other than my wife.

As I watched the petition to retain Jeremy grow to 1 million people and listened as the Prime Minister spoke in his defence I became increasingly bemused by those who stepped up to both defend and demonise him. For me the point is that the final decision about whether he would ‘stay or go’ could never have anything to do with popularity, money or whether he is funny or not…..if it had been down to those he would surely have been re-instated. It was about the evidence that was presented and respecting the ‘refs’ decision.

Let me explain. I used to play rugby, I loved it, my son who is 6 has started playing and he loves it too. Why did I love it? Well it’s physical of course and you get a huge satisfaction from winning….. but more importantly it’s about team and fairness and commitment and bravery. You take a hit for your team, you keep going when all seems lost and you respect your opponents both on and off the field.

And even more importantly you respect the ref. You accept that they are not perfect, that they make mistakes and are fallible. But if they send you off you say ‘sorry sir’ and walk back to the touchline, you take your punishment whether it is right or wrong. Rugby is all about respect.

And therefore I applied this logic to ‘Top Geargate’. What was the point of me commenting? I don’t know what happened in that hotel and therefore my opinion is worthless. In fact it could even be destructive…making the job of the ‘ref’ even tougher. In the spirit of rugby, I therefore had nothing to say about Jeremy Clarkson, the decision that was made and whether it was a good or bad decision. The decision was the decision and that is that. Full stop.

But I am happy to think about ‘what next?’

For the past 12 years broadcasters have been in awe of Top Gear. They were so afraid of it they didn’t try to make an alternative. As a consequence TV motoring shows have been pushed into the margins. 5th Gear (I love Vicki, Tiff, Jason and Jonny by the way) has moved from terrestrial to Discovery whilst Mike Brewer and Edd China all continue to pedal their wares on satellite TV. Thankfully Quentin Wilson and Jodie Kidd have just appeared on terrestrial Channel 5 with their new Classic Car show but no one is doing what ‘old’ Top Gear used to do………which was talk about ‘normal’ cars.

Turn on your TV and you can watch wall to wall programmes on buying and selling antiques (something that few of us actually do) and limitless hours of buying selling, building and restoring properties (which most of us do once every ten years). But you’ll struggle to a show that talks about the 100 plus new car models launched in the UK every year, let alone technology breakthroughs live autonomous cars and EV’s.

At a time when our industry is more vibrant that at any time in its 120 year history we have less TV talking about it than ever before.

So whilst many will mourn the loss of Clarkson and Top Gear, what it does create is space. Space for new shows, new formats and new presenters.

More motoring shows on TV? I hope so.

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