Richard Hammond and James May revisit 'traumatising' Top Gear studio

Richard Hammond and James May reminisced on their time on Top Gear as they took a 'traumatising' visit to their old studio - ten years on from their final show. 

The presenters, alongside co-star Jeremy Clarkson, were the faces of the series for over a decade after joining in 2002.

However, after an on-set altercation between Jeremy and a producer, the trio exited the series and continued to work together on an Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour, which ran from 2015 until 2024. 

In a video released on Wednesday, for James May's YouTube series, Planet Gin, the duo decided to revisit the office for 'reasons unknown.'

James began: 'Well that is the old Top Gear studio. And that is the old Top Gear green room.' 

Walking a round the complex they pushed open the door to one of the abandoned trailers and reminisced on their days on set. 

Richard said: 'It smells the same, terrible. It's weird it seems like only yesterday but also 100 years ago. 

'This is where we assembled, worked on scripts, had arguments. I feel funny. I feel funny as well. I felt really odd being here. Every week we would come here for years and years and years.' 

James: 'The smell of it is almost traumatising... do you think if I opened this door we'd slip through a portal and be back in 2000 and whatever it was?

'I sort of want to find something that we left here.'

Richard joked: 'What like? Hope, ambition, vigour?' 

He added: 'The last time I was here, I was leaving after the last studio record. 

'I was in the bronze Land Rover. And I sat up and thought, well, that was that.'

James recently insisted that their exit from hit BBC series Top Gear was avoidable as he opened up about the show.

The presenter admitted that he believes the BBC could have dealt with Jeremy's actions - in which he punched producer Oisin Tymon - differently. 

Following the incident, an investigation was launched and Jeremy was to exit the show with co-stars James and Richard refusing to sign new contracts with the BBC, causing the successful era of the show to end.

James confessed to The Sunday Times: 'I thought it was very unfortunate and I don't actually think our Top Gear had to end because of it. I think it could have been patched up and put down to a bit of high stress and flightiness, to be honest. 

'It happened. It's regrettable and it's unfortunate, but it didn't need to lead to the collapse of something very successful.' 

James added that he believed the trios exit was down to people thinking it was 'time of us to move on'.

Jeremy's actions with Oisin were reportedly due to him returning to his hotel in North Yorkshire after a long day of filming and found there was no available hot food to order. 

James went on to reveal whether he is still in contact with his former co-star after Jeremy revealed he has banned James from his pub, the Farmer’s Dog in Oxfordshire.

James said he wasn't interested in visiting the establishment anyways given it is based 80 miles from his home. 

However, the presenter did reveal he rang Jeremy up after his heart attack and the pair saw each other at a funeral not long ago.  

He said: 'I did actually see him a few weeks ago, at a funeral, unfortunately, of someone we both knew. He seemed all right. We just seem older.'

The famous trio have now ended up in different places with Jeremy being the most successfully on Prime Video’s Clarkson’s Farm, Hammond on his car restoration show Richard Hammond’s Workshop and James in James May and the Dull Men, shown on Discovery+.  

After being leaving the BBC, bosses turned to Chris Evans to present the iconic series Top Gear. Matt Le Blanc, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness have all featured as presenters post-Clarkson.

However, production the series was suspended in 2022 following a horrific crash that almost killed presenter Freddie Flintoff, with the BBC saying in 2024 that the series would not return 'for the foreseeable future.'