Richard Hammond talks about the future of Top Gear

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond spoke with The Times recently and shared his thoughts on the show, discussing, among other things, how the series might end.

“We’ve talked about it and said there are a couple of ways to end this,” says Hammond. “One way would be by saying, ‘That’s the end of the show, the series and that’s the end of Top Gear. Goodnight.’ I love to think that one day we would have the courage to do that.”

The good news is that, despite some nerves created at the end of Series 13, the show will be back in the (UK) winter. Jeremy Clarkson had this to say in response to the rumours that Series 13 was the show’s last, “I can assure everyone I’ll be back in November doing Top Gear. We’re filming the next series and already have several things in the can. I couldn’t think of anything I’d want to do more.”

So when will Top Gear end? One thing the speculation from the last series has done is given the show an insight in the mind of the audience that it probably wasn’t expecting. And, in some ways, the final Aston Martin segment from S13 has proven to be some sort of test case for the show’s eventual closure.

Hammond didn’t give much away on the topic, other than to highlight the quandary ending the show a high presents, “The problem is that the correct time to do that is while it is still working, but while it is still working we are still enjoying it and don’t want to stop. The moment you feel you are ready to give it up it’s too late already—by definition. The only moment [to stop] is when you are thinking, ‘I am having a great time’—then that’s a great time.”

So, for now, it’s business as usual. Keep an eye out for Series 14 of Top Gear later in the year. As speculated I have made an educated guess for a return on Sunday 15 November.

[Source: The Times]