James May says Top Gear wasn't 'sexist or misogynistic' just 'painfully honest'

Top Gear was 'very much of its time' and would need to change before coming back, James May has said.

The BBC 'rested' Top Gear for the foreseeable future after Andrew Flintoff was injured in a crash on the test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey during filming in December 2022. May, who presented Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond before the trio left to host Prime Video’s The Grand Tour, told the Telegraph he thinks the long-running motoring show is unlikely to keep to the same format when it returns.

The 61-year-old said: “Top Gear was very much of its time. Social attitudes towards the car have changed quite a bit. These days, it’s become more political.”

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May also said Top Gear was not “sexist or misogynistic”, in defence of criticism from when the trio hosted the programme. “It was just painfully honest,” he added.

“It was a view of the world, distorted through the eyes of people who were unreasonably concerned about cars.”

May also claimed the trio, who signed off with the final episode of The Grand Tour last month, “were quite metrosexual” during their time on Top Gear, and said Clarkson’s role was to make controversial comments. The series received criticism from the Mexican ambassador, the Indian high commissioner in London, and Argentine officials during the trio’s tenure.

May said: “I didn’t wince about Clarkson being controversial because it’s his job to be an arse and he is very good at it. I’d wince at him not misunderstanding some basic principle of aerodynamics. I’d think, ‘how can you not know that?’

The title of his next show, James May And The Dull Men’s Club, on Quest, comes from how male