Top Gear’s Biggest Challenge? BBC Chiefs Who Wanted to Split the Trio Apart

The Real Battle Behind the Wheel

Trying to cross the English Channel in homemade amphibious cars or conquering Bolivia’s Death Road in clapped-out bangers were far from Top Gear’s toughest challenges.

According to producer Andy Wilman, the biggest obstacle Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May faced wasn’t mechanical—it was managerial.

Behind the cameras, a small group of BBC executives allegedly viewed the trio as “politically incorrect relics” and even compared them to 1970s comedian Bernard Manning for their off-colour humour.

Wilman, who helped transform Top Gear into the world’s most popular factual show, recalls the tension vividly in his new memoir, Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure.

“We’d said sorry,” he tells The Sun, “but you got that sense that they were going, ‘That’s not enough’. It was like they wanted to root out our primeval urges and ‘investigate the place’.”

A Storm Over a “Slope”

Controversy first erupted in 2014, when the team was accused of using a racial slur in a joke about “a slope” during a special filmed in Thailand.
The comment—used to describe a man walking across a bridge—sparked backlash, especially following an earlier apology for remarks about Mexicans three years before.

For Wilman, the fallout marked a turning point. “In ourselves, we felt it was utterly charmless,” he admits. “And charm had always been the thing we tried to run with.”

Inside the Pressure Cooker

As producer from 2002 to 2015, Andy Wilman had a front-row seat to every bust-up, near-death crash, and BBC battle.
He claims a small clique within the corporation “had it in for” Clarkson, and at one point, the broadcaster even tried to split up the iconic presenting team.

Despite the controversies, Andy insists Top Gear’s creative chemistry was unmatched—and misunderstood.
He also believes the BBC’s left-leaning management failed to grasp what made the show resonate with millions.

“They thought of us as Tory boys,” Wilman explains. “But we took the mick out of everyone—Americans, Brits, Bible-bashers, and even ourselves. It was equal-opportunity mischief.”

From Repton to the BBC

Andy and Jeremy’s friendship dates back to their school days at Repton in Derbyshire, where a teenage Wilman—born with a neurological disorder affecting his balance—met the outspoken future presenter.
Clarkson immediately broke the ice with a typically outrageous quip about Andy’s condition. It was the start of a lifelong friendship.

After school, Clarkson helped Wilman break into journalism and television.
When the BBC agreed to relaunch Top Gear in 2002, Clarkson brought Wilman on board as producer—and the rest became TV history.

Finding the Perfect Trio

The search for the right presenters wasn’t smooth.
James May was initially rejected because he’d appeared on the old, stiffer version of Top Gear, and Richard Hammond’s audition tape—featuring him in a Batman costume—was so bad it was funny.

“It was awful,” Wilman laughs. “He jumps off a wall in a party-shop Batman outfit. It didn’t gel with anything. But his delivery was good—he had something.”

Hammond’s audition in person was even worse—until he started ranting about messing it up, making Jeremy and Andy cry with laughter. That outburst got him the job.
The early team also included Jason Dawe and a mysterious racing driver known only as The Stig.

Global Fame and Growing Pressure

Within a few years, Top Gear was a phenomenon.
Segments like Star in a Reasonably Priced Car drew huge audiences, and by 2013, the show had entered the Guinness World Records as the world’s most-watched factual TV programme, seen by 350 million viewers in over 200 countries.

But success came with pressure. Andy admits he developed “death anxiety” from the stress.

“I’d feel a knot in my back and go, ‘That’s cancer, I know it’. Someone would say, ‘You’re just stressed’, and I’d go, ‘Don’t give me that—it’s cancer’,” he recalls.