Richard Hammond made a pact with Jeremy Clarkson and James May

What did you miss?

Richard Hammond lifted the lid on the joint decision to end his partnership with Jeremy Clarkson and James May.

He was plugging his latest Discovery+ series during This Morning‘s Monday programme (9 September) when conversation inevitably swerved to the petrolhead TV presenter’s collaborations with Clarkson and May.

‘Hamster’ Hammond and his longtime co-stars will release their swansong TV special, The Grand Tour: One for the Road, later this week on Amazon Prime Video. It marks the end of a 23-year journey together that began with BBC Two car show Top Gear.

The 54-year-old revealed to This Morning duo Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley that he, Clarkson and May had always wanted to design their on-screen farewell.

What, how and why?

“We always wanted to land it on our own terms,” said Hammond, before remarking on Top Gear’s whirlwind ascent to iconic status.

“It took off, we started on Top Gear together 23 years ago and it went berserk!” he laughed. “We didn’t know it was gonna do that, so that was kinda out of our control – we always wanted to make sure that when we finally landed our partnership together it was on our terms, at a time and a place and in a manner of our choosing, and we have.

“But having done it and the film is out Friday… it’s really weird! I can’t get my head around it.”

Richard Hammond burst into tears when he got Top Gear job

Further into the interview, Hammond recounted working in “little tiny TV and radio” before Clarkson and TV producer Andy Wilman offered him the life-changer that was Top Gear.

“I’ll be forever-ever grateful to them for that,” he mentioned. “When I got the job I said to Mindy, my dear wife… they rang and said, ‘Would you like to join the team?’ I’ll be honest I burst into tears. ‘Are you sure? Me? OK!’ and we opened a bottle of champagne and I said to Mindy, ‘This is gonna change everything’ and it did.”

The TV star went on to reference a “magnified level” of good times and bad times he experienced on the series, including the Vampire dragster crash of 2006 which saw him medically induced into a coma for two weeks and caused post-traumatic amnesia.

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV, while The Grand Tour: One for the Road premieres Friday, 13 September on Prime Video.

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