Richard Hammond details 'weird' reunion with James May ahead of The Grand Tour special
Richard Hammond has opened up about his “weird” reunion with James May as they toured the old set of Top Gear.
The motoring journalist said he found it “haunting” visiting the infamous track and production office of the BBC car show, which he hadn’t seen since their final episode in 2015.
Hammond, 55, teamed up with his Top Gear and The Grand Tour co-star May, 62, to look around the empty and abandoned set last month for an episode of May’s YouTube channel Planet Gin.
“[It was] really profoundly weird, “ he told DriveTribe member Mike Fernie on YouTube.
“It was exactly as you'd imagine an old production office to be after... how many years? It was quite haunting, quite odd.
"We spent hours in there arguing and discussing writing and rehearsing and putting the show together.”
Hammond added: “And we were there throughout the whole period of it going from it just being a little car show to whatever it grew into. So yeah, it was really strange".
Recalling his experience on Top Gear, the presenter also revealed he still remembers their first recording in the air hangar where the show was filmed.
"The moment came to do the first ever studio recording and we were standing on that stage and the Top Gear theme tune came on playing through the speakers, and honest to god I thought, ‘Oh brilliant, Top Gear's on. Oh no, hang on, I'm on it, I have to actually concentrate,’” he said.
“It was my favourite show as a kid, of course it was. So the fact that I was then on it was quite odd.”
The motoring show first aired in 1977 and gained popularity in 2002 with Jeremy Clarkson, 65, presenting alongside Hammond and Jason Dawe, who was later replaced by May.
The trio left the show in 2015 after an apparent row between Clarkson and producer Oisin Tymon and moved on to launch the rival motoring show, The Grand Tour, on Amazon Prime.
The Grand Tour came to an end with an emotional two-hour finale in September, which saw Clarkson, May, and Hammond travel to Zimbabwe.
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Last month, Prime Video said it will release four retrospective special episodes, which will look back at the best moments of the series.
The first special will be The Not Very Grand Tour: The Power And The Glory, which sees Hammond and May “celebrate the glory of the internal combustion engine” by looking back at the series.
It airs on Prime on Friday, April 18.
More instalments, such as The Grand-ish Tour: A Trip Down Memory Lane, The Grand-ish Tour: A Bit Further Down Memory Lane and The Grand-ish Tour: Completely Lost Down Memory Lane, are set for release later this year and 2026.
Clarkson will take part in those, with the trio looking back at moments in California, Morocco, Colorado, Scandinavia, and Mongolia.