James May says he, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond are much more ‘liberal-minded’ in real life

‘We do ham it up,’ presenter admitted

James May has insisted that he, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond are more “liberal-minded” than people might think.

The presenting trio hosted racing programme Top Gear together from 2002 to 2015. When Clarkson was dismissed after attacking a producer on the set of the show, Clarkson and Hammond also left, with all three moving to Prime Video to film motoring series The Grand Tour.

However, despite this and other scandals following the trio, May has stressed in a new interview that he and his co-stars weren’t as reactionary as their critics might think.

“We are reasonably liberal-minded, modern, forward-thinking people,” the 60-year-old said.

“We do ham it up. Please don’t think we’re entirely like that in real life.”

Doubling down, May insisted that their lifestyle at the height of Top Gear-mania was a far cry from the “rock’n’roll” image.

“There was no doing cocaine out of girls’ navels,” he said. “We behaved quite badly at times doing Top Gear Live around the world and made a lot of noise, but it wasn’t as rock’n’roll as we liked to think it was.

“We just used to drink too much wine and beer, scream and shout at each other, trying to be the funniest person in the room. A lot of the time, we were having a snooze and a nice cup of tea.”

May, Clarkson and Hammond have hosted The Grand Tour on Prime Video for five seasons, starting in 2016.

Clarkson (centre) hosted ‘Top Gear’ from 2002 to 2015 with Hammond (left) and May (right) (Getty Images)

However, the show’s future remains unclear following controversy surrounding Jeremy Clarkson and comments he made about Meghan Markle in December.

The journalist, 63, published a column in The Sun in which he wrote that he despised Meghan on “a cellular level” and dreamt of the duchess being paraded naked through Britain while a crowd threw “excrement” at her.

Clarkson issued a lengthy public apology on his Instagram account at the time saying he “felt sick” when he realised he had “completely messed up” in writing the column, which had become IPSO’s most-complained about article ever. Last month, the press watchdog upheld a sexism complaint about the article.

At the time, reports emerged claiming that Amazon had “cut ties” with Clarkson.

However, May denied these rumours, stating in June: “Some people have said we’ve been cancelled. But really we’re getting quite close to the end of our contract, but we didn’t really have any particular plans to keep going because we’re all really just getting a bit old. It might be time to let someone else have a crack at it.”