James May has recorded his final voiceover for The Grand Tour and says it is "unlikely" he will work again with co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond.
Having ended his career as a motoring presenter, he joked that his greatest ambition now is to get to the end of his life "without running over anybody". The former Top Gear trio have presented together since 2003, first for the BBC and then for Amazon. But May, 61, said they wrapped on the final special - to be released in September - on Wednesday. And asked if the trio would reunite for future TV projects, May declared: "We’re not going to make another series together about cars, no. Well, hang on. You should never say no, should you? I think it is pretty unlikely."
Confirming that the upcoming Zimbabwe special would be the last, he said: "I recorded today the last piece of voiceover I will ever record for The Grand Tour - and therefore in that whole legacy of Grand Tour, Top Gear and the few things I did before that. We've done it for nearly 22 years - a lot longer than we thought we would. I thought, when I started doing it, that this was a bit of a laugh. Maybe it'll last a few years. And, here we are, grey and wizened and sagging. And we've only just stopped doing it. It's quite remarkable."
At a live recording of the Today Podcast, with Nick Robinson and Amol Rajan, he admitted it felt "sad" to end his decades-long stint as a car show presenter. The Grand Tour started in 2016 and prior to that the trio were on Top Gear from 2003 to 2015 - until Clarkson was fired for punching a producer and the other two quit in solidarity.
May said they were lucky to have lasted as long as they did. "You have to be grateful for the opportunity and thankful that it happened," he reasoned. "I don't want to be the person in the pub who used to be on the telly." He then quipped: "My greatest remaining ambition is to get to the end of my life without running over anybody. Because I've managed it so far and it would be deeply ironic and very unpopular if it happened now."
May, who has also made programmes on subjects including travel, cooking and toys, said he was working on new projects that were "quite modest", explaining: "I’m in the fortunate position of being able to do things for the sheer joy of it."
The Today Podcast is on BBC Sounds. *Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.