BBC show’s executive producer thanks team in apparent farewell email – but he denies it is a resignation statement

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Top Gear’s executive producer, Andy Wilman, has paid tribute to the programme’s team in an email titled “Au revoir” – but has denied it was a “resignation statement”.



The future of Wilman, a long-time friend and colleague of Jeremy Clarkson, has been the subject of intense speculation since the BBC decided not to renew the presenter’s contract last week.

Wilman’s email to staff had all the hallmarks of a valedictory farewell, and suggested that he too was leaving the BBC.

Andy Wilman's email to BBC Top Gear colleagues - full text Read more

He thanked staff of the long-running show, saying they made “television that was beautiful to look at and beautiful to listen to”.

“At least we left ’em wanting more. And that alone, when you think about it, is quite an achievement for a show that started 13 years ago,” wrote Wilman.

“We had a lot of laughs, we had a lot of tiffs. We went to amazing places and we went to some shitholes. We nearly killed a presenter, we had to run for the border.”

But Wilman said on Tuesday: “The email I wrote yesterday was not a resignation statement, and nor was it meant for public consumption. It was a private note of thanks to 113 people who have worked on the show over the years, but clearly one of those 113 is a bit of a tit, because they shared it with a website.



“I don’t get this modern obsession with sharing, linking, forwarding, re tweeting; whatever happened to a private moment? And if I were to resign, I wouldn’t do it publicly, I’d do it old school by handing in my, er, notice, to someone upstairs in HR.



“I work behind the camera and I wouldn’t presume for one moment to think people are interested in what I do. Now, everyone back to work.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Top Gear co-presenter James May tells reporters he does not know if he will continue working at the programme

Wilman’s email indicated the BBC would try to keep Top Gear going. “For those of you who still rely on it for work, don’t worry, because the BBC will make sure the show continues,” he wrote.

“Our stint as guardians of Top Gear was a good one, but we were only part of the show’s history, not the whole of it. Those two words are bigger than us.”

The BBC said on Tuesday it was incorrect to say Wilman had quit Top Gear and said he remained a member of BBC staff.

A BBC spokesman said: “Andy’s email was intended as a heartfelt message to people who had worked with him and Jeremy, to recognise the fact that with Jeremy leaving it was the end of an era.

“It was not a farewell but a thank you to people who have been important to the show over the last 12 years. It was bringing down the curtain on the Clarkson era, not announcing his own departure.”



Wilman attended Repton School with Clarkson and is credited, along with the brash former host, for redesigning and reviving the programme after it was cancelled in 2001.

The BBC declined to renew Clarkson’s contract last week after he was found to have engaged in “sustained and prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature” against a senior producer, Oisin Tymon, who was reportedly left with a bloody lip.

His co-presenters, James May and Richard Hammond, have both indicated they might also move on from the hugely profitable show.



His resignation raises further questions over whether Clarkson will appear at a Top Gear live event in Sydney scheduled for 18 April. Reports on Sunday suggested Clarkson, May and Hammond could perform the shows without Top Gear branding as part of a separate agreement.

A spokesman for the event’s promoters said they were “still working through the implications of Jeremy’s contract not being renewed by the BBC”.

“We will provide an update on the festival in Sydney later this week,” he said.

A spokesman for the venue, Sydney Motorsport Park, told Guardian Australia they were being told “to keep forging ahead” as if the event was happening.