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Shelved Top Gear footage from the last series will be screened within weeks – after Richard Hammond and James May secretly recorded the links without an audience.

The pair returned to the aircraft hanger studio at Dunsfold, Surrey, for the first time since Jeremy Clarkson, 55, was dropped in March for punching a producer following a row over his dinner.

The location films, shot before the “fracas”, will be a final opportunity for viewers to see all three presenters on the BBC2 motoring show.

The sequences were due to be shown in the final three episodes of the series, which were pulled while the Clarkson incident was being investigated.

Now the footage will form the basis of two Top Gear specials to air this summer.

The trio will be seen competing in different vehicles, thought to include classic convertibles, second-hand SUVs and luxury limousines, with the newly recorded links from May and Hammond.

While being used for Top Gear, the aircraft hanger is usually filled with fans who appear in the background throughout the show.

One source said that working without the studio audience felt “surreal”.

They added: “Clearly, Clarkson’s absence was referenced but he was not there – not even as a cardboard cut-out.

"The films will be the last chance fans have to see him on Top Gear for a long time, possibly for ever. It is ‘end of an era’ stuff.”

(Image: Liam McBurney/PA Wire)

Ratings for the two programmes, containing the trio’s final BBC car capers, are expected to far exceed the six million viewers who normally tune in.

It remains to be seen whether Hammond, 45, and May, 52, will sign up for a new version of the show.

BBC bosses offered to double their salaries to £1million after launching a charm offensive on the pair in April.

Andy Wilman, the show’s executive producer and long-term pal of Clarkson’s, has since resigned.

But the three hosts and Wilman were spotted attending a meeting at the home of ITV chief Peter Fincham last month and they are also in talks with Netflix for a show called House Of Cars.

If they succeed in keeping Hammond and May, BBC bosses propose to replace Clarkson with a rotating third presenter in the style of Have I Got News For You.

(Image: PA)

But this does pose a problem for the making of the location films, which sometimes take weeks. Clarkson has suggested he may return to the BBC, pointing out that he was “not sacked” when his contract was not renewed following his assault on Oisin Tymon, 36, on a location filming trip in North Yorkshire.

While some viewers have vowed to boycott a new version of Top Gear without Clarkson, others have pledged to stop watching if he is allowed to return.

Bookies predicted that Hammond and May will not accept the BBC’s lucrative offer to stay.

Ladbrokes were offering 1-2 that the pair had presented their last Top Gear, compared with a 6-4 chance that they will return.

A spokeswoman said: “It’s hard to see Hammond and May shunning Clarkson in favour of big bucks.

“As far as the odds are concerned, the Beeb’s HR department should carry on with their recruitment process.”

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