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.
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.”
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.
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