How ‘meddling’ BBC wanted a woman to front Top Gear from the very start
THE BBC tried to force Top Gear to take on a woman presenter shortly before the allmale relaunch that eventually made it one of the corporation’s most successful programmes, its longstanding executive producer has claimed.
Andy Wilman, regarded as the brains behind the motoring show, said BBC executives were worried about having three ‘middle- class public schoolish blokes of a certain age’ as hosts of the programme.
Instead, they tried to force Jeremy Clarkson to co-present it with a woman, he revealed. Then BBC Two controller Jane Root eventually allowed an all-male line-up for the 2002 relaunch – although not with Clarkson’s preferred team.
He wanted James May and Richard Hammond to join him, but Jason Dawe was taken on instead of May. May replaced Dawe a year later to form the winning trio that made the show a global hit.
Mr Wilman, writing in Top Gear magazine the day after quitting the corporation this week, said: ‘The BBC grown-ups were adamant a woman should be in the line-up.
‘Now, I’m a big, big fan of the Beeb, but, my God, do they stretch your patience when they start “applying their marketing logic”, or to use another word, meddling.’
He added: ‘Their theory behind a female presenter was that if you want women to watch something, you need women presenting it.
‘The problem was that most of the grown-ups in the BBC management didn’t care about the car world, and basically there’s this weird logic whereby the less their interest is in the subject, the greater their compulsion becomes to meddle.’
His comments have raised speculation that the BBC will appoint a woman to replace Mr Clarkson after he was sacked for attacking producer Oisin Tymon last month.
Kim Shillinglaw, the controller of BBC Two, has said the appointment is an ‘open book’ but that she will consider a female presenter.
Clare Balding, Sue Perkins and Jodie Kidd have all been tipped as potential candidates for the job.
Clarkson, 55, May, 52, and Hammond, 45, had a meeting with Mr Wilman, 52, on Thursday, fuelling speculation they could be preparing for a new show.