Presenters

James May

May’s guilty pastime pleasure is playing pub darts. He claims that his aim peaks sometime after downing pint number three.

James can play the flute and piano, having mastered both reading music at Lancaster University in his youth. He also has proper posh taste in ear candy – his favourite tunes are those by the late classical ivory-tinkerer, Chopin.

James has a feisty pet cat called Fusker... a gift from Richard Hammond's wife, Mindy, no less (the Hammonds’ are an animal-crazy clan).

Prior to finding TV fame, James was a writer for ‘Autocar’ magazine, but was fired for some inspired boredom-driven tomfoolery. He created a hidden message among the drop capitals of a supplement that read, 'So you think it's really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up. It's a real pain in the arse'.

Mr May has racked up some major sky-high achievements in his time. He holds a light aircraft pilot's licence, has his own small plane and scaled 70,000 feet to the edge of space (not in his plane… that would be silly) for a 2009 BBC documentary commemorating the 40-year anniversary of the first moon landing.

May’s father sparked his love of cars by giving him a beige-coloured Aston Martin DB4 at the age of three… a toy one that he left on James’ pillow as a surprise.

James would invite Jesus, Mohammed, Vishnu and Buddha to his fantasy dinner party. He’d like to make plans with them over olives and bread.

James has an unashamed soft spot for retro style. He likes velour upholstery in cars, is a sucker for 70s fabrics and loves plastic-beaded door curtains.

Despite owning such flashy and prestige cars as a Porsche 911 and a 1971 Rolls-Royce Corniche, James’ heart is faithful to his Fiat Panda. He would choose to keep it above all others if he had to downsize his car collection to just one set of wheels.

Presenting ‘Top Gear’ hasn’t always secured James red carpet treatment. Arriving at the studio for filming one day, a stern security guard asked him if he would like to wait for Mr Hammond or come back to collect him later – he actually thought James was Hamster’s driver. The shame!

Jeremy Clarkson

‘Watcher of the Skies’ by Genesis is one of JC’s all-time favourite driving songs. In fact, he loves the band so much that he named one of his dogs after them.

Jeremy has a scar on his thumb from fighting with Piers Morgan, the then editor of the ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper, at the 2004 British Press Awards. They really don’t like each other.

At 6' 5", Jezza is reported to be the tallest person working in British broadcasting today.

In the run-up to the 2007 British General Election, 49,457 signed a 10 Downing Street online petition calling for Mr Clarkson to become Prime Minister. Mad!

Jezza’s first proper job was working as a travelling salesman for his parents’ Paddington Bear toy company that they started in order to pay for his private education.

JC was a bit of a bad boy in his youth – he was expelled from school for drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Jeremy passed his driving test in his grandfather’s über-cool R Type Bentley at the age of 17.

Despite Jezza’s insatiable need for motorised speed on the ‘Top Gear’ track, he has never been hit for speeding in his civvy-street life. In fact, he holds a completely clean driving license.

The song that Jeremy would most like to fill his ears if he was stranded on a desert island is Elton John’s classic ode to a loved one, 'Your Song'.

In the 90s, JC's fondness for wearing rather ill-fitting jeans was linked to a decline in the sales of denim. Sharp-tongued marketeers coined the phrase ‘Jeremy Clarkson effect' as a way of explaining how middle-aged men had made denim lose its cool-factor with the fashion-forward masses.

Richard Hammond

Hammond made celebrity hair history in 2007. He secured over 45% of votes in a Brylcreem ‘Best Hair on TV’ poll and was crowned the man with the very best locks on the box. Hair-larious!

Although rock-star fame eluded him as bass guitarist of his childhood band, Hammond is a pretty accomplished strummer and still likes to pluck his instrument in private when he gets the time.

Hammond has a tiny chopper. Since purchasing a second-hand Robinson R44 helicopter that he dubbed “a blender with a matchbox slung underneath” in 2009, he has become absolutely addicted to mastering the skyways.

‘I Like the Way’ by Bodyrockers is one of Hammond’s all-time favourite driving songs, much to the disdain of Jezza, who hates it.

Hammond had a rather sheepish start to his media career, literally. One of his first gigs was announcing the list of sheep for sale on the BBC radio show ‘Lamb Bank’. Bah-rilliant!

Hammond is a proper Doctor Dolittle. He shares his countryside family home with a whole heap of animals, including horses, dogs, cats, a rabbit, chickens and sheep.

Prior to Richard’s near-fatal dragster crash in 2006, he hated the taste of celery, but was totally miffed to discover that he had acquired a taste for the vegetable after the accident.

Dad of two Richard loves his little ones way more than any car. He once abandoned his Porsche 911 in a water-logged traffic jam and sprinted 16 miles home through the night (it took him two and a half hours) just so that he could be there to wish his daughter happy birthday as soon as she woke up.

Flunking his first driving test for zealously accelerating on the approach to an amber traffic light is Richard’s biggest disappointment in life so far.

Richard’s favourite word in the whole wide world is ‘fiasco'.