James May addresses being sacked from show as he blasts wokeness

James May says he’s ‘hopeless’ at canoe polo

The Grand Tour star James May has spoken out about his time on Channel 4 show Driven, which he fronted in 1998.

The car enthusiast presented the show alongside Mike Brewer and Jason Barlow, but only lasted one season due to being cut from the line-up.

James, 60, said fell victim to “early wokeness” after being told they couldn’t have three men together and needed a woman.

On the motoring podcast Fuelling Around, he said: “They couldn’t really get rid of Mike Brewer because he had his other shows and he was very popular.

“They couldn’t really get rid of Jason because he was being groomed for greater things and was going to become the editor of Car Magazine and all the rest of it.

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“The only target left was me, so I was out of the door, and that was that really. This was an early bit of wokeness, they thought this programme was not quite right because they’ve got three white blokes that are all the same age.”

When asked if he assumed that was the reason for his axe, he said: “They told me they needed to have a woman.”

Following his sacking, the second series featured rally driver Penny Mallory and racing driver Jason Plato, one of the hosts on the podcast alongside Dave Vitty.

Express.co.uk has contacted a representative for Channel 4 and Penny for comment.

James went on to front BBC hit show Top Gear alongside his long-term sidekicks Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond.

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Their stint on the channel lasted until 2015, when Jeremy had an altercation with a producer.

Following this, the trio returned with brand new Amazon show The Grand Tour the following year.

When quizzed about their future on the programme, James said the team make plans by the year, “because let’s face it, we’re old”.

“We’ve got another one about to come out,” he spilled. “We’ve just filmed another one a few weeks ago and we have another one planned to film later on this year.”

The presenter continued: “What happens after that I don’t know, that’s a big of a grey fog, but it always is.

“Jeremy is ploughing his farm, I’ve been cooking and doing some travel, Hammond has been taking his own cars apart and claiming to put them back together.

“It’s not over, but we’re probably nearer the end than the beginning.

“Oh God, let’s hope so, we don’t want another 20 years of this.”

The Grand Tour is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

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