-It almost felt inevitable: Longtime Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman, who alongside Jeremy Clarkson rescued the show from obscurity 13 years ago, has officially resigned, the BBC confirms.
Wilman’s resignation perhaps doesn’t come as a surprise: An internal email from the producer was leaked last month, subject line “Au revoir.” In the email, Wilman said “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.”
-A day later, Wilman publicly denied that the internal email was a resignation, calling it “a private note of thanks to 113 people who have worked on the show over the years,” and bemoaning its publication. But the email definitely sounded like a farewell, and knowing what we know now, it seems to have held an undeniable bit of foreshadowing.
-Wilman has been a close friend of Jeremy Clarkson’s since childhood, and together they saved Top Gear from the brink of cancellation. “The two old school friends turned a slightly worthy motoring consumer program in to an entertainment show that was funny, irreverent, highly-produced and a hit around the world,” BBC media and arts correspondent David Sillito said.
-The producer’s resignation comes immediately after cohost James May told reporters that he would not return to Top Gear without Jeremy Clarkson. Meanwhile, the BBC has confirmed that it will air the final three episodes of Season 22, which were put on hold during the investigation into the assault that got Jeremy Clarkson dropped from the show.
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- How Jeremy Clarkson Got Himself Fired, and What Happens Next
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- BBC Confirms We’ll Get to See The Rest of Top Gear Season 22
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- The Official Report That Got Jeremy Clarkson Fired from Top Gear
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BBC’s Kim Shillinglaw has confirmed that the show will return for Season 23—though with Clarkson and Wilman gone, and with May’s vow that he won’t do the show with a stand-in for Jeremy, it’s seeming like the next season of Top Gear will be very different from what we’ve grown used to.
-This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com.
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