Richard Hammond has said that Jeremy Clarkson and James May cost him his Morrisons gig back in the Top Gear years.
Appearing on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show live from CarFest yesterday (August 25), the TV presenter recalled: "I've not told this [story before]. I'd done the [Morrisons] advert, it's going quite well and they said 'we'd like another one of those.' So it's all booked in the diary and it pays reasonably well. It's worth doing.
"We were doing our [Top Gear] live stage show at the time at Earls Court and my dear colleagues thought it'd be very funny if on the side of our cars we had a message."
Related: The Grand Tour star Richard Hammond's Channel 4 show cancelled after one season
In classic Clarkson and May style, though, there was an ulterior motive at play.
"I go out onto the stage first, with Morrisons down the side of my car, and the audience goes 'ha ha' because they've all seen the advert that I'd been doing," Hammond continued.
What to Read Next
"James comes along with 'are' and then Jeremy arrives with a less than complimentary word to finish that off, let's say 'rubbish'. We thought it was quite funny until I came offstage and what we didn't realise is all the bigwigs from Morrisons were in the VIP seats, and I lost the gig that day!"
Related: The Grand Tour's Richard Hammond discusses moments of 'real peril' filming the series
The trio presented Top Gear together from 2003, when May replaced original Top Gear co-presenter Jason Dawe after the first series, until 2015.
They now front Prime Video's motoring programme The Grand Tour together, which premiered on the streaming service in 2016 and has run for five seasons so far.
The Grand Tour is available to stream on Prime Video.
Reporter, Digital Spy
Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
