For many people, Top Gear ended when Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond left the long-running BBC show, with the various line-ups receiving a mixed reaction from viewers.

On the other hand, some people think the new personalities bring new life to the series. But what does a member of the Big Three think?

Well, during the promotional trail for The Grand Tour's new season, James May told Digital Spy and other media about whether he still tunes in.

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"Yeah. I've been watching it quite regularly since we stopped," he said. "It's quite nice to watch Top Gear when you're not on it, which I haven't been able to do for, you know, 13 years or whatever.

top gear christmas special
BBC

Related: Grand Tour trio tease "scariest thing we've done"

"And I think, well, it was a bit of a shaky start, if we're honest. It took them a while to work out how to do it. But I think they're doing a fairly good job now. It's almost as good as ours."

Speaking about the current line-up of Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris, May thought that they worked "quite well", but added: "Occasionally, it feels a bit forced.

"I'm quite good mates with Chris Harris, anyway. I've known him for a long time, so I quite often send him little snide messages...

"They've got the potential chemistry right. The thing that everybody forgets is, with our chemistry, it took us at least seven years, I think, for it to develop to the point where everyone was familiar with it and knew how we worked. It's a long process. You can't really manufacture it."

the grand tour
The Grand Tour//YouTube

Related: The Grand Tour season 4 reveals big changes

"If you've got the ingredients right, it will work. But you have to let it develop. And the process of watching it develop is part of the experience of the viewers. They did that with us. They watched some slightly awkward blokes on the telly, and probably thought, 'Ho ho, this is a bit awkward' – and then enjoyed watching it mature and flourish and settle down, and all those sort of little in-jokes developed."

"With a long-running show like this, like Top Gear," he continued, "I think if you're a really keen viewer, you eventually become part of a club. You sort of earn a membership by watching it. You know the jokes and the expressions, and you can quote little bits – like we did, as kids, with Monty Python and Grange Hill and things like that.

"There's a word for it in TV, but it's something very pretentious, and I can't remember what it is. But I think that's why it works."

The Grand Tour presents: Seamen will be available on Amazon Prime from December 13, while Top Gear airs Sunday nights on BBC Two.

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Headshot of Joe Anderton

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.