Jeremy Clarkson criticises the BBC for letting the Great British Bake Off go to Channel 4

Jeremy Clarkson has hit out at the BBC for allowing Channel 4 to buy the rights to the Great British Bake Off, saying it was “the BBC’s duty to keep that show”.

As we all know, the well-loved British baking show will no longer be airing on the BBC after Channel 4 paid a reported £75 million to broadcast the programme. However, Jeremy Clarkson has argued that the BBC should have spent the money necessary to prevent the steal.

Always one to speak his mind, Jeremy said: “If I’d been running the BBC, I’d have paid.

“It’s a very popular show. What were the figures? 13, 14million – that’s an astronomical figure.

“It’s the BBC’s duty to keep that show.”

He compared the situation to the BBC’s coverage of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012, which demanded a huge broadcasting operation along the River Thames: “They don’t say, ‘The Queen’s decided to go down the river, that’s too expensive’ – they just do it. And so they should.”

Despite his controversial departure from the BBC’s Top Gear in 2015, Jeremy praised the corporation when reflecting on his time working with them: “There are a lot of very hardworking, clever, talented, dedicated people in that organisation that I got on well with for a very long time.

“The BBC were tremendous, bloody good people. Danny Cohen was a nightmare, but he’s gone now. He was the only real sticking point.”

Jeremy did, however, go on to criticise the BBC’s talent management: “They’re rubbish at talent management, they just have to buck their ideas up. That’s why they keep losing shows.”

He also insisted that the BBC shouldn’t have to feel under pressure to reveal their biggest stars’ salaries, saying: “I don’t know why somebody’s interested in what somebody earns. I think if you put someone in a management position running the BBC, you would hope he is capable of deciding who gets paid what, he doesn’t have to explain it to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the country.

“Why do we need to know? It’s like saying, Kate Moss is attractive, everyone should be that attractive. Well, they can’t be. So some people are rich, some people are poor, some people are beautiful, some people are intelligent. These are things that make the world go round.”

Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour will be released on Amazon Prime later this month. The show, which also features James May and Richard Hammond, will share similarities with their earlier Top Gear series.

Jeremy revealed: “Amazon said we could swear, but we made a policy not to swear, same as before. If an eight-year-old wants to watch it, the parents need to know they’re not going to be subjected to an hour of foul language. If you get scared, you swear, and they just beep it.

“Top Gear was a big family show, and this should be as well.”

The Grand Tour debuts on Amazon Prime on November 18.

Jeremy Clarkson and the Grand Tour team have “run out of money” in fun new clip

We have two months to go before The Grand Tour premieres on Amazon but a new teaser clip has revealed that the team may have already run out of money.

The new clip sees Jeremy Clarkson introduce the show’s tech tent, where the production process takes place – transforming the filmed clips into small screen-worthy entertainment.

Introducing the area, Clarkson says: “If you want to fight a small war, control an aircraft carrier or fly a spaceship, you do it all from in here.”

He then asks whether they can do a dress rehearsal for the benefit of the camera, but their director pops up and says no. Why? “Because we have run out of money.”

We’re going to hope this is a joke, because The Grand Tour reportedly has a budget of £160 million an episode.

It was recently announced the eagerly-awaited first series of The Grand Tour would touch down on Amazon Prime Video on November 18.

Jay Marine, Vice President of Amazon Prime Video EU, said: “Customers have been desperate to find out when they can watch their favourite team back on screen, so we are very excited to announce the launch date of one of the most globally anticipated shows of 2016.

“The guys have been having a blast filming the show around the world and we can’t wait for fans to see it weekly from 18th November, only on Amazon Prime Video.”

The Grand Tour will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on November 18.

Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour launch date unveiled

The launch date for Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour has been announced.

After months of speculation and media coverage, the eagerly-awaited motoring show will premiere on Friday, November 18 on Amazon Prime Video.

The Grand Tour reunites former Top Gear presenters Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May as they embark on an international expedition to explore the world’s best cars, racing tracks and driving locales. We imagine there will be a teeny bit of messing around, too.

Clarkson was sacked by the BBC last year after punching a producer during an argument over food after filming, however former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson later suggested the BBC were wrong to do so. Hammond and May voluntarily left their positions, and Amazon swooped in with a mega-offer to produce a car show starring the trio.

Jay Marine, Vice President of Amazon Prime Video EU, said: “Customers have been desperate to find out when they can watch their favourite team back on screen, so we are very excited to announce the launch date of one of the most globally anticipated shows of 2016.

“The guys have been having a blast filming the show around the world and we can’t wait for fans to see it weekly from 18th November, only on Amazon Prime Video.”

WATCH: Jeremy Clarkson is on the open sea in new The Grand Tour clip

A new clip from the upcoming Grand Tour has been released, and it features Jeremy Clarkson on the open… sea?

That’s right, on the newest clip from the former Top Gear presenter’s upcoming Amazon series, it seems Clarkson has swapped driving for sailing – and he seems to be having a great time.

Clarkson has swapped roads for rivers before while filming Top Gear, famously competing in a race across London in a speedboat back in series ten of the show. Back in series eight, Clarkson, Hammond and May also completed a challenge where they had to transform their cars into boats – with mixed results.

The Grand Tour, the newest project from the former Top Gear presenters, will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in autumn. Clarkson, Hammond and May are currently in the middle of filming the audience segments for the new show, which will take place in tents across the world.

However, where Clarkson is, controversy seems to follow. This week Clarkson accidentally gatecrashed Danny Dyer’s wedding, was caught out flying a drone in a no-drone zone for the show, and his colleague James May got caught out for speeding on a motorbike on Monday.

What on Earth could he do next? Watch this space.

Jeremy Clarkson’s DriveTribe gets £4.8 million investment from FOX

21st Century Fox has invested nearly £5 million in DriveTribe, the new online motoring platform founded by former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

DriveTribe was announced in April, and an official statement on the site’s website says it is “set to become the largest digital motoring platform online – a supercharged destination for anything and everything that has wheels”.

Speaking when the platform was announced, Richard Hammond said: “Gamers have got Twitch, travellers have got Tripadvisor and fashion fans have got, oh, something or other too.

“But people who are into cars have got nowhere. There’s no grand-scale online motoring community where people can meet and share video, comments, information and opinion. DriveTribe will change that.”

Jeremy Clarkson added: “I didn’t understand DriveTribe until Richard Hammond said it was like YouPorn, only with cars.”

In August, the first thirteen content curators – known as ‘tribe leaders’ on the service – were unveiled by DriveTribe. These individuals will manage motoring-specific channels including video, articles, social and interactive content.

The new tribe leaders include racing driver Oliver James Webb, motoring journalist Jethro Bovingdon and Finnish blogger Sara Nase.

Fox Networks Group chief executive Peter Rice said: “We saw the DriveTribe platform and we were blown away by its ingenuity.”

DriveTribe is due to launch in November.

The first pictures from Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour are here

Amazon has unveiled the first images from the studio tent recording for Jeremy Clarkson’s new motoring series, The Grand Tour.

The images show Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May hard at work filming the live studio segments yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa.

There’s also a glimpse at the filming tent, which appears modest considering the reported £4.5 million-an-episode budget for the new Amazon series.

Amazon has confirmed tent studio recordings will take place in the UK, US and Germany, as the series makes good on its global aspirations.

Last week fans of Clarkson, Hammond and May were invited to enter a competition to attend filming sessions in the UK, which are scheduled to take place in a giant tent later this year ahead of The Grand Tour‘s release on Amazon Prime Video.

The Grand Tour confirms UK studio recordings – and how you can be in the audience

Jeremy Clarkson’s new Amazon motoring show The Grand Tour will record in the UK, and fans are being invited to join them in the studio.

While The Grand Tour has made no secret of its global aspirations, Clarkson, Hammond and May will return to film at least one studio recording with an audience in the UK.

Amazon has also confirmed recordings will take place in the US and Germany, as well as the already-announced filming of studio segments in Johannesburg, South Africa later this month.

Fans of the trio can now enter a competition to attend filming sessions in the UK, which should take place in a giant tent this autumn ahead of The Grand Tour‘s release on Amazon Instant Video.

If you happen to be in Johannesburg on Sunday, July 17 – or have a lot of money and time on your hands for a trip there – booking has already opened to take part in the studio audience segments.

5 reasons Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour will be better than Top Gear

We’ll say it – Top Gear just isn’t the same without Clarkson, Hammond and May. While the BBC show is definitely improving, and Matt LeBlanc is at least doing a great job of presenting, what we really want to see now is the much-hyped Amazon rival. It’s called The Grand Tour and is scheduled to debut on Amazon Prime’s streaming service this Autumn. Here’s five reasons we think this new show will leave Top Gear in the dust.

1. It’s going bigger from episode one.

The Grand Tour – as suggested by its name – has global aspirations, and it looks like moving tents all over the UK isn’t going to cut it anymore. The first episode will take place in Johannesburg in South Africa – a far cry from Blackpool. Although Chris Evans’ Top Gear did also make it to South Africa in episode two, for The Grand Tour this is the first step in an outrageously expensive worldwide tour.

2. It’s got a bigger budget.

The Grand Tour reportedly has a budget of 4 million per episode, four times larger than the budget of Jeremy Clarkson’s last season at Top Gear. To add a bit more perspective, Game of Thrones has a budget of 5 million per episode – and they have dragons and ice zombies.

3. Its running time will be longer.

One of the most-mentioned benefits of original programming by Netflix and Amazon is that they are not restricted to a certain time slot, so there’s room to go beyond an hour’s airtime. While episodes are still planned to be 60 minutes in length, there’s no reason they can’t be longer if the material is of good enough quality, and that’s exactly what happened when Amazon took over Ripper Street from the BBC.

4. The Grand Tour has Clarkson, Hammond and May and they have MORE creative control.

It’s not only the running-time that will be affected by the move to Amazon, but shows working with streaming services frequently mention the increased creative control allowed to production companies and their stars. The Grand Tour is not limited by channel values, the time slot or the advertisers. (This isn’t to say the BBC’s values aren’t necessary, but rather that they must please a much larger body of people – after all, we all pay the TV license). Amazon makes no such promise, and the show has already confirmed more time will be allocated to Clarkson, Hammond and May actually discussing cars. And on the subject of cars…

5. They’ve got better cars.

The big one. The Grand Tour has already pulled off a coup that Top Gear reportedly tried and failed to achieve – in the first episode, the trio will test the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder back-to-back. While the cars have appeared on Top Gear before, the show failed to get Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche to agree to a back-to-back test. We suspect this is the sort of thing that Amazon’s larger budget will play a continuous role in.