James May has earnestly addressed his possible retirement from the entertainment industry.

The former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter has previously shot down suggestions he will carry on working with close colleagues Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, citing: "we should let it lie".

And now, he has again touched on retiring from the industry that made him a household name as one of the trio on the world's biggest car show.

Speaking to the Today Podcast just a couple of weeks ago, he said: "We have to accept we've done it for almost 22 years. A lot longer than we thought we would.

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"I thought when we started doing it in 2003 or 2004 I thought this was a bit of a laugh, maybe it'll last a few years. And you know, here we are, grey and wisened and sagging and we've only just stopped doing it.

"It's quite remarkable you have to be grateful for the opportunity and thankful that it happened and accept, well, I don't want to be the man in the pub that 'used to be on the telly'".

The presenter replied: "Well you won't be, you'll be doing other things."

"I don't know," May suggested.

The trio presented BBC’s Top Gear from 2003 to 2015 before reuniting for Prime Video’s The Grand Tour.

Despite enjoying success together, the three celebrities have gone their separate ways professionally with Clarkson finding further global success with his Prime Video documentary Clarkson’s Farm.


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The show focuses on life at Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and is now in its fourth season.

May recently revealed that he believes Clarkson, Hammond and himself are unlikely to work together again.

Speaking to Unilad, he said: “I think people would only really like us doing cars, despite what some people say - ‘Oh, I think you should all go off and do cooking or you should all go and do a podcast about nothing.’

“But I don’t think so, I think we should let it lie, what we did.”