James May has claimed ‘wokeness’ cost him a huge television job early in his career.
The presenter, 60, has been one of the highest-paid television stars of the last two decades as host of Top Gear and then The Grand Tour, but has now insisted he was dropped from a Channel 4 motoring show for being a man.
May fronted Driven alongside Mike Brewer and Jason Brewer but was dumped after one series which went on to feature former British rally driver Penny Mallory.
‘They told me they needed to have a woman,’ May said on motoring podcast Fuelling Around.
‘They couldn’t really get rid of Mike Brewer because he had his other shows and he was very popular. They couldn’t really get rid of Jason because he was being groomed for greater things and was going to become the editor of CAR Magazine and all the rest of it.
‘The only target left was me, so I was out of the door, and that was that really.
‘This was an early bit of wokeness, they thought this programme was not quite right because they’ve got three white blokes that are all the same age.’
Wokeness, however, is a term lifted from African American English use describe ‘alerting racial prejudice and discrimination’.
May recovered from losing Driven though, becoming one of the main presenters on Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond.
Their time on the BBC came to an end though after Clarkson punched a producer over a steak in 2015.
Amazon Prime Video picked them up regardless to launch The Grand Tour, which follows the trio testing out different vehicles in various locations around the world.
Earlier this year though, it was claimed The Grand Tour had been dropped following Clarkson’s vile remarks about Meghan Markle which were later ruled as ‘sexist’ by IPSO.
May stressed any claims Prime Video had ditched the gang were unfounded though.
Listen to James May’s full interview on the Fuelling Around podcast now.
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