James May: Our new motoring show won’t be cheap… and we still don’t have a name for it

Big budget: James May says that his Amazon Prime show won't be cheap
Amazon Prime
Jennifer Ruby20 November 2015
The Weekender

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James May has confirmed that his new motoring show will have a ‘big budget’ as it can’t be made ‘cheaply’.

The presenter, who will be fronting the forthcoming Amazon Prime show alongside former Top Gear stars Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, has said that the trio are yet to come up with a title.

Speaking on This Morning about the budget, he said: “It’s quite big, yes, but it does cost a lot of money to make high quality TV in exotic locations.

“I know everyone thinks we’ve been given a massive sack full of money and gone off and bought Lamborghini's and gone off for lunch but it isn’t actually like that.

Top Gear: Clarkson's last episode - in pictures

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“We don’t get all the money in one go and a huge, huge portion of it has to go on making the films.”

He added: “It can’t be done cheaply and they want it to look brilliant and we have to pay for an office and get a pencil sharpener.”

Revealing that the show is set to air in 2016, he said: “It will start roughly in the autumn of next year but we haven’t got an exact date yet.

“We don’t know what it’s called yet, we’ve had a lot of brainstorming sessions on names.

“It’s actually very difficult to come up with a new name for something that hasn’t already been bagged by someone else, unless you call your new show Shubbley-Doobley-Woobley or something like that! We genuinely haven’t got a name.”

The new series of Top Gear, which will fronted by Chris Evans, is expected to hit screens ahead of the Amazon Prime show.

“The really interesting thing about it is, I think it’s going to be very healthy having two big international car programmes.

“It’s actually very good that we now have a credible rival and the two can spur each other on,” said May.

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