Let’s look at the reality of things for a minute. Top Gear hasn’t been the same since Clarkson’s altercation with that producer and his subsequent firing. While the show has tried to make a comeback, it’s been plagued with one problem after another. Ratings are horrible in comparison to the old show, it just doesn’t have the same flare that it used to have, and let’s not forget about Chris Evans acting like a whiny diva. Clarkson’s new show, The Grand Tour, is pretty good, but it’s apparently subject to a lot of legal scrutiny from BBC.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Top Gears old executive producer, Andy Wilman – now a producer for The Grand Tour – broke silence around some of the ridiculous legal threats BBC has been issuing against Clarkson, Hammond, and May. Naturally, BBC doesn’t want its intellectual property used in The Grand Tour, but this is a little ridiculous. For instance, BBC says that the show can’t have “handwritten lap times,” a news segment can’t be called “The News,” and the guys aren’t even allowed to call Namibia beautiful because it was said during an episode of Top Gear. The worst complaint from BBC really takes the cake, however, as apparently, James May can’t say the word “cock” because, well, he said it during an episode of Top Gear.

If BBC is complaining about these kinds of things, you can only imagine how long the list really is with complaints that haven’t be announced to the public. At the end of the day, Top Gear is pretty much falling apart now that the trio has taken off and started their new show with Amazon, and it’s likely that Top Gear will never get the same kind of following that it had. Despite the fact that Clarkson was in the wrong when he got into that physical altercation, he was the bread winner of the entire show, and the show is suffering because of this. BBC is clearly butthurt that the guys are doing their own thing now and is trying to do everything it can to make their life harder.

Keep reading for the rest of the story.

Why it Matters

At this point, I have to say the BBC just needs to get over it and leave Clarkson, Hammond, May, and their new show alone. While Clarkson was in the wrong, firing him wasn’t a good move, and BBC is feeling the burn. But, there’s no going back, and it’s time the firm moves on. I can only imagine how infuriating it must be to have BBC breathing down your neck every day trying to tell you what you can and cannot say or what you can’t do. At this point, BBC is only hurting itself by continuing to engage in this kind of nonsense, and eventually, it has to stop. For now, we’ll keep watching to see what happens next, but I have a feeling that we’ll see some ridiculous lawsuit rear its ugly head at some point, and that will certainly make things even more interesting.