Jeremy Clarkson is an 'editorial genius' according to a former Top Gear executive

Andy Wilman thinks the BBC decision to axe presenter is a "tragedy"

Jeremy Clarkson at Stamford Bridge (GETTY IMAGES )

Top Gear's former executive producer has called Jeremy Clarkson an “editorial genius” and said that the BBC’s decision to axe him from the show is a “tragedy”.

Writing for the Top Gear magazine, Andy Wilman, who left the show in the wake of Clarkson’s departure, described how the outspoken presenter developed the show into its current form.

He wrote how the BBC "hasn't just lost a man who can hold viewers' attention in front of a camera, it's lost a journalist who could use the discipline of print training to focus on what mattered and what didn't; it's lost an editorial genius who could look at an existing structure and then smash it up and reshape it in a blaze of light-bulb moments."

Wilman also revealed how the BBC were "adamant a woman should be in the line-up… Their theory behind a female presenter was that if you want women to watch something, you need women presenting it.”

He added how both he and Clarkson "auditioned lots of excellent girls who were more than up to the job of presenting a car show, but Jeremy and I had already started to realise that bloke banter was going to become an important part of the show."

On the duo’s insistence the show was able to remain an all-male line-up.

The all-male Top Gear hosts on a tank

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Wilman went on to recall how Richard Hammond's original audition tape featured the presenter "doing a terrible car review while dressed for some reason as Batman".

The piece also touched upon how the anonymous racing driver The Stig came to be, with Clarkson originally wanting to call the driver The Gimp, after the character in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.

However, the name did not sit well with original team member Perry McCarthy and so they agreed on The Stig.

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Wilman recently met with the three Top Gear hosts, sparking rumours that the men are planning to create a new motoring show.

The full article, The Story of Top Gear Telly, Part One, appears in Top Gear magazine, on sale now.