Jeremy Clarkson wants new Top Gear to be good because he 'gets paid' for it

Clarkson revealed at a talk on Tuesday that he earns money every time the motoring show is recommissioned

Jeremy Clarkson has wished new Top Gear host Chris Evans 'all the very best' (Rex Features)

Jeremy Clarkson might have been axed from Top Gear following that fracas with a producer, but the presenter has revealed that he still gets paid every time the motoring show is renewed.

Clarkson, who is busy working on a new Amazon Prime series with his former co-stars Richard Hammond and James May, said at a talk in London on Tuesday that he wishes new host Chris Evans “all the very best” with the reboot because he has personal interest in its success.

“What’s very entertaining is that Chris Evans is having a very hard time at the moment as he attempts to put Top Gear back together again,” he said. “It’s been suggested that I am behind it, that I am trying to scupper him. But I discovered the other day that every time it gets recommissioned I get paid, so that’s a curious bit of BBC contract.”

Clarkson admitted that had he stayed on Top Gear, it would eventually have got “tired and boring and piloted into a hillside”. The 56-year-old said that his team are now “looking at losing Top Gear as a fantastic thing to happen” because with Amazon Prime, “you can do anything, like f**k a horse” and they have been “forced to reinvent” themselves and start over again.

Clarkson, Hammond and May have been struggling to come up with a name for their new show, which will run for at least three 12-episode series. “It’s going to end up being called Dingleberries or something like that,” he said.

Top Gear is expected to return to BBC Two later this month, with Clarkson’s untitled series to follow on Amazon Prime this autumn.

BBC representatives have said that they do not comment on contractual matters.