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Chris Evans to be new Top Gear presenter | Chris Evans to be new Top Gear presenter |
(35 minutes later) | |
TV and radio presenter Chris Evans will be the new Top Gear presenter, the BBC has announced. | TV and radio presenter Chris Evans will be the new Top Gear presenter, the BBC has announced. |
Evans said he was "thrilled" to get the job, describing the motoring show as his "favourite programme of all time". | |
"I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward," he added. | "I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward," he added. |
He will replace Jeremy Clarkson, who was dropped after punching a producer while on location. | |
Evans, a car enthusiast who had been tipped to replace Clarkson, has signed a three-year deal to lead an all-new Top Gear line-up. | |
The BBC's David Sillito said the new line-up meant Clarkson's co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May would not be involved. | |
He said while Chris Evans was a household name, Clarkson had a long-running association with Top Gear and they were big shoes to fill. | |
Top Gear is watched by some 350 million viewers worldwide and is one of the BBC's biggest shows, with overseas sales worth an estimated £50m a year. | |
'Cheeky unpredictability' | |
Once the news broke, Evans tweeted: "First tweet as new Top Gear host. I would like to say Jeremy, Richard & James are the greatest. And NO I'm not leaving the R2 Breakfast Show." | |
In a statement, Evans said the programme was "created by a host of brilliant minds who love cars and understand how to make the massively complicated come across as fun, devil-may-care and effortless". | |
"When in fact of course, it's anything but and that's the genius of Top Gear's global success," he added. | |
Controller of BBC Two and BBC Four Kim Shillinglaw said: "I am so delighted that Chris will be presenting the next series of Top Gear. | |
"His knowledge of and passion for cars are well-known and combined with his sheer inventiveness and cheeky unpredictability, he is the perfect choice to take our much-loved show into the future. | |
"Chris is a huge fan of Top Gear and has great respect for the craft and work ethic of one of the best production teams in the world. | |
"He knows the phenomenal attention to detail it takes to make a single sequence of Top Gear, let alone a whole series. He is already full of brilliant ideas and I can't wait for him to get started." | |
Production on the new series of Top Gear will start in the next few weeks and more information will be announced in due course. | |
Jeremy Clarkson was suspended, then dropped, by the BBC in March following a "fracas" with a producer at a hotel. |