Jeremy Clarkson got the Top Gear job because is an 'egotist', according to former co-host Steve Berry
Steve Berry and Jeremy Clarkson hosted the BBC Two motoring show Top Gear from 1993 until 1999 and Steve has revealed the pair got their jobs because they were "egotists" but they did not get on off camera.
Jeremy Clarkson's former Top Gear co-host Steve Berry says he got the job because he is a “massive show-off”.
The pair fronted the now rested BBC Two motoring show from 1993 until 1999 - before Jeremy returned to Top Gear alongside James May, 62, and Richard Hammond, 55, when the programme was rebooted in 2002.
Steve and Jeremy got their jobs because the BBC wanted experts to front the show, and after trying out a number of motoring journalists the pair were hired because they could handle being in front of the camera and were both "egotists".
In an interview on news channel Al Arabiya English, Steve said: "I'm from the era of Top Gear when we were all journalists. It was believed at the BBC that if you presented a programme about a subject, you should be an expert.
"So if the subject was say the Tudor Monarchs. They'd ring up Oxford University and Cambridge University and maybe Durham and they'd find an eccentric professor who wasn't afraid of the camera and they'd get them to present the programme.
"It was the same with cars. The belief was if people are going to be told about cars we need to find experts. So they would search the world of motoring journalism and try and find a unique voice. That's how they found Jeremy Clarkson.
"Jeremy Clarkson was a very entertaining and individualistic writer for Fast Lane magazine. Every year they used to drag a load of us in. Some of them, being journalists, would look at the camera like it was a machine gun that was being pointed at them and they couldn't really translate what was written on the printed page to a TV news item.
"But occasionally they'd come across massive show-offs and egotists like Jeremy Clarkson and me and they'd take us on."
Steve, 61, says the show changed to more of an entertainment format when Jeremy, James and Richard fronted Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 - following the BBC's decision not to renew Jeremy's contract after he physically and verbally attacked one of the show's producers.
But the journalistic knowledge about cars remained with the trio, but that was lost when Chris Evans and Matt Le Blanc took over in 2016 and that's why viewers switched off.
Steve said: "When it was Jeremy, James and Richard and they brought the programme back in the format that most people know, the 'three amigos' format, the format had changed into more of an entertainment show than a consumer show. But those three guys were all still journalists."
Steve readily admits that he and Jeremy, 65, did not get on off screen, but he respects him as a presenter and respects his knowledge of motoring.
He said: "He and I never really got on, we butted heads me and Jezza, I've got to give the guy respect because when he opens his mouth to express one of his strongly held opinions he knows what he's talking about. And people know that, even if they don't like the guy. Like me. I don't like him, but I respect him."
Despite Steve and Jeremy - who went on to front The Grand Tour with James and Richard for Amazon Prime from 2016 until 2024 - not liking each other, there is mutual respect and no real hard feelings.
Steve shared: "The last time I met him in person, it was at a car show and there was an open bar. He said, ‘Berry, people know we don’t like each other, I’ll buy you a pint and we’ll stand over there pretending we like each other.'
"I said go on then. So he bought me a pint and we were chatting away."
Steve says that Jeremy is very similar off-screen to how he is on-screen and he definitely enjoys being the main attraction, as can bee seen by the fact he was "the leader of the gang" on Top Gear and The Grand Tour with James and Richard.
He said: "In real life, Jeremy is a less bombastic version of that person that you see on the screen.
"You couldn’t act that persona for all the years that he has, [but] he is kind of like that."
"Anybody who watched the ‘three amigos’ Top Gear… would know there’s a hierarchy there, isn’t there.
"They’re not equal, the three of them. There’s James and there’s Richard and then there’s Jezza, and Jezza is the leader of the gang, isn't he?"
Comedian Paddy McGuinness, 51, automotive journalist-and-professional racing driver Chris Harris, 50, and former England cricketer Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff, 47, began presenting Top Gear in 2019.
But whilst filming an episode for the show at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022, Freddie suffered severe facial injuries and broken ribs after the open-topped three-wheeled car he drove toppled over.
Following the incident, Top Gear was taken off air and "rested" for the foreseeable future.
