James May Considering Retirement As Grand Tour Filming In Europe Comes To An End
With filming for the most recent episode of The Grand Tour coming to an end, James May has admitted that he’s thinking about retirement as he approaches his 60th birthday.
The ex-Top Gear presenter is revealing to the world the second season of his travel show with Prime Video this month where he travels to Italy to explore its rich culture, but while fans are excited to have something to watch from the famous trio, May reveals bad news.
“A very close friend of mine died a few weeks ago. He retired early, because he’d always had this fear that his family isn’t very long-lived, and he wanted to swap possessions for experiences and knowledge,” he told the press.
“That’s what he started doing, but unfortunately, he got cancer and it killed him.
“It was quite interesting thinking about that after he’d gone because it takes a certain amount of courage to say, ‘No, I don’t want to telegraph my success and my sophistication.
“‘I simply want to have a nice life and contemplate the mystery and wonder of God’s creation’.”
The Radio Times continued to probe on the subject of his retirement:
“It’s something I’m quietly contemplating, and I suspect it’s not far off,” he admits.
He also admits – and this will disappoint fans of The Grand Tour – that still has his passion for cars, but after the pandemic he has preferred to ride his bicycle:
“During that time I couldn’t do quite a lot of hobbies that I thought were very important to me, like flying aeroplanes and running motorcycles.
“But I found that as we eased out of the pandemic, I didn’t start doing them again very much.
“I got heavily back into riding my bicycle. I’ve always liked riding bicycles, but I started using it for everything and riding it every day. And I think that might actually make me feel better.”
James May: Our Man In Italy, will be available to watch on Prime Video from June 15th.
