Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May end 23-year run: you ask who gets £24,087,100
After two decades on screen, three familiar faces are steering towards new lanes, leaving fans guessing what comes next.
Documents filed this week show the team behind The Grand Tour has closed its joint company, bringing a long road-trip of business to a tidy halt. The move marks a practical clean-up of shared ventures rather than a public bust-up, and it comes with striking figures attached.
A 23-year ride pulls over
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have formally wound up W Chump & Sons, the company they ran with producer Andy Wilman. The quartet formed the business after Clarkson’s 2015 departure from the BBC’s Top Gear and shifted their on-screen chemistry to Amazon’s The Grand Tour in 2016.
Companies House filings record a voluntary winding up. In UK practice, this points to a solvent closure known as a members’ voluntary liquidation. In such cases, a liquidator realises assets, pays creditors, and distributes the surplus to shareholders.
The balance sheet at closure showed £24,087,100. Split four ways, that signals roughly £6 million each before tax and costs.
The Grand Tour wrapped after six series last September, with final scenes filmed on the Makgadikgadi salt pans in Botswana. Clarkson has said he no longer wishes to squeeze into the low-slung performance cars that helped make his name. The decision to wind up the company mirrors that personal shift.
The partnership ends without a crash. No blazing feud. No tabloid firefight. Just a gentle landing for a long-running enterprise.
What a voluntary winding up means for you
- No new projects will come from W Chump & Sons itself.
- The Grand Tour already ended; existing episodes remain where licensed.
- Each presenter continues with solo programmes under separate production arrangements.
- The closure deals with finances and assets; it does not cancel current individual shows.
From Top Gear to The Grand Tour: the long road in numbers
| Year | Milestone | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Clarkson, Hammond and May era of Top Gear begins | Trio chemistry defines BBC motoring TV for a generation |
| 2015 | Clarkson exits Top Gear after a workplace incident | W Chump & Sons is set up with Hammond, May and Wilman |
| 2016 | The Grand Tour launches on Prime Video | Global, big-budget travel format replaces the BBC studio template |
| 2023 | Final Grand Tour instalment films in Botswana | Series bows out on the Makgadikgadi salt pans |
| 2025 | W Chump & Sons winds up | Assets realised and distributed to shareholders |
Why now: age, appetite and changing budgets
Clarkson has been blunt about ageing out of certain cars. He says he no longer wants to clamber into cramped supercars and pretend the thrill feels the same. That sentiment matters. The Grand Tour relied on the trio’s unfiltered glee at machinery and mischief. If that spark fades, the premise weakens.
There’s also the economics. Location-heavy travel shows carry shipping, permits, insurance and crew costs across several countries. Streamers are trimming spend and demanding clearer returns. Motoring blockbusters still draw an audience, but the bar for commissioning has shifted. Ending the company removes overhead and simplifies the presenters’ separate careers.
Fans lose the brand that bound the quartet. They don’t lose the personalities who built it.
Where they head next
Clarkson remains front and centre with Clarkson’s Farm, which follows his efforts to turn a patch of Oxfordshire into a viable business. Weather, regulation and livestock do most of the antagonising. Reviewers have noted the show’s craft: constructed reality with just enough honesty to make the mishaps feel earned.
Hammond stays close to the spanner with Richard Hammond’s Workshop on Discovery+, charting the growing pains of a classic car restoration business. The appeal lies in budgets, deadlines and personalities colliding with rust and romance.
May continues his curiosity tours on terrestrial television. James May’s Great Explorers for Channel 5 frames travel as patient observation rather than petrolhead bravado, playing to his wry, schoolmasterly persona.
Money matters: what that £24,087,100 actually means
The headline figure invites big assumptions. Here are the practical points. The £24,087,100 reflects assets after liabilities. Distribution typically follows shareholding. With four partners, an equal split suggests roughly £6 million each, before taxes, fees and any personal loans to the company are settled. That is a payout from winding down a solvent vehicle, not a one-off fee from a new show.
Rights are a separate question. Commissioning contracts usually park programme rights with the broadcaster or a designated production entity, not the holding company that pays salaries and expenses. In practice, that means closing W Chump & Sons does not yank past episodes from your screen. Licences continue under their own terms.
What it means for motoring television
The trio set the tone for bantering, adventure-led car television in the 2000s and 2010s. With The Grand Tour ending and Top Gear on an indefinite pause, the field looks open. Commissioning trends now favour leaner formats: owner stories, budget builds, electric conversions and regional routes rather than globe-trotting capers.
Expect fresh faces and specialist niches to take the lane. Independent garages turn into docu-series. YouTube-born presenters jump to broadcast. Electric vehicles create new narrative beats around charging, range and ownership costs. Viewers get more depth, fewer explosions.
The old formula of three blokes, one desert and a fleet of wrecks made memories. The next wave will feel smaller, cheaper and closer to home.
If you are wondering what changes for you
- Your back catalogue of The Grand Tour streams under existing licences.
- Clarkson’s Farm continues on its own production track and schedule.
- Hammond and May remain on air with their individual series.
- The company’s closure signals administrative housekeeping, not a feud.
The winding-up process, briefly explained
A members’ voluntary liquidation is designed for solvent companies. Directors swear a declaration of solvency. A liquidator sells assets, settles debts and distributes the remainder. HMRC gets paid before shareholders. The process often tidies interwoven ventures when a project ends, a partnership changes or founders simplify their affairs.
For a fan, that translates to clarity. One chapter closes, contracts get honoured, and the presenters carry on with projects that better fit their age, energy and curiosity. If a future reunion emerges, it will likely sit under a fresh corporate shell with new terms and a sharper scope.
