Jeremy Clarkson wouldn't "scupper" the new 'Top Gear' as he has a financial stake in the series.

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

The BBC show's former host has denied claims he wants the new series - which is fronted by Chris Evans, 50 - to fail as he gets paid every time the show gets recommissioned.

He explained: "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.

"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 but I wish them all the very best."

And the 56-year-old television personality - who has Katya, Finlo and Emily with Frances Cain - also admitted he thinks the show would have got "tired and boring" if he stayed at the BBC.

He added: "To be honest, I think we would have stayed at the BBC and then the show would have got tired and boring, eventually we would have piloted it into a hillside and that would have been the end.

"At the time it was all tragic but now we've been forced to reinvent ourselves and we're online, where you can do anything ... it's forced all of us to actually concentrate on starting again. Now we're looking at losing 'Top Gear' as a fantastic thing to happen."

Meanwhile, Jeremy revealed he and his co-presenters - James May, 53, and Richard Hammond, 46 - only have a week left to come up with the name for their new show on Amazon Prime.

Speaking at the China Exchange in London on Tuesday evening (04.05.16), he said: "We've got seven days to come up with a name - we do a special every year for Christmas and we go to film that soon, so we have to have a name and register it by then. It's going to end up being called Dingleberries or something like that."

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