Grand Tour star James May made no secret of the fact that he was leaving the Prime Video show behind due to health worries – especially after suffering a crash at 75mph in Norway. The former Top Gear presenter, 63, said he didn’t want to “fall apart in public” before he retired from the programme, admitting back in 2019: “I'm developing nervous disorders and aches and I don't think I'll do this much longer because I don't want to fall apart in public.

“It would just be a bit undignified and I don't think people want to see it."

Things got worse for James in 2022 when the trio were filming A Scandi Flick, during which James drove a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII sideways into a tunnel wall at 75mph. His co-star Richard Hammond feared he was dead after the shocking accident, but James insisted: “I could easily big this up, but in truth it wasn’t as bad as it possibly looks. Hammond has much better crashes.”

James was rushed to hospital via ambulance during filming, with Hammond confessing: “We were genuinely concerned and I thought my mate was dead.”

Instead, he suffered a broken rib in the accident and was thankfully able to return to filming.

It wasn’t the end of his brutal saga of accidents, though – in 2024, after the end of the Grand Tour, James was injured again, this time in a bike crash.

He was training for a charity bike ride near Hammersmith Bridge but “bust his wrist” in an accident. He admitted: “This sort of thing takes much longer to heal” due to his age.

In 2010 he lost consciousness while filming Top Gear – hitting his head on a rock and having to be taken to hospital for a brain scan after being diagnosed with concussion. He was given an IV drip and stitches for the head wound. James said there “was a lot of blood” at the time.

But the star “came closest to death” when he crashed his aeroplane after trying his best to land in a heavy crosswind.

“It was years after I’d started working on Top Gear that I was driving with a mate past an airfield and it had a sign saying: introductory flying lessons, 30 minutes for £120. He said: ‘Let’s stop and have one.’ Now I have my private pilot’s licence.”

In the same interview, James said he has “become flabby around his face and gut” in recent years, and sees himself as “quite an old man”. He tries to ride 10 miles a day on his bicycle after making a conscious effort to do more exercise.

Most recently, James clapped back at a troll who quizzed him about his “eye tics”, as he can often be seen scrunching his eyes while on camera. James has never spoken about it before, but when the X user branded it “annoying”, James broke his silence, quipping: “Don’t mock the afflicted.”