Former Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman has said the show became "a battle" with the BBC during the Jeremy Clarkson era and that everyone must accept some of the blame.
After a series of controversies, Clarkson was sacked for assaulting Top Gear's Irish producer Oisín Tymon while on location in March 2015. Co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond and show boss Wilman decided to leave the BBC series shortly after. The three stars and Wilman have reunited for a new globetrotting motoring show, The Grand Tour, on Amazon's streaming service.
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Reflecting on their Top Gear tenure at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Wilman said Clarkson's sacking was the eye of "a perfect storm".
"That show got bigger and bigger by accident; we never adjusted to that and were collapsing under the weight of the work we were doing," he said. "We got to series 22.
"We had s*** like Argentina [a road trip through the country with a licence plate which appeared to reference the Falklands War] go wrong, so it was all building. I'm speaking as someone who loves the BBC and there were a lot of people who were great with us and some people there weren't great with us and didn't want us there so it became a battle."
Wilman said he felt the relationship between the show and the BBC became "personal and confrontational" and that the incident that led to Clarkson's sacking was "critical because it was going to be a victory for somebody".
"It wasn't going to be a resolution because I think some people didn't have the will to make it work on the management side, and I didn't have the maturity to make it work either," he admitted. "Everyone had taken their position, we were all entrenched."
When asked what punishment Clarkson should have received instead of being shown the door, Wilman jokingly replied "100 lines?" before adding that the presenter should have been fined heavily.
"We had been investigated internally, there was a finding we had a broken relationship - that was obvious to everyone - but there was no point killing the show," he said.
"It was sad, but my point is, we were to blame too. I was entrenched; I was throwing my toys out of the pram. I was vicious in my reaction to everything and it became thumping heads, which was sad."
Wilman said he did not leave the BBC to join Clarkson as, at the time, "we had nothing to go to".
"The show [Top Gear] compensated for everything," he explained. "If we had a good show and good viewers, we were protected, but without that we were just left with this divorce hanging over us, so it was 'Let's just go our separate ways and see what happens'.
"It's a matter of public record that the BBC made a play for Richard and James but we wanted to stay together."
Wilman revealed he did not watch the recent series of Top Gear fronted by Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc because there was "a lot of pain" for him.
"It was everything that I did," he said. "We gave everything to it. Also, because I wanted to be able to say when I was asked if I had watched, that I hadn't."
"Chris Evans and everyone went to work to make it. I wouldn't wish them one second of ill that they wouldn't succeed," he continued. "You can have two car shows and I hope they crack it."
Looking forward to The Grand Tour, which is set to premiere in the autumn, Wilman dismissed reports that each episode costs £4m as "bulls***".
"It's a good whack but we are spending a lot," he said. "That is going out the door hand over fist because of what we have to do."
The show takes place in a giant travelling tent with Amazon committing to 12 episodes a year with the three presenters for three years.
"Like them or loathe them, they are still doing their thing," Wilman said.
The footage which Wilman unveiled in Edinburgh featured May driving with a broken arm; Clarkson driving in a flak jacket and goggles as May shoots at him and Hammond waking up in a car that has been airlifted. Cars featured included Maseratis, a Rolls Royce and a Porsche, as well as Clarkson on a jetski.
"This is not a trailer but I put something together to show we have been busy," Wilman added. "We have been going around the world with big ambition in the films."
On the subject of May's arm injury, he said: "He fell over the night before filming, coming out of a pub. He rang me up and said, 'I've broken my arm'. His car was automatic so we stuck him on Eurostar, pumped him full of drugs and left him to it.
"He did more damage to it because he had to keep on going but he's falling to bits anyway. We are not in Usain Bolt territory with that body."
