The grand tour – Richard Hammond addresses homophobia criticism – digitalspy.com, Digitalspy.com

Richard Hammond has addressed criticism ofThe Grand Tour, after some viewers accused himself and fellow presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May of making homophobic comments.

In an interview withDigital Spyand other media, Hammond said: “Listen, it’s bloody annoying, because we are notremotelyhomophobic as a show. If anybody takes something as homophobic, then yeah, I think we should remove it, because I don’t want to cause offence. “

The response comes after Will Young condemned the show earlier this year as being “homophobic” and “bigoted”, promptingJeremy Clarkson to offer an apology, though perhaps not the one Young was aiming for.

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Related:The Grand Tour‘s James May thinks new Top Gear line-up “feels a bit forced” occasionally

One particular ‘gay car joke’ was picked up, to which Hammond replied “Oh , that’s because Jeremy was in the Jeep, which is! [laughs] It is! It’s the number one gay car. “

Commenting on whether they specifically avoid homophobic language, he said: “But no, we don’t sit down and… Because to say, ‘We’re going to be really careful not [to] be homophobic in this series’ would be to say:’ well , you must be, then, because you’re having to try not to be. ‘

“So I just don’t think – no, we don’t set out to try and adjust that kind of thing, because we’re not. And never have been.

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He continued: “But then, to be honest, people are always looking for it. The favorite one we used to get was about sexism. People were always saying, ‘Well, we know what you lot are like about women and cars.’

“‘What! We’ve never said anything. ‘ Apart from that I’ve got [a] wife and two daughters who could beat the shit out of me silly.

“But we’ve never, ever said any of those things, but people used to level the accusation at us, on the assumption that we were – probably because we’re middle-aged, probably quite middle-class blokes. So the assumption is, that’s what we would be, and do. But we’re not. “

The Grand Tour presents: Seamenwill be available onAmazon Primeon Friday, December 13.

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