Will Young revisited his criticism of ‘homophobic’ Top Gear star Richard Hammond (Getty)
Will Young singled out Richard Hammond as “the worst” of the former Top Gear presenters for his allegedly homophobic jokes on the Amazon Prime special, The Grand Tour.
The gay pop singer has previously criticised the trio for their “f***ing pathetic” jokes at LGBT+ people’s expense, which include repeated use of pejorative stereotypes and a bizarre claim by Hammond that straight men don’t eat ice cream.
The presenters have denied that they are homophobic, with Hammond dismissing his critics as “bloody annoying” and saying people are “always looking” to be offended.
Will Young revisited the issue at an event at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, where he was promoting his book To Be a Gay Man.
When asked for his thoughts on Clarkson, Young replied: “Jeremy Clarkson is the least worst,” according to The Times.
“The other two, in my opinion, are worse. The worst one is Richard Hammond. He’s the worst because he says things like: ‘I’ve got lots of gay friends.’”
He highlighted the show’s offensive narrative that Clarkson drives “gay” cars such as a Jeep Wrangler or a Suzuki Vitara.
During the programme Hammond was shown telling Clarkson that he was proud of his fellow presenter for coming out as gay by driving the Suzuki, and suggesting he go “the whole hog” and buy some backless chaps.
“The producers chose to make the main narrative: Jeremy Clarkson is driving a hairdresser’s car. Basically, Jeremy Clarkson is gay. They had him wearing a pink shirt. They spray the car pink. They have him playing It’s Raining Men,” Young said.
“Clarkson was the least of my problems. It was Richard Hammond and it was the producers. They’re sitting in an edit suite for nine months. They created the whole thing and it was Amazon that let it go out. I was so shocked and so upset.”
Young condemned the show on Twitter when it aired in 2019, saying: “It’s f***ing pathetic and actually homophobic. And screw them and the show and Amazon (who by the way is a wonderful organisation I hope to forge a relationship with through LGBT content) for putting this shaming archaic tripe out.”
Hammond hit back at the accusations, replying at the time: “I entirely reject any criticism of me being anti-gay. That’s just not the case. The very last thing I am is in any way anti-gay. And I said I believe that love is love,” he said.
“There are people who are genuinely homophobic and they would disagree with my view that love is love and people are who they are.”