Andy Wilman

Last updated

Andy Wilman
The Grand Tour opening scene shoot (Andy Wilman crop).jpg
Wilman at the shooting of the opening scene for The Grand Tour in 2016
Born
Andrew Neville Wilman [1]

(1962-08-16) 16 August 1962 (age 62) [2]
Glossop, England
Education Repton School
Occupation Television producer
Years active1994–present
Employer Amazon Studios
Known for

Andrew Neville Wilman (born 16 August 1962) is an English television producer who is best known as the co-creator (with Jeremy Clarkson) and former executive producer of the Top Gear show, from 2002 to 2015, as well as being the executive producer of The Grand Tour . He was responsible for much of the show's style and humour, along with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

Contents

Early life

Wilman attended Repton School along with Clarkson and Formula One designer Adrian Newey. [3] .

Career

After leaving school, Wilman was a member of a punk rock band, and worked in various jobs, later studying American and Russian Studies at university. Subsequently, Jeremy Clarkson persuaded Wilman to successfully apply for a job as a writer for Auto Express magazine. When Top Gear Magazine was launched in 1993, Wilman was appointed features editor, also presenting several segments in the original Top Gear TV series. His first TV production job was on Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld , which was followed by several more TV shows he produced with Clarkson as presenter. [4]

After the original format of Top Gear was cancelled by the BBC, Wilman and ex-presenter Clarkson pitched a new format, which launched in 2002, with Wilman as executive producer.

Wilman and Clarkson's company Bedder 6, which handled merchandise and international distribution for Top Gear, earned over £149m in revenue in 2012, prior to a restructuring that gave BBC Worldwide full control of the Top Gear rights. [5] [6]

In April 2015, Wilman announced that he had resigned as executive producer of BBC Television's Top Gear following Jeremy Clarkson's exit in March 2015, owing to Clarkson's "fracas" with a producer. [7] Wilman became the executive producer of The Grand Tour that he, Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May produced via their company W. Chump & Sons for release via Amazon Video to Amazon Prime customers. While not appearing on the show, Wilman was often referenced as "Mr Wilman" or "Neville", sending the others texts, which gave them challenges, missions, and often insults. [8]

In 2019 after three series, The Grand Tour changed formats, no longer producing episodic series and instead producing only individual episodes similar to specials from previous series. The group closed the W. Chump production company, stating it was no longer necessary based on the amount of content being created. Wilman also stated he would be doing a solo project for Amazon, which would be produced following projects from Clarkson, Hammond and May. [9]

On 17 April 2020 Wilman was reported to have contracted COVID-19, and reportedly had difficulty in breathing and was severely affected, leading to delays of the upcoming Grand Tour Specials. [10] [11]

Works

As producer

As presenter

Awards

YearAwardProjectResultCo-recipient
2005 BAFTA TV Award Top Gear Nominated [12] Jeremy Clarkson, Gary Broadhurst
2004 BAFTA TV Award Top Gear NominatedGary Hunter, Jeremy Clarkson

References

  1. ↑ "Director Appointments". Companies House. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  2. ↑ Researcha [ dead link ]
  3. ↑ Batra, Ruhi. "Newey giving shape to Red Bull dreams". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  4. ↑ "Andy Wilman from Repton to Top Gear – an interview (part 1)". The Grand Tour Fans. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  5. ↑ "Top Gear: Jeremy Clarkson netted more than £14m from show last year". The Guardian. 16 July 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  6. ↑ Conlan, Tara; Sabbagh, Dan (27 September 2012). "Top Gear deal nets Jeremy Clarkson multi-million pound payout". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  7. ↑ "Top Gear producer Andy Wilman quits show". BBC News. 23 April 2015.
  8. ↑ MR. WILMAN SHOWS US WHAT'S IT LIKE BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE GRAND TOUR SHOW by Styp P, Drivetribe.com. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  9. ↑ Kanter, Jane (2 October 2019) The Grand Tour’ Showrunner Reveals New Details About Amazon Deal Following Production Switch Deadline. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  10. ↑ Ahuja, Kieran (17 April 2020) Jeremy Clarkson reveals Grand Tour delay after producer Andy Wilman, catches Coronavirus The Sunday Times. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  11. ↑ DriveTribe "Why is the Grand Tour taking so long?" April 29, 2020
  12. ↑ "BAFTA Awards (2004)". IMDb. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.