EXCLUSIVE: Amazon is poised to extend its relationship with The Grand Tour star James May by swapping his spanner with a wooden spoon for a cookery program.
The presenter has been known to dabble in the kitchen on YouTube, but will now get rather more serious about his culinary experiments in a cookery show made by his long-time collaborators at Plum Pictures.
British newspaper The Sun has previously reported on his ambition to do a cooking show, but Deadline can reveal that the series is in with Amazon and there is even interest in him writing a book containing recipes.
Some work took place on the show earlier this year, and it is understood that the series could be six episodes in length. James May ‘Oh Cook!‘ has been mooted as a working title, in reference to his “oh cock!” catchphrase when things go wrong on The Grand Tour.
His YouTube cooking jaunts for FoodTribe have seen him make sandwiches and poached eggs. He also previously appeared on Gordon Ramsay show The F Word making a fish pie.
May’s most-recent project for Amazon involved him traveling around Japan for James May: Our Man In Japan, which was also made by Plum. Deadline understands that he was set to embark on another overseas adventure for the streamer before the plans were put on hold by coronavirus.
The pandemic also derailed plans for another The Grand Tour special — this time set in north Russia. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and May were due to film in March, but production has been postponed until next year.
“We had to call it. It was the right move, thank Christ, but now we’ve got to wait for the snow again and we’ll go next year,” executive producer Andy Wilman said in a YouTube conversation with Clarkson in April. Their Madagascar special has been shot, edited, and delivered to Amazon.
