Suzi Perry To Be Part Of New 'Top Gear'?

  • 01 July 2015

Suzi Perry, the BBC’s official Formula 1 correspondent, has emerged has a possible candidate to help Chris Evans front the revamped ‘Top Gear’ when it eventually returns to screens.

The presenter and former model would initially not be drawn on the rumours when asked directly by Philip Schofield on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ on Wednesday (July 1st), rebuffing the suggestion that the position was hers by saying: “It’s nobodies, it’s Chris’s. It’s down to Chris, and it’s down to BBC Two.”

Image caption Suzi Perry could be presenting 'Top Gear' alongside Chris Evans

Later, she admitted that she had been approached by the BBC. At the same time, however, she reckoned that this was only because she’s already in the employ of the company. “You know what it’s like when you work for a channel, you have conversations,” she said, “but we don’t know what’s going to happen with that show.”

Then put on the spot as to whether she was “in the mix” for a spot alongside Evans, she replied “I believe so”.

More: Jeremy Clarkson refused ‘Top Gear’ return over Jimmy Saville comparisons

She also pointed out that her current job involved her being out of the country and travelling for 20 weeks of the year, and that juggling a regular presenting job alongside side this would be a “pretty tough” demand.

Mixed signals about the vacant positions on ‘Top Gear’ have been given by those already involved. When Evans was appointed the new chief presenter of ‘Top Gear’ in June, he said there would “100%” be a woman presenting the show alongside him. “I think there has to be. There is a huge amount of female presenting talent in the motoring industry and it would be silly for them not to be represented,” he said.

BBC Two controller Kim Shillinglaw then denied that there were any “gender diktats”, but that the corporation was seeking to redress the gender imbalance a bit because the previous incarnation of ‘Top Gear’ had “always been a very male world”.

More: Over 5 million tune in for the final ‘Top Gear’ to feature Clarkson, Hammond and May