Chris Evans takes Clarkson’s Top Gear post

Chris Evans will succeed Jeremy Clarkson as presenter of the BBC’s money-spinning petrol-head fact-ent series Top Gear.

Evans (pictured), currently co-presenter of daily series The One Show and a BBC Radio 2 breakfast DJ, has signed a three-year deal to present the show, which BBC Productions will produce for UK channel BBC Two.

Former presenting trio Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond (below, right) will not return after the former was effectively fired following an assault on a producer.

Evans said this morning the former presenting team had wished him luck on the new-look show, which goes into production in the next few weeks.

“I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward,” he said in a statement.

Clarkson, Hammond and May have been linked to ITV and Netflix in the months following the scandal. No deal is understood to be in place yet.

“Chris is a huge fan of Top Gear and has great respect for the craft and work ethic of one of the best production teams in the world,” said BBC Two controller Kim Shillinglaw.

“He knows the phenomenal attention to detail it takes to make a single sequence of Top Gear, let alone a whole series. He is already full of brilliant ideas and I can’t wait for him to get started.”

Evans is currently riding high after a one-off reboot of his anarchic 1990s evening talk and music show TFI Friday scored more than 3.7 million last week, and an accompanying music album hit the top of the charts.

Channel 4 is yet to confirm if TFI will come back for a season run, with Evans saying its future was in the broadcaster’s hands.