Car enthusiast and TV personality Ant Anstead has opened up about being in the running to take over as a presenter on βTop Gearβ last year, revealing that the job was almost his until he fluffed his screen test in a major way.
To check out his abilities, BBC bosses had Ant drive a sports car worth around Β£85,000 around a test track, only for him to wind up writing off the car.
Oh dear.
He told The Sun: βI was asked to take around the track an AMG C63 Mercedes estate. This is a brand-new car worth around Β£85,000. Itβs fantastic β very fast and everything you want in a car.
As we all know by now, the βTop Gearβ presenting job that was in armβs reach for Ant wound up going to Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc, following the departure of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.
Chrisβs tenure as host wasnβt exactly well-received by viewers or critics, and as viewing figures continued to dwindle, the Radio 2 DJ announced heβd be stepping down as lead presenter after the last episode of the series aired.
Since then, former βFriendsβ actor Matt has been promoted to lead host, and the most recent series had a better reception from fans of the show.
Although viewing figures are still behind on the showβs peak ratings from when Clarkson and co. served as presenters, they are up on last yearβs, and itβs expected that Matt will return for a third run next year, alongside co-hosts Rory Reid and Chris Harris.