Quentin Willson was one of the original Top Gear presenters. Photo / Getty Images
Quentin Willson was one of the original Top Gear presenters. Photo / Getty Images
Quentin Willson, the former Top Gear and Fifth Gear television presenter, has died aged 68 after a short battle with lung cancer.
Willson co-hosted the original version of with Jeremy Clarkson from 1991 and, after the format was cancelled in 2001, left the BBC to present Channel 5’s rival motoringprogramme Fifth Gear.
Willson’s publicist confirmed the motoring journalist had died peacefully, surrounded by his family, on Saturday (local time).
His family described Willson as a “true national treasure”, who “brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms”.
It added: “He helped shape the original Top Gear as one of its first hosts, working alongside Jeremy Clarkson and the team who took the pioneering show global. He went on to front Fifth Gear and still holds the dubious honour of Strictly Come Dancing’s lowest score in history.”
In recent years, Willson had also been a champion of EVs as part of his FairCharge campaign, which his family said: “saved United Kingdom consumers a fortune by helping to freeze fuel duty”.
“Over £100 billion [$230b] in fresh taxation was prevented by the campaign, a real consumer win by a true consumer champion.”
Top Gear launched on the BBC in 1977, with Willson offering his expertise as the used-car expert from 1991.
Amid bad ratings after Clarkson left in 1999, the BBC cancelled the long-running motoring show before it was revived in 2002, with Clarkson and Richard Hammond as hosts, before James May rejoined in 2003.
Despite a revised line-up after Clarkson, May and Hammond departed in 2015, the show was not renewed after a high-speed crash almost killed cricketer turned presenter Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff.
Top Gear was later presented by from left, Richard Hammond , Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Photo / Supplied
Willson said this year that television bosses would never commission a show like Top Gear again, mostly because of safety concerns.
“We were very lucky to have lived through this wonderful golden age of cars and car programmes because you couldn’t make them now,” he told Metro.
“It wouldn’t get screened, and people aren’t as interested … or television commissioners aren’t as interested in cars as they were then. It was a lovely time to make a TV programme about cars at a time when cars were much more socially acceptable than now.”
Willson is survived by his wife Michaela, children, Mercedes, Max, and Mini and three grandchildren, Saskia, Xander and Roxana.
The family asked that their privacy be respected “at this difficult time” and said funeral arrangements will be announced in due course.
“The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach.”
May paid tribute to his former colleague. “Willson gave me proper advice and encouragement during my earliest attempts at TV, back in the late 1990s. I’ve never forgotten it. Great bloke,” he said on X.
Lawrence Whittaker, the owner of Britain’s oldest racing car manufacturer Lister, said he was “utterly devastated” to hear of Willson’s death.
“He was the architect of the Warrantywise plan and revolutionised, not just the car warranty market, but through his campaigning and journalism, made the UK motor trade a better place,” he said on X.
“He was the most knowledgeable person I ever met when it came to cars and was such a pro in front and behind the camera.”
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