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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Will Twigger

What Top Gear was like behind-the-scenes from sex shop jokes to hangover bum injections

It's been six years since Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left Top Gear.

They've been followed since their exit by a string of different presenters, and despite starting another petrol-head show, The Grand Tour, over at Amazon, Top Gear is the show we think of when we hear their names.

One aspect of their show was Top Gear Live, which saw them travel up and down the country, and abroad, dishing out their wisdom, advice and humour - only less filtered.

Phillipa Sage was part of the team that made Top Gear Live a reality, and recalls the shenanigans that the "overgrown naughty schoolboys" got up to behind-the-scenes.

The boys left the show in 2015 (BBC/Justin Leighton)

In an adapted segment of her new book Off-Road With Clarkson, Hammond And May she recalls one particular night in Amsterdam when the trio dreamed up a new idea - Celebrity Sex Shop Sweep.

Obtained by The Sun, the passage tells that everyone on the team had 15 minutes to find a sex shop and purchase the most bawdy item they could for one of their colleagues.

Their shopping sprees were then followed by a presentation in their hotel lobby.

Phillipa writes that the three of them were like 'overgrown naughty schoolboys' behind the scenes (BBC)

Phillipa writes: "[Hammond] was given a head harness and gag with a large penis attached.

"Jeremy's package was a large silicone set of buttocks."

Another venture, this time in Birmingham, saw a booze-fuelled night in a limo complete with its own champagne bar.

Phillipa has penned a book about her experiences on Top Gear (pj.sage/Instagram)

And at dinner, arm wrestling soon broke out between various members of the team, with Hammond sponged down, draped in a table cloth, and used as a table.

Yet another challenge was dubbed Celebrity Loo Roll Challenge, involving one of the three walking back to the table from the bathroom with loo roll trailing from their trousers.

The paper had to be in-tact by the time they sat back down - and apparently Clarkson was the undisputed champion.

They left the BBC show in 2015, and have been followed by a string of presenters since (BBC)

Phillipa had started on the show back in 1997, but by the time she toured with them, she was a personal assistant to all three.

One episode saw her recommend a Vitamin B12 injection as a hangover cure.

While Hammond opted for his classic Berocca, May and Clarkson took the jabs - in the bum.

They've since gone on to start The Grand Tour (Amazon Prime)

Phillipa also discusses some of the boy's controversies, including Clarkson's when he referred to then-PM Gordon Brown as a "one-eyed Scottish idiot."

Clarkson eventually apologised for referring to his blindness in one eye in such a way, but stood firm by his assessment of the politician as an "idiot."

*Off-Road With Clarkson, Hammond And May, by Phillipa Sage, is published on May 13.

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