“We’re a package” is what James May said to the reporters camping outside his house in Hammersmith, waiting for a comment on BBC’s decision to drop Jeremy Clarkson after he punched a producers in the face. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what he means.

But James went on anyway and clarified it further, saying that Top Gear “existed before us; it’s been reformatted several times,” when he was asked if he will stay on the show, which if the words of BBC’s top dog are any indication is set to continue without Jeremy.

James also said that although he still thinks of Clarkson as a “knob,” he quite likes working with him. He and Jeremy have long been in the process of opening a pub together, which according to Jeremy would be brilliant because they “won’t let anybody else in it.”

So even though “a great deal of careful of thought” is in order for the boys, all the evidence suggest that James and Richard might follow Clarkson out of Top Gear. The Clarkson-May-Hammond package is probably the most marketable thing in the history of television, so it makes a lot of sense for them to stick together.

We are waiting to hear more from Richard Hammond on this subject, whose only reaction so far has been a tweet, saying that he’s gutted at such a sudden end to an era. He must be really glad though that he lives in rural Wales, far away from the spotlights. We have a sneaking suspicion May is also pondering a same sort of move, just to escape the swarm of reporters living outsides his house.