Top Gear live: Jeremy Clarkson roars back for farewell tour with Richard Hammond and James May

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are BACK! screamed the publicity for the start of their live tour. “I’M HERE!”, roared Clarkson, making his grand comeback aboard a hovercraft at a live show in Belfast on Friday night.

So, just to clear up any lingering doubt, Jeremy Clarkson is back. Or at least, back in the sense that he has been able, through contractual jiggery-pokery, to carry on with a live arena tour that is Top Gear in all but name.

Clarkson is not, of course, back on the BBC or indeed back on television, after one drunken punch ended his 27-year career at the corporation.

But he is, at least, back to doing what he loves best, namely being Jeremy Clarkson in front of a cheering audience.

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Clarkson, in case you managed to miss it, parted company with the BBC in March after he gave Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon a split lip for failing to ensure there was a hot meal for him when he got back to a hotel in North Yorkshire after a day’s filming in March.

That issue was batted away even before Clarkson arrived in the arena. Unable to use the Top Gear theme “for legal reasons”, the show instead began with a film of the presenters in a pastiche of Jason King-style 1970s cop shows, complete with moustaches, leather sports jackets and Ford Cortinas.

^{Drag act: Clarkson behind the wheel (Picture: Eddie Mulholland)}

It ended with private detective Clarkson punching a bad guy with a cartoon “Kapow” and being told to “cut!” by a director. “What do you mean, cut?”

“Well, you’ve crossed the line, so you’re sacked.”

“Sacked?” replied Clarkson. “Now what are we going to do?”

The answer, of course, was about to be revealed, as Hammond and May, introduced as “two men who have not been sacked”, made their entrance on motorbikes.

Their job, it was clear, was to whip up the audience into a frenzy of anticipation ready for the main event: the return of Clarkson, driving a hovercraft one-handed as Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger belted out over the loudspeakers.

The nation will, of course, be divided over whether Clarkson, 55, should have been here at all. The Clarkson camp, led by his Cotswold neighbour David Cameron, see no reason why he should ever have been sacked. The Clarkson deniers, meanwhile, believe he has not been punished enough for crimes of arrogance, racism and general boorishness.

In order for a series of Top Gear Live events to go ahead - for the sake of the fans, and not because of anything to do with money, we are told - BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, had to be niftier than Lewis Hamilton around Monaco.

Because the live shows are put on by a company called Sub Zero, which is owned 50/50 by BBC Worldwide and Brand Events, the BBC gave itself the flimsiest of fig leaves with which to cover its embarrassment.

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Journalists who suggested that Clarkson still maintained a financial link with the BBC were told in no uncertain terms that he was not being paid by the BBC, he was being paid by Sub Zero, from which BBC Worldwide “may or may not receive a dividend, depending on whether the tour makes a profit”. Which seems about as transparent as Stig’s visor.

The clunkily-named Clarkson, Hammond & May Live show at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, the first date of a world tour, was, of course, meant to be Top Gear Live, and apart from the absence of The Stig it felt as though little had been changed apart from the name.

^{Three's company: the old Top Gear team reunited (Picture: Eddie Mulholland)}

And for the sell-out crowd of 5,500 Top Gear fans, that would have suited them just fine. There were flaming Porsches, Reliant Robin races, car lacrosse and a race between the Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning heptathlete Louise Hazel (on foot) versus James May (in a car).

The need for a huge arena to allow for car and motorcycle stunts meant that the three presenters were binocular distance away from the audience, best viewed on large screens around the venue. Whenever they did the talkie bits, this was, in essence, 5,500 people watching Top Gear on the telly.

The words Top Gear were not mentioned once but the show, like Top Gear, even featured filmed segments, including one which featured the former Stig Ben Collins, who wrote a book about his time on Top Gear that the BBC tried - and failed - to ban. Clarkson said at the time that Collins was “history - he’s sacked”. But, like Clarkson, he is now back. Perhaps his old boss was trying to send a message to the BBC about reconciliation.

^{Taken for a spin: James May (right) and Richard Hammond (Picture: Eddie Mulholland)}

The Belfast show kicked off a world tour which will take in South Africa, Norway and Australia, as well as London and Sheffield, ending in November.

Clarkson’s assistants already appear to have learned lessons from the past.

According to the press notes issued to journalists ahead of the show, “the backstage catering menu changes daily to keep it fresh for the crew and presenters”. And yes, the food is served hot. Phew!

• The show had to be tweaked at the last minute after Andrei Burton, a stunt cyclist, injured himself in a rehearsal less than 90 minutes before curtain up. Clarkson told the audience Mr Burton was now in hospital and wished him well in his recovery.

A spokesman for the show said Mr Burton was "not seriously injured".