Top Gear to Grand Tour: We won't insult countries

Top Gear presenter Matt LeBlanc says the show will not insult the people in the countries they visit, as it has in the past.

The former Friends sit-com star said it was "not our thing" to put down the places they travelled to for filming, a contrast to the international controversies stirred up when Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond worked on the motoring show.

LeBlanc told the Press Association: "We go with wide eyes and anticipation and excitement and hopefully fulfillment; that's the way we like to travel the world."

The 50-year-old added: "How it [Top Gear] was done before was a little different. But, that said, that worked. Our style of doing it is slightly different."

During their stint on the show, Clarkson, Hammond and May were at the centre of several controversies when they filmed aboard.

The show was found to have breached broadcasting rules after Clarkson used the word "slope" to describe an Asian man during a Burma special.

The programme's crew were forced to flee Argentina after protests by Argentine Falkland War veterans.

On another occasion BBC was forced to apologise to the Mexican ambassador after jokes were made during the show about Mexicans calling them "lazy", "feckless" and "flatulent".

Clarkson, Hammond and May moved to rival broadcaster Amazon Prime in 2016 to present a rival motoring show, the Grand Tour, after falling out with the BBC.

LeBlanc will return for his third series on the BBC show on 25 February with co-hosts Chris Harris and Rory Reid.