narf
Sgt. Maj. Buzzkill
Sure, but that sort of thing really starts to grate after a while, don't you think? Especially when you hit your 30s and have little kids running around the house. I'm sure he would've loved to be a full-time employee along with the rest of the Top Gear team, but for whatever reason he wasn't given that opportunity.
Apparently he had to renew his contract every season or so, meaning he agreed to the terms over and over again - before and after the wife, house and kids arrived.
That's what happened to Michael Jackson... his expenditures were out of control, so he took out an almost $300-million bank loan on the basis that his music publishing holdings (which included no less than The Beatles' catalogue in addition to his own) were netting him $75 million a year. Ended up defaulting on payments of that loan within a couple of years.
Based on that comparison, if the BBC paid him millions more he would just have blown those as well