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Former Top Gear star James May paid tribute to his beloved friend and colleague. The Grand Tour frontman, 62, was inundated with messages of support as he announced the tragic news. Will Daws, co-founder of Plum Pictures, and producer of the Prime Video show James May's Shed Load of Ideas, died suddenly in London aged 57.

The British TV producer and executive, who described himself as "10% man, 90% anecdote" - was close to many of his presenters and on-screen talent, and made several programmes with the Top Gear star. Their series together included James May's Toy Stories, James May: The Reassembler, Our Man In..., Oh Cook! and James May: Our Man in Japan.

He also produced several shows with Amazing Spaces presenter George Clarke, and others with the likes of Simon Reeve, Stefan Gates, Peter Snow, Hannah Fry, Johnny Vegas and Ronnie Corbett.

Taking to X on November 26, James penned an emotional tribute to his late friend which was accompanied with a photo of the pair together.

He wrote: "If you are wondering what happened to episode three of my 'Shedload...' series last night: it was postponed out of respect to Will Daws, co-founder of Plum Pictures, who produced the show. He died suddenly on Monday evening.

You will meet him in the episode when it airs. Some of you will remember him from Manlab and Oh Cook as well. A great bloke and a great mate. Here we are comparing shirts on the set of The Reassembler. I'm the awkward looking one."

His three million followers flocked to the comment section and offered their condolences.

Comedian Al Murray penned: "So sorry to hear this."

Another remarked: "I am so sorry for your loss, James. My deepest condolences to your team, I always loved all of your shows."

A third mused: "Every time Will appeared on behind the scenes clips he seemed like an absolutely lovely chap. Sorry for your loss, James."

Channel 4's George Clarke also paid tribute to Will whose Amazing Spaces series Plum has produced for Channel 4 since 2012,

He said: "I always called him Lord Daws, and for good reason. He built the most beautiful ocean liner called HMS PLUM: The ultimate amazing space. We all travelled with him aboard his wonderful ship visiting some of the most magical places on earth. Whatever storms we faced on those journeys, Lord Daws always protected us, managing to navigate us to calmer, safer waters. We always laughed with him. We were always in awe of him. We always loved him.

"This week Will dropped us all off, safely at port. Always the pioneer, he decided to carry on alone to discover even more beautiful, unimagined spaces."