COMEBACK TRAIL
Top Gear legend Richard Hammond hints show could return – just months after Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash saw it axed
However, it may look very different
RICHARD Hammond has hinted that Top Gear could return to our screens just months after Freddie Flintoff’s horror smash saw the show taken off air.
The popular presenter, 54, indicated the BBC motoring show could very well make a “come back” but it might be in a radically different format.
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Top Gear was “rested” for the “foreseeable future”, after Freddie Flintoff was seriously injured in a horror 124mph crash.
Former England cricket captain, 45, was rushed to hospital after the high-speed crash in December 2022.
He was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.
Top Gear was on hiatus when we took it on so it’ll come back one day, although in what shape I don’t know
Richard Hammond
Now, Hammond has hinted the show could return at some point.
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He told the : “Top Gear was on hiatus when we took it on so it’ll come back one day, although in what shape I don’t know.
“The decision to buy our next car is probably the most significant contribution we can make, as individuals, to the future, so we need to be informed.
He added: “As for shows like The Grand Tour, I don’t think the human desire for adventure is ever going to be sated.
“Maybe that’s the route it could take?”
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“It’ll continue in different forms, modified to suit its time.”
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A BBC statement in November 2023 said they were planning a new project with Flintoff.
It read: “Given the exceptional circumstances, the BBC has decided to rest the UK show for the foreseeable future.
“The BBC remains committed to Freddie, Chris [Harris] and Paddy [McGuinness ] who have been at the heart of the show’s renaissance since 2019, and we’re excited about new projects being developed with each of them.
“We will have more to say in the near future on this.
SHOW 'RESTING'
"We know resting the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do.
“All other Top Gear activity remains unaffected by this hiatus including international formats, digital, magazines and licensing.”
Hammond presented Top Gear from 2002 to 2015, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
In the early days, when the trio took over it was a niche show on BBC Two but over the years it became a hugely popular show and a big money maker for the corporation with spin-off shows being sold around the world.
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Then the trio were the faces of Amazon’s motoring show The Grand Tour from 2016 to 2024.
The three presenters also launched DriveTribe on YouTube in 2016.
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