Former Top Gear boss: Richard Hammond's crash 'is still burned in my brain'

Virgin Radio

10 Sep 2024, 15:19

Former Top Gear boss Andy Wilman has opened up about how Richard Hammond’s 2006 car crash is “still burned in” his brain.

Speaking with Radio Times magazine, the Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour producer was asked for his thoughts on how the BBC has paused Top Gear indefinitely following Freddie Flintoff’s 2023 crash when he opened up about Hammond’s previous incident.

The 2006 crash saw Hammond seriously injured when a tyre failed on the jet-powered car he was driving at 288.3mph, leading to Hammond losing control and the vehicle rolling over on its side with him still inside.

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“I have never felt fear and panic like that,” Wilman said, recalling his memories of Hammond’s crash. “It’s still burned in my brain… 

“You are completely helpless and completely angry and frustrated that you’re making an eight-minute TV item and he’s a father, critically ill in a hospital bed,” the producer added.

Asked whether he can imagine the BBC bringing Top Gear back from its current pause, the producer told the magazine: “I don’t think the BBC has the will to make a car show. I don’t think they’re interested in the topic, or that there’s anyone interested in doing it.”

Discussing Flintoff’s accident, Wilman (who quit as a producer on the programme when Clarkson, Hammond and May left the show in 2015) said: “What happened to Freddie was terrible and it’s wonderful to see him back [in his new BBC show, Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams.]”

On his new show, Flintoff broke his silence about his horror crash, explaining how it changed his life “forever.”

Recently, the former-cricketer’s fellow Top Gear presenter Chris Harris told a podcast he’d raised concerns about safety on the show ahead of Flintoff’s crash. 

“I went to the BBC and I told them of my concerns from what I'd seen, as the most experienced driver on the show by a mile. I said: 'If we carry on, at the very least we're gonna have a serious injury, at the very worst we're gonna have [a] fatality,’” he explained.

In response to Harris’ recent comments, the BBC shared they would "not be adding anything further" to a previous statement from the production company regarding a health and safety review which was undertaken on Top Gear seasons 32, 33 and production for 34 (but which did not cover Flintoff's accident).

It reads: “The independent Health and Safety production review of Top Gear, which looked at previous seasons, found that while BBC Studios had complied with the required BBC policies and industry best practice in making the show, there were important learnings which would need to be rigorously applied to future Top Gear UK productions.

“The report included a number of recommendations to improve approaches to safety as Top Gear is a complex programme-making environment routinely navigating tight filming schedules and ambitious editorial expectations – challenges often experienced by long-running shows with an established on and off-screen team.

"Learnings included a detailed action plan involving changes in the ways of working, such as increased clarity on roles and responsibilities and better communication between teams for any future Top Gear production."