Richard Hammond says they had a set of rules on Top Gear and they tore them all up

Richard Hammond has opened up about the rules they mapped out on Top Gear - before breaking all of them.

The motoring show has been about for more than 20 years, and while in recent times there have been many presenters, Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May were at the wheel for the programme's glory days - until Clarkson punched a producer in 2015 and it all fell apart.

Reflecting on how the hit show started out, Hammond said they laid out rules that would define what it was all about, but these rules quickly went out the window.

ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

Speaking on The Diary of a CEO Podcast, the 53-year-old said: "We just thought we'd make a car show, I remember the conversation in White City BBC HQ.

"It was before James (May) joined but the rest of us were all in place and weirdly some of the people we still work with now, we were all in that room.

"We all said, 'Right, these are the grand rules of Top Gear, it's about the real world, cars that people really buy, no supercars, no foreign travel, we're only going to drive proper cars that people buy in this country.'

"Then, that didn't last very long at all, we realised that's not what people wanted, not what we wanted to make. We never made it with any science or calculation, we just made the best car show we could."

Ink Drop / Alamy Stock Photo

Reflecting on the moment he found out he'd got the job, Hammond said: "Initially I cried, I had a bottle of champagne with my wife. This was it. I'd spent my whole life trying to do that so it was a huge moment."

This dream job would almost cost him his life in 2006, when he had a horror crash while making the show.

It's been 17 years since he climbed into a jet-powered dragster and crashed while driving almost 320mph at the RAF Elvington airbase in York.

The presenter was in a coma for two weeks as a result, but made a miraculous recovery and managed to return to Top Gear in 2007.

Almost two decades later, Hammond worries how the accident may be affecting his brain.

"I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes," he revealed.

"It might be because I'm 53, it might be because I'm working a lot and I'm tired, it might be the onset of something else."

Topics: TV and Film, Richard Hammond, James May, Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear, Cars

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey