Top Gear returning to BBC four years after Freddie Flintoff's near fatal crash
Top Gear has been confirmed to be returning to the BBC four years after Freddie Flintoff's near-fatal crash took the show off the air.
The BBC show which rose to global fame under Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May has tried out multiple presenter groups since the trio left to form The Grand Tour, with Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Chris Harris being the last trio to host before the show was shut down.
The show was taken off the air when Freddie Flintoff was involved in a near-fatal crash that left him with life-altering facial injuries, with Flintoff having said that the incident caused him to suffer from crippling anxiety and PTSD.
Top Gear co-creator Andy Wilman had previously stated he thought the show would 'never' return in an exclusive interview with LADbible, stating that 'Richard [Hammond's] crash was definitely like of an era and it was massively dramatic.'
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He added that Flintoff's crash was different because it was 'a horrible crash... you know, the facial injuries for the poor man… and it lingers, he's out of action. He's out of the public eye. He's off work.'
BBC's broadcaster’s director of entertainment Ed Havard has confirmed at the Edinburgh TV Festival however that the show is being brought back.
Havard said: "We can confirm that Top Gear is coming back, but we're not going to talk about talent today."
This came following reports from The Sun that Jimmy Carr was in talks to host the reboot, leading the director to say: "Jimmy would be a great host but we are not discussing talent today."
The Sun claimed that Carr was close to signing back up for the series and that a new season of the show could return as soon as next year.
Prior to Flintoff's crash it was widely agreed that Flintoff, McGuinness, and Harris were widely agreed to be returning the show to some semblance of its glory days after unsuccessful stints from Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc.
Speaking in a Disney+ documentary about the crash and his recovery, Flintoff claimed he 'thought he had died' when a three-wheel car he was driving rolled over at high speed.
He said: "I thought I was dead, because I was conscious but I couldn't see anything. "I was thinking, is that it? Is that it? You know what I mean? Just black for the rest of my days?
"My hat came over my eyes - so I pulled my hat up and I thought, no I'm not [dead], I'm on the Top Gear track, this is not heaven.
"I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death."
The cricket-star and TV presenter received a £9 million compensation package from the BBC as a result of the crash after he suffered serious facial and rib injuries, leaving him with permanent facial scarring.
Topics: Top Gear, BBC, Freddie Flintoff, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin