[Larry the Loafer]

I still find it a little curious that we still don't actually know what happened to him. Wasn't it established fairly quickly what happened to Richard Hammond after his crash? And without being too morbid, there was a lot of concern over whether Hammond would survive that doesn't appear to exist around Flintoff's accident, so I find it a bit odd that things are still pretty hush hush.

The broad details made it to the tabloids a while ago. Allegedly a three-wheel, open-topped vehicle flipped over (not at high speed), with Flintoff suffering facial injuries and broken ribs.

I stand corrected. That totally passed me by.

[nwtv2003]

I still find it a little curious that we still don't actually know what happened to him. Wasn't it established fairly quickly what happened to Richard Hammond after his crash? And without being too morbid, there was a lot of concern over whether Hammond would survive that doesn't appear to exist around Flintoff's accident, so I find it a bit odd that things are still pretty hush hush.

As subsequently discussed we do have an idea on the severity of the injuries, but going back to your original point, I’m surprised it’s taken this long to decide as the accident was in December. In Hammond’s case we knew the severity of his injury almost instantly and the future of the show was decided promptly also. I’m guessing there must have been an investigation into Fred’s accident which may not reflect well on the programme or the BBC. 

It’s a shame it’s come to this, and given the reporter state of Freddie’s mental health after the accident I can’t see him returning to the programme, nor would I blame him.

Certainly this has the been the best format of Top Gear since Clarkson, Hammond and May (plus Wilman) left. Whilst not as good as the original trio, the filmed inserts and challenges in certain episodes have been enjoyable in their own right. Maybe time to give the show a rest in the circumstances, even back to BBC2.

[madmusician]

I’m sure I recall reading that the HSE assigned no blame to the BBC in their report on the incident (although somebody please correct me if I am wrong about this), but clearly the BBC’s internal report would have been more thorough and it does sound as though they have ruled that something went wrong that could have been avoided.

Whilst times change, I think it would be remarkable for the programme to end over this incident when it continued through Richard Hammond’s far more severe accident, the various controversies towards the end of the Clarkson era (the racial jokes, that outtake, the Argentinian stuff), not to mention the fracas and then the Evans era when it was such tabloid fodder.

I agree that the current iteration is the best it’s been since the Clarkson days (although I have a soft spot for the Le Blanc/Harris era, as it had some really classy travel films in it) but it isn’t the same ‘public interest’ show as it used to be (in terms of behind the scenes news being all across the tabloids etc), which is why they’ve been able to keep this incident reasonably quiet and delay making any decision until over three months later.

I would be surprised to see the whole format come to an end on UK TV, as it is still a lucrative property for the BBC (how is it selling internationally these days, both the format itself - for the local versions - and the showing of the UK version?) and, as I mentioned above, this seems like a reasonably low-key incident for the show to end over, although I don’t doubt the distress caused to Flintoff himself and the production and presentation team.

Would McGuinness and Harris wish to continue with another presenter brought in, and would it seem insensitive to do so (also taking into account the impact of this incident on the production team)? I think that’s what is being weighed up right now, and there’s no rush for that decision to be made. They could resume production later in the year for a spring 2024 series and still keep the current team (minus Flintoff) if they wanted to.

Worth pointing out that Harris-fronted videos have been making their way to the Top Gear YouTube channel, and I suspect that these have been made since this incident, so clearly he hasn’t cut his ties with the programme entirely at this point.

[Brekkie]

Feels like the show is going to be expected to pay out a massive compensation claim or something.

Leaves a hole in the BBC Sunday schedule this summer.

Not to much of a problem as Antiques Roadshow just takes the slot rather than being bumped an hour earlier (or to BBC2) and they backfill earlier in the day.


The statement all very carefully worded - the main thing is that hopefully Freddie can make a full recovery.   A show like this always comes with risks though, but risks can be mitigated and then to an extent are insurable.   It's possibe insurance has become an issue after this accident but I suspect more the case that it just doesn't feel right for those concerned for production to continue at this moment in time.

[TIGHazard]

I still find it a little curious that we still don't actually know what happened to him. Wasn't it established fairly quickly what happened to Richard Hammond after his crash? And without being too morbid, there was a lot of concern over whether Hammond would survive that doesn't appear to exist around Flintoff's accident, so I find it a bit odd that things are still pretty hush hush.

The broad details made it to the tabloids a while ago. Allegedly a three-wheel, open-topped vehicle flipped over (not at high speed), with Flintoff suffering facial injuries and broken ribs.

Specifically it was reported as a Morgan 3. Flintoff's a tall guy so I would imagine his head would have been above the rollover hoops (as even the models are in that press photo). The car also doesn't have airbags.

[VMPhil]

I note that, according to the Virgin EPG, BBC Three are meant to be showing a Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuiness episode of Top Gear at the moment, but instead they're showing an older Chris Harris, Matt LeBlanc and Rory Reid episode. Either the Virgin EPG is incorrect or they're currently not even showing repeats of episodes with Freddie in?

[nwtv2003]

The Freeview EPG shows that they’re meant to be showing a Matt LeBlanc era episode, so it’s more likely Virgin is wrong or they haven’t updated their EPG in time.

Dave seems to be in the phase of repeating only some of the latter era Clarkson/Hammond/May episodes before going to Paddy/Freddy/Chris episodes, which they’re doing again next week. I haven’t seen any pre-2010/11 episodes of Top Gear on Dave for a while now, barring the specials.

[Brekkie]

Wouldn't be too surprised if Dave or elsewhere gets their hands on some Grand Tour episodes once the deal with Amazon expires.

[TheGregmeister]

Wouldn't be too surprised if Dave or elsewhere gets their hands on some Grand Tour episodes once the deal with Amazon expires.

If TGT was to be shown on Dave , expect episodes to be cut to ribbons and shoehorned into 1 hour time-slots complete with ad breaks.

[Roger Darthwell]

Surprised that nobody has mentioned this, but Top Gear's producer has quit the BBC
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