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Top Gear taken off air ‘for the foreseeable future’ after Flintoff crash, says BBC
Motoring show could be at the end of of the road, with hosts in talks with corporation to develop new projects
Top Gear will not return “for the foreseeable future” following Freddie Flintoff’s crash, the BBC has confirmed.
The announcement that the show is to be “rested” was made alongside the disclosure that an independent health and safety review had recommended a number of changes that need to be “rigorously applied” to future productions.
Flintoff sustained serious physical injuries in the accident at Top Gear’s Dunsfold Park Aerodrome test track last December.
The BBC issued a public apology to the former England cricket star and paid him a reported £9 million settlement.
In the latest update on Top Gear, the corporation said: “Given the exceptional circumstances, the BBC has decided to rest the UK show for the foreseeable future.
“The BBC remains committed to Freddie, Chris and Paddy 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. We know resting the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do.”
BBC sources insisted that the show has not been axed and that bosses hoped to revive it in the future. Top Gear remains one of the BBC’s most lucrative global brands.
Approach to safety
However, the show’s approach to safety will need to be improved if it is to return for a new series.
The findings of a health and safety review of the show – although not the accident – would be acted upon, the BBC said.
In a statement, it said: “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 includes 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.”
The show has been on hiatus before, including the period after Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May departed.
Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris have hosted the show together since 2019. Filming was stopped following the crash.
In recent months, Flintoff has appeared in public as part of the England cricket set-up. He will work with the BBC again next year in a second series of his cricket mentoring programme, Field of Dreams.
The Top Gear accident occurred when Flintoff was driving an open-topped Morgan Super 3. The vehicle flipped over and Flintoff sustained facial injuries that required extensive reconstructive surgery.
In his only public statement since the crash, while awarding an England cap to spin bowler Tom Hartley, Flintoff said that his cricketing “family” had been his greatest source of support.
“They’ll share the good times with you, the successes. But, as I found over the past few months, they’ll be there in the hardest times of your life. They will stand by you,” he said.