BBC cancels Top Gear filming after Freddie Flintoff accident

Filming for the latest series of Top Gear has been cancelled after presenter Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff was injured in an accident, the BBC has said.

The presenter, 45, was hurt in the accident while filming in December at Top Gear’s test track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome, in Surrey. The BBC said: “Under the circumstances, we feel it would be inappropriate to resume making series 34.”

The broadcaster has said a decision on how to best continue would be made later this year. Following the accident, which happened on December 13th, the media personality received medical attention at the scene before being taken to hospital for further treatment.

In a statement, the BBC said: “We have sincerely apologised to Freddie and will continue to support him with his recovery. We understand this [halting the show] will be disappointing for fans, but it is the right thing to do, and we’ll make a judgement about how best to continue later this year.”

The crash is believed to have left Flintoff  ‘psychologically traumatised’. The broadcaster has said the incident has also impacted the production team, and there will be a health and safety review of the show. Top Gear is one of  its most successful programmes, and has had a series of different presenters since 2002.

It is not the first time the former England cricketer has been involved in an accident since he began presenting the long-running programme back in 2019, alongside co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.

He also crashed into a market stall in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in February 2019, and then in September of the same year, he also crashed during a drag race while he was filming at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire – the latter in which he walked away unharmed.

After retiring from international cricket in 2010, Flintoff ventured into TV where he became part of Sky’s, A League of Their Own, and was also a contestant on the Australian version of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, where he was crowned king of the jungle.

Trying his hand at acting, he has also appeared in the drama Love, Lies and Records in 2017 – and singing in Fat Friends The Musical too. It is unknown whether Flintoff will make a return to the show at this time.

Long standing fans of the show will remember that former Top Gear presenter, Richard Hammond, also crashed at the same airfield track in a high-speed accident in 2006. The accident left him in a coma for a period of time while he made a full recovery from a brain injury.

He survived and ultimately returned to the series alongside fellow hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May. The trio left Top Gear in 2015 after an altercation between Clarkson and a producer.

Last month, Hammond said he worried the crash would be responsible for his worsening memory.