BBC issues Top Gear statement amid reports show will be axed

Oct 07, 2023

The BBC has said a decision on Top Gear’s future will be made in “due course”, amid reports the show will be cancelled.

It comes after The Sun quoted a “show insider” saying there was “no way it [Top Gear] could continue” following a crash involving presenter Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff.

The former England cricketer suffered a serious crash during filming last December.

He was left with broken ribs and severe facial injuries, with the rest of that series cancelled.

Flintoff’s son, Corey, said at the time that he was “lucky to be alive” and described it as a “pretty nasty crash”.

With speculation the show could now be cancelled for good, a BBC spokesperson said: “A decision on the timing of future Top Gear shows will be made in due course with BBC Content.”

The 45-year-old made a rare public appearance in September, where his facial injuries were still visible nine months after the crash.

Earlier this month, he was filmed awarding an England cap to bowler Tom Hartley and spoke publicly for the first time about the incident.

He described it as “the hardest” time of his life.

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In the summer, Flintoff began helping coach England cricket squads in an unpaid consultancy role.

Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness joined motoring journalist Chris Harris on Top Gear in 2019, taking over from Chris Evans and Friends star Matt LeBlanc.

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The show was initially launched in 1977, featuring a range of presenters and reporters in a half-hourly slot on BBC Two.

It proved popular throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

But its relaunch in 2002 as an hour-long entertainment motoring show, led by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, turned it into a worldwide hit.

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