Cricket star Freddie Flintoff’s co-host on THAT crash and the end of Top Gear
Top Gear star and general fast car guru Chris Harris has opened up on the accident that nearly killed English cricket legend, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff.
Flintoff was seriously injured in an accident during filming for the BBC television show in December 2022. He received significant head trauma and has been left with disfiguring facial injuries.
Speaking to controversial US podcaster and reality TV hard-man Joe Rogan Harris revealed not only did he feel partially responsible for the accident but that he had previously warned the BBC that a death or serious injury was likely if the show’s filming practices were not changed.
Harris was at the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome, home of the BBC’s Top Gear test track, on the day of the accident but was not involved in filming the segment.
He told Rogan: “I was close by. I remember the radio message — I heard someone say this there’s been a real accident… the car’s upside down. So I ran to the window looked out and he [Flintoff] wasn’t moving — I thought he was dead. Then he moved… If he wasn’t so strong he wouldn’t have survived.”
Harris explained the Morgan Three-Wheeler Flintoff was driving required special driving techniques. He said Flintoff would have normally discussed the details with him but timing on the day did not allow this.
“It’s a difficult car you know — just the name tells you its physics is [sic] complicated. It doesn’t mean it’s inherently dangerous — you just drive it according to what it is. You have to be aware of its limitations.”
“There were two people that had driven a Morgan three-wheeler before present that day — me and someone else, a pro-driver and we were sitting inside at that time. No one had asked us anything about the car they just gone on and shot it without us,” Harris explained.
“That was the first time we’d never had the chance to talk about how he [Flintoff] might approach a difficult vehicle and that was the one day that it went wrong.”
“I find that very difficult to live with and I feel partly responsible because I didn’t get the chance to talk to him.”
But Harris says he “saw it coming.”
“There was a big inquiry [after Flintoff’s crash] –the BBC’s good at that. But what was never spoken about was that three months before the accident I’d gone to the BBC and said unless you change something someone’s going to die on this show.”
“I told them of my concerns from what I’d seen as the most experienced driver on the show by a mile. I said if we carry on at the very least we’re going to have a serious injury. At the very worst we’re going to have fatality.”
Harris commented that Top Gear was in an “arms race” with the “other show” – The Grand Tour featuring original Top Gear hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.
While Harris says he’s infinitely better off than his co-host, who is permanently scarred and is still recovering from his injuries, he bears emotional damage from the incident and consequent axing of the show.
“I found out really that no one [at the BBC] had taken me very seriously. I did a bit of digging afterwards. The conversation I had with those people was sort of acknowledged then they tried to sort of shut me down a bit and then… they just sort of left me to rot.”
“Even now I’m totally perplexed by the whole thing. To actually say to an organization ‘This is going to go wrong’ and then be there the day that it goes wrong is a position I never expected to be in and I never want to be in again. It’s strange and pretty heartbreaking in many ways.”
The podcast with Rogan was the first time Harris opened up about the accident, his approaches to the BBC and their collective aftermath.
“I’ve never told anyone. [But] I want to tell people that I did [raise my concerns] because a bit of me thought as the experienced driver, the members of the public think that I didn’t do enough to protect Andrew.”
Harris was at pains to point out that in concept he supports the adventurous nature of the show genre and that above all he just “wanted to make good TV.”
“My experience of that now is that if you establish really big stunts that have big vision and are ambitious [then] they tend to come with a level of rigor that means they are executed well.”
“The difficult area is the kind of just being at a test track with a smaller crew and someone says ‘Give that a go.'”
“That’s when it goes wrong because no one’s really thought about it.”
Officially BBC Top Gear is being ‘rested.’ Late in 2023, the network announced: “We know resting the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do… All other Top Gear activity remains unaffected by this hiatus including international formats, digital, magazines and licensing.”
In April 2024, Harris and Flintoff’s co-host Paddy McGuinness told UK media the show hadn’t been cancelled. Flintoft is said to have recently settled a damages claim with the BBC for around $A17m.
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