I made Top Gear - here's brutal reason why show will never return to BBC

The creator of Top Gear has revealed the real reason why the show will "never" come back to the BBC. Top Gear has been off the airwaves since Freddie Flintoff was involved in a horror crash in 2022, which he opened up about in a recent interview with Piers Morgan. The motoring programme dates all the way back to 1977, but it's fair to say it catapulted to new heights when it was rebooted in 2002.

Hosted by Andy Wilman, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, and the anonymous driver known fondly as 'The Stig', the BBC show became a staple on the broadcaster. Wilman only hosted the show for a few years before he became an executive producer, with Clarkson often referring to him as the secret fourth member of the team.

Like the presenting trio, Wilman also left the show in 2015 following the backstage incident in which Clarkson punched a producer and went on to create The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime.

Despite their explosive exit from the BBC show, Top Gear continued and eventually found its groove again with hosts Freddie Flintoff, comedian Paddy McGuinness, and motoring journalist Chris Harris.

But things took an unexpected turn when Flintoff was involved in a horror car crash, which left him with serious injuries, leading to the show being put on an indefinite hiatus. One which Wilman believes will never end.

In a new interview with LADbible following the release of his new book, Mr Wilman's Motoring Adventure, the show's creator opened up about the difference between Flintoff's crash and the two major crashes Richard Hammond went through on the show.

He told the outlet: "Richard's crash was definitely like an era, and it was massively dramatic. It was like something out of a movie... but the mood around it is, 'He survived, he lives, he's going to come back in'. It's pretty upbeat. It's very like, 'He's coming back'.

"I think, come the moment when Freddie's crash [happened], how is it different? It's a horrible crash. Freddie's is like, lingeringly horrible. It's depressing, and it's a s**tty crash, a three-wheeler turning over on a rock, kind of semi-destroying his face.

"It knocks the stuffing out of the show, and if it knocks the stuffing out of the show, which is now just another BBC show, it'll knock the stuffing out of the show full stop." When he was asked directly if he thought the show would ever return, he admitted: "I don't think it will.

"Because unless somebody has a will, they could. But somebody's got to be like we were, which is, 'I want to take this thing by the scruff of the neck'."