A former Top Gear presenter has said he feared the show “would not end well” when TV bosses added sports and television stars Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness to the roster.
Rory Reid, 44, revealed he was afraid to put celebrities behind the wheel of Top Gear because they lacked the experience and knowledge to drive.
This comes as former England cricketer and presenter Flintoff was seriously injured in an accident while filming the show at Dunsfold Airfield in December 2022, where a three-wheeled car overturned.
The cricket legend admitted the after-effects of the accident could haunt him “for the rest of my life” and said he believes he “really shouldn’t be here”, with the incident prompting the BBC to pull the plug on the show for the “foreseeable future”.
The new Top Gear presenters are known to have been trained by professional drivers from the moment they started the show and have been supported by professional drivers throughout the series.
In an interview with Times Radio, former Top Gear presenter Reid was asked if he thought putting TV and sporting celebrities in the driving seat could have become a problem, to which he replied: “Absolutely instantly.”
Former Top Gear presenter Rory Reid (Picutred) feared the show would not “end well” when Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness were announced as presenters.
Freddie Flintoff on a motorised tricycle while filming a series of the BBC programme Top Gear
He said he thought there would be problems because characters like McGuinness and Flintoff lacked the experience to “be able to do some of the things the BBC was asking them to do”.
He continued: ‘The first thing I thought of was these men, who I’ve been fortunate enough to see on their entertainment and sports journeys, who are fabulous at what they do.
“I don’t think they have the driving experience to be able to do some of the things the BBC has asked me to do.”
He added that it was not for him to “say” whether the BBC had given them additional training and time to put new presenters in certain situations where it was “comfortable and safe” because he was not present.
He continued: ‘But based on my experience, if you asked me if I would put someone without that level of experience behind the wheel in those situations, would it end well?
“I didn’t think it was going to end well. That was the first thing I thought when I heard who was going to be on the show.”
Explaining the dangers involved in the sometimes inherently dangerous spectacle, he said: “It’s not about people getting into a car and going 50 kilometres an hour down the road. It’s about driving them in a way that’s exciting and fun.
“And it’s quite difficult to do that if you don’t have experience driving cars very fast and you don’t understand the kind of driving dynamics and things that can go right or wrong very quickly.”
He was concerned when the BBC added celebrities to the list of presenters because he feared they lacked experience behind the wheel (pictured: Chris Harris and Rory Reid)
English cricketer and former presenter Flintoff was seriously injured in an accident while filming the show at Dunsfold Airfield in December 2022, where a three-wheeled car overturned (pictured: Freddie Flintoff and comedian Paddy McGuinness on the BBC drive-in show)
Flintoff quit Top Gear and settled with the BBC for £9m following the accident. Pictured: Flintoff (left) with his Top Gear co-presenters Paddy McGuinness (centre) and Chris Harris (right).
‘So, you know, and when you combine that with the fact that I think the BBC and Top Gear in particular want the show to appear fun and very exciting, then there is a tendency or a potential for things to go wrong very quickly.’
This comes after Top Gear presenter Chris Harris claimed he warned BBC bosses ahead of Freddie Flintoff’s high-speed car crash.
The 49-year-old presenter, who was on set at the time of the accident which happened during filming of Top Gear, also said he thought Flintoff had died.
The accident at Dunsfold Airfield in Surrey in December 2022 left the 46-year-old former England cricketer with significant injuries to his face and ribs.
And racing driver Harris told The Joe Rogan Experience podcast: ‘What was never talked about was that three months before the accident, I went to the BBC and said unless they changed something, someone was going to die on this show.
‘So I went to see them, I went to the BBC and I told them about my concerns about what I had seen as the most experienced host on the show by far.
‘I said that if we continue like this, at the very least, we’re going to have a serious injury; at worst, we’re going to have a fatality.
“And I think what happened with Top Gear was that I watched too many of my two co-presenters who didn’t have the same experience with cars as I did. That’s the key thing.”
Top Gear presenters Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris pictured in a publicity photo in 2018
England coach Freddie Flintoff at The Oval yesterday on the first day of the third Rothesay men’s test.
Harris said he was “qualified to make those decisions because I’ve been doing it for a long time,” adding: “They weren’t. One of them is an actor and comedian. The other is a professional cricketer.
‘They were brilliant artists. They were great hosts. But their role was to make people laugh. And my role was to explain to people what cars were like.’
In the Times Radio interview, where he discussed Top Gear, Reid also revealed he had asked the BBC for additional training during his time on the show.
Sharing that he felt the BBC did not know enough about his ability to host, he added: “They were pushing me to a point where I feel like I need to be better equipped to deal with some of the things they’re asking me to do.”
‘I was actually the one who asked them to give me additional training. I think in my second series I said to them, ‘Listen, can you give me some additional training on the specific stunts that we were asked to do during this show?’
After this, Reid was given additional hours with a stunt driver to go over some of the stunts they were asked to do on the show.
The BBC is known to have had presenters undergo driving assessments before becoming part of the TV show, where they received additional training.
The BBC documentary Freddie Flintoff’s Field Of Dreams On Tour showed the 46-year-old leading a group of youngsters from his hometown of Preston on a cricket tour of India.
Top Gear’s three most recent presenters all gained commercial licenses for heavy goods vehicles and international racing while on the show.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘The independent health and safety review of the production of Top Gear, which looked at previous seasons, found that while BBC Studios had complied with required BBC policies and industry best practice when making the programme, there were significant learnings that would need to be rigorously applied to future productions of Top Gear UK.
‘The report included a number of recommendations to improve safety approaches, as Top Gear is a complex programme-making environment that routinely has to deal with tight filming schedules and ambitious editorial expectations – challenges often experienced by long-running programmes with an established crew on and off-screen.
‘Learnings included a detailed action plan involving changes to ways of working, such as greater clarity on roles and responsibilities and better communication between teams for any future Top Gear production.’