Top Gear insurance costs ‘unsustainable’ after Freddie Flintoff crash
Top Gear’s insurance costs have become unsustainable since the Andrew Flintoff crash[1], show insiders have said. The cost of insuring presenters to take part in potentially dangerous stunts has rocketed, with the BBC recently settling with Flintoff for a reported GBP9 million[2]. Sources told The Telegraph that the BBC would be unable to secure insurance cover for the kind of stunts featured in past series, rendering the future of Top Gear[3] uncertain.
This week, the corporation announced that the show is being “rested” for the foreseeable future[4]. “The insurance costs are through the roof,” said an insider. “They were already pretty high, but after the payout … no-one is going to want to do that, unless they’re charging more than the BBC can pay.” Former England cricketer Flintoff’s crash last December[5] echoed former presenter Richard Hammond’s near-fatal accident in 2006 while filming an episode of the show. “They were bad – what if the next one is worse?
So the other option is to cut the stunts,” said the source. Flintoff suffered serious facial injuries when his open-topped, three-wheel Morgan Super 3 flipped over at Top Gear’s Dunsfold Park Aerodrome test track in Surrey. Hammond was left in a coma after crashing a jet-powered Vampire dragster[6] at nearly 320mph at the former RAF Elvington air base near York.
Police officers examining the car that then Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond crashed in at Elvington airfield near YorkCredit: OWEN HUMPHRIES/PA
Speaking at a Top Gear launch in 2019, Clare Pizey, the programme’s then editorial director, admitted: “Top Gear’s insurance generally is very high.
They’re on speed dial to us.” Chris Harris, who presented the show with Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness, said at the same event: “I don’t have private insurance for this. “I have insurance for if I’m driving to work and I have a shunt … if it goes wrong on an airfield, I’m on my own.
There’s no-one could underwrite that.” BBC sources have insisted that they would like the show to return in a couple of years. James May, who presented Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Hammond until 2015, said the programme should change its format[7], suggesting that it drop the stunts in favour of discussing the environmental impact of cars.
However, one former Top Gear producer told the Telegraph: “The thing about Top Gear is that it isn’t a car show. It’s not like they’re reviewing the new Audi. It’s a mix of I’m a Celebrity and It’s a Knockout.
You’re basically getting presenters to do mad stuff. “Everyone’s got their favourite bit – for me it’s them building boats to get across a pond, and they sink, and they can’t speak because they’re laughing so much. I also like the weird races – fast car vs train.
Stuff where no-one even remembers which car it was.”
References
- ^ the Andrew Flintoff crash (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ for a reported GBP9 million (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ of Top Gear (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ for the foreseeable future (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ crash last December (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ crashing a jet-powered Vampire dragster (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ the programme should change its format (www.telegraph.co.uk)