Top Gear's Chris Harris slams BBC over Freddie Flintoff crash (2024)

Top Gear's Chris Harris slams BBC over Freddie Flintoff crash (Image: Matt Gilley/PlymouthLive)

Former Top Gear presenter Chris Harris has broken his silence on co-star Freddie Flintoff's crash, revealing he had previously warned BBC executives that "someone was going to die" due to safety shortcomings on the show.

In a shocking new interview, Chris recalls believing Freddie had been killed in the December 2022 incident. He criticised the BBC for allegedly dismissing his concerns prior to the accident and cited other instances where safety was jeopardised.

In a startling conversation with Joe Rogan, Chris revealed that Freddie, who was not wearing a helmet, was not adequately briefed before driving the Morgan three-wheeler car. The filming was "rushed", leaving him and another individual familiar with the vehicle without sufficient time to advise Freddie.

Recounting the day of the accident, he says: "He wasn't wearing a crash helmet. And if you do that, even at 25, 30 miles an hour, the injuries that you sustain are profound. I was there on the day, I was the only presenter with Fred that day. I wasn't actually right by him, but I was close by. I remember the radio message that I heard. I always used to have a radio in my little room at the test track where I was sitting inside so I could hear what was going on."

"And I heard someone say this has been a real accident here. The car's upside down. So I ran to the window, looked out and he wasn't moving. So I thought he was dead. I assumed he was then he moved."

Top Gear S33,18-12-2022,Studios shots,5,Freddie Flintoff,BBC,Lee Brimble (Image: BBC/Lee Brimble)

"He's a physical specimen, Fred, he's a big guy, six foot five, six foot six, strong. And if he wasn't so strong, he wouldn't have survived. He's a great advert for physical strength and conditioning, because if he hadn't been that strong, he'd have just snapped his neck, he'd be dead."

He went on to say that Freddie was not briefed properly ahead of the shoot, reports the Mirror. Chris explained: "So that day was very difficult, made even more difficult by the fact that the build-up to that particular shoot, I knew that we were - at the last minute - that we were using a Morgan three-wheeler. It's a very, difficult car, you know.

"The name tells you its physics is 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. And I think that really was difficult. And you need experience. There were two people that had driven a Morgan three-wheeler before, present that day, me and someone else, a pro driver."

He added: "And we were sitting inside at that time. No one had asked us anything about the car. They'd just gone on and shot it without us. And I think if I'm looking in the mirror, I find it very difficult, even now, that Andrew, who I loved to bits, a lovely man, he was a pro cricket player. He wasn't an automotive guy."

Chris els his warnings to the BBC were ignored (Image: BBC/Vincent Dolman)

"And because of the call times that day, that was the first time we'd never had the chance to talk about how he 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."

He describes the aftermath of the accident as "really difficult", not just due to Freddie's injuries but also because he feels his warnings to the BBC were ignored.

Chris detailed: "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 so I went to them, I went to the BBC and 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 gonna have a serious injury at the very worst we're gonna have fatality. And I think what happened with Top Gear was I saw repeatedly too many times my two co-hosts who didn't have the experience I had in cars. This is the critical thing. I'm qualified to make those decisions because I've done it a long time. They weren't.

"One of them is an actor-comedian. The other guy is a pro cricket player. Brilliant entertainers. They were great hosts. But their roles were to make people laugh. And my role was to tell people what cars were like."

Chris says he feared Freddie had died after the crash (Image: BBC)

The star claims the impact of not being heard has really affected him and the BBC "left him to rot".

He explained: "It's very difficult to live with that initially for me. When I knew, I thought I'd done the right thing. I'm not very good at that. I normally just go with the flow, but I saw this coming. I thought I did the right thing. I went to the BBC and I found out really that no one 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 didn't look after me at all. They just sort of left me to rot."

He went on: "And even now, I'm totally perplexed by the whole thing. To actually say to an organisation, 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. I love that show."

He added: "They just sort of left me to sweat really. I just didn't really, I just sat in my, where I live and drank whiskey. I didn't have much contact with them at all. Everything went quiet. They had two inquiries into the accident commissioned, neither of which I had access to. I pushed very hard to have access to the second one and saw some of it."