Top Gear presenter Chris Harris has ripped open the bonnet on one of the darkest chapters in the motoring show’s history — and it makes ugly listening for the BBC.
Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, Harris revealed that he warned the BBC that “someone is going to die” on Top Gear unless health and safety standards were improved.
Harris said he made his concerns known months before co-host Freddie Flintoff suffered serious facial injuries during an accident at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey on December 13, 2022.
“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,’” Harris told Rogan.
The automotive journalist said he felt a responsibility to the safety of his co-presenters, Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness, because he was the most experienced driver of the three.
BBC Studios
He continued: “I said: ‘If we carry on, at the very least we’re going to have a serious injury and the very worst, we’re going to have a fatality … All too often, I saw situations where it got too dangerous.”
Harris pointed to an incident in Thailand, during which he and McGuinness rode engineless go-karts down a dusty hill. He broke his hand during filming and said it was a “s*** piece of television.”
“I did the right thing, I went to the BBC, and I found out that no one had taken me very seriously,” he said. “I did a bit of digging afterwards. The conversation I had with those people was sort of acknowledged. Then they tried to shut me down.”
Harris said he was blocked from accessing two inquiries into the Flintoff accident, though he acknowledged that he was talked through some of the findings. “The whole situation was ridiculous,” he said.
BBC Studios, the production arm that made Top Gear, declined to comment beyond previously released statements about the Flintoff accident.
In 2023, BBC Studios revealed that an independent health and safety review found that Top Gear complied with policies and industry best practices, but recommended that “increased clarity on roles and responsibilities and better communication between teams” was needed if the show returns.
Harris said the shoot at Dunsfold Park on the day of Flintoff’s accident was “rushed.” He was driving a three-wheeled open-top Morgan Super 3, which flipped over, causing facial injuries and broken ribs.
“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’d have just snapped his neck. He’d be dead,” Harris said.
The presenter claimed that he was not looked after by the BBC after the show was taken off the road: “They left me to rot … They just sort of left me to sweat, really. I just sat and drank whiskey. I didn’t have much contact with them at all. Everything went quiet.”
The incident has sparked speculation about the future of Top Gear, with BBC sources telling Deadline that the show may never return. The BBC insists that no decision has been made.
Here’s the full Chris Harris interview: