Chez Moi

Wednesday, 10:30 pm BST: I was just lounging on the sofa, after a ‘welcome back’ new season episode of ‘Wire in the Blood’, when the news anchore of the Late News said the words ‘Top Gear’s Richard Hammond was injured in a car crash earlier today’. To say I was shell-shocked would be an understatement. I simply could not believe my ears!

My first thought was ‘Oh no, the poor bloke must have been driving on the M25′. Later, when fresh details emerged and I learnt that the accident happened during a Top Gear shoot, I was like ‘don’t tell me they were doing something hair raising again!’ And so he was! Trying to break the British land speed record in a dragstyle-type car, Hammond’s vehicle ‘veered to the right’ and flipped even as he was travelling at 300 mph. He was ‘critically injured’ and emergency services had to cut him out of the car. He was rushed to the Royal Infirmary at Leeds, where he remained in a critical state for two days, before improving enough to be labelled ’stable’ by his doctors.

Top Gear is one of UK’s favourite motoring programmes and Sundays at 8:00 pm, you would fine self and family glued to the telly, trying to absorb Clarkson, May and Hammond’s latest antics. These guys really know their cars and present a show that is informative, entertaining and pure fun, all at the same time.

Richard Hammond, popularly known as ‘the Hamster’ is a great presenter with a ‘try anything once’ attitude. Together with Jeremy (Clarkson) and James (May), he has made Top Gear the most delightful show to watch on the telly. The bonhomie, gung-ho attitude and the three contrasting personalities make compulsive TV. Just how popular he is with the British public can be inferred from Jeremy’s remarks, “”I would just like to say how heartened Richard will be when I tell him just how many motorists and truck drivers on my way here wound down their windows to say they were rooting for him. Both James and I are looking forward to getting our Hamster back.”

Hammond first became introduced to the British public in 1998, when he presented the show Motorweek on the satellite channel Men & Motors. He then did a variety of things before landing his ‘dream job’ of that of a Top Gear presenter, in 2002. The show, which enjoys an almost cult status, is not new to controversy. In fact, this latest trouble has cast a shadow on its future. Top Gear had received criticism from MPs about its ‘obsession with speeds’. Its high octane stunts did not exactly endear itself to road safety campaigners, who claimed it “glamorises speed”.

But for motoring enthusiasts like me, the show is a must-watch. Who can forget the time of the Supercar Challenge, when James, Richard and Jeremy crossed the Millau Bridge in France in a Ferrari 430, Pagani Zonda and a Ford GT? Or the other time when they tested remote control cars in a disused quarry? I can still remember Richard just creasing himself, as James tried to manouver the car inside the tent, breaking every single breakable item in it!

Even as Richard lies in his hospital bed, messages are pouring from all over the country, from his fans who are anxious for his recovery. His impish smile, his cheerful persona and sheer delight in his job have made him the darling of the public. I hope to see him back on Top Gear again, just so we can all hear him go one more time, ‘I haven’t had my teeth whitened!’