Richard Hammond

Richard Mark Hammond was born on 19 December 1969, eldest of three sons of Alan and Eileen Hammond. In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon located 8 miles south of the village of Thornton Watlass where his father ran a probate business in the market square. He attended Blossomfield Infant School in Solihull's Sharmans Cross district from the ages of 3 to 7. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1986 to 1988 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology. He has shared that he was somehow expelled from sixth form college when he was 17. ==Career==

After graduation, Hammond worked for several BBC radio stations, including Radio Cleveland, Radio York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds and Radio Newcastle; In the period when he was presenting the afternoon programme at Radio Lancashire, his regular guests included motoring journalist Zog Ziegler, who would review a car of the week during a phone interview conducted by Hammond. The two became good friends, and it was Ziegler who encouraged Hammond to enter motoring reviews on television. After starting out on satellite TV (Men & Motors), he auditioned for Top Gear. Top Gear Hammond became a presenter on Top Gear in 2002, when the show began in its revamped format presenting alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Jason Dawe. In a July 2015 interview with The Guardian, producer Andy Wilman, who worked with Hammond on Top Gear and subsequently The Grand Tour stated Hammond was close to being fired by the BBC after the first series of the 2002 revival format of Top Gear but was ultimately reprieved. Hammond has sometimes been nicknamed "The Hamster" by fans and his co-presenters due to his name and relatively small stature compared to May and Clarkson. Following a high-speed dragster crash while filming in September 2006 near York, Hammond returned in the first episode of series 9 (broadcast on 28 January 2007) to a hero's welcome, complete with dancing girls, aeroplane-style stairs and fireworks. The show also contained images of the crash, which had made international headlines, with Hammond talking through the events of the day after which the audience broke into spontaneous applause. Hammond then requested that the crash never be mentioned on the show again, though all three Top Gear presenters have since referred to it in jokes during the news segment of the programme. He told his colleagues, "The only difference between me now and before the crash is that I like celery now and I didn't before". Following the BBC's decision not to renew Clarkson's contract with the show on 25 March 2015, Hammond's contract expired on 31 March. In April, he ruled out the possibility of continuing to present Top Gear, commenting via Twitter that "amidst all this talk of us 'quitting' or not: there's nothing for me to 'quit'. Not about to quit my mates anyway". On 12 June 2015, the BBC confirmed that Top Gear would return with a 75-minute special, combining two unseen challenges featuring all three presenters from series 22, with studio links from Hammond and May. It aired in the UK on BBC Two on 28 June at 8 p.m, and in the United States on BBC America on 13 July at 9 p.m. Vampire dragster crash During filming of a Top Gear segment at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York on 20 September 2006, Hammond was injured in the crash of the jet-powered car he was piloting. The Vampire was powered by a single Bristol-Siddeley Orpheus afterburning turbojet engine producing of thrust. Some accounts suggested that the accident occurred during an attempt to break the British land speed record, but the Health and Safety Executive report on the crash found that a proposal to try to officially break the record was vetoed in advance by Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman, due to the risks and complexities of such a venture. and, according to witness and paramedic Dave Ogden, "one of the parachutes had deployed but it (the car) went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us." The emergency crew quickly arrived at the car, finding it inverted and partially embedded in the grass. Hammond's family visited him at the hospital along with Top Gear co-presenters James May and Jeremy Clarkson. The Health & Safety Executive report stated that "Hammond's instantaneous reaction to the tyre blow-out seems to have been that of a competent high performance car driver, namely to brake the car and to try to steer into the skid. Immediately afterwards he also seems to have followed his training and to have pulled back on the main parachute release lever, thus shutting down the jet engine and also closing the jet and afterburner fuel levers. The main parachute did not have time to deploy before the car ran off the runway." Despite saying he was "absolutely fixed" on the Jonathan Ross episode, in 2011, while talking to the Daily Mirror, Hammond admitted he had no memory of the interview, saying: "I lost a year. I don't remember doing the interview with Jonathan Ross or doing Top Gear Live in South Africa" showing the full impact of his brain injury five years before. The crash was shown on an episode of Top Gear on 28 January 2007 (Series 9, Episode 1); this was the first episode of the new series, which had been postponed pending Hammond's recovery. Hammond requested at the end of the episode that his fellow presenters never mention the crash again, a request which has been generally observed, although occasional oblique references have been made by all three presenters. On The Edge: My Story, which contains first-hand accounts from both Hammond and his wife about the crash, immediate aftermath, and his recovery, was published later that year. In February 2008, Hammond gave an interview to The Sunday Times newspaper in which he described the effects of his brain injuries and the progression of his recovery. After the fourth series it was announced that Hammond was no longer going to present the Sky1 show after he signed an exclusive deal with the BBC. Vic Reeves took his place as main presenter for the show's final two series. Other television work Early in his career, as well as his radio work, Hammond presented a number of daytime lifestyle shows and motoring programmes such as Motor Week on Men & Motors. He presented the Crufts dog show in 2005, the 2004 and 2005 British Parking Awards, and has appeared on ''School's Out, a quiz show on BBC One where celebrities answer questions about things they learned at school. He has also presented The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend. Along with his work on Top Gear, he presented Should I Worry About...? on BBC One, Time Commanders on BBC Two and the first four series of Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky 1. He was also a team captain on the BBC Two quiz show, Petrolheads'', in which a memorable part was one where Hammond was tricked into bumping his classic Ferrari while trying to parallel park blindfolded in another car. In 2006, Hammond fronted the ''Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show'' with his co-presenter Mel Giedroyc. The programme, which discussed a wide range of topics, was shown every weekday on ITV between 17:00 and 18:00. In July 2005, Hammond was voted one of the top 10 British TV talents. He presented Richard Hammond and the Holy Grail in 2006. During the special, he travelled to various locations around the world, including the Vatican Secret Archives, exploring the history of the Holy Grail. As part of Red Nose Day 2007, Hammond stood for nomination via a public telephone vote, along with Andy Hamilton and Kelvin MacKenzie, to be a one-off co-presenter of BBC Radio 4's ''Woman's Hour'' on 16 March 2007. However, he was defeated by Andy Hamilton. In April 2007, Hammond presented a one-off special on BBC Radio 2 for Good Friday followed by another in August 2007 for the bank holiday. '' Hammond recorded an interview with the famed American stuntman Evel Knievel, which aired on 23 December 2007 on BBC Two, and was Knievel's last interview before his death on 30 November 2007. In September 2008, Hammond presented the first episode of a new series; ''Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections on the National Geographic Channel. In this show, Hammond discovered how the inventions of the past, along with assistance from nature, help designers today. Episodes include the building of the Airbus A380, Taipei 101 and the Keck Observatory. and joined the cast of TV show Ashes To Ashes'' for a special insert on the 2008 Children in Need special. While in New Zealand for Top Gear Live 2009, Hammond filmed several television commercials for Telecom New Zealand's new XT UTMS mobile network. Telecom claimed that the new network was "faster in more places", compared to its competitors and its existing CDMA network. After the network suffered three highly publicised outages in late 2009 and early 2010, Hammond became the butt of a joke when he did not return to New Zealand for Top Gear Live 2010. His fellow Top Gear co-hosts said he was too embarrassed to come back to New Zealand, and in a supposed live feed back to Hammond, the feed suddenly drops out as the "XT Network had crashed". Hammond was later given the right of reply to his colleagues during an interview with Marcus Lush on RadioLIVE's breakfast show in New Zealand. Hammond hosted the UK version of the US series Wipeout, called Total Wipeout for BBC One. It took place in Argentina, and was co-presented by Hammond and Amanda Byram. Hammond presented and performed the voiceover for the clips in a London studio, and Byram was filmed at the obstacle course in Buenos Aires. The series was cancelled at the end of 2012. Hammond also presented a science-themed game show for children, ''Richard Hammond's Blast Lab'' which aired on BBC Two and CBBC. In March 2010, Hammond presented a three-episode series called ''Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds'', which looked at things too fast for the naked eye to see, things that are beyond the visible spectrum (e.g., ultraviolet and infra-red light), as well as microscopic things. One of Hammond's lesser known television roles was as presenter of the BBC Two gameshow Time Commanders, a sophisticated warfare simulator which used a modified version of Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War game engine. Since February 2011, Hammond has presented an online technology series ''Richard Hammond's Tech Head. In July 2011, Hammond presented a two-part natural science documentary Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet'', focused on Earth geology and plate tectonics. In April 2012, Hammond hosted a BBC America programme titled ''Richard Hammond's Crash Course, which was also shown in the UK from September 2012 on BBC Two. In May 2012, Hammond co-presented an animal documentary for BBC One called Planet Earth Live'' alongside Julia Bradbury. The programme recorded animals living in extreme conditions. In June 2014, Hammond presented a scientific fourteen part series on National Geographic Channel titled Science of Stupid which focused on the application of physics in everyday life. In December, Hammond presented a three-part science documentary for BBC One called Wild Weather with Richard Hammond which focuses on the hidden world of our Earth's extreme weather system. In September 2015, Hammond presented a two-part documentary for Sky 1 called ''Richard Hammond's Jungle Quest'', supported by Sky Rainforest Rescue. '' In March 2017, whilst filming for The Grand Tour episode Feed the world in Mozambique, Hammond frequently fell off his motorbike due to the poor roads. On one occasion he reportedly hit his head and was knocked unconscious. During the season finale of The Grand Tour season three, Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson announced the current format was coming to the end and later announced that there would be two more seasons of specials, without the tent or live audience. In January 2021, Hammond starred alongside MythBusters Tory Belleci in The Great Escapists, a fictional six-episode adventure series for Amazon, which was produced by Chimp Productions. The series stranded the pair on a deserted island where they used the resources they could find to build the means to survive. Rimac Concept One crash On 10 June 2017, Hammond crashed a Rimac Concept One while filming for The Grand Tour in Hemberg, Switzerland. He was on his last run up a timed hillclimb course during the Bergrennen Hemberg event. Just after crossing the finish line, the car ran off the road, tumbled down the hill and eventually came to rest upside down from the road. Hammond remained conscious throughout and he later described the feeling of "oh god, I'm going to die", as well as being "aware of tumbling – sky, ground, sky, ground, sky, ground, sky, ground." He was airlifted to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a tibial plateau fracture in his left knee, and a plate and ten screws were surgically inserted. Jeremy Clarkson and James May, fellow presenters on The Grand Tour, both witnessed the scene from afar; believing Hammond was dead, May recalled feeling a "blossoming, white-hot ball of pure, sickening horror forming in my heart", and Clarkson described his "knees turning to jelly" at the sight of the crash. After the ordeal, the FIA allegedly ruled that the "show runs" that Hammond and company were doing at the time of the accident violated the governing body's International Sporting Code and that the crash "acted against the interests of the sport." As a result, the Bergrennen Hemberg organizers were fined $5,138, and six-month license suspensions were imposed on race director Christian Müller and stewards Hermann Müller, Karl Marty, and Daniel Lenglet. In August of that year, Motorsport.com reported that the future of the entire event was "now in jeopardy." Despite the reports, the Bergrennen Hemberg continues to be run annually. ''Richard Hammond's Workshop'' Hammond announced on Twitter on 21 June 2021 that he would be making a show with Discovery+ about the restoration of old cars. Its first episode has been shown on 18 October 2021 with a total of 26 episodes in three seasons. Beverage production On 27 June 2025, Richard Hammond released his English whisky and English Gin collection which was produced in collaboration with Hawkridge distillery and includes Iron Ridge single malt whisky and Hammond's Ratio London Dry Gin. Hammond's branch into alcoholic beverages follows his colleagues James May who released James Gin and Jeremy Clarkson who owns the Hawkstone collection consisting of lager, cider, stout and vodka. ==Personal life==

Hammond married Amanda "Mindy" Hammond ( a columnist for the Daily Express, in May 2002, after they first met while working at a PR firm in London. They have two daughters born in 2001 and 2004. On 9 February 2025, Hammond announced on his podcast that his father had died. It was a friend who first gave Hammond his nickname Hamster. The nickname stuck, especially on Top Gear due to his name and relatively small stature compared to May and Clarkson. Hammond plays bass guitar, on which he accompanied the other Top Gear presenters when they performed alongside Justin Hawkins on Top Gear of the Pops for Comic Relief in 2007. He likes to ride his bicycle, scooter, or motorbike in cities, for which he is mocked mercilessly by fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson. In 2010, Hammond was the president of the 31st Herefordshire Country Fair held at Hampton Court in Hope under Dinmore. His involvement caused unprecedented attendance with "nearly 15,000 people" drawn to the event to meet the presenter. In March 2012, Hammond passed his B206 LST helicopter licence and has since owned a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter. Residences The Hammond family live in a mock castle in Herefordshire, and they also have an apartment in London. In October 2012, it was reported he had spent over £2 million buying Bollitree Castle which is situated near Weston under Penyard, Ross-on-Wye. ==Vehicle ownership==

Cars Hammond owns or has owned many different cars. These include: • 1929 Ford Model A • 1933 Riley Alpine Tourer • 1934 Morgan 3-Wheeler • 1942 Ford GPW • 1956 Land Rover Series 1, Undergoing restoration • 1958 Jaguar XK150 • 1962 Jaguar E-Type Roadster Mk1 • 1962 Opel Kadett, bought in 2023 from a seller who like Oliver was originally from Johannesburg. He has since named it Olivia • 1962 Opel Kadett Estate known as "Ultimate Estate Car" Bought in 2024 from Mathersons Auctions. • 1963 Opel Kadett, a car he bought for ''Top Gear's'' Botswana special. He named the car Oliver and had it shipped from Botswana to the UK • 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 in Highland Green • 1971 Buick Riviera which he used in Series 4, Episode 3 (Lochdown) of The Grand Tour. The car is customised with a big supercharger and a rear wing modelled from a Plymouth Superbird • 1972 MGB GT, a car he bought for a classic car challenge featured in his last episode of Top Gear, which he subsequently kept • 1979 MG Midget • 1979 Ford Escort RS2000 MkII, his first restoration project for his workshop which initially sold for £33K at auction but bought it back after the new owner had registration issues • 1987 Land Rover Defender-110, known as "Buster" which he spent over £70,000 rebuilding in 2008. • 1999 Jaguar XJR (X308) with the supercharged Jaguar AJ-V8 engine, a car he bought in the 2000s, sold, and then bought back in 2022. • 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX STI V Limited Edition, which he used in Series 5, Episode 1 (A Scandi Flick) of The Grand Tour. The car was tuned to 356bhp and given a Martini Livery, which was later removed after filming. • 2005 Chevrolet SSR which he used in Series 5, Episode 2 (Eurocrash) of The Grand Tour. • 2008 Morgan 4/4 which he originally bought as a present for his father, but inherited it after his death in 2024 • 2012 Land Rover Defender. With custom tuning by Bowler Manufacturing • 2016 Ford Mustang convertible in white with black Shelby stripes, which he bought as a Christmas present for his wife. • 2021 Ford Ranger • Land Rover 110 Station Wagon, which was christened "Wallycar" by his eldest daughter and has been owned by him twice. • Land Rover Discovery 4 SDV6 HSE • Jaguar XK120 currently undergoing restoration. • 2023 Ram 1500 TRX • 2023 Porsche 911 Turbo S • 2025 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo Cars previously owned by Hammond: • 1931 Lagonda 2-litre Supercharged. • 1959 Bentley S2, sold in 2021 • 1976 Toyota Corolla liftback, which was his first car. • 1982 Porsche 911 SC (sold in the mid-2000s) • 1985 Land Rover Range Rover Classic which he later sold. • 1994 BMW 850Ci, which was used to race against Clarkson's Mercedes CL600, which they both bought on Top Gear to prove that one could purchase second-hand V12 cars which were a better buy than the Nissan Pixo (Britain's cheapest new car at the time) for less money. He sold this after a week on the challenge. • 1994 Porsche 928, purchased in 2004 for the purpose of daily driving. He later sold the car. • 1996 Fiat Barchetta, which he revealed that he had previously owned in the Middle East Special when explaining his choice of the Barchetta for the challenge. • 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello, which he mentioned in Top Gear as the car he regretted selling. • 1999 Lotus Esprit 350 Sport, sold in 2021 He sold it in 2013 following the announcement of the GT3. • 2010 Fiat 500C TwinAir, which he discussed purchasing during Series 18 of Top Gear. It is unknown when he sold it. • 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 which was purchased in the United States on a Series 12 episode of Top Gear. Later he sold it. • 2009 Aston Martin DBS Volante, which he purchased for £175,000. Hammond later sold the car. • 2009 Morgan Aeromax, in which he was involved in a car accident on 9 August 2009. He later sold it. • 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder which he purchased in 2010. He later sold it in 2012. • 2013 Porsche 911 GT3, which he discussed purchasing during Series 21 of Top Gear. This car was subsequently recalled because of multiple reports of the cars catching fire and he sold it in 2016. • 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, which he purchased on 17 April 2016. • 2020 Morgan Plus Six The car was later destroyed in a flood on Christmas Eve and subsequently crushed. • VW camper van, which was customised in pink for his daughters. Motorcycles Hammond is a keen motorcyclist, having ridden for over 30 years. He owns or has owned many different motorcycles including: • 1925 Sunbeam Model A, with an asthmatic side-valve 350cc single-cylinder engine, a hand-shift three-speed gearbox, a manual oil pump, acetylene gas lights and no milometer • 1929 BMW R52 • 1935 Indian • 1946 Indian Chief • 1947 Harley Davidson • 1961 Triumph Bonneville T120C • 1962 Triumph Bonneville • 1970s Moto Guzzi V7 Sport • 1974 Kawasaki Z900 • Bimota YB9 • Honda CBX • Suzuki GS1000 • Vincent Black Shadow • Yamaha Virago Sold in 2021. • 1977 Moto Guzzi Le Mans (Mk1). "I've always wanted a Guzzi. They've got a tractor-like quality. This one is fitted with a period accessory fairing from Apple Motorcycles", Hammond said in an interview for Bike Magazine. • John Deere 6210 SE tractor Sale of vehicles Hammond has stated that he has sold off many of his vehicles to assist in the funding of his workshop, The Smallest Cog. Hammond often stored his vehicles at his mock-castle home as well as a unit in Herefordshire. The use of one of these units is being used for The Smallest Cog as a 'reception area' for cars awaiting restoration. ==Charity work==

Hammond is an ambassador of UK charity for children with brain injury and neuro-disability The Children's Trust. On 29 September 2013, terminally-ill eight-year-old Emilia Palmer was driven by Hammond in a pink Lamborghini Aventador Roadster (newly repainted for the occasion). Hammond flew his Robinson R44 helicopter, G-OHAM, to Shobdon Airfield in Herefordshire, then picked Palmer up from her home in Kimbolton, Herefordshire and drove her back to the airport for a high-speed run on the main runway. The event was arranged at short notice by Rays of Sunshine. ==Controversies==

During the second episode of series sixteen of Top Gear, Hammond suggested that no one would ever want to own a Mexican car, since cars are supposed to reflect national characteristics and so a Mexican car would be "lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence, asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat." Hammond finished with the remark "I'm sorry, but can you imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican?!" The comments prompted Mexico's ambassador in London, Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, to lodge an official complaint to the BBC. Demanding an apology from the BBC, the ambassador stated: "These offensive, xenophobic and humiliating remarks only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes and perpetuate prejudice against Mexico and its people." The BBC defended the broadcast of this segment on the grounds that such national stereotyping was a "robust part" of traditional British humour. In December 2016, in reference to the interior styling of a Volvo S90, co-presenter Clarkson joked that "the only problem is that in one of those, you couldn't enjoy a chocolate Magnum ice cream" – to which Hammond responded: "It's all right, I don't eat ice cream. It's something to do with being straight." It has been speculated that the joke was written as a reference to a Kingis ice cream advert in Finland, where that episode of The Grand Tour was filmed. LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell who was unaware of the reference, accused Hammond of "pandering to prejudice", adding that "it's a perverse world when everyday pleasures like ice cream becomes the butt of homophobic innuendo." A spokesperson for UK LGBT rights charity Stonewall stated that "Hammond's choice of words were not just ridiculous, but chosen purposefully to mock and belittle." A year later, in an interview with The Times, Hammond stated: "Look, anyone who knows me knows I wasn't being serious, that I'm not homophobic. Love is love, whatever the sex of the two people in love... It may be because I live in a hideously safe and contained middle-class world, where a person's sexuality is not an issue." In an interview with Newsweek Today, Hammond denied making homophobic comments, and refused to apologise for the remarks: "I entirely reject any criticism of me being anti-gay. That's just not the case." ==Filmography==

Television Video games Television advertisements ==Awards and honours==

2CV 24 Hour Race results Britcar 24 Hour results ==References==