Paddy McGuinness has broken his silence on the news that Top Gear will be 'rested' for the 'foreseeable' future by sharing a sweary message online. The Bolton-born TV star was one of the latest hosts of the show alongside Chris Harris and Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff.
But production of the show has been halted since former England cricket captain Freddie, 45, was taken to hospital in December 2022 after he was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey. Following the crash, the BBC announced that it would pause production on the show as it was felt it would be "inappropriate", adding there would be a health and safety review.
Then on Tuesday (November 21) in a statement, the BBC said: "Given the exceptional circumstances, the BBC has decided to rest the UK show for the foreseeable future. The BBC remains committed to Freddie, Chris and Paddy who have been at the heart of the show’s renaissance since 2019, and we’re excited about new projects being developed with each of them.
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"We will have more to say in the near future on this. We know resting the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do.” All other Top Gear activity remains unaffected by this hiatus including international formats, digital, magazines and licensing."
Responding to the news on Wednesday evening (November 22), Paddy shared a number of photos of himself with Freddie and Chris as they worked on the show and travelled for filming. "We were always going to be b****nds but we were your b****nds," he started to type in the caption. Paddy, 50, then added: "Thanks for all the love over the years folks, it was very much appreciated. #TopGear."
In addition to their 'rest' statement', BBC Studios said a health and safety production review of Top Gear, which did not cover the accident but instead looked at previous seasons, found that “while BBC Studios had complied with the required BBC policies and industry best practice in making the show, there were important learnings which would need to be rigorously applied to future Top Gear UK productions.”
The investigation looked at series 32, 33 and production of series 34 up to the December 22 accident, the PA news agency understands. There was a separate investigation into Flintoff’s crash which was concluded in March of this year and those findings will not being published.
