The BBC has refused to confirm or deny reports it is poised to cancel Top Gear after presenter and former cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff was injured during filming last year.
The Sun reported on Friday the BBC has told production staff to look for other work following the incident at the show’s test track, Dunsfold Aerodrome, last December.
A BBC spokesperson told the PA news agency: “A decision on the timing of future Top Gear shows will be made in due course with BBC Content.”
Former England captain Flintoff, 45, who began hosting the show after the departure of Jeremy Clarkson, was filmed on Wednesday speaking publicly for the first time since the accident in a clip released by England Cricket on social media.
In the video, where he awarded an England cap to spin bowler Tom Hartley, Flintoff said: “It gives me so much pleasure to share what is going to be a day, Tom, that you’re going to remember for the rest of your life.”
Flintoff also touched on the Top Gear incident and added: “They’ll (England Cricket team) share the good times with you, the successes. But as I found over the past few months, they’ll be there in the hardest times of your life, they will stand next to you.”
Filming for series 34 of Top Gear was halted after the accident, and the BBC said in March that it would be inappropriate to resume making the series at that time following an internal investigation into what happened.
Flintoff’s son, Corey, said at the time he was “lucky to be alive” and described it as a “pretty nasty crash”.
Flintoff began presenting Top Gear in 2019.
-AAP
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