Freddie Flintoff will mark his comeback to TV on Tuesday, 18 months after his near fatal Top Gear crash.
The release of his second series, Field of Dreams On Tour, marks a pivotal moment for the former international cricketer, 46, who admits he ‘genuinely should not be here’.
The series is two years in the making as a result of the accident and while it follows Freddie taking his Preston team to compete in India, it also covers his own journey in the aftermath of the horror crash.
The sportsman details the reality of what has happened and doesn’t shy away from his own personal battles in the ‘long road back’ to recovery.
Freddie Flintoff will mark his comeback to TV on Tuesday, 18 months after his near fatal Top Gear crash in his BBC series Field of Dreams On Tour
The crash
The release of his second series, Field of Dreams On Tour, marks a pivotal moment for the former international cricketer, 46, after his horror crash in 2022
On the 13 December 2022, Freddie was driving a £43,000 Morgan Super 3 three-wheel car on the track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome, when it flipped and slipped along the track.
Immediately following the crash he was faced with an ‘agonising’ 45 minute wait for the air ambulance to arrive and rush him to hospital, with the BBC later giving the presenter an apology.
It left him with severe facial injuries and several broken ribs.
It also proved to be the death knell for Top Gear, with the long-running BBC show subsequently axed and Freddie negotiating a £9million settlement with his former employers for two years’ loss of earnings.
Freddie, meanwhile, disappeared from public eye for many months after the incident as he tried to recover.
The aftermath
Freddie was left with severe facial injuries and broken ribs, while the affect the crash had on his mental health was devastating
Freddie was driving an open-topped car when the vehicle flipped over at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022 as part of filming for Top Gear
Freddie’s wife Rachael was a constant support to Freddie as he withdrew from the public eye and suffered terrifying nightmares and flashbacks (pictured together in 2009)
In footage, filmed some months after the accident, he confesses he only leaves the house for medical appointments.
He tells the programme: ‘I struggle with anxiety, I have nightmares, I have flashbacks. It’s been so hard to cope. But I’m thinking if I don’t do something, I’m never going to do nowt. I’ve got to get on with it.’
In the first episode of the new four-part series, there is also footage of Flintoff talking less than two weeks after the crash.
He says: ‘Week-and-a-half after my accident. Genuinely, should not be here with what happened.
‘It’s going to be a long road back and I’ve only just started and I am struggling already and I need help. I really am.’
‘I’m not the best at asking for it. I need to stop crying every two minutes. I am looking forward to seeing the lads and being around them. I really am.’
‘Got to look on the positive: I’m still here. I’ve got another chance and I’ve got a go at it. I am seeing that as how it is – a second go.’
After the horrific accident, Freddie’s wife Rachael, was told to brace herself for the worst.
When she heard about the crash she rushed over to Surrey from the family home in Cheshire to be at his side, was told to expect the worst as medics tried to help him.
It was reported that Racheal, 42, ‘begged’ her husband to stay off work and take time to recover from his injuries.
This perhaps influenced his decision to return to the relatively gentle world of cricket, as opposed to the increasingly daring lifestyle he lived before his crash.
After the incident his son Corey told MailOnline: ‘He’s OK. I’m not too sure what happened but he is lucky to be alive.
‘It was a pretty nasty crash. It is shocking. We are all shocked but just hope he’s going to be OK.’
Postponement of India tour
The show captures the moment, Freddie’s former Lancashire teammate Kyle Hogg has to deliver the news to the team that their trip to India will be postponed after Freddie’s crash
The show captures the moment Freddie’s former Lancashire teammate Kyle Hogg has to deliver the news to the team that their trip to India will be postponed as Freddie withdraws from the spotlight to focus on his recovery.
In the tough scenes, Kyle says: ‘He just needs a bit of space at the moment. When they started, Fred was there for everyone in the room, this is genuinely the time that you lads are there for him.
‘Fred’s accident is really bad, he’s going to need a lot of recovery time, he’s pretty lucky that he’s managed to get through it alive.’
His first public appearance
At the start of September, Flintoff was seen out in public for the first time since the crash, as he spent time with the England U19s team in Wales
At the start of September, Flintoff was seen out in public for the first time since the crash, as he spent time with the England U19s team in Wales.
He wore an England Cricket bucket hat and matching t-shirt, as he donned a pair of sunglasses.
It was the first time that fans saw the extent of Flintoff’s facial injuries. They rushed to social media to post that they were relieved to see him out and about again.
How Freddie found solace coaching his Preston teenage cricket team
Speaking about how to go on with life after the accident, Freddie admits: ‘As much as I want to go out and do things… I’ve just not been able to’
But it is the teenage cricket team he created from his hometown of Preston who give him the motivation to get out into the world again
Speaking about how to go on with life after the accident, Freddie admits: ‘As much as I want to go out and do things… I’ve just not been able to.
‘I’m not sure I ever will [ever feel better] again, to be honest. I’m better than I was.
‘I don’t know what completely better is. I am what I am now, I’m different to what I was, that’s something I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life. Better, no, different.’
But it is the teenage cricket team he created from his hometown of Preston who give him the motivation to get out into the world again.
In emotional scenes set to air on the show, one of the boys tells him: ‘I missed you’.
Once the team is in Kolkata in India, Freddie says he is ‘reaching out to cricket to help me’.
He says: ‘Cricket is like a religion in India. It’s just everywhere you go. And Kolkata is different to other places I’ve been to.
‘To me, Kolkata is authentic India and the more time I spent there, the more I grew an affinity and a connection to the place because we all learnt so much and it’s had such an impact on all of our lives.
‘I’ve been to some amazing places like Victoria Falls – and I see it and I think, “That’s all right. That’ll do.” But Kolkata, the more time I spent there, the more I enjoyed it and it really grew on me and got under my skin.
‘Viewers can expect everything! Seeing India, tears, joy, life lessons, hope, ambition, passion, wins, losses and a lot of heat. I think it will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, from start to finish. I really do.’
He adds: ‘When I’m around cricket, I seem to forget everything, I lose myself in the game.
‘I feel like I’ve been more vulnerable than I ever have in my life in the past 12 months.’
Watch Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams On Tour on BBC iPlayer and BBC One from 9pm, Tuesday 13 August
