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Richard Hammond has said he is ‘happy to be doing something meaningful’ as he works to highlight men’s mental health issues after filming The Grand Tour final.
The former Top Gear host, 54, who is bringing an end to his partnership with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, launched the podcast, Who We Are Now, with his daughter Izzy after a serious head injury left him with frontal lobe damage.
Richard explained how while he’s spent his long TV career ‘seeking praise,’ the work he and his daughter do on the project has had a greater impact on him.
The presenter was left in a coma for two weeks in 2006 after the car he was driving, while filming Top Gear, spun out of control at York’s Elvington airfield
He suffered with a ‘frontal lobe bleed’, causing memory loss, depression and difficulties with emotional experiences following the accident.
Richard Hammond has said he is ‘happy to be doing something meaningful’ as he works to highlight men’s mental health issues after filming The Grand Tour final
The former Top Gear host, 54, who is bringing an end to his partnership with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, launched the podcast, Who We Are Now, with his daughter Izzy
The father-daughter duo encourage men to write into their podcast to discuss their own experiences, with on anonymous listener this week admitting the podcast ‘pulled me back from the edge.’
After reading out the email, Richard became emotional and said: ‘When somebody writes in like that and says that what we’re doing has genuine meaning, it sounds obvious, but it genuinely does mean something.
‘We’re not trying to change the world.
‘We are trying to be part of a growing willingness – particularly amongst men – to talk. Men being, you know, part of society, we’ve got a duty to be a functioning and useful part of society more broadly,’ he added.
Speaking on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Zoe Hardman on Tuesday, Richard also revealed that the final episode of The Grand Tour will air ‘later this year.’
Explaining why the trio had decided to bring their 20-year-long partnership to a close, he said: ‘Because we doing it for 136 years, yeah.
‘But we’ll, do the rounds when that comes. It’s going to be later this year. It will be formally announced, and we’ll come and talk about it.
‘It’ll be actually a continuation of something that happened to me the other day. I was walking down the street in Chiswick, bloke coming the other way, and I saw he clocked my stupid little Brummie face and recognized me, and I was braced and ready for the photograph.’
The duo encourage men to write into their podcast to discuss their own experiences, with on anonymous listener this week admitting the podcast ‘pulled me back from the edge’
After reading out the email, Richard became emotional and said: ‘When somebody writes in like that and says that what we’re doing has genuine meaning’
The presenter continued: ‘He came up, just “Excuse me, didn’t you used to be Richard Hammond?” I sort of still am? I think?’ he laughed.
‘We wanted to end it at a time and place and in a manner of our choosing and that’s what we’ve done.’
Richard hosted Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
The trio then moved on to present Amazon Prime Video’s The Grand Tour from 2016.
Listen to Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden weekdays from 06:30 – 10:00 and on Global Player.
