Richard Hammond: ‘My worst ever experience was ringing my wife as they strapped me to a stretcher’

Motoring presenter Richard Hammond, 52, lives in Herefordshire with his wife Mindy and their daughters Izzy, 22, and Willow, 19.

The couple met in 1995 when they worked at a London PR firm. Hammond presented several radio shows before joining the BBC TV show Top Gear in 2002 alongside Jeremy Clarkson, with whom he later teamed up for Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour.

He has survived two serious accidents. In 2006 he crashed a dragster at 288mph on a Yorkshire airfield, and in 2017 he drove a supercar off a Swiss mountain. His latest Discovery+ show Richard Hammond’s Workshop charts his lifelong dream of running a classic car restoration business.

Best childhood memory?

I loved camping holidays. We were always ready at the drop of a hat to pile everything into the car and zip off from Birmingham to the Forest of Dean, Wales or the Lake District. But my favourite activity was cycling, even just on my paper round: it was the closest I could get to riding a motorbike.

Best night out?

I was a mad, rabid fan of AC/DC as a kid, but then I sort of befriended (lead singer) Brian Johnson through our love of cars. The coolest night was when we got to hang around backstage with the band – listen to me, “hanging out with the band”! We were nicking beers from their fridge. I remember thinking: “I’m drinking AC/DC’s beer!” As Brian was going on stage he said, “Alright, lads, see you after the gig!” His grandson was also there so he ruffled his hair and said: “Grandad’s got to go to work now.” He then just pottered on stage and tore the place down! To see that moment – from having a chat with an absolute idol, to watching him do something very human and real, and then something superhuman – was just amazing.

Best thing about fatherhood?

The best thing about being a dad is that feeling of absolute love. It’s solid. It was there from the moment they were born. And I can never question it. But they’re like mates now. They are 22 and 19 years old and they’re the people I most like to hang out with. They don’t always want to hang out with me because I’m annoying and embarrassing and irritating. But that’s my job.

Best possession?

I always end up having one thing I like so much I actually want it to break because it is so brilliant I want to buy it again. I had a pair of Sennheiser wireless noise-cancelling headphones which were light enough to wear for running. I carried them all over the world, on aeroplanes and in deserts. But they wouldn’t break! And when they finally did, they had stopped bloody making them. So my favourite possession is now my BMW R1200RT motorbike. Anyone who rides will say it is the most boring, old man’s bike. But it’s brilliantly made. I have had it for eight years. When I take it for an MOT the guys in the shop say, “So are you going to change it this year?” But I like mine. I like things that work – and work well.

Best thing about restoring classic cars?

They come into our workshop covered in rust and dents, but they’re infused with history and memory. They are the product of whatever was considered beautiful at the time and the constraints of materials and money at the time. They’re also about what people want to say about themselves. Did they want to express virility or potency or power or beauty? We express ourselves through our cars, so these classic cars are incredibly expressive pieces.

Best trip abroad?

I feel so lucky because this little fellow from Birmingham has been whisked away to so many places. I particularly love going to Arctic places because you are stripped back to the bare essentials of staying alive. But for our family holidays we like to go on safari. Our best was a safari to the Botswana borders, followed by a beach holiday on an archipelago off Mozambique.

Worst life experience?

My worst experience was ringing my wife Mindy as they strapped me to a stretcher board next to an air ambulance and a blazing supercar at the bottom of a Swiss mountain. I said: “Mindy, I’m really sorry, but I’ve done it again! Please don’t worry. My head is not damaged. I am all OK – only a few broken bits that will mend.” It was pretty grim.

Worst presenting experience?

As a radio presenter your worst nightmare is finding yourself sitting behind a radio desk that you don’t know how to use. I was on air with Chris Moyles a few weeks ago, guesting on his (Radio X) show. When the news came to an end, he pulled the microphone live and just buggered off. I thought: oh no! I said: “If you have just joined us … what’s happened there is … Chris has … gone!” When I was in radio 30 years ago, it was all analogue, but now everything is on computers. So I was just stabbing at things and pushing and pulling faders left, right and centre. Chris knew what he was doing to me. It was awful but hilarious.

Worst investment?

I once owned an Aston Martin DB6 which only had one owner from new, or so I was told. I thought: that’s brilliant! But I think that owner must have kept it in a pond, because it had rotted from the inside out. It was not a good purchase.

Worst habit?

I sometimes forget to switch off trying to be a radio or TV presenter. When I see Mindy and my daughters rolling their eyes, I know I need to shut up.

Worst thing about restoring classic cars?

Customers come to us with a budget, but the hardest thing is not to run away with it so it ends up costing me money. We can’t turn round and say: “It has cost twice your budget.” But we like to make the thing perfect and breathtaking. So it is hard to hold back.

Worst trip abroad?

I love rainforests but they can be tough. I worked with a producer called Graham Booth who does natural history documentaries. On a previous trip, he was sitting in a rainforest, covered in leeches, flies, spiders and sweat, and he wrote a postcard to himself: “Dear Graham, the next time somebody asks you to film in a rainforest, tell them to bugger off.” But he actually told me this story while we were filming in a rainforest (for Richard Hammond’s Jungle Quest). I thought: so why are we here?

It is also very hard to be away from your kids. But if you are out in the world, earning what’s needed to support them, and you come back and tell them stories, you are showing how they too can do that. My daughters have seen me travelling the world and doing incredible things. So if they think, “If that little idiot can do it, I’m going to pursue my dreams too,” that’s a good thing.

The absolute worst…

Littering. Seeing someone wind down a car window and throw something away makes me want to do far worse things to them than they have just done to everybody else. My crime would put me in prison for a long time.

‘Richard Hammond’s Workshop’ is available to stream exclusively on Discovery+ now