Richard Hammond

For other people named Richard Hammond, see Richard Hammond (disambiguation).

Richard Hammond
Richard Hammond in 2006
Born	Richard Mark Hammond (1969-12-19) 19 December 1969 Solihull, Warwickshire, England
Residence	Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire, England Marylebone, London, England
Nationality	British
Other names	Hamster
Education	Solihull School Ripon Grammar School
Alma mater	Harrogate College of Art and Technology
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist, author, voice actor
Years active	1998–Present
Employer	The Daily Mirror W. Chump & Sons Amazon BBC (former) ITV (former) Sky (former)
Known for	Presenting: Brainiac: Science Abuse Crufts Should I Worry About...? The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show Top Gear Petrolheads Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel Total Wipeout Richard Hammond's Blast Lab Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds Richard Hammond's Crash Course Richard Hammond Builds a Planet Science of Stupid
Home town	Solihull, England
Height
Spouse(s)	Amanda Etheridge (m. 2002)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Eileen Hammond Alan Hammond

Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is a British presenter, writer, and journalist, best known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James May. He has also presented Brainiac: Science Abuse (2003–2006), Total Wipeout (2009–2012) and Planet Earth Live (2012).

In 2016, Hammond was scheduled to be presenting The Grand Tour television series to be produced by W. Chump & Sons. The show will be co-presented with his former Top Gear co-hosts, Clarkson and May, as an exclusive distributed via Amazon Video to Amazon Prime customers.

Early life

Hammond was born in Solihull, Warwickshire, and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham car industry. In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew, writer of the 'Crypt' Series, and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. He attended Blossomfield Infant School in Shirley from the age of 3–7. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1986 to 1988 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology.

Career

After graduation, Hammond worked for several BBC radio stations, including Radio Cleveland, Radio York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, Radio Newcastle and Radio Lancashire, before auditioning for Top Gear.

Top Gear

Main article: Top Gear (2002 TV series)

Hammond became a presenter on Top Gear in 2002, when the show began in its present format. He is sometimes referred to as "The Hamster" by fans and his co-presenters on Top Gear due to his name and comparatively small stature. His nickname was further reinforced when on three separate occasions in series 7, he ate cardboard, mimicking hamster-like behaviour.

Following a high-speed dragster crash while filming in September 2006 near York, Hammond returned in the first episode of series 9 (broadcast on 28 January 2007) to a hero's welcome, complete with dancing girls, aeroplane-style stairs and fireworks. The show also contained images of the crash, which had made international headlines, with Hammond talking through the events of the day after which the audience broke into spontaneous applause. Hammond then requested that the crash never be mentioned on the show again, though all three Top Gear presenters have since referred to it in jokes during the news segment of the programme. He told his colleagues, "The only difference between me now, and before the crash, is that I like celery now and I didn't before".

During the second episode of series sixteen, Hammond suggested that no one would ever want to own a Mexican car, since cars are supposed to reflect national characteristics and so a Mexican car would be "lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence, asleep, looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat." Hammond finished with the remark "I'm sorry, but can you imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican?!" Following complaints, the BBC defended the broadcast of this segment on the grounds that such national stereotyping was a "robust part" of traditional British humour.

Following the BBC's decision not to renew Clarkson's contract with the show on 25 March 2015, Hammond's contract expired on 31 March. In April he ruled out the possibility of continuing to present Top Gear, commenting via Twitter that "amidst all this talk of us 'quitting' or not: there's nothing for me to 'quit' not about to quit my mates anyway". On 12 June 2015 the BBC confirmed that Top Gear will return with a 75-minute special, combining two unseen challenges featuring all three presenters from series 22, with studio links from Hammond and May. It aired in the UK on BBC Two on 28 June at 8 p.m, and in the United States on BBC America on 13 July at 9 p.m.

Brainiac: Science Abuse

Main article: Brainiac: Science Abuse

In 2003, Hammond became the first presenter of Brainiac: Science Abuse; he was joined by Jon Tickle with Charlotte Hudson in series 2. After the fourth series it was announced that Hammond was no longer going to present the Sky1 show after he signed an exclusive deal with the BBC. Vic Reeves took his place as main presenter.

Other television work

Early in his career, as well as his radio work, Hammond presented a number of daytime lifestyle shows and motoring programmes such as Motor Week on Men & Motors.

He presented the Crufts dog show in 2005, the 2004 and 2005 British Parking Awards, and has appeared on School's Out, a quiz show on BBC One where celebrities answer questions about things they learned at school. He has also presented The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend. Along with his work on Top Gear, he presented Should I Worry About...? on BBC One, Time Commanders on BBC Two and the first four series of Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky One. He was also a team captain on the BBC Two quiz show, Petrolheads, in which a memorable part was one where Hammond was tricked into smashing his classic Ferrari while trying to parallel park blindfolded in another car.

In 2006, Hammond was the eponymous star of Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show with his co-star Mel Giedroyc of Light Lunch fame. The programme, which discussed a wide range of topics, was shown every weekday on ITV between 17:00 and 18:00.

In July 2005, Hammond was voted number one in a Heat magazine poll of top "weird celebrity crushes". Also in 2005 he was voted one of the top 10 British TV talents.

He presented Richard Hammond and the Holy Grail in 2006. During the special, he travelled to various locations around the world, including the Vatican Secret Archives, exploring the history of the Holy Grail.

In one episode of Top Gear, fellow presenter James May was mocked by both Hammond and Clarkson for being named the celebrity with the worst hairstyle, while Hammond was named the celebrity with the best.

As part of Red Nose Day 2007, Hammond stood for nomination via a public telephone vote, along with Andy Hamilton and Kelvin MacKenzie, to be a one-off co-presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on 16 March 2007. However, he was defeated by Andy Hamilton.

In April 2007, Hammond presented a one off special on BBC Radio 2 for Good Friday followed by another in August 2007 for the bank holiday.

Hammond driving a diesel BMW 3 Series in the 2007 Britcar 24 Hours, as part of an episode of Top Gear

Hammond recorded an interview with the famed American stuntman Evel Knievel, which aired on 23 December 2007 on BBC Two, and was Knievel's last interview before his death on 30 November 2007.

In September 2008, Hammond presented the first episode of a new series; Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections on the National Geographic Channel. In this show, Hammond discovered how the inventions of the past, along with assistance from nature, help designers today. Episodes include the building of the Airbus A380, Taipei 101 and the Keck Observatory. Series 2 of Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections began in May 2010 and has included the building of the Wembley Stadium and the Sydney Opera House.

Hammond also filmed an advertisement for Morrisons supermarkets in 2008, and joined the cast of TV show Ashes To Ashes for a special insert on the 2008 Children in Need special.

While in New Zealand for Top Gear Live 2009, Hammond filmed several television commercials for Telecom New Zealand's new XT UTMS mobile network. Telecom claimed that the new network was "faster in more places", compared to its competitors and its existing CDMA network. After the network suffered three highly publicised outages in late 2009 and early 2010, Hammond became the butt of a joke when he did not return to New Zealand for Top Gear Live 2010. His fellow Top Gear co-hosts said he was too embarrassed to come back to New Zealand, and in a supposed live feed back to Hammond, the feed suddenly drops out as the "XT Network had crashed". Hammond was later given the right of reply to his colleagues during an interview with Marcus Lush on RadioLIVE's breakfast show in New Zealand.

Hammond used to host the UK version of the US series Wipeout, called Total Wipeout for BBC One. It took place in Argentina, and was co-presented by Hammond and Amanda Byram. Hammond presented and performed the voiceover for the clips in a London studio, and Byram was filmed at the obstacle course in Buenos Aires. The series was cancelled at the end of 2012, following the BBC's decision to cancel the show.

Hammond also presented a science-themed game show for children, Richard Hammond's Blast Lab which aired on BBC Two and CBBC.

In March 2010, Hammond presented a 3 episode series called Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds, which looked at things too fast for the naked eye to see, things that are beyond the visible spectrum (e.g., ultraviolet and infra-red light), as well as microscopic things.

One of Hammond's lesser known television roles was as presenter of the BBC Two gameshow Time Commanders, a sophisticated warfare simulator which used a modified version of Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War game engine.

Since February 2011, Hammond has presented an online technology series Richard Hammond's Tech Head. In July 2011, Hammond presented a two-part natural science documentary Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet, focused on Earth geology and plate tectonics.

In April 2012, Hammond hosted a BBC America programme titled Richard Hammond's Crash Course, which was also shown in the UK from September 2012 on BBC Two. In May 2012, Hammond co-presented an animal documentary for BBC One called Planet Earth Live alongside Julia Bradbury. The programme recorded animals living in extreme conditions.

In June 2014, Hammond presented a scientific fourteen part series on National Geographic Channel titled Science of Stupid which focused on the application of physics in everyday life. In December, Hammond presented a three-part science documentary for BBC One called Wild Weather with Richard Hammond which focuses on the hidden world of our Earth's extreme weather system.

In September 2015, Hammond presented a two-part documentary for Sky1 called Richard Hammond's Jungle Quest, supported by Sky Rainforest Rescue.

Personal life

Hammond has been married to Amanda "Mindy" Etheridge (a columnist for the Daily Express) since May 2002; they have two daughters. Hammond also plays the bass guitar, on which he accompanied the other Top Gear presenters when they performed alongside Justin Hawkins on Top Gear of the Pops for Comic Relief in 2007. Hammond likes to ride his bicycle in cities, for which he is mocked mercilessly by fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

During the news segment of Top Gear's 2010 USA Road Trip special, Hammond openly expressed his dislike of the band Genesis. This fact was later exploited by his co-presenters (particularly by Clarkson) in three special episodes: during the Middle East Special, when they installed a secret second stereo unit in his Fiat Barchetta that only plays the band's Live over Europe 2007 concert; in the India Special, Clarkson played the same song used in the previous special through the megaphone mounted in his Jaguar XJS, despite Hammond driving a different car (a Mini Cooper Sport). In the 2013 Africa Special, Clarkson once again played Genesis in an attempt to get Hammond to let him pass.

In 2007, Hammond went to Africa on a Top Gear special across Botswana, with his choice of car being a 1963 Opel Kadett, which he subsequently named Oliver. A week after the special was aired, Hammond announced during the news section that he had shipped Oliver back to the UK, where it was restored by a team from Practical Classics magazine. Oliver features on Hammond's children's science television show Richard Hammond's Blast Lab and in another episode of Top Gear as a kind of "Hill-holder" in the trailer truck challenge (after it acquired the fake personal plate "OLI V3R"). Oliver is also mentioned in Hammond's second autobiography As You Do.

In 2010, Hammond was the president of the 31st Herefordshire Country Fair held at Hampton Court in Hope under Dinmore. His involvement caused unprecedented attendance with "nearly 15,000 people" drawn to the event to meet the presenter. Later that year, Hammond gained a private pilot licence (PPL)(H) in a Robinson R44 helicopter. In March 2012, Hammond passed his B206 LST helicopter licence

Residences

Bollitree Castle in Weston under Penyard

The Hammond family lives in a mock castle in Herefordshire and also has an apartment in London. In an interview with The Sunday Times in February 2008, it was reported that Hammond had moved briefly from Gloucestershire to Buckinghamshire, then back again, because he missed the country life.

In October 2012, it was reported he had spent over £2 million buying Bollitree Castle which is situated near Weston under Penyard, Ross-on-Wye. It has been rumoured he has also bought a large house in the small town of Wantage, Oxfordshire.

Car ownership

Hammond currently owns or has owned many different vehicles including:

• 1967 Ford Mustang GT 390
• 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
• 1969 Jaguar E-Type, purchased for £50,000 (in 2009) which features a 4.2-litre straight-six engine producing 265 bhp
• 1982 Porsche 911 SC (sold in the mid-2000s)
• 1987 Defender-110, known as "Buster" which he spent over £70,000 rebuilding in 2008
• 1994 BMW 850Ci, which was used to race against Clarkson's Mercedes CL600, which they both bought on the show to prove that one could purchase second-hand V12 cars which were a better buy than the Nissan Pixo (Britain's cheapest new car at the time) for less money.
• 2004 Porsche 928, purchased in 2004 for the purpose of daily driving.
• 2006 Porsche 911 (997) Carrera S
• 2007 Fiat 500 TwinAir, which he discussed purchasing during Series 18 of Top Gear
• 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 (which was purchased in the United States on a Series 12 episode of Top Gear)
• 2009 Morgan Aeromax, in which he was involved in a car accident on August 9, 2009
• 2009 Aston Martin DBS Volante, which he purchased for £175,000 which features a 5.9-litre V12 engine developing 510bhp and 420lb/ft of torque
• 2013 Porsche 911 GT3, which he discussed purchasing during Series 21 of Top Gear. This car was subsequently recalled because multiple reports of the cars catching fire.

Hammond is a keen motorcyclist and is also a fan of monster trucks, having attended Truckfest '07.

Charity work

Richard Hammond is a vice-president of UK children's brain injury charity the Children's Trust, Tadworth.

On 29 September 2013, terminally-ill eight-year-old Emilia Palmer was driven by Richard Hammond in a pink Lamborghini Aventador Roadster. Hammond flew his Robinson R44 helicopter, G-OHAM, to Shobdon Aerodrome, then picked Palmer up from her home in Kimbolton, Herefordshire and drove her back to the airport for a high-speed run on the main runway. The event was arranged at short notice by Rays of Sunshine with car "LJ13 AUX" loaned by H.R. Owen and spray painted by company Yiannamize.

Vampire dragster crash

File:TopGearVampireCrash.jpg

Hammond in the Vampire immediately before the crash. The front-right tyre has burst.

During filming of a Top Gear segment at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York on 20 September 2006, Hammond was injured in the crash of the jet-powered car he was piloting. He was travelling at 288 mph (463 km/h) at the time of the crash.

His vehicle, a dragster called Vampire, was theoretically capable of travelling at speeds of up to 370 mph (595 km/h). The vehicle was the same car that in 2000, piloted by Colin Fallows, set the British land speed record at 300.3 mph (483.3 km/h). The Vampire was powered by a single Bristol-Siddeley Orpheus afterburning turbojet engine producing 5,000 lbf (22 kN) of thrust.

Some accounts suggested that the accident occurred during an attempt to break the British land speed record, but the Health and Safety Executive report on the crash found that a proposal to try to officially break the record was vetoed in advance by Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman, due to the risks and complexities of such a venture. (The report stated: "Runs were to be carried out in only one direction along a pre-set course on the Elvington runway. Vampire’s speed was to be recorded using GPS satellite telemetry. The intention was to record the maximum speed, not to measure an average speed over a measured course, and for (Hammond) to describe how it felt."

Hammond was completing a seventh and final run to collect extra footage for the programme when his front-right tyre failed, and, according to witness and paramedic Dave Ogden, "one of the parachutes had deployed but it went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us." The emergency crew quickly arrived at the car, finding it inverted and partially embedded in the grass. During the roll, Hammond's helmet had embedded itself into the ground, flipping the visor up and forcing soil into his mouth and damaging his left eye. Rescuers felt a pulse and heard the unconscious Hammond breathing before the car was turned upright. Hammond was cut free with hydraulic shears, and placed on a backboard. "He was regaining consciousness at that point and said he had some lower back pain". He was then transported by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to the neurological unit of the Leeds General Infirmary. Hammond's family visited him at the hospital along with Top Gear co-presenters James May and Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson wished Hammond well, saying "Both James and I are looking forward to getting our 'Hamster' back", referring to Hammond by his nickname.

The Health & Safety Executive report stated that "Hammond's instantaneous reaction to the tyre blow-out seems to have been that of a competent high performance car driver, namely to brake the car and to try to steer into the skid. Immediately afterwards he also seems to have followed his training and to have pulled back on the main parachute release lever, thus shutting down the jet engine and also closing the jet and afterburner fuel levers. The main parachute did not have time to deploy before the car ran off the runway." The HSE notes that, based on the findings of the North Yorkshire Police (who investigated the crash), "the accident may not have been recoverable", even if Hammond's efforts to react were as fast as "humanly possible".

The crash was shown on an episode of Top Gear on 28 January 2007; this was the first episode of the new series, which had been postponed pending Hammond's recovery. Hammond requested at the end of the episode that his fellow presenters never mention the crash again, a request which has been generally observed, although occasional oblique references have been made by all three presenters. On The Edge: My Story, which contains first-hand accounts from both Hammond and his wife about the crash, immediate aftermath, and his recovery, was published later that year. Hammond also appeared on the BBC chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross revealing he was "a bit fighty" right after the crash and then in a coma for two weeks.

In February 2008 Hammond gave an interview to The Sunday Times newspaper in which he described the effects of his brain injuries and the progression of his recovery. He reported suffering loss of memory, depression and difficulties with emotional experiences, for which he was consulting a psychiatrist. He also talked about his recovery in a 2010 television programme where he interviewed Sir Stirling Moss and they discussed the brain injuries they had both received as a result of car crashes.

Works

TV shows

Year	Title	Notes
1998–2002	Motor Week (Men & Motors TV series)	Presenter
1998–2002	Car File (Men & Motors TV series)	Presenter
2002–2015	Top Gear	Presenter
2003–2006	Brainiac: Science Abuse	Presenter
2004–2005	Crufts	Presenter
	Should I Worry About...?	Presenter
2005	The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend	Presenter
	Time Commanders	Presenter
	Inside Britain's Fattest Man	Presenter
2006	Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show	Presenter
	Petrolheads	Contestant
	School's Out	Contestant
	Richard Hammond: Would You Believe It?	Presenter
	Richard Hammond: The Holy Grail	Presenter
	Battle of the Geeks	Presenter
2007	Last Man Standing	Narrator
	Helicopter Heroes	Narrator
	Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel	Presenter
2008	BBC Timewatch	Narrator
2008, 2010	Sport Relief	Presenter
2009–2011	Richard Hammond's Blast Lab	Presenter
	Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections	Presenter
2009–2012	Total Wipeout	Presenter
2010	Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds	Presenter
	Hammond Meets Moss	Presenter
2011	Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet	Presenter
	Richard Hammond's Journey to the Bottom of the Ocean	Presenter
2012	Richard Hammond's Crash Course	Presenter
	Planet Earth Live	Presenter
	Richard Hammond's Miracles of Nature	Presenter
	Top Gear: 50 Years of Bond Cars	Presenter
2013	Richard Hammond's Secret Service	Presenter
	Hammond meets Moss	Presenter
	Richard Hammond Builds a Planet	Presenter
2014	Phineas and Ferb	Nigel (voice only)
	Richard Hammond's Wildest Weather	Presenter
2014–2015	Science of Stupid	Presenter
2015	Hammond and Humphries	Presenter
	Richard Hammond's Jungle Quest	Presenter
2016—	The Grand Tour	Presenter

Video games

Title	Developer	Year	Role
Forza Motorsport 5	Turn 10 Studios	2013	Voice over
Forza Motorsport 6	Turn 10 Studios	2015	Voice over

DVDs

1. Top Gear Interactive Challenge Quiz (2007, 2|Entertain).
2. Top Gear Interactive Stunt Challenge Quiz (2008, 2|Entertain).
3. Top Gear Uncovered: The DVD Special (2009, 2|Entertain).
4. Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Series One (2009, Nat Geo DVD).
5. Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds (2010, 2|Entertain).
6. Top Gear: Apocalypse (With James May) (2010, 2|Entertain).
7. Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Series Two (2010, Nat Geo DVD).
8. Hammond Meets Moss (2010, Acorn Media UK).
9. Richard Hammond's Journey To The Centre Of The Planet (2011, 2|Entertain).
10. Top Gear: At The Movies (With James May) (2011, 2|Entertain).
11. Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections: Series Three (2011, Nat Geo DVD).
12. Top Gear: 50 Years of Bond Cars (2012, 2|Entertain).
13. Total Wipeout Series 5 Celebrity Specials and Final. (2012, endemol)
14. Top Gear: The Perfect Road Trip (With Jeremy Clarkson) (2013, BBC DVD)
15. Top Gear: The Perfect Road Trip 2 (With Jeremy Clarkson) (2014, BBC DVD)

Television advertisements

1. Morrisons (2008)
2. Morrisons (Christmas 2008)
3. Morrisons (2009)
4. Morrisons (Christmas 2009)
5. Top Gear Turbo Challenge Trading Cards Test Set (2009)
6. Top Gear Turbo Challenge Trading Cards (2010)
7. Top Gear Interactive Challenge DVD (2007)
8. Top Gear Interactive Stunt Challenge DVD (2009)
9. Top Gear Uncovered DVD (2009)
10. Top Gear [Re-Runs On Dave] (2009)
11. Telecom XT network NZ (2009)
12. Rapid White Instant Whitening System (2009)

External links

• Richard Hammond at the Internet Movie Database
• Donations to Yorkshire Air Ambulance double as a result of their life-saving rescue of Richard Hammond
• Richard Hammond on Top Gear
• Q&A – The Guardian – 2009-1-3. Hammond questions about himself. Retrieved 2009-6-29.