Top Gear’s ex-presenter Tiff Needell says show put ‘non-racing drivers into racing situations’

As BBC “rested” Top Gear for the foreseeable future after the Freddie Flintoff crash, former presenter Tiff Needell has reflected on the legacy it leaves behind and how the show changed over the years where they “got non-racing drivers to go into racing situations”.

Former Formula One racing driver Needell — who absolutely loved his time presenting on Top Gear — admitted he would have refused to have done the stunt that put Richard Hammond in hospital in 2006. At the time, Hammond cheated death behind the wheel of the Vampire dragster when he crashed while driving at nearly 320mph at the former RAF Elvington airbase in York.

The racing driver, 72, told Yahoo UK: “The Richard Hammond shunt, I would never have gone in and done that because I was the tame racing driver. The Stig really was me but they couldn’t find another idiot like me that could talk and fly at the same time. I was the father of The Stigs.

“It’s a bit about how it changed they got non-racing drivers to go into racing situations. Richard Hammond had a few big accidents including that rocket propelled dragster which I would have refused to do to be honest, because that would have been out of my comfort zone.

"I would have felt like I wasn’t in control anymore.”

While on Top Gear, new presenters were given training from professional drivers who were on hand to offer them support throughout filming the series.

Before being recruited, the Top Gear presenters also have to undertake driving assessments.

Recent presenters of the motoring entertainment show had successfully achieved both their Racing and HGV Licences.

Top Gear's legacy

Former presenter Needell said the show now leaves behind a "mixed" legacy following the controversies around the crashes. He said: “It’s a mixed up legacy now. There are so many people who said if it is going to come back it must come back as a proper car show.

“A lot of people complained it wasn’t a car show, it just became a silly show — that’s one extreme. It went from a car enthusiast show to an entertainment show and that was the big difference. Freddie and Paddy (McGuiness) and Chris (Harris) mucking about.”

Top Gear's production team worked closely with the BBC Studios Health and Safety team at all times.

Having presented the show from 1987 until it was first pulled from the air in 2002, Needell has many fond memories of his time on Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Quentin Willson.

So much so, the British racing driver gushed about how his love for Top Gear was still very much a part of him.

“I’ve still got Top Gear tattooed over me really like a Brighton rock. I was proud to be a BBC presenter,” he said. “I loved it. You get me driving supercars. Jeremy was a bit upset because I nicked all the supercars and we did a lot of racing cars.”

Top Gear new series

It was his love of Top Gear that saw him return to filming the series last year for a day but now the scenes will never air on the small screen. “Poor Freddie had a terrible accident,” he said.

“I actually went back for the next series of Top Gear, an item. It was just fun to be there. It would have been out this spring, the next series. They did the old Top Gear presenters paired up with one of the three. They had Angela Rippon for the seventies and Chris Goffey from the eighties and myself representing the nineties. I was paired with Chris Harris so we had a lot of fun.

“I think Angela was with Freddie and Chris with Paddy. So we filmed a lovely piece and my opening bit was arriving on the runway with a bit of a slide on, jumping out to be greeted, ‘hail the Hero Tiff’. I thought this is it. I'll be back in the mainstream telly once this item has been. Of course it is on the showroom floor. It'll never be seen.”

Working with Jeremy Clarkson and Quentin Willson

Needell looked back on his happiest memories which he revealed was being on stage alongside his co-presenters Clarkson and Willson. The trio were unstoppable - with Needell’s racing background, Clarkson’s humour and Willson's second hand expertise. “It was massive fun,” he said. The racing driver praised his friends Clarkson and Willson for their ability to “talk eloquently”.

He said: “They were so clever and eloquent and we just had a lot of fun. We didn’t often film together, that was the thing you forget. We do our own items. We would meet up, doing voice overs. We started doing live shows in London and the Birmingham Motor Show. We did have a lot of fun in those days doing that.”

When he first got the call for Top Gear in 1987 after Goffey broke his leg, Needell admitted in his gut he just wanted to be a racing driver. “I didn’t want to be a television presenter,” he said. “I did it as a sort of thing just to do, a one off idea… Top Gear producers were so amazed that I could drive the car seemingly on the edge of an accident at every corner and talk at the same time that they are more and more. Gradually I became a permanent fixture of the Top Gear team.”

What Tiff Needell taught Jeremy Clarkson

As time went on, Needell found he loved being on Top Gear and he learned a few things along the way too. He said: “I gradually got to be a slightly better presenter. So that's what I learned.” Plus, he taught Clarkson some tricks.

“I taught Jeremy a lot and one of the things he credits me for is helping him fly cars around corners. It takes time, you can’t just jump in and do it. You’ve got to have the experience,” he explained.

In 2002, BBC bosses shut Top Gear down for the first time and Needell was devastated. “I was so sad when Top Gear ended,” he said. “We had a good audience but it wasn’t a huge audience after Jeremy left.”

When Channel 5 took on the Top Gear team for Fifth Gear, Needell was ecstatic. “I’m still a teenager at heart. It kept me young.”

Fifth Gear vs Top Gear

Fifth Gear eventually saw the return of rival show Top Gear. “There was pressure to get Top Gear back,” he said. “They had Jeremy back. And then Jeremy said, ‘Well, I want an airfield and helicopters’, the budgets increased dramatically and then it became spectacular.”

The Top Gear enthusiast cheekily poked fun at his friends Clarkson, James May and Hammond. “The three egos!” He joked. “The three amigos, I mean. They just transferred it into this wonderful entertainment show which a lot of the petrol heads of the nineties were a bit disappointed with.”

Of the show’s changes, he said: “Top Gear went through phases because the eighties was very much about how to change a car. And then in the nineties we made it entertaining with Jeremy and Quentin. And then the zeros, he went into a wild light entertainment show.”

Needell's love of racing

His own love of racing went right back to his childhood. “My dad took me to racing as soon as I could walk,” he said. “So I went to Goodwood clambered over the fences and fell in love with it and then eventually became a racing driver by luck, more than chance or planning.

“Climbed my way up the national ladder to be voted the most promising young British driver and made it to the lofty heights of the Grand Prix grid back in 1980 briefly. Unfortunately, I was only substituting for an injured driver and he got better. Then I raced sports cars around the world.”

BBC offered no comment when approached by Yahoo News.

Read more: Top Gear

• James May Says ‘Top Gear’ Needs a ‘Rethink’ After BBC Puts Show on Pause — but Don’t Expect Him to ‘Come Back and Rescue It’ (Variety, 2-min read)

• Chris Harris vows to 'remember the good times' on Top Gear (BANG, 2-min read)

• Paddy McGuinness breaks silence on Top Gear being "rested" (Digital Spy, 2-min read)