Women love Top Gear and it’s down to Freddie Flintoff

Best Gear has for a prolonged time been connected with bitter-ingesting middle-aged men reeking of Harley- Davidson aftershave.

But given that a web hosting overhaul in 2019, the very long-jogging BBC1 vehicle collection has attracted a large female next — and it’s all down to Freddie Flintoff.

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That’s the perspective of his co-stars Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris, who imagine the previous England cricketer is the show’s “eye candy”.

And they are keen to exploit his great appears to the max.

In an special chat with The Sunlight ahead of the new sequence commencing tomorrow, Paddy, 48, claims: “Freddie is the cause why more ladies than ever are viewing Top Gear — which is totally genuine.

“For the upcoming sequence, we are going to get him in some Speedos and oil him up.”

Chris, 47, adds: “Dads like me and Paddy mainly because he’s amusing and I can push a bit, and mums like Freddie simply because he’s the eye sweet.”

The presenting trio are on their way to returning Top rated Gear to its glory times pursuing a turbulent number of many years given that the departure of preferred hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James Could.

Now in their sixth sequence as a trio, they have not only captivated female viewers, but Freddie and Paddy’s North West roots have boosted the numbers of Northerners tuning in.

Figures show a youthful audience is also looking at.

But not everyone is content, as Chris explains: “There’s a million folks who only required Jeremy and the other individuals to do it once more.

“They’ll hardly ever triumph over that and we’ll never ever earn them more than. We could make the very best clearly show in the record of Tv set and people would nonetheless say it was s**t since Jeremy’s not on it.”

Encounter-slapping contest

Chris hosted Top Gear for a few series in advance of remaining joined by Paddy and Freddie — and knew immediately the new line-up would do properly.

He provides: “I keep in mind the very first day I worked with these two and I’d virtually regarded Freddie for 5 minutes in advance of he claimed to me, ‘You want to have on a looser-fitting top’.

“I thought there’s an honesty listed here and I can function with them.”

“The crew perked up as well. They have been comfortable all around them and all the anxiety and rigid shoulders I’d labored with for years on set just went. Then I realized it was going to be Alright.”

The all-natural rapport concerning the 3 hosts is obvious in the new sequence, which sees them consider on a motorsport mission in The us — the residence of grassroots racing.

They hired an aged, battered RV, which they also slept in, and travelled as a result of Florida, getting on an array of superior-pace issues.

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In just one scene, all through a person of numerous mechanical breakdowns, the trio play a match of cards which turns into a deal with-slapping contest. It will have to have introduced back again distressing memories for Leading Gear bosses who famously fired Jeremy in 2015 for punching a producer.

Paddy suggests jokingly: “That’s not the 1st time we have hit each other, just this time it was on camera.

“But it was entirely unscripted and which is the beauty of staying jointly.

“Because of Covid, we have all been in independent autos but now we can be in the identical motor vehicle and enjoy to our strengths and have a little bit of a giggle.”

Chris, who took the most important beating, adds: “That really hurt. Have you viewed the measurement of Freddie’s palms? They are like dustbin lids.”

Away from the RV, which Chris explained as a “personal cleanliness crime scene”, it was Freddie who place himself in most threat.

He takes on the scariest stunts, together with racing a Sinclair C5 down a bobsled keep track of in a hair-elevating problem in episode two.

Chris admits the Ashes hero has his have stunts class and he’s still to flip 1 down.

Chris suggests: “There’s a stuntworks department in the corner, a load of persons with white coats on and massive foreheads. They’re not functioning pretty suitable. All their tips go to him and we say, ‘We’re not involved, thanks’.”

The stunts are so scary that Freddie, 44, doesn’t even notify his spouse Rachael he’s doing them.

Usually, she might anxiety a horror crash like the 288mph smash that nearly killed Richard Hammond in 2006.

After retiring from cricket, one particular of the father of four’s initial exhibits, Freddie Flintoff Versus The World, observed him take on 21 intense sports activities whilst touring The united states.

Freddie recalls: “I didn’t tell her about them and she experienced a word afterwards.

Swamp-buggy shootout

“I’ve received self-assurance in the people today placing these matters collectively and myself as perfectly, I suppose.

“I never want the family at household worrying about what we’re carrying out, so I just get on with it.”

Freddie’s aggressive spirit is ­evident in the 3 worries in episode a person: A donk-automobile drag-race duel, a swamp buggy shootout and a Nascar-type cop-vehicle showdown.

Throughout the latter race, Freddie “accidentally” crashed into Paddy, reducing his fellow Northerner. And he couldn’t cover his aggravation when his swamp buggy obtained trapped in the muddy Everglades waters.

Having said that, racing professional Chris will try to remember the race most of all for all the mistaken reasons.

“He says: “The swamp h2o was minging. I was specified the cheapest buggy of the large amount. My eye line was appropriate in the drinking water. So I experienced swamp h2o pouring into my mouth for an hour when we were being filming and — surprise, surprise — I obtained a huge dose of the runs that night time.

“But I was because of a colonic so that cleared me out. The morning following that, I was about a stone lighter!”

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In spite of not even viewing any of the new episodes, the lads are previously filming the next sequence.

They have some way to go just before eclipsing Clarkson, Hammond and May’s file of 20 seasons alongside one another, but Freddie states catching their complete is not on their minds.

He points out: “It’s unsafe to consider like that. We’ve just got to get it suitable now, retain bettering. I have always discovered, regardless of whether it is sporting activities or this, if you’re receiving also far ahead of oneself or consider you are cracking it, which is when you get located out.

“As lengthy as I’m undertaking my task ideal and taking pleasure in expending time with these lads, then we’ll see what takes place.”

Shelling out time in every other’s firm extends outside of Leading Equipment, for Paddy and Freddie in any case.

And previous Get Me Out host Paddy, who has a few small children with product spouse Christine, will make no top secret of the benefits of becoming buddies with Freddie.

He adds: “I took my kids close to Freddie’s the other working day simply because he’s obtained a swimming pool. It’s cheaper than the council baths for me.

“I simply cannot afford to pay for that amount of luxury but the good thing is I have a buddy who does. It was attractive.”

-  Top Gear’s latest series starts tomorrow at 8pm on BBC1.

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