The Grand Tour trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May enjoyed another successful year despite challenges posed by COVID-19. They released the latest special of The Grand Tour last month, and Jeremy also won plaudits for his Amazon Prime Video show ‘Clarkson’s Farm’. However, it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the trio. The TV company established by the former Top Gear presenters suffered huge losses since the beginning of the pandemic, newly-filed accounts show.
W Chump & Sons Limited saw its turnover dwindle to just £3.5million in 2020, down from £25million in 2019, as revealed last month.
No dividends were paid to the four directors in 2020 ‒ Jeremy, Richard, James or producer Andy Wilman ‒ as was the case in 2019.
For Richard, the last few years have also seen him contend with knee problems, and he discussed the issue in a January 2019 interview with The Mirror.
His health issue emerged after he crashed a £2million electric supercar, which then overturned and caught fire during filming of an episode of The Grand Tour.
Richard said: “I smashed my knee to pieces, it does hurt a bit from time to time. It has metal and bolts in it.”
Around 11 years prior to the 2017 accident, Richard survived a 300mph crash in a jet-propelled car on Top Gear left him in a coma for two weeks.
On his knee issues, Richard admitted that his knee won’t get better.
He continued: “It ain’t going to get any better and will need replacing one day but you put that off as long as you can because new ones don’t last very long.
“I run and am quite active so I would wear it out really quickly. I’m going to try and function with my own dodgy knee for as long as I can. Also, technically it’s a machine, so I’d probably crash it.”
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When Richard crashed the electric car in 2017, many of his colleagues on The Grand Tour feared the worst.
The show’s producer, Andy, described how he and Richard’s co-stars had run to the scene as soon as it happened.
He told the Sunday Mirror: “When they saw the wreckage on fire they thought Richard was dead. It was really bad.
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The Rimac Concept One car he was driving has a 1,224-horsepower motor and can reach speeds of up to 220mph.
Last month, Richard said his 2006 crash has helped him understand people’s struggles with mental health.
He told Wales Online: “A brain injury isn’t like a bone break ‒ you don’t suddenly just go, ‘Okay, all better now. Let’s move on’.
“And, as we’ve gone through this pandemic and its various lockdowns, I’ve realised not enough is mentioned about the effect it can have on people mentally.
“It’s something I’m particularly alert to because of what happened to me.”
Having previously stated that he experienced severe depression as a result of his nightmare crash, he added: “My heart goes out to anyone who may be suffering and I always take the time to talk to them about it whenever I can.”
Source: Daily Express
