Paddy McGuinness could never do 'Top Gear' without Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff.
Paddy McGuinness won't return to Top Gear without Freddie Flintoff for company
The BBC motoring show was axed after Freddie was involved in a horrific crash during filming in 2022 and the 51-year-old star insists that his travelogue 'Paddy And Chris: Road Tripping' – which he hosted with fellow presenter Chris Harris last year – was never intended to emulate the trio's old programme.
Paddy is quoted by The Sun newspaper's TVBiz column as saying: "If we were doing 'Top Gear', just me and Chris without Fred, then that would be a problem.
"I'd be thinking to myself, 'Bloody hell, where's the big lad?'.
"The thing with me, Chris and Fred, which showed on 'Top Gear', we had a really great chemistry and we all got on really well. We still do. I know for a fact that if Fred wanted to come along on that road trip, there wouldn't be any problems – we'd do it.
"And if the three of us ended up doing 'Top Gear' again, we'd do it."
Paddy also confirmed that there have been discussions about a second run of the road trip series.
He said: "We're talking about it now."
McGuinness is now host of the BBC series 'Inside the Factory' alongside Cherry Healey and revealed that Tuesday's (07.01.25) episode was particularly special as he goes back to the Warburtons bread factory in his hometown of Bolton – where he worked as a teenager.
The former 'Take Me Out' presenter explained: "There was a moment when I was driving this HGV, and I'd got the licence for it because I'd hosted 'Top Gear'.
"Then I'm going to a factory where I'm hosting another show, and I used to work here aged 16 cleaning the machines.
"That lad would not have dreamed in a million years that would have happened. So it was a really lovely moment for me.
"Two of my mates I went to school with, who I worked there with on a Saturday, they were still there."
Paddy added: "It is one of them places, Warburtons in Bolton, it's a proper part of the community and everyone's got a relative or a friend who's worked there.
"I never think about anything I've ever done, and I never sit back and think, 'Oh I've done this and this'.
"But I really did kinda think to myself, 'You've not done too bad'."
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