Richard Hammond turned to playing with Lego to help him "focus" after his horror car crash.
Richard Hammond used Lego to focus after his crash
The 'Grand Tour' presenter was involved in a near-fatal accident in 2006 when his jet-powered dragster - which was travelling at 319mph - spun off and toppled over while filming for ‘Top Gear’.
Speaking to his daughter Izzy on their ‘Who We Are Now’ podcast, Richard said: "When I was recovering in hospital from brain injury, the doctors recommended – oh, this is another one of your non-brands, it’s the ‘L’ word, Lego.
“I was sitting in bed, still pretty broken up and bad, but I could focus and lose myself in it.
"And the doctors all agreed and conceded that any activity that’s involving spatial awareness, three-dimensional thinking, two-dimensional thinking that you can lose yourself in was a good thing for me to do.”
His accident left him in a coma two weeks, though he luckily made a full recovery.
Richard and Izzy were joined by his co-star James May and Hornby Hobbies CEO Olly Raeburn for the discussion about how so-called "nerdy" hobbies can have great benefits for people's mental health and wellbeing.
Olly said: “This idea of modelling as therapy is a very well understood and well-trodden path’ there’s been a number of studies on it.
“One done not that long ago by Model’s For Heroes with Brunel University, which showed that modelling activity and scale modelling for veterans and ex-serviceman was a really, really good way of giving them a sense of accomplishment, creativity, mindfulness, focus."
James insisted he has is still baffled by the idea that people scorn pastimes like model making.
He argued: “We don’t say the same of people who, say, are obsessed with the theatre or film or cooking.
“These are also things I’m quite interested in, but nobody ever says, ‘Oh, that’s really sad.’
"But if you say, ‘I made an Airfix Spitfire,’ they think that must be something you do alone because you’ve got no friends.”
And Olly pointed out that there are "enormous communities" which have turned model building into a group activity.
'Who We Are Now with Izzy and Richard Hammond' is available to listen to now on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts
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