Richard Hammond is well known for his work on motoring shows Top Gear and The Grand Tour.
Over the past two decades and more, he, Jeremy Clarkson and James May raced cars, made fun of each other and travelled the world.
Now flying solo, the 55-year-old is coming to Oxfordshire later this month as Salon Privé lands at Woodstock’s Blenheim Palace for the first time.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the classic car show will run for five days at the end of the month and will see Richard along for the ride.
Ahead of his impending visit to the county, the former Top Gear star sat down for an exclusive chat with this newspaper.
“Blenheim Palace is enormous and it's very lovely, so a nice place to set it,” he said of Salon Privé.
“It does tend to lend a tone and an atmosphere to an event. It will feel great, and it will be a lovely week.”
Asked about how often he comes to Oxfordshire, the former Top Gear star revealed: “Quite a lot because it’s between me and London as I live in Herefordshire.
“I come through it regularly. I’ve spent the last 25 years driving through it. I will fill up with fuel, and I’ve got friends across Oxfordshire.
“Actually, I did do a spell at BBC Radio Oxford, standing in for a friend of mine when he was running it a few years ago, so I’m familiar with the county."
When discussing his friends living in Oxfordshire, Richard said of Jeremy Clarkson: “There is a big fat one that lives there.”
His 65-year-old former co-star owns Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington as well as The Farmer’s Dog pub in Asthall, with both being the focus of the Prime Video documentary, Clarkson’s Farm.
Upon the pub’s opening last August, Richard was ‘banned’ from the Cotswolds boozer along with fellow Top Gear and Grand Tour host James May, as well as UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
Asked if he was still banned from The Farmer’s Dog and if he had visited the boozer, he added: “The pub, no [I haven’t been there]. I’ve driven past it quite a lot, but I’ve never been in, no.
“I’ve been to the farm, and before it was a TV show, and yeah, I’m familiar with the setup and the place, but I’ve never been to his pub.
“I’m not making a point of that, I just haven’t had the chance, but I’ve no doubt will do one day."
When prompted as to whether he will have time to stop in for a Hawkstone whilst he’s at nearby Blenheim Place, Richard replied: “I’ll be there working, there’s a typical example.
“I’ll be in the area, but I’ll be busy doing what I’m doing.”
Alongside Mr Clarkson’s tavern, Mr May also owns his very own pub, having bought The Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire, in 2014.
When quizzed on whether he also plans to open his very own bar, Richard revealed: "I'm not sure that it's the time in my life to be buying really expensive money-losing operations.
"I've got several of those going on at the moment, so I don't think that's a good idea."
The presenter also gave an insight into how often he meets up with his friends from Top Gear and The Grand Tour after the latter came to an end last year.
Reflecting on his relationship with Jeremy and James, he added: “We still talk.
“We always used to be asked that a lot, but we were together so much filming that the only way to spend more time together would have been to marry one another really.
“We had time to go home, unpack, catch up, remember where you lived, and we were all together again, so we never got into the habit of massively socialising together.
“We do as we’ll meet up at parties and events and always shall obviously as you don’t spend nearly 25 years working with people and not become friends.”
When asked about what kind of TV show the trio could do together without a focus on motoring, Richard quipped: “I think we’d set up a three-a-side football team and take on the world.”
After the trio of Clarkson, May, and Hammond departed Top Gear in 2015, several new presenting teams and combinations were tried out by the BBC.
Settling on Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris, the show went forward, but a serious crash involving Mr Flintoff in December 2022 has seen the show on an indefinite hiatus ever since.
Discussing Top Gear’s current absence from screens, Richard explained: “It’s been off-air before; it’s been on and off air for the last 40 odd years.
“It is a BBC-owned show, it was a magazine show about cars, and it’s gone through various incarnations.
“It had been off the air for a few years when we took it on, and then we did our thing with it, and then they gave it on to another team, and they did their thing.
“Yes, it ended after Freddie’s crash, and my reaction to that was, ‘oh god, poor Freddie, that sounds awful’.
“To the show being taken off air, the BBC has big-named shows that it rests, and then it brings back.”
With Top Gear and The Grand Tour, the presenter travelled all over the world to a variety of towns, cities, countries and continents.
Asked about where his favourite spot is, Richard said: “Either the Kubu Island in the middle of the Makgadikgadi Pan salt flats in Botswana or the Lake District.
“Zimbabwe was breathtaking. It was one of those beautiful places, we’ve been to a few, where you round a corner and one minute, you’re in Scotland and the next minute, you’re in Norway.
“It’s just crazy, so yeah, it was a beautiful landscape.”
The conversation moved onto the 55-year-old’s specialist subject, cars, and he answered the question of what some of history’s most underrated cars.
“If you look at any Peugeot 405 estate across Africa, they’ll go anywhere and you’ll also see people in Land Cruisers, and a Lada Niva there,” he said.
“So, there are lots of cars that have capabilities beyond what’s attributed to them.”
Richard plans to launch his new gin, Ratio London Dry Gin, in “Clarkson’s county” of Oxfordshire whilst at Salon Privé.
“Salon Privé creates a great atmosphere,” said Richard.
“I’ll be there with The Smallest Cog, my classic car restoration business, and I’m also launching my rather spectacular new gin on the Thursday.
“We are hard launching that, and it’s quite nice to do that in Clarkson’s county.
“Mine’s a lot better, mostly because I drink the stuff, which does help, so there are plenty of reasons to come to the show, come see us and try my gin.
“We’ll have a load of cars there that we’ve worked on and done, and beyond that, there will be some spectacular things to see that you really won’t see in many other places.
“It’s a lovely, party atmosphere which isn’t crazy or in your face [even if] some of the cars are.
“It’s a really lovely arena in which to see fabulous examples of the machines that have been in our lives and given us opportunities for expression and to tell the world something about ourselves for decades, so it’s a fabulous place.”
You can catch Richard at Salon Privé, which takes place at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock from Wednesday, August 28, until Sunday, August 31.
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