The BBC’s hugely successful Road Tripping series saw former Top Gear hosts Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris back behind the wheel again.
Despite the similarity between their new show and the axed motoring programme, which was cancelled after co-host Freddie Flintoff’s horrific 2022 crash, Paddy insisted that the pair’s travel show was never intended to imitate Top Gear.
He added that he could never do the beloved show without his close pal Fred by his side. The dad-of-three told outlets: “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.”
Although the 51-year-old kept tight-lipped about a second series, he teased: “We’re talking about it now.” But this isn’t the only show that sees the broadcaster behind the wheel.
His current show, Inside The Factory on BBC One, shows him driving a lorry transporting thousands of loaves. On Tuesday’s episode (January 7), he visits the plant where they make Warburtons bread in his home town of Bolton – a place he worked at as a teenager.
And it’s fair to say returning to the factory was a defining moment for the presenter. He gushed: “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 into 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.”
He went on: “Two of my mates I went to school with, who I worked there with on a Saturday, they were still there. 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’.”
