Richard Hammond
Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, mechanic, and writer. He is best known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme Top Gear from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James May. From 2016 to 2024, the trio presented Amazon Prime Video's The Grand Tour.
For other people named Richard Hammond, see Richard Hammond (disambiguation).
Richard Hammond
- Broadcaster
- journalist
- businessman
- author
1998–present
- Brainiac: Science Abuse (2003–08)
- Crufts
- Should I Worry About...? (2004–05)
- The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend (2005)
- Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show (2006)
- Top Gear (2002–15)
- Petrolheads (2006)
- Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel (2007)
- The Great Escapists (2021)
- Total Wipeout (2009–12)
- Richard Hammond's Blast Lab (2009–11)
- Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections (2008–11)
- Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds (2010)
- Richard Hammond's Crash Course (2012)
- Richard Hammond Builds a Planet (2013)
- Science of Stupid (2014–15)
- The Grand Tour (2016–)
- Richard Hammond's Workshop (2021–2023)
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Hammond has also notably presented entertainment documentary series Brainiac: Science Abuse (2003–2008), the game show Total Wipeout (2009–2012) and nature documentary series Planet Earth Live (2012). In 2016, again with Clarkson and May, Hammond launched the automotive social media website DriveTribe, where he regularly provides content on their Youtube channel.[3]
Early life[edit]
Hammond was born the oldest of three boys on 19 December 1969[4] in Solihull, England, and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham car industry.[5][6] In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen (née Dunsby),[7] father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew, writer of the 'Crypt' series, and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon located 10 miles south of the market town of Bedale, and 8 miles south of the historic village of Thornton Watlass where his father ran a probate business in the market square. He attended Blossomfield Infant School in Solihull's Sharmans Cross district from the age of 3–7. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1986 to 1988 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology. According to an episode of Top Gear (Season 16, Episode 5), Richard's first job was shovelling grit into a water filtration plant.
Charity work[edit]
Hammond is an ambassador of UK charity for children with brain injury and neuro-disability The Children's Trust.[147]
On 29 September 2013, terminally-ill eight-year-old Emilia Palmer was driven by Hammond in a pink Lamborghini Aventador Roadster (newly repainted for the occasion). Hammond flew his Robinson R44 helicopter, G-OHAM, to Shobdon Airfield in Herefordshire, then picked Palmer up from her home in Kimbolton, Herefordshire and drove her back to the airport for a high-speed run on the main runway. The event was arranged at short notice by Rays of Sunshine.[148][149][150]
Car and motorcycle books
Children's books
Biographies