Andrew Flintoff to share ‘vivid’ memories of Top Gear crash | Andrew Flintoff

The former England cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has promised to share “what actually happened” in the horrific Top Gear crash in December 2022 that left him with life-altering injuries.

In the trailer for a Disney+ documentary about his life and career, which will air next Friday, he says of the accident: “I remember everything about it … it’s so vivid.”

Flintoff was airlifted to hospital after a crash at Dunsfold Park in Surrey while filming an episode of Top Gear for the BBC. The popular motoring show was subsequently taken off air and the broadcaster reached a financial settlement with Flintoff for a reported £9m.

“It’s almost like a reset and I’m trying to understand what I am now,” Flintoff says in the trailer for the documentary. “I’ve always seemed to be able to flick a switch. I’ve got to find that switch again.”

He also promises he will no longer “hide his scars”.

Flintoff, 47, has previously spoken about his experience of anxiety, nightmares and flashbacks as a result of the accident, but this is thought to be the first time he will go into detail about the crash itself.

The documentary, called Flintoff, will also hear from his wife, Rachael, for the first time. “All of a sudden, your life can change,” she says.

Speaking of her husband’s cricketing talent, she adds: “There was something about him that was different. As soon as someone says ‘that’s impossible’ then that makes him fly.”

Directed by the British Bafta- and Emmy-nominated film-maker John Dower, and produced by the team behind the BBC’s Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, the documentary includes images of the accident at Dunsfold Park, which was a frequent filming location for the programme.

The actors James Corden and Jack Whitehall, and Flintoff’s former teammates and friends, also feature.

Flintoff was left with severe facial injuries and broken ribs after the three-wheel, open-topped car that he was road-testing flipped over and slid along the track.

It was not his first accident while filming for the programme, which he joined in 2019. He lost control of a motorised trike in a race against his co-hosts Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness, though he was uninjured.

Harris, an automotive journalist who co-presented Top Gear from 2017 until it was “rested” by the BBC, said he had previously raised safety fears about the filming of the programme, which had gone unheeded.

Flintoff made a return to cricket in a coaching capacity in September 2023 and is now the head coach of England Lions, the second string of the national men’s team.

Speaking of his retreat from public life for a year after the accident, he said: “One of the real frustrations was the speculation. That’s why I’m doing this now.”

Flintoff will be available from 25 April on Disney+.