Top Gear Returns: BBC Confirms Motoring Show Is Coming Back After Four-Year Rest
The BBC has confirmed that Top Gear is coming back. BBC director of entertainment Ed Havard told the Edinburgh TV Festival that the motoring show will return to air, four years after it was taken off screen following a crash that seriously injured co-host Andrew Flintoff (Variety, 27 August 2026; BBC News, 27 August 2026).
The show was "rested" in 2022 after Flintoff suffered serious facial and rib injuries when his open-topped three-wheeled car overturned at the programme's test track during filming (Variety, 27 August 2026). Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris hosted the series before it was pulled from schedules.
The hosting lineup for the new series has not been revealed. The BBC has not said whether any of the previous presenters will return, and no air date has been confirmed. The new series will be produced by BBC Studios, the corporation's commercial production arm (Variety, 27 August 2026).
Names have already started circulating. The Sun newspaper reported that comedian Jimmy Carr was in talks to join the new series, and former England rugby player Joe Marler was reportedly being considered as a host. Both reports remain unconfirmed by the BBC (Variety, 27 August 2026).
The return comes amid ongoing legal action linked to the crash. A racing driver who was in the car with Flintoff during the 2022 incident is suing BBC Studios, according to BBC News (BBC News, 12 July 2026).
Top Gear has a long history of reinvention. The programme began in 1977 and grew into one of the BBC's biggest global exports, licensed to broadcasters around the world. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May hosted the show from 2003 until 2015, when they left to present The Grand Tour at Amazon, which ran until 2024 (Variety, 27 August 2026).
After that departure, the BBC rebuilt the presenting team around Matt LeBlanc, Chris Evans, Chris Harris and Rory Reid, with LeBlanc confirmed in 2016 for a series set to air on BBC Two and globally in 2017 (BBC Media Centre, 26 September 2016; BBC Media Centre, 4 February 2016; BBC Media Centre, 11 February 2016). That lineup later evolved again, with Flintoff, McGuinness and Harris taking over the show until it was rested.
For a programme that has changed presenters multiple times across nearly five decades, the question of who will sit in the studio this time is the one the BBC has yet to answer.
