Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969), nicknamed “Hamster” due to his name and small stature, is a British presenter of radio and television, best known for co-presenting the television programme Top Gear since 2002. Along with his Top Gear co-hosts James May and Jeremy Clarkson, Hammond also presents Top Gear Live at the annual MPH motorshow in Earls Court and Birmingham NEC.

He has also presented Brainiac: Science Abuse, Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab, and writes a weekly column for The Daily Mirror.

Along with Amanda Byram, he is currently presenting Total Wipeout, a British gameshow, Richard Hammond’s Engineering Connections and Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab.

In September 2006 he suffered serious brain injury after crashing a jet car he was testing for Top Gear at high speeds (288.3 mph, 464.0 km/h). At the end of January 2007, after Hammond had recovered from his injuries, Top Gear was back on screen in the United Kingdom and showed the footage of the crash.

Life and career

Hammond was born in Shirley, West Midlands and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham automobile industry. In the mid-1980 Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire market city of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys’ independent school (best friend was the late Simon Ricketts) in the West Midlands town, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1987 to 1989 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology. He gained a BTEC National Diploma in Visual Communications but chose not to pursue a career in this direction, he also achieved a rather peculiar BTEC National Diploma in horticulture. His floriculture teacher was recorded saying, “His tillage was outstanding and huge”.

Personal life

Hammond married Amanda Etheridge (also known as Mindy) on 4 May 2002 at St Mary’s church in Prestbury near Cheltenham. The couple have two young daughters: Isabella, known as Izzy, born October 2000 and Willow, born July 2003. The family lives in a mock castle in Herefordshire and also have a flat in London. They have three horses, four dogs, two cats, a rabbit, and a handful of chickens and sheep. This collection of pets includes Tee-Gee/TG or Top Gear Dog. Hammond also plays the bass guitar, on which he accompanied the other Top Gear presenters when they performed alongside Justin Hawkins on Top Gear of the Pops for Comic Relief in 2007. Hammond likes to ride his bicycle in cities, for which he claims to be mocked mercilessly by fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson. Hammond further claims that there is no reason to drive a Range Rover in town. Hammond is also a fan of monster trucks – a fact which can be backed up by his appearance at Truckfest ’07. Much unlike Clarkson and May, he also has an interest in American Muscle Cars. He has a Dodge Charger, a Shelby Mustang, and recently he bought a Dodge Challenger from his last trip to the United States, due to the fact that Chrysler wouldn’t lend Top Gear one, because apparently they are too harsh about their cars .

Hammond has quit smoking, and has attributed his teeth going white to him quitting smoking, with Jeremy Clarkson branding him a coward.

On July 22, 2007, during severe flooding, Hammond left his Porsche 911 – in which he had been stuck in traffic for 13 hours – to run home for his daughter’s birthday. He ran 16 miles (26 km) in two-and-a-half hours (from 3am to 5:30 am), arriving home before his daughter woke up.

An interview with The Sunday Times in February 2008 reported Hammond as having moved briefly from Gloucestershire to Buckinghamshire, then back again because he missed the country life.

Hammond is also a keen motorcyclist.

In October Hereford Times confirmed he had splashed out £3 Million buying Bollitree Castle which is situated in Weston-Under-Penyard, Ross on Wye. It has been rumoured he has also bought a large house in the small town of Wantage, Oxfordshire.

On Top Gear in 2007, Hammond went to Africa on an ‘Epic Road Trip’ across Botswana. While there he found a 1963 Opel Kadett, in which he drove across Botswana. Hammond named it Oliver. On Top Gear a week after the special was aired, Hammond announced during the news, that he had shipped Oliver back to the UK, and restored it. Oliver features on Hammond’s children’s science television show Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab, and is also mentioned in Hammond’s second autobiography As You Do.