Apparently one of the reasons Oliver is being restored is that he will be appearing in a new TV series.

Practical Classics features editor, Matthew Jones, who has been working closely with Mr Hammond to restore the car, said that once it had been repainted and “tweaked” it would once again find television fame in a new series.
He said: “We’ve had to do the job very quickly because it’s going to be involved in a new television production with Richard Hammond.
“I’m not sure of all the finer details but apparently the show centres around the car and we have to have it ready for filming on July 14.

Full article on Newbury Today and there’s a discussion thread on our forums.

Richard was having stomach pains earlier this week and it was discovered that he had appendicitis and needed surgery. However, rather than skip a prior commitment to meet some fans who had won a lunch with him, he pushed back the surgery by two hours.

The surgery went smoothly thankfully, but surgeons discovered Richard also had kidney stones and a hernia. He’ll be having the stones removed sometime next week.

He’s now at home recovering meanwhile with his wife and kids. He should be fully recovered soon.

[Sources: The Sun and The Mirror]

As you may know, Top Gear is currently only shot in SD (standard definition) except for the Polar Special which was a one-off. The UK is only now starting to really make the switch to HD and existing shows are always the last to switch.

Richard revealed in his Mirror.co.uk column though that the “next” season of Top Gear will be shot in HD. Now I’m not sure if by “next” he means the one they are filming now I assume (season 11) or the one that will air this fall (season 12), but either way, this is totally awesome.

We’ll be doing our best to get HD rips out alongside the 700MB SD rips.

Rock band Def Leppard’s latest album, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, features Richard Hammond among the many people on it’s cover. The artwork is in the style of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

Richard can be found in the bottom right. Very cool.

It appears that all was not well during the filming of the last two seasons of Top Gear for Richard Hammond.

Eighteen months after the high-speed crash which almost killed him, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has revealed that he still suffers from emotional problems and memory loss.

Also, the Times Online has a nice article entitled “On The Move”.

It’s been a bloody long journey and it’s still going. It’s when I consider how far I’ve come since I was in hospital that I realise there was a lot more to fix than I thought. The swelling has gone down, my brain is as mended as it’s likely to be. Now it seems to be more a case of rewiring itself. That’s assuming I’m sitting here talking to you and I’m not about to wake up in hospital, in some sort of Life on Mars moment . . . Now that was a difficult TV series to watch.

Discussion Thread in the FinalGear Forums

Thanks to jack_christie for the tips

[Sources: Dailymail.co.uk & Times Online ]

If you’re like me and are outside of the UK, you can snag a rip of Timewatch’s “Bloody Omaha” documentary hosted by Richard Hammond right here.

More details about the documentary can be found on the BBC’s website.

Richard will be hosting a Timewatch program on a recently discovered Nazi gun battery tonight at 9PM UK time (GMT). Should be an interesting watch.

Sorry these weren’t up earlier. Been busy with the holidays. ;)

Here’s the two shows that aired next to Top Gear last night:

• Richard.Hammond.Meets.Evel.Knievel.WS.PDTV.XviD-REMAX
• James.May.My.Sisters.Top.Toys.WS.PDTV.XviD-REMAX

Enjoy!

Telly favourite Richard Hammond is throwing a £20,000 “thank you” party to the medics who saved him after his 288mph jet car crash.

Coach-loads of 100 doctors, nurses and air ambulance staff are taking the 200-mile trip to London for the bash.

Last night a source close to the Top Gear host — nicknamed Hamster by co-star Jeremy Clarkson — said: “This is very much NOT a showbiz do.

“It is a party to thank the medics who saved Richard’s life.”

How very cool of Richard.

[Source: The Sun]

For those of us who just can’t get enough of Top Gear and it’s presenters, Jeremy, Richard, and James all have released new books for the fall.

Richard’s autobiography, entitled “On the Edge“, was co-written with his wife Mindy. It details his 288 MPH crash last year and his recovery from the accident. There’s also a really funny video preview of the book by Richard at Amazon.co.uk.

Or you can just watch it via YouTube:

Jeremy’s book, “Don’t Stop Me Now“, contains his latest collection of columns as well as a ton of other random stuff.

Lastly, James May’s 20th Century accompanies his recent television series which covered various inventions and discoveries made over the past century.

[Via TopGear.com]