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Hammond admits crash recovery "frightening"

21/09/2007

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has revealed his brain played some tricks on him as he recovered from his high-speed crash last autumn.

The much-loved 'Hamster', who suffered brain damage after his 288mph accident at Elvington Airfield on September 20th 2006, reveals on BBC1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that he forgot he was married in the crash's aftermath.

Fortunately for the couple, however, he felt attracted to wife Amanda and even tried impressing her from his hospital bed.

"I didn't forget Mindy, I fancied her – thank God – I attempted to chat her up," he admitted.

Amanda added: "He said you're lovely, but I've got to stop talking to you because I've got to go back to my wife, she's French."

An autobiography of Hamster's life co-written by his wife was published yesterday and, as revealed in the Mirror earlier this week, describes how the couple "fell in love all over again" after the crash.

Hammond told Ross that he viewed his recovery as a "long old journey" with frustratingly slow progress and admitted he had a "22-second memory" for several weeks.

"It was frightening, a real lesson for me," he said.

"Damage can mend, it's a big bowl of porridge that revives itself if you're very lucky... which I was."