I was hard to work with after York crash says Richard Hammond

The star, 44, suffered serious head injuries and was in a coma for a fortnight following the incident at Elvington airfield near York in 2006.

Mr Hammond was airlifted by Yorkshire Air Ambulance for treatment at Leeds General Infirmary’s Neurological Intensive Care Unit after the crash, which occurred when he was behind the wheel of a jet-powered car for the BBC programme.

In the days following the crash, fans raised almost £200,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, and Mr Hammond himself later presented the BBC documentary series Helicopter Heroes about the service.

But in an interview with Radio Times magazine, he told how the crash had a lasting impact on his mental state.

He said: “For years I thought of it especially around now, in the autumn.

“It was a lot to deal with. I had a pretty tricky few years. The knock-on effects of the injury meant I was susceptible to depression, obsession, compulsion and paranoia, although I wasn’t aware of that at the time.

“It gave me an unnatural platform from which to observe my own mental state, which was exhausting.

“For a time I lost the ability to connect emotionally. I began picking away at my own personality and that was dizzying.”

The father-of-two added: “I don’t think I was very easy to work with for a good while. The team were very patient. I was difficult on shoots, losing my temper, feeling threatened by everything, very defensive.

“I massively needed to know if the crash was my fault, because I’d risked the girls growing up without their dad. The telemetry showed I’d done everything right and it was an accident. But the girls still remember it very clearly.”

A Health and Safety Executive investigation found no grounds for prosecution over the crash, which was caused by the catastrophic failure of the car’s front offside tyre, when Mr Hammond was driving at 288 mph.

Top Gear was heavily criticised for “glamorising” speeding when it showed footage of the crash in 2007. Road safety charity Brake was joined by politicians as it accused the programmed of sending out an “irresponsible” message to viewers that speed does not kill.

Mr Hammond also used the interview to comment on recent controversy over Top Gear’s row with Argentina, prompted by the programme’s use of a car number plate that appeared to refer to the Falklands War.

It came after watchdog Ofcom ruled that the programme’s Burma Special used a racial slur.

“No-one on the show had any misgivings at the time,” Mr Hammond said of the footage found in breach by Ofcom.

“As a unit, we tried something which the BBC chose to broadcast, and enough people complained that it was deemed to be wrong, so we went ‘sorry’.

“There’s a Top Gear DVD where Jeremy and I point at the sign for the French town of Bra, and snigger. But the joke wasn’t that we were laughing at the name of an essential female undergarment; the joke was that two middle-aged men with responsibilities would point at such a sign and laugh - and viewers got that distinction completely.”

He added: “In society as a whole, we love to be offended and have a scapegoat.

“But at Top Gear we’re the first to put our hands up and say we pitched it wrong.

“We’re not in the business of genuinely upsetting or offending anyone. We’re in the business of entertainment, and if it fails to entertain, it’s wrong. If the public says we stepped over the line, then we have.”

THE Top Gear episode that sparked a diplomatic incident in Argentina forms part of the BBC’s Christmas schedule despite continuing complaints from the country.

The BBC announced its festive season yesterday, the same day a letter from Argentinian ambassador Alicia Castro criticising the corporation and expressing her “discontent” was made public. The show’s crew fled Argentina after trouble erupted when they used a Porsche with the registration number H982 FKL, which some suggested referred to the 1982 Falklands conflict. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson said he was “shocked” when someone pointed out the link.