Richard Hammond
Biography
Richard Hammond, (born December 19 1969), is an award winning British television presenter best known for co-presenting Top Gear along with James May and Jeremy Clarkson from 2002 onwards. Earlier in his career he worked at Radio York and Radio Cumbria, before going on to present a number of daytime lifestyle shows and motoring programmes on Men & Motors. Along with his work on Top Gear he also currently presents Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky One, Should I Worry About...? on BBC One and Time Commanders on BBC Two. He also presented Crufts 2005. He also presented The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend, where he rebuilt the House of Lords and blew it up as Guy Fawkes would have, had he succeeded. His weekly column can be read in the motoring section of The Daily Mirror each Friday. Richard will also be presenting the British Parking Awards on 10 March 2006 at the Dorchester in London, he will present awards in a variety of categories including 'Parking team of the year' and 'Best new car park'.
From Tuesday 3rd January 2006 until Friday 10th February, Richard was the eponymous star of Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show with his co-star Mel Giedroyc of Late Lunch fame. The programme, which discussed a wide range of random and amusing subjects, was shown every weekday on ITV1 between 5:00 and 6:00. He is also a team captain on the new BBC2 quiz show, Petrolheads, which began airing in February 2006.
Originally from the West Midlands, in the mid 1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and brothers Andrew and Nicholas) to the Yorkshire market town of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. A pupil of Ripon Grammar School, from 1987 to 1989 he attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology and was friends with author and academic Jonathan Baldwin. He then went onto gain a degree in photography and television production.
His height (5' 7")1 or lack of it, is the source of much whimsical banter between him and Jeremy Clarkson (6'5") on Top Gear, with Jeremy often placing pictures of cars high up on the 'Top Gear "cool wall" during arguments with Hammond in order to win. When driving a Bowler Wildcat off-road vehicle, he exclaimed, "I am a driving God!", much to the amusement of Clarkson and May, making the incident the stuff of Top Gear folklore. He is referred to, mostly affectionately, as The Hamster by fans of the show, and occasionally by his co-presenters. His nickname was further re-enforced when on two separate occasions in Season 7, Hammond ate cards almost mimicking hamster-like behaviour (in Episode 07X03 and Episode 07X06 respectively). A running gag by co-host Jeremy Clarkson is Hammond's supposed use of teeth whitener. During one incident when Richard was called on whether he was moonlighting for the gay car website www.topgayer.com, Richard quipped: "Mine have gone whiter, naturally, in the same way that yours have gone green."
In July 2005, Hammond won the dubious accolade of being voted number one in a Heat magazine poll of the top "weird celebrity crushes".
He lives near Cheltenham with his wife Amanda (whom he married in 2002) and their two young daughters, Isabella and Willow. He also has three horses, four dogs, two cats, a rabbit and handful of chickens and sheep along with a collection of vehicles that include two Land Rovers, a Suzuki GSXR1000, a Dodge Charger, a Porsche 911, a Morgan V6 Roadster and several kit cars, and he also used to sing and play bass in a band when he was younger.
Works
TV Shows
- Top Gear (2002) - Hammond becomes the presenter of the show along with Jeremy Clarkson and James May.
- Brainiac: Science Abuse (2003) - Presents the show alongside former Big Brother contestant Jon Tickle, who is 6'3 likened to of Jeremy Clarkson's height.
- Time Commanders (2003)
- Should I Worry About...? (2004)
- The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend (2005)
- Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show (2006) - A show of his own name.
- Petrolheads (2006)