Thailand fling

The Top Gear boys buckle up for a hair- raising adventure in the Far East

- NATASHA HOLT, IAN MACEWAN, RICHARD MCCLURE

NEW FACTUAL

Top Gear

Sunday, 8pm, BBC1

An exotic road trip to a far-flung destination is a Top Gear staple, so Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness were delighted to be travelling to Thailand for the first episode of the new series. Tasked with road-testing three pick-up trucks, the lads headed to Bangkok, where Flintoff’s trip was unexpectedly cut short.

‘I was a day and a half into the trip, and I wasn’t feeling at my best,’ he explains. ‘I tested positive for COVID, and that was me isolating in Thailand on my own. The other two just drove off and carried on!’