Richard Hammond switches gears in ‘Richard Hammond's Workshop'

Richard Hammond. Picture: Supplied

Richard Hammond. Picture: Supplied

Published Jun 27, 2022

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Richard Hammond of “Top Gear” fame trades in his presenter hat for that of a business owner in his new show, “Richard Hammond's Workshop”.

The car buff will be restoring vintage cars and motorbikes at his new workshop, The Smallest Cog, on this high-end restoration show.

With master mechanics duo Neil and Anthony Greenhouse by Hammond’s side, he will restore some over-the-top automotives, amid tight deadlines and exacting customer standards.

Presenting Hammond like we have never seen before, home-life and all, the series follows every twist and turn of this painful but often very funny journey.

Featured cars that pass through the workshop doors are: a Jensen Interceptor, a 1930’s Trike, a Bond Bug, an RS 2000 ‘fast Ford’ and an incredibly rare British supercar.

The idea for the show came about after Hammond heard that the father-son duo (Neil and Anthony) were losing their own restoration workshop.

“Really it came about because of Neil and Anthony, the father and son who are at the heart of the workshop. They’d been restoring my cars for years. Neil said to me one Friday, ‘bad news mate, I’m losing the workshop. They don’t want to rent it to me, they’re developing it’,” said Hammond in an online interview.

Unable to employ them on his own, Hammond offered to open up a workshop where the three could work together – well almost.

“Why don’t we set up a new business together? I’ll fund us into a new workshop and help us get the work, and you do all the work.

“And then after that, I thought, well, that might make a TV show, but the workshop came first. So that’s why the business is genuine, because it’s got to work. The TV show is about the workshop – I didn’t set the workshop up for TV. It is my genuine passion,” Hammond said.

“Richard Hammond's Workshop” will debut on streaming platform BritBox from June 23.