How a day in Weston-super-Mare shaped Richard Hammond's life

Hammond, 54, who is best known for co-presenting Top Gear and The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, often visited Weston as a child because his grandparents retired in the town in 1970.

In a video posted to the DriveTribe YouTube channel, Hammond explains how three moments, which took place on the same day when he was eight years old, helped shape his love of cars and television.

At the start of the video, as he drives from his classic car garage in Herefordshire to the Somerset coast, he said: “Waiting at the end of this journey is the one place, the single spot in the world, that set the course for my entire life.

“And it happened on one particular day.

“The place? It’s not Monte Carlo. It’s Weston-super-Mare.

“Ranked 18th in a list of the top 20 coastal resorts in The Telegraph, it’s the birthplace of John Cleese, home to the largest helicopter museum in Europe and, in 2024, to more anti-social behaviour than any other town in Somerset.

“It’s also the place that my grandparents retired to in 1970. That’s why we used to trek here from Birmingham. And on August bank holiday 1978, I was here.

“Three things happened that, combined, defined my entire adult life.”

The first was watching Derek Griffiths presenting a television show from the beach in front of the Grand Pier.

Hammond explained: “I was standing over there, looking over the wall. And what I saw here was a small group of people kind of milling around.

“But in the middle of them was one bloke waving his arms around frantically, obviously doing something – communicating – energetically.

“Then I looked closer, and it wasn’t a person; it was a TV camera.

“And then I recognised the guy: it was Derek Griffiths.

“He was a very well-known children’s presenter who was doing a piece, probably for Play Away. I watched how he was pouring everything and anything into that lens.

“And I thought, what does that feel like, to talk to somebody who isn’t there, but clearly is there? How does he do that? I want to do that.

“That’s what set me on the path to what I’m doing now. I’m talking to you through that lens. But the lens isn’t there: you are.”

Richard Hammond opened a motor museum in Taunton in November. (Image: NQ Staff)

He then moved on to the gardens between Beach Road and Marine Parade – where he came across his first car show – before heading to the beach car park, where his parents used to let him steer their car whenever they visited on holiday.

Explaining how it felt, he said: “I was captain of the ship. I was steering this thing.

“It was the single best day, the best moment, of my year, every year.”