Thinking back to 2002 when you were crapping yourself on a footbridge above the A40 before your Top Gear audition, did you back then have any idea how wildly popular you might become?
When I finally got the job on Top Gear, it had sort of moved up a gear from satellite television; stuff I had being doing already too. I sat down with Mindy and we discussed that this could potentially be a bit of a life-changing experience; we might need to hold on tight here and obviously, we did. I’d been around the business long enough to know that if the programme took off, it could be a big one. But none of us knew the extent to which the programme would catch on. We just wanted to make a car show as we thought it should be made. So we went out and we made it. And as it turned out, a great many people wanted that show. It wasn’t a calculated thing. We didn’t sit down and think about what would appeal to people; we thought about what would appeal to us.
There are other car shows out there, though. What makes you so different?
It’s a broad audience and in this country, certainly it’s 50 percent female, it’s a big family audience. I think, as people, we’ve always loved cars but we are not all geeks; we are – James, Jeremy and I are – but the show itself has never been geeky. We don’t sit down and look through a list of performance figures. We are more likely to talk about cars with passion in terms of the way they sound, look, feel and what they say about you; that’s our slant on it and I think that’s got a broad rapport with people watching it. And also, it’s been said to me by people that “it’s just like watching my mates down the pub.” Another thing that’s said is: “You three look like you’d be doing that even if the cameras weren’t there,” which we would. We know we’re getting it right when people say that about us.
It was somewhat of a media frenzy for a while, there. You had guys camping out on rooftops trying to take photographs of you at the hospital. Has your relationship with the press changed because of that?
A little bit. I do get followed around town occasionally. And if it’s a bad news day, they’ll go and pick on me but not in a bad way. I have not had any negative experience at all to be honest. It was intrusive and difficult at the time but you can’t blame the “snappers.” If you’re some 25-year-old lad and someone’s going to pay you thousands of dollars for a photograph of a hapless little fellow from a car show who has bumped his head, we’ll, I’m sorry but I’d do it. And we all buy newspapers so we can’t blame the papers themselves; we make them. So I enjoy a decent relationship with the press. Obviously, it will be different when I run off with my PA; it might be tricky.
In the early days, when you were struggling to feed your family, what kept you going, what kept you searching for your dream job?
I’m bloody stubborn. I don’t know but I had better think it through because when my girls get older, I’m going to be stamping around saying, “Well, if you keep going for what you want to achieve, you can achieve it. Look at me.” But I don’t know, it’s what I do. I am a communicator, I love broadcasting. I’m not done yet with it, I’ll do a lot more of it. I was just carrying on doing what I do and then I lucked out because I got a job that meant I could carry on what I was doing, earn a decent salary and have fun doing it. Lucky me.
Do you think that this is the same stubbornness that got you home in a matter of weeks when doctors said it would be years?
I rather suspect that it was. I am bloody stubborn. In the case of brain damage, particularly, your body stops mattering and I do recall a point when nobody was trying to fix my body and feeling pretty much reduced to all that we are, which is this small, grey, slimy, rather angry thing, which is hiding away at the back of the cave inside my head. And you fight. That’s when you fight. And I did. It’s really easy to sit here now and say that I made it because I was stubborn. It was probably because I was lucky but that stubbornness didn’t hurt.
What’s your favourite car?
Right now, it would probably be my 1957 Series One Land Rover with the roof and doors off, my dogs in the back, and my wife and my girls beside me, trundling along on my farm. That would be my favourite car in the world. Tomorrow might be a Ferrari in the South of France, I don’t know.
What’s next for you?
I suspect that later this year, I’ll do a studio show as well as Top Gear. I used to do a lot of other telly and I like live television; I adore live television – it’s a fabulous feeling. So I’ll probably get back and do some of that, and I’ll carry on with Top Gear until a wheel comes off that. And I’ll cope with what happens next. I did briefly in my life have a serious, grown up job and one of the reasons I was compelled to leave was that the best thing about my life then was that I knew where I would be in ten, 20 years’ time and I realised that I couldn’t be bothered. If I knew what type of house I’d be in, where it would be, where I’d be going to work, what I’d be doing – I can’t do that. What would be the point? It would take out all the adventure. So the happy answer is… What’s next? I don’t know, I’ll find out when I get there.
TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI)
o Every year, between 22,000 and 33,000 people sustain a TBI in New Zealand.
o Eight to ten percent of these are severe TBIs, and the majority of these are the result of motor vehicle crashes.
Major causes:
o Road accidents
o Sports injuries
o Assaults and violence
o Trips and falls
High risk groups:
o Children under five years
o Men aged 15 to 30 years
o Older people aged 65 years and over
CONSEQUENCES OF A TBI
Brain injury is often called a “hidden injury” because often, there are no visible changes to a person after a brain injury. Despite this, a brain injury can result in any of the following:
o Fatigue – this is the most common consequence of a brain injury. Often the fatigue is “mental fatigue,” connected more with mental tasks than physical tasks.
o Physical problems – headaches, dizziness and nausea, difficulty with walking and balance, sensitivity to noise and light.
o Cognitive problems – attention and memory problems, reduced problem-solving and speed of information processing, language difficulties, impaired insight.
o Emotional and behavioural problems – anxiety, depression, agitation, impulsivity, irritability, verbal and physical aggression.
o Impact on work/study – this might range from disruption of work habits to job loss.
o Social interaction – there may be difficulty relating with family and friends.
The Brain Injury Association of New Zealand
The Brain Injury Association of New Zealand Inc (BIANZ) represents the regional Brain Injury Associations around New Zealand. These regional associations provide education, advocacy, support and information to people with brain injuries and their families and carers.
Phone: 09 414 5693
Fax: 09 415 5693
Email: national@brain-injury.org.nz
Website:
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