EXCLUSIVE Top Gear stars Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff keep secret dangerous stunts like Wall of Death from families

Top Gear stars have revealed they keep secret from their families any daredevil stunts for the BBC One show because they “would talk themselves out of doing them”.

Both presenters Paddy McGuiness and Freddie Flintoff have admitted they don't tell their wives about anything that might put their lives in peril.

The show has a history of calamity.

Richard Hammond suffered a life-threatening brain injury when he crashed a rocket car on an airstrip in 2006.

Several years later he made a miraculous escape from a burning electric car after a hill climb.

Flintoff has now taken on the daredevil mantle, driving a car off the wall of a dam on the end of a bungee rope.

All three have attempted to drive around the so-called “Wall of Death”.

Flintoff said he’s not shied away from any stunt yet.

“So far there’s been nothing I've said ‘no’ to but that might change because after doing the bungee in the last series. It seems the challenges get more and more scary. We did the wall of death which was bonkers and the other thing I really enjoyed doing was driving a Jaguar at 220mph, a 30-year-old supercar. 

“I think we’re pushing the boundaries all the time, and I thought there would come a time when I would say no but so far I’m alright with it.”

Asked about keeping the stunts a secret from his family, he replied: “It’s not a normal job. I think for the family, that’s a need-to-know basis. I remember years ago I did extreme sports series around America and I didn’t really say what I was doing. In the first episode I was stood on a cliff in Acapulco about to dive into the sea and the missus was just sitting there shaking her head. I just tend to keep it to myself and give them no undue worry but i would say we have great health & safety and there’s a long queue for our jobs at the minute…!” 

Said fellow presenter Paddy McGuiness: “We tend not to tell our immediate family too much about it because i think naturally they’re going to get worried and if they’re worried it puts a little seed of doubt in your mind. When we were out in Nepal and we were out on these roads, it was so dangerous and so high up that I never said anything to my wife. 

“The night it was on we watched and she literally couldn’t believe it, ‘Why have you done that? But if you do tell them, you would talk yourself out of it. We need to keep ourselves in the right frame of mind.”