Paddy McGuinness shares how he feels about Freddie Flintoff’s solo return to TV following Top Gear

51-year-old Paddy, who says his hometown of Bolton ‘still falls under Lancashire’, worked alongside fellow Lancashire TV star Freddie, 46, on the BBC show Top Gear between 2019 and 2022.

The programme was put on pause however when Preston cricketing star Freddie was taken to hospital in December 2022 after he was left with facial and rib injuries in a crash at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey .

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In November 2023 the BBC announced the motoring programme would be "rested" for the foreseeable future in the wake of the accident, but added that there would be "new projects" for Paddy, Freddie and their other co-star  Chris Harris, 49.

Former England cricket captain Freddie is now fronting a BBC documentary series Freddie Flintoff's Field Of Dreams On Tour, two years after transforming the lives of teenagers in Preston in series one.

Asked if he was "delighted" to see Freddie back on screen, Paddy told Good Morning Britain (GMB): "When we did Top Gear, we're that close, you're together all the time.

"You're going around the world and everything else, you have a real bond.

"And seeing him do stuff like that again, you're glad he's getting back into it and back at it again."

Father of three Paddy, who also hosted ITV dating show Take Me Out, also spoke on the show about his new road trip programme with Chris in which they head to Europe to look at how our European neighbours grow old.

He said they travelled to an island where everyone smoked "like chimneys" and lived into their 90s and learned that the key to living a long life there was to reduce stress levels.

Paddy and Chris: Road Trippin will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with broadcast details to be announced in due course.