It is reported that doctors caring for Richard Hammond, the Petrolhead’s Friend and Top Gear presenter who was seriously injured when his car went out of control during a speed trial, have concerns about his brain function as a result of the accident. If the accident had happened to Hammond’s co-presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, the medics would at least not have had to worry on that score.

Top Gear is an interesting case of a curious condition — the worship of stupidity. It is filmed in a vast aircraft hangar filled with grinning, half-witted, twentysomething males and is dedicated solely to the fetishising of speed and the lampooning of any measure designed to protect society from dangerous driving. On the few occasions when I’ve watched it, what always came to mind was Randy Newman’s wonderful satirical song about American rednecks, the chorus of which goes:

We’re red-necks, red-necks,
We don’t know our ass from a hole in the ground.
We’re red-necks, red-necks,
Keepin’ the niggers down.