Since the final Grand Tour episode aired on Amazon Prime, all anyone can do is reflect on the memories they have of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

The three are without question the faces of motoring journalism and have all had their fair share of success, controversy, and tragedy over the years.

None more so, arguably, than Richard Hammond.

In 2006, the former Top Gear presenter shared an incredibly powerful dream he had in hospital when he became comatose following his near-fatal crash in a jet car. 

He posted to his YouTube channel What’s Next, in collaboration with Jeremy Clarkson and James May.

The star was travelling at 288 miles an hour when the car’s front left tyre failed, launching him off the track, and leaving him with brain damage to his frontal lobe.

Poignantly reflecting on the hills above Buttermere, he said: "A long time ago, I was in a coma with a brain injury as a result of a particularly flamboyant crash involving a certain jet-powered dragster in hospital intensive care, things apparently not looking very good.

"But I didn't know, there was a lot of morphine flowing around my system.

"Don't you dare die"

"I finally woke and I shared with my wife, Mindy, a dream I'd been having, a really, really, really vivid one, probably partly on account of the morphine. And in my mind, I'd been walking these hills here, overlooking Buttermere.

"I was having a lovely time strolling along. And gradually, I've got a growing sense of you know when you know you're in trouble. When you're a teenager, staying out just that a bit too late, you're not definitely in massive trouble yet, but you're in a bit of trouble. And that feeling grew and grew.

"And I walked up this slope where I am now, towards this tree, this exact tree, and as I got closer and closer to the tree, that sense of: 'Oh I really am in trouble. I'm going to be shouting. I'm going to be in a lot of trouble,' grew and grew until eventually in my dream, I turned back and didn't walk around this tree and instead carried on.

"I woke and that's the dream I told Mindy about. Mindy told me her side of the story because at the same time, I was having that dream, she'd been called into intensive care and told: 'Mrs. Hammond, I'm really sorry. Things aren't looking good'."

@powerfulpriorities The Power of the Mind. #motivation #richardhammond #topgear #lakedistrict #buttermere #inspiration #dontgiveup #emotional #keepgoing ♬ Experience (Cover Ludovico Einaudi) - 北昼

"I was on full life support and breathing apparatus, the lot. And she was told, 'It's not looking good. I think we're gonna lose him', and she said, 'Is there anything I can do?' And they said, 'Well, no, not really,' and she said, 'Can I shout at him?', they replied 'Yeah, whatever', she asked 'No, I mean, really, really shout at him'."

"And she did, and apparently roared and screamed and swore at me: 'Don't you dare die'."

"When I turned back from this tree in my dream, that is when I woke, it's true. And when I didn't really come up to this hill and walk around this tree, I was in a coma in Leeds,
but my mind did, and my mind is who I am.


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"I know that very well, having damaged it with a frontal lobe brain injury, and spent a long time recovering, and I've taken huge solace from that ever since, because that was my last thought, certainly at the time.

"And my last thoughts took me somewhere I love and somewhere unhappy. And that last thought, if I had shut down and stopped, would have echoed, as far as I was concerned, for all of eternity.

"And I've found immense comfort from it ever since. I'm not scared of this old tree. I pass it regularly, when most months, at some point, I'll come up here and walk. And every time I pass it, I do feel comforted, and that was where I'll go. And it's still here, and I'm still here,
but it does, it does speak of the importance of place and the joy of being connected with the place.

"And I know this is very, very genuinely where I am and where one day I will be, and one day I will walk around this tree, nice to know where it is."