Top Gear is to return to TV, the BBC has confirmed, four years after the show was “rested” when co-host Andrew Flintoff was injured in a crash during filming.

The long-running motoring programme has been off air since 2022, when the former cricketer suffered serious facial and rib injuries when his open-topped three-wheeled car overturned at the show’s test track.

He was one of three presenters at the time along with Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.

The hosting line-up for the comeback has not yet been announced, although the Sun newspaper last week reported that comedian Jimmy Carr was in talks to join.

The BBC’s director of entertainment Ed Havard told the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday: “There has been a lot of speculation about this and we can confirm that Top Gear is coming back.

“I’m not going to talk about talent today.”

Asked whether Jimmy Carr would be hosting, he replied: “Jimmy would be a great host but I won’t be discussing that today.

“We will have more information on Top Gear shortly.”

Former rugby player and Celebrity Traitors star Joe Marler is also reportedly in the frame to host.

The show will be made by BBC Studios, which did not comment further.

Top Gear began in 1977 and became one of the BBC’s biggest hits in the hands of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May in the 2000s.

They were replaced by broadcaster Chris Evans and Friends star Matt LeBlanc, before Flintoff, McGuinness and Harris took over in 2018.

The BBC apologised and paid compensation to Flintoff following his crash.

He has described being dragged face-down underneath the Morgan Super 3 car for about 50 metres. “I thought I was dead,” he told a Disney+ documentary last year.

Paul Rees, a racing driver and expert adviser who was in the car with Flintoff, has sued BBC Studios for up to £150,000 for personal injury. BBC Studios has said: “We dispute this claim and are defending it.”