![This is the first time since the December 2022 accident that we have seen or heard Flintoff talk about it, and the images in that first video diary are shocking](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/tv/2024/08/14/TELEMMGLPICT000390022580_17236176741510_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq-IWLY18X4-CzgyIcjLEAj0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams On Tour, review: the year’s most touching series
After his horrific crash in 2022, Flintoff’s return to both TV and getting youngsters into cricket (through a tour of India) is inspiring
![This is the first time since the December 2022 accident that we have seen or heard Flintoff talk about it, and the images in that first video diary are shocking](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/tv/2024/08/14/TELEMMGLPICT000390022580_17236176741510_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq-IWLY18X4-CzgyIcjLEAj0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Freddie Flintoff’s return to television would be a five-star watch even without the insight he provides into his horrific Top Gear crash. That accident happened midway through filming Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams On Tour (BBC One), and during the programme he speaks about the psychological trauma he has suffered. The physical trauma is plain to see on his scarred face in a video shot a week-and-a-half after the crash.
Yet the sense of joy, humour and hope that infused the first series of this show – in which Flintoff took a bunch of kids from his home town of Preston and introduced them to cricket – is also here in abundance. I’ll wager it’s the most entertaining, touching series you’ll watch this year.
This time, Flintoff is taking the boys on tour. “Lancaster?” ventures the head coach. “Benidorm?” asks one of the lads. No, it’s India. Some of the team have never even been on a plane. One excitedly rings his family to tell them, and when he says that he has some amazing news, the worried voice on the other end of the line asks: “She’s not pregnant is she, Dylan?”
Then the crash happens. This is the first time since the December 2022 accident that we have seen or heard him talk about it, and the images in that first video diary are shocking. “Genuinely shouldn’t be here after what happened. It’s going to be a long road back and I’ve only just started,” he says.
It is 11 months until we see Flintoff again. He speaks openly and honestly about how he has been affected: nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety about leaving the house. “I’m different to what I was. It’s something I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life. Better? No. Different.” But he hasn’t forgotten the promise he made to the kids, and finally the trip goes ahead. It’s clear that this project is part of his healing process.
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They set off for Kolkata, the boys’ suitcases packed with sweets and instant noodles. A first visit to India is a culture shock for anyone, and their faces as they’re driven into the city are a mix of delight, astonishment and terror. Flintoff, who was once in their shoes, understands that this is about more than playing cricket. It’s about pushing the boys to go out into the world and experience new things. They’re not going to make it as professional cricketers – with the possible exception of Adnan, an Afghan refugee with a talent for the game – but everything they learn here will help them as they make their way through life.
“I feel like I’m father to nine lads at the minute,” says Flintoff. He would actually have made a great teacher: doling out pep talks and disapproving looks when the team is late to breakfast, but otherwise treating them with encouragement, kindness and humour. Flintoff pays particular attention to those who are overcoming challenges: Josh, who is autistic and finds it hard to deal with the bustle and unfamiliar food of India; Sean, who has the potential to go off the rails.
Some of the boys are more mature than others, but all seem to cope admirably with the demands of the trip. There is a sweetness about them, especially their (possibly misplaced) confidence in their sporting abilities. “If we do this in India, I don’t see a team that beats us,” says one after a training day in Loughborough, blissfully unaware of the calibre of player they’re going to encounter in a cricket-mad country.
Flintoff, who has lost none of his sense of humour, gives a more realistic assessment. “I think we need to find the worst cricketers in Kolkata and ask them for a game,” he jokes. In the end, he finds a bunch of kids from a children’s home playing gully cricket – tennis ball, underarm bowling, plastic wicket set up in a narrow street – as a starting point for the tour.
Occasionally, the programme-makers can’t resist a reality-TV flourish. Would any tourists in India, let alone a bunch of teenagers, really go out to source ingredients for dinner, including a stomach-churning trip to a meat market? But that’s a minor criticism. Field of Dreams is great. And it’s good to have Freddie Flintoff back.