‘Top Gear’ host insists number plate was accident

Top Gear host Richard Hammond has claimed the programme team felt a "real chill" when it dawned on them their number plate could cause offence in Argentina.

The presenters of the show and their crew fled the country — where they were filming a Christmas special — as a result of protests over the plate on Jeremy Clarkson’s Porsche which read H982 FKL, which some interpreted as an insensitive reference to the Falklands War in 1982.

Hammond, speaking for the first time about the incident, assured viewers it was an innocent coincidence, echoing comments which have been made by his colleagues.