Paddy McGuinness and his fellow Top Gear hosts Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris paid tribute to daredevil biker Eddie Kidd with an explosive stunt display in the first episode of the brand new series, which aired on Sunday 14 November.
Kidd, 62, changed into one of the best bikers of his technology, acting demise-defying feats and running on multiple James Bond films, however turned into left paralysed following an accident in 1996.
Top Gear paid tribute to this British legend in the handiest way it knows how: with McGuinness sporting leathers and leaping through a ring of fire, whilst other proficient bikers leapt over trophy vehicles in one of the maximum remarkable stunt spectacles visible on the show.
But who is Eddie Kidd, and what befell to him in his coincidence?
Here is the entirety you want to recognise approximately him.
Who is Eddie Kidd?
Born in Islington in 1959, Kidd commenced his stunt profession at the age of fourteen.
By the age of 20, he turned into doubling for stars together with Harrison Ford within the film Hanover Street, wherein he accomplished one among his maximum audacious stunts - leaping 37m over a Somerset railway reducing at ninety miles according to hour.
He went on to work as a double in many films, extensively for Roger Moore and Michael Caine in 1990’s Bullseye!, and on James Bond movies like The Living Daylights and the Pierce Brosnan-starring GoldenEye.
In 1993, Kidd carried out some other headlining grabbing feat, jumping over the Great Wall of China on a bike. That equal yr he changed into challenged to a world title motorbike "bounce off" opposition by Robbie Knievel, the son of the overdue Evel Knievel.
The televised pay-according to-view occasion noticed every rider make three motorbike jumps, with the cumulative distance covered by means of every used to determine the winner.
Kidd gained by way of six feet.
What passed off to Kidd?
Eddie Kidd OBE become one of the finest bikers of all of them – an impossibly talented and handsome stunt rider who performed loss of life-defying feats.
However, a crash in 1996 ended Eddie’s using profession, leaving him with life-changing accidents.
Kidd was performing at the Bulldog Bash at Long Marston Airfield close to Stratford-upon-Avon, and turned into trying a motorbike jump of 15m throughout a drag strip.
In contrast to some of his preceding stunts, the soar Kidd was trying was relatively minor, and he finished the stunt and landed the bike upright on two wheels.
However, his chin struck the motorcycle’s petrol tank upon landing and he became knocked subconscious, not able to prevent himself and the bike continuing over a 20ft drop at the give up of the rather quick touchdown region.
Kidd sustained extreme head and pelvic accidents within the crash, and his dad and mom have been advised that he will be in a coma for up to ten years.
He luckily regained awareness three months after the twist of fate, however changed into left paralysed and with brain harm.