Freddie Flintoff's Field Of Dreams 'shelved' by BBC after three series amid reports he has 'defected' to ITV
Freddie Flintoff’s hit BBC series Field Of Dreams has reportedly been shelved after three series on air.
The series followed the former cricketer and Ashes hero as he went back to his grassroots to help train and mentor young teens in the sport.
Viewers fell in love with the series, that saw Freddie help to uplift kids from all backgrounds out of trouble by channelling their energy into cricket. Field Of Dreams aired three series and saw the athlete-turned-television star create a team in his hometown of Preston, as well as a girls team in Blackpool.
However, Field Of Dreams has now been shelved by the BBC, according to The Sun. A BBC spokesperson said: "We are incredibly proud of Field Of Dreams and, while there are no current plans for it to return, we would like to thank Freddie, the producers and all the contributors for three fantastic series."
It comes amid Freddie’s public struggles with the broadcaster after his 2022 crash while filming for the BBC motoring show Top Gear. He crashed a Morgan Super 3 on Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, with the car flipping and sliding along the track with Freddie still in the vehicle.
Freddie was airlifted to hospital and sustain serious facial injuries. Top Gear was put on hiatus indefinitely as a result of the crash, with the last series airing in October 2022.
Speaking in his Disney+ documentary, Freddie said: "I thought I was dead, because I was conscious but I couldn't see anything
"I was thinking, is that it? Is that it? You know what I mean? Just black for the rest of my days? My hat came over my eyes - so I pulled my hat up and I thought, no I'm not [dead], I'm on the Top Gear track, this is not heaven."
BBC Studios later paid out £9,000,000 in compensation to the presenter, who had fronted Top Gear since 2019. During his Disney+ documentary, he revealed that he felt pressured to perform bigger stunts on the show, saying: “That’s the danger that TV falls into — and I found out the hard way, eventually,' Flintoff explained.
'Everybody wants more, everybody wants that thing that nobody has seen before, everyone wants that bigger stunt. In some ways it’s, ‘Let’s have that near miss, because then that’ll get viewers’. Everything is about viewers. Always, always.
“And I should have been cleverer on this, because I learnt this in sport as well... and was just treated like a piece of meat.”
The Sun also reports that Freddie has now “defected” to rival channel ITV following the shelving of Field Of Dreams. Freddie already fronts ITV’s revival series of Bullseye, but more shows could be in the pipeline after his final tie to the BBC was cut.
A source told the newspaper: “This is a huge development as when Freddie signed for Top Gear in 2019, he increasingly started to become a face of the BBC. Although he wasn’t exclusive to the corporation, by early 2022, he delivered Field Of Dreams for BBC One, and had BBC Two motor renovation show, Chasing Cars, in the pipeline.
“But by 2023, Top Gear had been slapped on ice and the renovation show is now a distant memory. Field Of Dreams won’t be returning and Freddie has no more projects lined up with the Beeb.”