BAFTA Awards snub Freddie Flintoff despite his inspiring television comeback
Former sports star and Top Gear presenter Freddie Flintoff was snubbed by BAFTA after making an emotional comeback to our screens. The ex-athlete was left fighting for his life
Freddie was up for Best Factual series at this year's ceremony, which was held at London's Royal Festival Hall. His BBC One series Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams on Tour had hoped to gain the gong, as it showcased the former cricketer taking a team of unlikely lads from Lancashire to India
However, he didn't bag the award, which instead went to a Channel 4 show. The eventual winner was To Catch a Copper, a show which investigated officer misconduct within the Avon and Somerset Police.
It shed light on misogyny, abuse of power and racial profiling in the process of the show.
Despite Freddie not being honoured at the BAFTAs this time around, he has signed up for another series of the show. This time, the team will be all girls, according to reports.
Speaking to the Sun, a source said: "Freddie didn't see why the young women in Preston shouldn't get the same chances as the boys, particularly as more and more female teams are popping up across the country.
"After all, the whole point of the show is to provide equal opportunities and use the sport to help people regardless of their background. So why should gender be a barrier?"
Following his first time back on screen, Freddie has since candidly shared his recovery in a revealing documentary on Disney+. The show revealed his horrifying injuries.
It also shows a close up of the three-wheeled car he was driving for the first time. Surgeon Jahrad Haq, who treated Flintoff at the time, told the documentary the star's injuries were "very complex'.
Following his near-death crash, Freddie suffered a mixture of hard and soft tissue injuries, broken teeth, lost teeth and elements of the upper jaw bone that were also fractured and displaced.
Mr Haq went on: 'He lost a really significant portion of his upper lip - the skin and some of the underlying muscle - and also his lower lip.' Mr Haq said the injuries were in the "top five" in terms of severity of those he had seen during his career.
The injuries were so bad that Freddie's wife fought back tears when she first saw him. She also warned their four children of what to expect. She recalled in the documentary: 'When I did see him, I walked in the room, and he was just in the bed, and he was bandaged up.
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