Hammond: Having Angelina as a neighbour 'wasn't all bad'

8:11pm Sunday 24th February 2008

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TELEVISION presenter Richard Hammond has admitted his brief move to Buckinghamshire 'wasn't all bad' - as movie star beauty Angelina Jolie lived around the corner.

In an interview in today's Sunday Times, the Top Gear host joked about his brief move to Hammersley Lane in Tylers Green, last month with wife Mindy and their two daughters Isabella, seven, and Willow, four.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie is said to own a house in nearby Beaconsfield.

The Hamster' spent just 48 hours at the rented house before deciding the area was too posh and returning his family, cars, bikes, dogs, horses and ducks back to their farmhouse in Gloucestershire.

"We sold our house near Cheltenham then rented a colossal, utterly ruined old farm on the Gloucestershire-Herefordshire border, and sort of fell in love with it", the 38-year-old told the Sunday Times.

"When we got to Buckinghamshire I realised my heart wasn't in it. I mean we had Angelina Jolie round the corner, it wasn't all bad, but I didn't want to come home and see Mindy immaculately dressed and the girls playing nicely in front of the TV; I liked everyone running around covered in mud. We could have adapted, but I didn't want it."

Hammond now says he is planning to buy a farm, buthas not said where his is looking to relocate to.

He added: "I plan to find someone to manage it for me. Then I'll stand there in my posh farmer wellies and annoy everyone by flouncing up from London every weekend and calling my cows sheeps."

The presenter also talked openly about his recovery from a brain injury since he crashed in a jet stream car at a speed of 314 mile in 2006 while filming Top Gear.

He said: "It's been a bloody long journey and it's still going. It's when I consider how far I've come since I was in hospital that I realise there was a lot more to fix than I thought.

"The swelling has gone down, my brain is as mended as it's likely to be. Now it seems to be more a case of rewiring itself."