Debbie McGee moved to tears by Richard Hammond in heartbreaking TV moment

Debbie McGee is moved to tears when Richard Hammond reunites her with her treasured classic car. The widow of magician Paul Daniels, who died in 2016, was left distraught when her Mercedes SL, registration 8 DEB, was a total write-off after flood damage. Not wanting to let the car go due to its strong connection to her star husband, she took it to the former Top Gear host's Herefordshire workshop to be restored.

And the results - and emotional handover - can be in tomorrow night's episode of Richard Hammond's Workshop. Debbie, whose weekly Strictly Come Dancing column you can read in tomorrow's Daily Express or at Express.co.uk, says: "I love everything about that car. Obviously, there is the emotional attachment to Paul. It was also my dream car."

When Richard, 55, returns the immaculately restored Mercedes to her, she is overwhelmed by emotion and at first unable to speak.

Clasping her face in her hands, the 66-year-old is overcome, before saying: "Wow! Oh, my goodness! I'm a lot better now that I've seen my car!"

After stroking the Mercedes's bonnet she adds: "Hello, you're back!"

Richard sums up the joy of restoring cars by saying: "It's a good feeling and not just because she is the lovely Debbie McGee off the television. But also because she is very lovely and she loves that car, and it's just right on her. You can see that." Debbie is not the only one who becomes overwhelmed when first setting eyes on a revived vehicle in Richard's Discovery+ series. "There's another absolutely lovely guy in this series, a farmer from Wales, who brought his old 1950s American pick-up truck to us," he says.

"He was so happy when it was done. You'd be surprised. It's honestly quite often big, burly blokes who will get a bit damp-eyed when we return their cars."

The presenter cites another example of a customer whose emotions get the better of him after his car has been resurrected at his workshop, The Smallest Cog.

"The other day we presented him with his Lotus we'd been working on for a while because it's a really difficult car to do.

"It was the first time he had seen it finished. It was really precious to him and he was genuinely moved. I stood next to him and he was quite choked."

Richard confesses he too becomes emotional when he sees the reactions of clients reunited with their prized cars: "Of course, I do. I know how much it means to them."

The father-of-two made his name alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May for 22 years on Top Gear and The Grand Tour. The programmes majored in motoring, mayhem and non-stop mockery. And in a nod to the end of those shows, the presenter opens Richard Hammond's Workshop dressed as Buttons ready for the panto at his local theatre - complete with powder-blue hat and costume, white stockings and high-heeled court shoes. This is the fate mischievous Jeremy and James said awaited him after The Grand Tour.

Might we see his colleagues' forecast come true and witness Richard playing the cheeky chappie at the Courtyard Theatre in Hereford this Christmas, then?

"No," he asserts in a tone that brooks no contradiction. "It's not happening!"

He says the car shows he made with Jeremy and James were successful because "there was an appetite at that particular moment for a show with three misshapen idiots sharing an enthusiasm. And it just caught on".

The three friends, who are still close - "I spoke to them both just last week", Richard says -brought The Grand Tour to a poignant conclusion last year.

He reveals they decided to close on a relatively low-key note. "We did it as a genuine and fond farewell. It wasn't a big fanfare.

"It was an honest 'thank you' to the viewers for watching us. We were saying, 'We've got to do all these amazing things because you watched'. So it was an expression of gratitude."

Intriguingly, when I ask him if they would ever revive The Grand Tour, Richard replies: "Never say never."

He hasn't been idle since. As well as making Workshop, he is also launching new lines in gin and whisky. He laughs the sole reason he has done so is because "both my colleagues did it but I'm the only one who drinks those spirits myself!".

Richard is promoting his gin with the tagline "Tell James May it's better". "I've called it Ratio, which ties in with engineering and gearboxes," he says. "It's a London dry pulled through a hedge. I've added gorse petals, nettles and bilberries to give it a Lakeland twist."

Richard admits the last year has featured a few lows. As well as the end of The Grand Tour, he has lost his much-loved father to cancer, got divorced from wife Mindy after 28 years and moved out of the family home, Bollitree Castle, in Herefordshire. "I'm trying to put a silver lining on this," he acknowledges. "It's been a tough few years but it's not all bad."

Richard is certainly buoyed by the prospect of putting a smile on more clients' faces with his vintage car restorations. "We're proud of all the cars we restore because every one of them is a story. And we're part of that story now, as that car goes forward to continue its life."

It is clear that on Debbie's car - and so many others - Richard is working his own particular brand of magic.

Richard Hammond's Workshop streams on Discovery+ from tomorrow.