After transforming a cricket club and the lives of teenagers in his hometown of Preston, Freddie and the boys are back in this four part series for BBC One

Over the past few weeks, millions of us have been gripped by the heroics of the athletes at the Paris Olympics.

And if those Games (and the Paralympics, which are due to start in two weeks’ time) haven’t confirmed that sport can be inspirational, then cast your mind back to July 2022, when the first season of Freddie Flintoff: Field of Dreams aired on BBC One.

The programme saw the former England cricket star, former Top Gear presenter and A League Of Their Own captain embark on a mission to find untapped cricketing talent in his hometown of Preston and convince the teenagers that the sport isn’t “posh and boring”.

There were plenty of ups and downs along the way, but not only did Freddie assemble a cricket team like no other, he also helped to transform the lives of his recruits and brought together a community on the Broadfield Estate.

The transformative and authentic programme was one of the surprise hits of the year, and as well as shining a light on the problems of youth neglect and poverty in modern Britain, it also highlighted how sport can bring people together when all else is lost.

In October 2022, a four-part follow-up series was commissioned, which would see

Freddie catch up with Sean, Ben and Adnan and the other players from the team and find out how the fortunes of the cricket club have changed.

“Working with the boys was one of the most incredible experiences of my life but the work is not finished yet,” Flintoff said at the time.

“I’m really pleased we’ll be continuing the hard work we have all put in, but on a much bigger scale.”

Freddie also had ambitious plans to take the team he created to compete in India, one of the most revered cricketing nations in the world.

However, a life-changing accident threatened to put a halt to his and their dreams.

We all know now that Flintoff was lucky to emerge alive when driving a Morgan Super 3 sports car he was driving for a Top Gear feature overturned at the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome test track near Guildford, Surrey, in December 2022.

The cricketer was not wearing a helmet when the car flipped, meaning he scraped his face along the tarmac and had to be airlifted to hospital.

Following the accident, Flintoff kept a low profile during his recovery, until he joined the coaching staff of England’s cricket team in a temporary and unofficial capacity last September.

This period is documented in the new series, Field of Dreams On Tour, as Freddie visits his team one year after the accident to announce the planned trip to Kolkata is back on.

As they travel to subcontinent, each member of the team has to learn to live with each other and fend for themselves, but not everyone adapts to the challenges of their new environment.

There is no doubt that this second series is going to be just as moving as the first, perhaps for different reasons.

But as Freddie continues his own recovery and develops his cricketing coaching career, they programme will once shows how sport can be a force for good.