Father-of-four Paul Shoesmith, aged 50, lost his life on the course in June 2016 shortly after recording his fastest-ever lap.

Tonight the BBC will broadcast a programme featuring him.

The BBC says that, according to unofficial records, Mr Shoesmith was the 250th rider to be killed on the road track and since his death five more have lost their lives. The total number of fatalities includes both TT events and Manx Grand Prix races.

The broadcaster also says that the mounting death toll has renewed the campaign for the annual race on the Snaefell Mountain Course to be cancelled.

But Mr Shoesmith’s widow Janet Cowden has told BBC Inside Out North West that she could not support the campaign, despite her family’s loss.

The couple, from Poynton in Cheshire, had two small children (now aged three and four) when he was killed on a training run on the course.

Ms Cowden said: ’He died doing something he loved.’

She added: ’A lot of people would have wanted me to hate the event and to hate racing... it’s just so hard to do that.

’I would never allow anyone to slate the sport or slate what he did because it’s what made him - it would be disrespectful to him.

’There’s nothing else like [the TT] and I’ll never hate something that brought him and our families so much joy.’

Former union boss Bernard Moffatt, once a columnist in the Manx Independent and well-known in the island for his work with the Celtic League and other organisations, told the programme:

"Prior to the TT we scale back activity in the hospital to make sure that is clear.

’Now what civilised society does that ahead of a sporting event?

’It’s reached the stage where the pressure on riders to perform and the speed of the machines is such that eventually there’s going to be probably an horrendous incident.’

One lap of the TT is 37.75 miles of twists and turns, 264 corners, fringed by immovable objects, walls, telegraph poles, houses.

Organisers said: ’We try to make it as safe as possible and conduct an annual risk assessment.’

The programme can be seen on Inside Out North West tonight (Monday 11th September ) at 7.30pm on BBC1.