Wednesday 08 / May / 2024
“We are all car journalists, and we have spent the last 20 years being fired. But we have poured everything we know, everything we care about, into this show. Everything.” If there’s one thing you can say with certainty about Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, it’s not that they care about cars, it’s that they care about cars so much that they eventually make you care about them as well.
After nearly 20 years of presenting Top Gear, and the disciplinary issues that surrounded Clarkson, which led to him, Hammond and May leaving the famed motoring show at the end of 2015, there were plenty of takers for the trio’s famed brand of witty banter, childish antics and ability to make even the flashiest of cars relatable to all of us, and that’s what made them one of the best things on TV in the first place.
So was born The Grand Tour, a British motoring show with a distinctly American spin on it, which once again follows Clarkson, Hammond and May as they show viewers around the world everything that cars have to offer, in the process converting us into motoring enthusiasts.
Conceived by Amazon Prime and featuring the antics of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, The Grand Tour is now available to stream and watch online.
The show was announced to great fanfare, with the very first episode showing Clarkson leaving gloomy, dreary, rain-soaked London in a traditional black cab, as voiceovers announcing his departure from Top Gear played over the video. After taking a flight to Los Angeles, Clarkson heads for the rent-a-car section, where he is directed to a blue Ford Mustang waiting for him.
After setting out on the open road – while the on-air radio jockey announces that the weather will be clear and sunny – a stark contrast to Britain and what he’s left behind, his blue Mustang roars towards the outside of the city and into the vast Californian desert, where he is joined by James May, at the wheel of a red car, and Richard Hammond, who’s driving a white one – another nod to both the red, white and blue of Britain’s Union Jack, as well as the American Stars and Stripes.
As they pull into their mobile studio – a large tent complex erected in the middle of the desert – and past a cheering, chanting crowd that has set up their very own Burning Man music fest – or in this case, Burning Van – the trio get back to doing what it is that they do best, and love doing it along the way.
While season two of The Grand Tour did feature a move to a permanent studio in Britain’s Cotswolds, the charm of the tent was that the three of them could host they show anywhere.
Their first ever episode was shot in the Californian desert, while their second was broadcast from Johannesburg in South Africa. Subsequent episodes were shot in the Bahamas, Finland and the United Arab Emirates among others, allowing for a different background through the tent’s wide window. Yes, the tent has a window.
Liberally peppered through the show are several of the rude jokes made by the presenters, often at the expense of the Americans, but also at so many others, including the French, the Italians, and basically anybody who isn’t British (with the exception, of course, of Top Gear).
While some of course will have their reservations about the team, the truth is that The Grand Tour is an amazing show that once again brings the best of motoring to our screens, and not necessarily the ones on our televisions, and this time, mixes British subtlety and sarcasm with American flair and energy. It’s not a system that should work, but it does, and that what makes it an amazing show that you can watch this weekend. Or whenever you want to, really .
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The Short and Skinny
Name: The Grand Tour
Genre: Motoring
What it’s about: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back, doing what they do best – talking about cars, and making us love the machines in the process, in The Grand Tour.
Produced by: W. Chump Productions
Produced for: Amazon Prime
Number of Episodes: 29 (across three series)
IMDB Rating: 8/10
Runtime: 44-71 minutes
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Various streaming sites
IMDB Rating: 8.7/10
