most recent grand tour special

The Grand Tour: Eurocrash — release date, first look, premise and everything we know

The Grand Tour: Eurocrash is the latest Prime Video motoring special.

The Grand Tour: Eurocrash is the latest motoring special from James May, Jeremy Clarkson, and Richard Hammond, which will see them touring Central Europe.

The ex- Top Gear trio will take on a 1400-mile journey in the Prime Video special, where they'll see some Soviet-style Formula 1 and recruit a famous racing driver, as well as being attacked by deadly archers and taking part in a spectacular climax, so there's plenty to look forward to!

Specific details are under wraps, but we do have a small amount of information about the newest Grand Tour special, which was filmed in Poland and Slovenia.

According to  The Sun , a TV insider has claimed fans will be impressed by their latest outing, and said: "This will be a special like no other — and fans are going to lap it up. Nobody thought Central Europe would be an option for a road trip."

The insider added: "But the lads have well and truly proven it’s a great destination for petrolheads." 

Here's everything we know about The Grand Tour: Eurocrash so far...

The Grand Tour: Eurocrash release date

The new special will arrive on Prime Video on Friday, June 16, and will be available worldwide. 

We don't know how long the runtime is yet, but previous The Grand Tour specials have been around 90 minutes, so we're expecting another feature-length one.

The Grand Tour: Eurocrash premise

According to Amazon, the premise is: "Jeremy, Richard, and James head to Central Europe on a road trip nobody has ever thought of, in cars nobody would ever dream of."

It adds: "This epic 1400-mile journey takes them from Gdańsk in Poland, through Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. They sample some Soviet-style Formula 1, are attacked by deadly archers, recruit a famous racing driver and take part in a spectacular Fast and Furious climax."

The special follows their most recent release, A Scandi Flick, and Amazon says it will launch ahead of their next adventure which has recently finished filming in Mauritania, although we don't have any details about this one yet.

Is there a trailer?

Prime Video has not released a trailer for the new special yet, but we'll let you know if that changes.

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Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story , Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress ! 

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The grand tour: every special, ranked.

The Grand Tour has delivered many excellent specials, so we've ranked them to find out which one is best.

After Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May moved on from Top Gear , everyone wondered what their next adventure would take them. Happily,  The Grand Tour was soon announced by Amazon and was very similar to Top Gear in many ways. The main difference was the size of the budget given to the trio to spend per episode.

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Thanks to this large amount of money, Clarkson, Hammond, and May were able to produce more exciting and bigger scale episodes than they had ever done before. This resulted in special episodes becoming more and more frequent. Indeed, the fourth season of The Grand Tour will consist only of specials. To celebrate this, we've ranked all of the specials so far.

Operation Desert Stumble (Season 1, Episode 2)

In Season 1, viewers were still trying to adjust to the show's format. The first episode put their fears at ease (mostly) but the second episode had the unenviable task of introducing the traditional 'challenges' in a new light. Although it's not technically a special, "Operation Desert Stumble" was the show's first attempt at showing Clarkson, Hammond, and May outside of the tent being totally stupid.

Unfortunately, while a bit entertaining, the episode fell a bit flat. The series was trying too hard to be something different and resulted in the entire challenge feeling forced. The trio had to rescue hostages and take them to the embassy while fighting off insurgents. There was a distinct lack of vehicles present and even the banter felt wooden.

Sea To Unsalty Sea (Season 3, Episode 11)

The Grand Tour special episodes are known for their creativity, and also their hilarity, as they often involve the presenters using old cars or general vehicles and placing them well outside of their comfort zone. However, in this special, Clarkson, Hammond and May broke away from that formula and bought 3 grand touring cars for a drive from Georgia to Azerbaijan.

Since there were no real perilous obstacles for the trio to face, the whole episode felt a bit tame compared to their other adventures. There were still a couple of highlights, such as May breaking Stalin's cupboard and the 'real world race' but other than that, the episode just felt a bit dull. However, the stars of the show were, of course, the cars, which looked absolutely amazing.

International Buffoon's Vacation (Season 3, Episode 8)

This special was miles better than the previous entry but unfortunately, this space still had to be filled. Basically, Clarkson, Hammond, and May were told to go on holiday in the United States in RVs. Not willing to share, they each branched off and bought their own and modified them to their liking. May made his RV into a pub, Clarkson transformed his RV into a toilet/speedboat hybrid and Hammond bought a van and made it worse.

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It's always fun to watch the presenters create obstacles for themselves, and there were a lot of things that went wrong in this special, which was a very good thing. However, the one constant thread that ruined an otherwise great Grand Tour special was the weird thing with Jeremy and the show's ex-racing driver, the American. It just felt incredibly forced and detracted from the episode's sense of fun.

Feed The World (Season 2, Episode 11)

Season 2 of The Grand Tour suffered a lot of incidents behind the scenes. Firstly, there was Hammond's near-fatal car crash, which he miraculously survived almost unscathed. Then Clarkson fell ill for a while and so as a result, Season 2 had a shortened episode count (although 11 episodes are still fairly impressive).

One of the drawbacks of this season, however, was that it only featured one special. To be fair, Season 1 had one special as well, but it took up two episodes. "Feed The World" was a sort of mini special but despite that, it was surprisingly good. Tasked with transporting fish, the boys still regained their childish sense of humor and the special was all the better for it.

Colombia Special (Season 3, Episodes 2 & 3)

This was the first special of Season 3 and it really set the stage for what was to come. It was a traditional special in every sense of the word as Clarkson, Hammond, and May were given the simple task of becoming wildlife photographers. The trio was in top form as they made constant jokes about Colombia's certain trading export, as well as being totally useless at actually taking photographs.

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There were loads of great moments in these couple of episodes, such as Clarkson's encounter with a group of people who really liked donkeys and the trio's attempts at photographing the animals. There were also some highly dangerous obstacles, such as rackety old bridges and the king of all hailstorms. The only drawback of this special was that it started out fairly slow and didn't truly pick up the pace until the second act.

The Grand Tour Presents: Seamen (Season 4, Episode 1)

The most recent special on this list, "Seamen" was a welcome return to The Grand Tour , after the show had been off-air for almost a year. Currently, in its fourth season, the series decided to try something new with this special and so it ditched the car element in favor of boats. This idea was risky but they managed to pull it off. It helped as well that the specials had been less about the vehicles in recent years.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May were given the challenge of journeying across Cambodia and Vietnam by boat. Cue lots of swearing, jokes and basic faffing about. It was incredibly entertaining to watch, as the lads clearly had no control over their boats. Even Clarkson, who was the only one who remained enthusiastic about the challenge struggled to keep his boat under control. It made for a truly great episode.

The Beach (Buggy) Boys (Season 1, Episodes 7 & 8)

Season 1 of The Grand Tour was a fairly shaky start to the show. The main issue was that it was a car show fronted by Clarkson, Hammond, and May, yet it somehow had to be different from Top Gear . In this season, the show overdid it with the differences. There were some entertaining bits but a lot of the messing around felt forced.

The best episodes of the season by far were the two episodes dedicated to the Namibia special. This was the lads doing what they do best, and in this case, their best was racing beach buggies across a desert. Their banter was in top form, the scenery was amazing and there were some genuinely heart-stopping moments. This was exactly what you want from a Grand Tour special.

Survival Of The Fattest (Season 3, Episode 13)

This was an amazing episode. It had all the usual features that make a special, spectacular, but it had a unique twist that no one saw coming. Often, the presenters go ahead and buy a vehicle and modify it for their upcoming adventure, but here, they actually built their own car from scratch.

Once they had actually built their car, Clarkson, Hammond, and May still kept the laughs coming. From christening their car 'John', and watching it hop up hills, to Clarkson and May refusing to let Hammond drive due to his reckless history, this special literally could do no wrong. The fact that all three had to travel in the same car meant that there was a camaraderie present that we hadn't seen before either.

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‘The Grand Tour’ Penultimate Special Sets Premiere Date

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“ The Grand Tour ” penultimate special has set a premiere date for later this month.

“The Grand Tour: Sand Job,” which sees Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond and James May reunite in Africa, is set to land on Amazon Prime Video on Feb. 16.

“In the remote African country of Mauritania, our trio follow in the footsteps of the legendary Paris-Dakar rally,” reads the logline. “Instead of bespoke Dakar racers, the boys must complete their journey in cheap modified sports cars. Their journey begins with the world’s longest train and sees them tackle the killer Sahara and perilous river crossings, whilst protecting their precious fuel bowser from exploding.”

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The show’s fifth and final special recently wrapped in Zimbabwe. It is set to launch next year.

Clarkson, whose farming show “Clarkson’s Farm” will continue at Prime Video, has said he decided to take a step back from the automotive series because it is “immensely physical” and he feels “unfit and fat and old.”

“I’ve driven cars higher than anyone else and further north than anyone else,” Clarkson told The Times. “We’ve done everything you can do with a car. When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air.”

Clarkson, who was widely criticized for a column about Meghan Markle, will next be seen hosting a new series of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” which premieres Jan. 28 on ITV1.

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The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown: release date, trailer and new episodes explained

What we know about the show's Scotland and Russia specials

The Grand Tour season 4, episode 3 is coming on July 30, Amazon has confirmed – and it'll take co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May to Scotland in a special called Lochdown. The episode was actually filmed in 2020, mid-pandemic, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long to see it. The special will imitate the feeling of an American road trip – without actually requiring the British hosts to leave their country. 

There's a first trailer for The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown, too, which you can see below.

There's more good news if you're a fan of The Grand Tour Presents: a new episode has been filming this year in Wales and parts of England like Warwickshire. This dovetails with what James May said in an interview last year about filming more episodes closer to home in an effort to release them more regularly. Given how languid the releases have become lately – a year separated the release of the last two specials, Seamen and A Massive Hunt – that will come as a relief.

Below, we'll tell you everything we know about the future of The Grand Tour Presents on Amazon Prime – including details about the Scotland-based Lochdown special, what we know about the new UK episode as it films, and what happened to the lost Russia special that was originally set to follow A Massive Hunt. 

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The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown release date is July 30, 2021

The next special in The Grand Tour Presents series is called Lochdown – and it just got a release date of July 30 on Amazon Prime Video. Check out the trailer in the section below for confirmation.

That's not all that's coming from Clarkson and pals in the foreseeable future, though.

As of April 2021, another special for The Grand Tour was filming in the UK – the three hosts were spotted filming in Llandrindod Wells, Wales, by The Grand Tour Fans YouTube channel . They were each driving classic French cars, which hints a little at the theme for the episode. Jeremy Clarkson was apparently spotted driving a Citroën CX Break, James May was glimpsed in a Renault Avantime, while Richard Hammond was reportedly in a Matra Murena, according to the channel. Later, the hosts were spot in Leamington in England, filming near a retail park.

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That episode seems like it's probably a while away, though. Let's go through what we know about the Lochdown special's filming, first. A first teaser for that episode was released on social media earlier this year – Clarkson describes the special as The Grand Tour 'unplugged'.

Earlier plans to record an episode in Russia were put on-hold because of the pandemic (see below) – so the Lochdown special was filmed in Scotland across nine days earlier in 2020 instead.

"We did it in area of Scotland with not many people," co-host James May told BT . "We didn’t interact with the locals really. There were complicated systems set up for cleaning everything and it was a bit tiresome going through lots of procedures and being tested every day, but it didn’t get in the way of filming to be honest."

The hosts couldn't go to the pub after filming the episode, which must've been a challenge. 

While it might be a long wait until the trio and their crew can head to more exotic locations, the intent is to keep making episodes in locations where it's easier to pull off – hence why a Wales-filmed special probably makes sense. "In the short term we might have to reduce our travel ambitions and we’ll have a better chance of doing it," May says. "Better to film in the UK and deliver regularly than promise the earth and not deliver anything. The Grand Tour may become a little more domestic. But it will still be us three which is the important thing. And cars."

That bodes well for the future – and who knows, maybe we'll start seeing episodes of The Grand Tour season 4 land more regularly than once every year again.

The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown trailer

Och aye the new trailer for The Grand Tour Presents... #Lochdown is here pic.twitter.com/0eobci0wpL July 15, 2021

Check out the trailer for The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown above, which was released in July 2021.

To film the upcoming Scotland special during the pandemic, the crew formed a bubble, and no one caught Covid-19 during the shoot. It was reported that the hosts were seen driving classic American cars from Edinburgh to the Hebrides – which suggests some kind of Route 66-style road trip element. 

Clarkson was seen driving a blue Lincoln, May was seen driving a red Cadillac, and Hammond was seen in a green Buick. The trio also took part in a drag race on a runway somewhere in south Scotland, for which the cars mentioned were apparently modified, and were seen towing caravans at one point too.

May says that being a bit closer to the home for the hosts doesn't matter that much – after all, viewers on Amazon Prime Video could be watching it from anywhere. "If you're watching The Grand Tour from Sri Lanka, Scotland is as exotic and beautiful as Sri Lanka is from Scotland, so there's always going to be a large part of the audience which finds anywhere in the world fascinating."

And hey, anything that gets the hosts to film new episodes faster seems like a good thing. 

The Grand Tour season 4 Russia special: what we know

Yes, the next Special will land later this year.Yes, it’s filmed in Madagascar and yes, there will be cars.Yes, we wanted to go to Russia.No, we couldn’t (we all know why).Yes, we will try again.No, we don’t know when.Yes, we will keep you updated.#TheGrandTour July 7, 2020

The next planned episode for The Grand Tour Presents was meant to take the hosts to Russia – and this is still the idea, one day. It's just been postponed for now due to the pandemic. James May says that lots of preparation has been made for this special, but that it's "just impossible right now". Hopefully, with the incoming wave of vaccines, that might be able to change in future – but it seems unlikely you'll see a Russia special of The Grand Tour at any point in the next year or so.

After the next UK special, though, Clarkson did confirm the plan was to film abroad – they're just not sure where yet.

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Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.

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The Grand Tour release date: When is the next episode out?

The Sand Job is out now!

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The boys are back with a brand new episode of The Grand Tour. This time, they are headed to Mauritania for their penultimate adventure – and viewers can watch it now!

In the latest episode, titled Sand Job, the trio will follow in the footsteps of the legendary Paris-Dakar rally, but they'll have to take on their adventure in modified sports cars.

It'll no doubt be an exciting episode, with Richard Hammond previously teasing a "surprise" for the episode.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the launch, Hammond revealed: "There was there was a surprise arrival in [the] minefield, because it's [Mauritania] still on the red list in terms of travel, and the last thing you want in or near a minefield is a surprise.

'There was a scary encounter with some Ebola carrying bats. My car, the Aston Martin, was the troublesome one of the bunch because it comes from an era when cars were just becoming intelligent... and that gave me no end prompt. Plus, the guys just destroyed me as well. There was quite a bit of pranking."

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So, what else can viewers expect from The Grand Tour: Sand Job? Read on to find out everything we know.

When will the next episode of The Grand Tour be released?

The next instalment of The Grand Tour became available to watch on Friday 16th February on Prime Video . It's out now!

The Grand Tour locations

The trio have previously filmed in far-flung locations such as Colombia, Vietnam and Switzerland - and next time will be no different.

The newest instalment will see the trio head back to Africa, as they have this time filmed the show in Mauritiana, a country in the Northwest of the continent.

Speaking of the location, Clarkson said: "I love deserts, so I've always wanted to do the Sahara, but it's difficult to go there; you can't go to Mali or Libya or Algeria or Chad. You can't go to the top of Nigeria.

"And then it was really a question of finding the most inappropriate cars for trans-Sahara travel, and I think we did a pretty good job on that."

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Is there a trailer for The Grand Tour: Sand Job?

Yes! A trailer for Sand Job was released in anticipation for the new instalment and it gives fans an insight into what they can expect from the exciting new episode.

The Grand Tour: Sand Job is available to watch on Prime Video now. Try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days . Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime .

Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now . For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast .

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Clarkson, Hammond, and May’s Grand Tour Tenure Is Coming to an End

The Grand Tour’s end comes just weeks after the BBC indefinitely shut down Top Gear.

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The old Top Gear trio of Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and James May will be hitting your screen as the hosts of The Grand Tour for the final time in 2024. The two final episodes have now been filmed, taking place in Mauritania and Zimbabwe, where the trio we've grown to love will close a chapter that's been three decades in the making.

“We’re done. I have reviewed cars on TV since 1989. That’s 34 years. And after next year, I won’t be doing that any more," Clarkson told The Times .

Since The Grand Tour launched in 2016, after Clarkson was fired from Top Gear for punching a producer, it's gone through several changes. First, it was essentially a Top Gear recreation, with celebrity interviews and an in-studio live show. Then they tightened it up by ditching the celebrity stuff. Eventually, they ditched the live show altogether and just made feature-length specials. And while none of The Grand Tour's iterations managed to capture the magic of Top Gear at its best , it was still one of the most watched shows on Amazon Prime . Millions of people tuned in to watch the automotive equivalent of the Three Stooges (and I mean that as a grand compliment).

All three hosts have their own projects to pursue outside of The Grand Tour anyway. Clarkson has his farm show and May has a travel show, both of which are also on Amazon Prime , while Hammond still does a lot of work for DriveTribe , while also presenting other TV programs. So they'll still be around, even though The Grand Tour won't be.

This news also comes just a couple of weeks after the BBC decided to indefinitely shut down Top Gear . After host Freddie Flintoff's accident during filming and the subsequent settlement, the BBC decided against renewing the show. Clarkson doesn't blame the most recent trio of Top Gear hosts for not wanting to return, either, specifically Flintoff.

"Richard Hammond was always keen to get back to work [following a crash], whereas Freddie isn’t," Clarkson told The Sun . "I don’t blame him. I know what happened on that awful day and it was horrific."

Clarkson even said that anyone who wants to take over in Flintoff's spot would come across as "heartless."

In a matter of weeks, the world learned that the two most entertaining car shows on TV are shutting down. We all knew this day was coming soon, as the original Top Gear gang are all either in their sixties or getting quite close, but it's still a little sad to see them go. Sure, their most recent work pales in comparison to the shows from their prime but, like most millennial car nerds, Clarkson, Hammond, and May made an indelible impression on me and the way I look at cars, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that one. Thanks for the memories, chaps.

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4 things we want to see from the final grand tour special.

We don’t know a whole lot yet about the upcoming special that will conclude eight years of The Grand Tour , Amazon’s successor to Clarkson / Hammond / May era Top Gear . We know it takes place in Zimbabwe, we know it’ll air at some point later this year, and, thanks to some behind-the-scenes images, we know what cars it’ll feature (more on that below).

Apart from that, we’re in the dark. Fresh from the debut of the penultimate episode, Sand Job , we’ve had a bit of a think about what we’d like to see from the final episode, which will wrap up over two decades of car TV fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

It goes without saying, but here’s your fair warning anyway: this article contains spoilers for The Grand Tour: Sand Job, as well as the upcoming Zimbabwe special.

A return to cheaper, older cars

The earlier Top Gear specials followed the formula laid out by the regular show’s cheap car challenges: the presenters were given a pithy sum of money and told to buy a car. This led to some pretty memorable, plucky cars: Clarkson’s breakdown-prone Lancia Beta, May’s remarkably tough Volvo 850R and, of course, Oliver, the Opel Kadett. The fact that the three presenters tended to gravitate towards very different types of cars often lent the episodes a pleasingly mismatched, ramshackle feel too.

The idea of having a budget was quietly dropped for the Patagonia special, something that was carried over to The Grand Tour. It reached the point with Sand Job where they were traversing the Sahara desert in a selection of professionally modified, fairly modern open-top grand tourers. While it was deeply impressive to see the sort of abuse these complex cars could stand up to, it also felt a little like they lacked a little of the personality of some of the older, more beat-up cars seen in earlier specials (Hammond’s sentient Aston Martin notwithstanding).

Obviously, it’s far harder now to pick up interesting cars for a couple of grand than it was even five years ago, but even so, a return to some older, less high-end metal wouldn’t go amiss. Happily, it seems our wishes might be granted on this one: the few behind-the-scenes shots that have emerged of the Zimbabwe episode show that the featured cars are a Lancia Beta Montecarlo, Ford Capri and Triumph Stag.

Less predictability

Look, we’re not here to moan about either Top Gear or The Grand Tour being ‘too scripted’. That dead horse has been well and truly beaten by people on the internet, and quite frankly, anyone who truly believed either show was a free-flowing, non-scripted slice of reality in their latter years probably needs to take a good long look at themselves.

We mean the things that are included in those scripts. A perilous water crossing was entertaining when it was on a shaky homemade raft in Tanzania, but after building a rickety bridge over the River Kok in Thailand and a ‘floating road’ across a sound in Scotland, it’s diminishing returns each time, until we arrive at the rafts used to cross the river near the end of Sand Job. It’s entertaining, but we can’t help feeling we’ve been here before.

The TG and TGT specials have always leaned into set pieces like these, but the most memorable ones tend to be the least expected: a cow on the roof of a Chevrolet Camaro, a race around an ancient Roman chariot arena, a terrible waxwork of Nigel Mansell being met with misfortune after hilarious misfortune – you get the point.

More beauty and culture

Farcical and chaotic as they can be, Top Gear and The Grand Tour’s specials have always made a point of showing off the natural beauty, local flavour and welcoming people of the countries they visit. You can see it everywhere from the American South to the Scottish Highlands, but it’s most prominent in countries where most viewers’ perceptions are coloured by either what they’ve seen on the news or been told about in history lessons: Vietnam, Iraq, Rwanda and so on.

In other cases, it’s nations that we simply don’t really know anything about. We couldn’t have told you much about Mauritania before we watched Sand Job, but one of the absolute highlights of the episode was when the trio visited the capital city, Nouakchott, and looked at some of the astoundingly clapped-out cars that are kept on the road.

The big specials have always been filled with absolutely stunning scenery too – again, we direct you to the ending sequence of Sand Job, with the cars flying down the beach to the epic soundtrack of M83’s ‘Outro’. We hope for, and expect, more of the same from the Zimbabwe episode. The specials have always done a brilliant job of making the setting feel like an active part of the show, not just a backdrop.

A proper send-off

Once the Zimbabwe special is out, it’ll be the first time since 2003 that there hasn’t been a car show presented by Clarkson, Hammond and May either on TV or in the works (barring a few months of uncertainty in 2015 following Clarkson’s dismissal from the BBC). That’s a significant thing for a good couple of generations of car enthusiasts who grew up watching them, and whose car enthusiasm might not have burned as bright without hearing the opening riff of ‘Jessica’ on a Sunday evening or eagerly waiting for the new Grand Tour episode to drop.

It’s not really the trio’s style to get overly sappy about this sort of thing, but it would be remiss of them to not at least acknowledge the impact they’ve had on car culture for the last two decades.

We got something similar at the end of the final studio episode of The Grand Tour, but even then we already knew we had a few more years’ worth of specials to look forward to. This time, it’s a much more significant ending and, with Top Gear’s future totally up in the air, it means there’ll be no broadly popular big-budget car telly at all for the first time in a long time. That’ll be a strange thing indeed, and we hope it’s treated with the gravity it deserves.

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The Grand Tour’s Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May devastate fans as they leave show

Former ‘top gear’ trio just completed filming their last special in zimbabwe, article bookmarked.

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Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond and James May will conclude their time on The Grand Tour after the release of their final special next year, The Independent understands.

The former Top Gear trio have just returned from filming in Zimbabwe – their last adventure for the Amazon Prime Video series.

The next Grand Tour special is set in Mauritania and will launch in February 2024.

The Independent understands that the hit series will not necessarily end with the current hosts’ departure and that other options, including new presenters, are being explored.

Clarkson, Hammond and May hosted the BBC’s flagship car show Top Gear together from 2002 to 2015. When Clarkson was dismissed after attacking a producer on the set of the show, Clarkson and Hammond also left, with all three moving to Prime Video in 2016 to film The Grand Tour .

The series sees the three hosts travel to far-flung places to complete automobile-related challenges similar to those they did in the Top Gear specials.

On Twitter/X, fans reacted to the news of their exit with dismay.

“What the f*** that and Clarkson’s Farm were the only f***ing decent things to watch on Prime,” one person raged, referencing Clarkson’s other Prime Video series, which follows his Gloucestershire farm journey.

“Im Gutted these 3 will never be replicated,” said another.

“Thanks for the memories over the years,” a third added.

Last month, Clarkson, 63, announced that he and his co-presenters were “stranded” at a luxury safari camp after British Airways cancelled their flight.

In a recent interview, Clarkson said that he and his co-stars would be on “slightly scary ground” in the next specials.

“We’re doing things that we used to do when we were in our 30s and 40s,” he explained. “But now we’re in our 50s and 60s, so I’m slightly nervous about the next two.

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“Let’s just say we’re going back to Africa, and this one’s a hard one. It’s hard if you’re young and fit, but I’m really not fit. I’m very fat. And I’m 63 now.”

After the original trio’s exit, Top Gear continued with new hosts, including Chris Evans, Matt Le Blanc, and, as of 2019, it’s been hosted by Chris Harris, Andrew Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness .

However, the show was axed last week after Flintoff was involved in a car crash on the set of the series.

The former cricketer and TV host, 45, was airlifted to hospital last December after suffering an accident while filming scenes for the forthcoming run.

Flintoff’s car, an open-topped three-wheel Morgan Super 3, is said to have flipped over and slid along the track when he was driving at a high speed.

He suffered a broken rib, as well as facial and jaw injuries as a result of the accident. Last month, it was reported that Flintoff had agreed a financial settlement with the BBC worth £9m.

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The Grand Tour Will Reportedly Be Rebooted, Who Do You Think Should Host?

With Clarkson, Hammond, and May bidding adieu to the show, The Grand Tour is getting ready for a reboot, complete with fresh faces and a revamped format

by Michael Gauthier

• Studio Lambert has reportedly won a contract to create an updated version of The Grand Tour.
• Little is known about the retooled show, but it’s expected to feature new presenters as well as a revised format.

With Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May leaving The Grand Tour , many thought the show was dead. However, a new report suggests that might not be the case.

According to Broadcast , Studio Lambert has been awarded a contract to “develop a fresh version” of the show. Details are limited, but the publication said the studio beat out rival pitches from Shine TV and Orchard Studios.

More: Jeremy Clarkson Says He’s Too “Unfit, Fat And Old” To Keep The Grand Tour Going

The show reportedly hasn’t been formally greenlighted at this point, but Studio Lambert is said to be working on an updated format. The reboot is also expected to have new presenters, although there’s no word on how many or who might get the role.

The latter is obviously the biggest question as the bond between Clarkson, Hammond, and May was almost as interesting as whatever they were doing on screen. It’ll certainly be hard to replicate that as Top Gear found out following their departure.

The Sun quoted an unnamed industry insider as saying, “The Grand Tour is one of Prime Video’s most watched shows and Jeremy, James and Richard have a devoted following, but the guys have made no bones about the fact they’re all advancing in years and they have lots of other projects to pursue.” They added the trio wanted to go out on a high note.

While there are more questions than answers at this point, the show isn’t exactly a stranger to reboots. While it initially had a Top Gear -like feel and roughly a dozen episodes per season, The Grand Tour was eventually retooled to focus on a handful of road trips.

It remains unclear if the latest evolution of the show will stick to this format or try to find its own path. However, with Top Gear taking a “rest,” there might be an opportunity to return to that style format.

With all that being said, what would you like to see out of a Grand Tour reboot and who do you think should host?

Lead image YouTube/The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour Will Likely Return With A Christmas Special This Year After Sneaky Announcement

The Grand Tour has been away for some time, with the recent pandemic cutting down the show’s episode output severely. But now, The Grand Tour itself has teased when the new trailer is going to hit.

Since we covered the filming of the next episode earlier this year, we’ve been expecting a new episode for quite some time now. The boys were seen travelling from Wales to the West Midlands in three french cars, so we’re expecting an episode that focusses on all things french, including the cars they were seen driving: Richard Hammond  was driving a Talbot-Matra Murena,  James May a Renault Avantime, Clarkson was driving a Citroen CX.

Jeremy was later seen behind the wheel of Mike Brewer’s Citroen SM as well, which was later put up for auction. “What an extraordinarily beautiful car this is,” Clarkson wrote about his experience.

Now, the release date for the trailer has been revealed by a recent tweet from The Grand Tour.

Something's about to drop (zoom in to find out) pic.twitter.com/bRuefdA3lO — The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) November 23, 2021

“Something’s about to drop (zoom in to find out),” the show posts.

If you zoom in, you’ll see the date “25 Nov”.

This likely means that the episode will be released sometime during December, making this a Christmas special. Could there be a better thing to watch over the Christmas holidays?

What We Know So Far About The England Special / Most Recent Filming

Filming started on April 23 in Crickhowell, south Powys, Wales with  Richard Hammond  being filmed in a Renault Scenic. Surrounded by cameramen and the public, he continued to push a Citroen Saxo out of the way so he could make space for him to park on the side of the road.

It’s very obviously staged, but despite this, someone who saw the video on Twitter alerted the police to what was going on, who responded with the following:

“Hi Philip, thanks for getting in touch. We are aware of some filming happening in and around this area at the moment, but thanks for letting us know.”

Later on, Clarkson was seen in Wales near the Metropole Hotel where they were known to be staying driving a Citroen CX.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May were seen a day later in Leamington Spa, England, and the surrounding area.  Richard Hammond  is seen driving a Talbot-Matra Murena sports car, and  James May  a Renault Avantime MPV. Reports state that they disrupted the local area, added to the traffic on the roads, and received complaints because of this.

Jeremy Clarkson Swaps Cars To Mike Brewer’s Citron SM

Most recently,  Jeremy Clarkson  and  Richard Hammond  were seen driving a Citroen SM in Beachy Head, Eastbourne, owned by Wheeler Dealer star Mike Brewer.

James was seen watching them while wearing a bright orange puffer jacket.

We don’t know what’s happening here, but with the trio being followed by a large film crew, including a helicopter, we’re expecting a large production as they drive their cars through the beautiful English countryside.

Alex Harrington

Richard hammond disappointed in his recent car and bike sales: "i wouldn't have let them go for that", the grand tour wales special: what you need to know about the upcoming episode, related articles.

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

The Grand Tour’s fate ‘revealed’ after Jeremy Clarkson’s exit in final episode

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The Grand Tour has reportedly been given a huge lifeline, with plans to develop a fresh version without Jeremy Clarkson .

The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host, 63, and his co-stars Richard Hammond and James May have filmed their final special of the Amazon Prime series, after it was revealed in November that it was coming to an end.

The trio, who first hit our screens together in 2003 on  Top Gear , announced their exit from the series in November last year, however, it could be coming back with a fresh presenting team.

According to reports, Studio Lambert – the production company who brought us The Traitors and Squid Game: The Challenge – has landed the contract to develop a fresh version of the motoring show.

An ‘update to the format’ is being prepped with new presenting talent, although has not been formally greenlit, Broadcast claims.

Clarkson, Hammond and May first launched the series in 2016, with their penultimate episode The Sand Job having aired earlier this year following a trip to Mauritania, and a final in Zimbabwe yet to reach our screens.

As the news of The Grand Tour coming to a grinding halt was announced in November, it was said to be ‘the end of an era’.

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A source revealed at the time: ‘It’s a surprising decision and everyone realises it very much marks the end of an era for the three presenters.

‘The Grand Tour is one of Prime Video’s most watched shows and Jeremy, James and Richard have a devoted following.’

The insider continued to  The Sun : ‘But the guys have made no bones about the fact they’re all advancing in years and they have lots of other projects to pursue.

‘They just felt like the time was right and wanted to go out on a high when the show remained popular.’

But, it may not be the end of Clarkson, Hammond, 54, and May, 61, on our screens together.

When asked if they’d reunite on another project, May said: ‘I wouldn’t rule it out, but you do have to bear in mind that we’re all getting on a bit.

‘We’ve got two (episodes) in the bag, there’s one coming out very soon, and another coming out a bit after that, but what happens between now and then we’ll have to wait and see.’

Clarkson also spoke about The Grand Tour ending and branded himself ‘unfit, fat and old’ when speaking about why he was done with the ‘immensely physical’ show.

‘I’ve driven cars higher than anyone else and further north than anyone else,’ he told The Times.

‘We’ve done everything you can do with a car.

‘When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air.’

The future of The Grand Tour was thrown into doubt following Clarkson’s vile comments in a newspaper column about Meghan Markle  in January 2023, in which the broadcaster said he dreamed of the Duchess being paraded through the streets and publicly shamed.

It became Ipso’s most complained-about article after its publication, receiving more than 25,100 complaints, with Clarkson later issuing a lengthy apology to the Suits actress and her husband Prince Harry, and claims emerged that  Amazon reportedly ‘parted ways’ with him .

Meanwhile, Clarkson’s adventures at his Diddly Squat farm will continue to air on Amazon Prime for season four, while the third instalment of Clarkson’s Farm premieres next month.

Metro.co.uk has approached Studio Lambert for comment.

The Grand Tour is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

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'The Grand Tour' Will Reportedly Be Rebooted Without Clarkson, Hammond Or May

W e’ve known for a while now that The Grand Tour as we currently know it would be going away. Back in January , Clarkson, who was fired from Top Gear for punching a producer over a sandwich , told The Times of London that he’s too “unfit and fat and old” to keep making the show. So with the old crew moving onto greener pastures, that’s the end of The Grand Tour, right? We’re just packing up and moving on? According to Yahoo News , not necessarily.

Amazon apparently plans to keep the show going, this time with a different set of co-hosts. It is not clear at this time who will replace Hammond, May and that guy who has a disturbing level of hatred for Meghan Markle . It’s also unclear whether the rebooted version of the show will stick with the current specials-only format or whether producers will try to go back to something more like Top Gear, which they originally tried but later moved away from.

This also isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the possibility that Amazon would bring in new hosts. In June of last year, Hammond told the Radio Times, “I mean, some people have said we’ve been canceled. But really we’re getting quite close to the end of our contract, but we didn’t really have any particular plans to keep going because we’re all really just getting a bit old. It might be time to let someone else have a crack at it.”

The company producing the new series will reportedly be Studio Lambert, which is also behind reality shows such as The Traitors, Gogglebox and Squid Game: The Challenge. We’re not entirely confident that a reality show production company will be able to make The Grand Tour a hit again, but you never know. It could happen. Whether or not that’s the case likely depends on who ends up hosting the reboot.

As for the original trio, their final special takes place in Zimbabwe and will air later this year on Prime Video .

For the latest news, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

'The Grand Tour' to get reboot with new hosts, report says

Previous efforts to replicate the original hosts' magic have largely fallen flat..

Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and James May made the move to Amazon years ago, after a dramatic end to their version of Top Gear on the BBC . After more than two decades on the air together, the trio moved to Amazon to start The Grand Tour , but there’s only one special left before they ride off into the sunset. Top Gear continued on with other hosts, but never achieved the chemistry of the original crew, but it now seems a production company will try the same thing with The Grand Tour .

Broadcast reported that Studio Lambert confirmed its plans to reboot the Amazon show with a new set of hosts. The studio won the rights to the contract after battling rival pitches, but there’s no word on when production will start or who will attempt to fill the giant shoes of the three original hosts. Multiple versions of Top Gear and related spinoffs have proved it to be an exceptionally difficult task to pull off.

In a Radio Times interview last year, James May hinted at the development, saying, “I mean, some people have said we’ve been canceled. But really we’re getting quite close to the end of our contract, but we didn’t really have any particular plans to keep going because we’re all really just getting a bit old . It might be time to let someone else have a crack at it.”

Though we might not be getting more of the original trio behind the wheel after their final special airs, they all have other projects in the works. Clarkson’s Farm is a popular show following Jeremy’s farming efforts, while James May’s Our Man In… series continues with a new show in India this year. Richard Hammond’s Workshop profiles his haphazard car restoration efforts , and his daughter has gotten in on the action with multiple YouTube videos and appearances with her father on podcasts and other films.

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