Jeremy Clarkson has offered the new Grand Tour presenting trio some typically forthright advice, it has emerged, as the show’s producer urges sceptical fans to “give them a go”.
Amazon Prime’s hit motoring show was originally presented by the classic lineup of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, who will appear as guests in the new series after stepping down in 2024.
This week, fans got a first look at the new presenters – presenter James Engelsman and his former Throttle House co-host, motoring journalist Thomas Holland, and TikTok star Francis Bourgeois – as they drive muscle cars and meet Formula One star Jenson Button.
Speaking to The Times, producer Andy Wilman observed that the new trio had already been met with some disgruntlement from “social media warriors” claiming they’d boycott the show in Clarkson, Hammond and May’s absence.
“To them I’d say, give them a go,” he said of Engelsman, Holland and Bourgeois.
He added that he wanted the original presenters to have walk-on parts to create the feeling of a Marvel Universe where “Iron Man, Spider-Man and Ant-Man turn up to help Captain America, or similar”.
open image in galleryMoments into the first episode, then, the new hosts turn up to Clarkson’s farm in the Cotswolds to seek his blessing.
“Listen guys, seriously, have fun with this,” Clarkson tells them. “Good luck. Don’t f*** it up, right?”
Clarkson then makes an aside to the camera in which he admits he’s been watching the new presenters work on the show for the past year and a half: “They’re very, very good. You’re gonna love it.”
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May previously told the Evening Standard that he, Clarkson and Hammond had left the show after they felt they had “exhausted” the subject, hoping to end the show on their own terms “rather than fly into the White Cliffs of Dover, desperately trying to keep it along”.
“I think we just about managed that,” he said. “We’d exhausted the subject, we are getting on a bit. I believe it’s time for a new generation to find a new take – I don’t know what it is.”
open image in galleryDuring the series, the new trio will travel to California to test out the latest US muscle cars: the Ford Mustang GTD, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the £2m Hennessey Venom F5 Revolution Evolution.
The gang also go to Malaysia to explore the nation’s car culture, before travelling through the Angola desert in track cars unsuited for the task.
The new series of The Grand Tour airs from 4 September.