Entertainment Swindon

Like many Top Gear & Grand Tour fans, it was sad to see the end of the trio’s two decades of car shows, which saw three petrol heads come together on BBC’s Top Gear to talk super cars, budget cars, traffic cameras and of course blowing up caravans.

On the 18th November 2016, the infamous trio, Clarkson, Hammond & May moved to Amazon with the premier of The Grand Tour, swapping a hanger for a large tent, and following on from Top Gear with a similar format of car reviews, lap times, motoring challenges and races, stuio segments and of course celebrity guests, becoming one of Primes most viewed series, setting viewing records with several of its episodes.

On 13th September, Clarkson, Hammond and May called it a day with the final and rather emotional episode ‘One for the Road’ where the trio chose cars they had always wanted to own on an emotional final adventure through Zimbabwe.

The final goodbye saw Clarkson, Hammond, and May driving, respectively, a Lancia Beta Montecarlo, a Ford Capri, and a Triumph Stag across Zimbabwe. At the timing of the first Botswana special, the BBC was not permitted to film in Zimbabwe, so this final adventure tied up loose ends driving across the country, the three crossed the border and end their trip back at Kubu where it all first began.

Ending a 22yr long partnership that excited fans across the globe, but it was the right time to go, for not only for Clarkson, Hammond and May, but for the fans, whether we liked to admit it or not, ending on a high.

So when Amazon announced a comeback just a few months after the dramatic goodbye, it was a ‘Great they are back!’ and then Friday came along, with the debut episode of The Not Very Grand Tour, this was what I could only describe as Ronseal, thats right, remember the advert that said “It does what it says on the tin” The Not Very Grand Tour.

The title couldn’t have described it any better, a huge disappointment. The show opens with hosts James May and Richard Hammond, with no Jeremy Clarkson. Back in what looked like a hanger with several supercars behind May & Hammond, they began a series of flash backs from past Grand Tour episodes along with their usual argumentative banter whilst discussing the combustion engine and how it changed the world.

I think The Grand Tour Goodbye episode is really where they should have left it, this just seem like a desperate grab for money. Fans seem to agree, taking to social media with comments like “Extremely disappointing, they had the opportunity to give us deleted scenes” going on to say “but what we got was a rerun of episodes we have all seen”.

Another said “There’s really not much to discuss really. It’s old segments that we have already seen, and the host bits with Hammond and May really don’t offer that much substance or insight.”

More and more negative comments kept coming, with one fan commenting “first episode was very forced and scripted, no new content on the show, total cash grab”. Many other made comments believing this just seemed a money grab.

Really, if you want to relive the old shows, its all there, it’s a streaming service, just play back The Grand Tour episodes and skip the Not Very Grand Tour.