The Grand Tour returns to Prime Video on 4 September with Francis Bourgeois leading a new presenting trio. Season one of the reboot is already filmed, and the six-part run gives the franchise a clean break from the Clarkson, Hammond and May era without stretching the change into a full reinvention.
Francis Bourgeois after filming
Francis Bourgeois said, “Since completing the filming of the series, I haven’t stopped replaying every moment in my head”. He added: “It has made me laugh, made my heart race and my stomach turn… remembering the tent I shared with Thomas and James filled with sulphuric farts whilst Angolan jackals snooped around outside.”
He also said: “It feels as though it was a dream but knowing we will get to share our adventures soon makes me so incredibly excited!” That is the clearest sign the six-part format is being treated as a launch rather than a quiet continuation: the new line-up is being rolled out as a finished package, not as a trial episode by episode.
James Engelsman and Thomas Holland
James Engelsman and Thomas Holland, the creators of Throttle House, join Bourgeois in the new line-up. Engelsman said the group learned “how to accept defeat gracefully” and that they “took on the West African Desert”. He added: “We contended with fighter pilots. We even decided to challenge an entire nation's legal system by protesting from the mountain tops”.
Holland was just as blunt: “I figured someone would be there to hold our hand the whole time. Nope. We were on our own in some absolutely wild environments in very, very questionable cars”. He later said, “What did we learn from this experience? Only that we have very poor decision-making skills. When you watch in September, expect a good laugh. And maybe a few butt clenches…”
Clarkson's three unknowns
Andy Wilman said in February: “We are properly happy to hand over the baton to Thomas, James and Francis, because quite simply - they are doing it right.” He added: “Not only do they have passion and knowledge, but more importantly they are in no way cardboard cutouts of the old three.”
Clarkson gave the opposite view in February, saying the new presenters should be “three unknowns”. He said the biggest mistake would be “getting people whose names we already know - 'Oh, they like cars'. That's not good enough”, and added: “I need to be able to show you an eighth of a car's door mirror, and you've got to tell me exactly what car that is. And if you don't know, you can't have the job.”
Tim Harcourt said, “The Grand Tour has humour and a pure love of cars at its heart.” He added: “It's been a delight to find and film a brilliant new trio who take these values across the world from Angola and Malaysia to California and Didcot Parkway.” The result is a cleaner handover than a soft reboot usually gets: the new series has already been shot, the cast is in place, and the only real mystery left is how far the six-part format will move away from the old road-trip model.
