end of the road
The Grand Tour’s final episode to show Jeremy Clarkson and Co ‘reduced to tears’ as they end 22 year TV career together
Producer Andy Wilman discussed what fans can expect from the trio on their final adventure
THE presenters of The Grand Tour will be reduced to tears in the final episode of the motoring show that marks the end of their 22 year TV career together.
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond will be seen being unusually tender to each other in scenes in their final outing called One for the Road.
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A trailer for the show, set to air next month, features them with eyes welling up to the sound of The Hollies' He Aint Heavy, He's My Brother.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, show producer Andy Wilman said: "They say goodbye better than any other presenters could say goodbye.
"Because they're so close as people they take the p** out of their own goodbye and then the emotion will grow - it's quite weepy. It is a bit heartstringy.
"Their camaraderie is next level, you can see and they know that this is the last time they'll do this."
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He added: "There's the sense we wanna end things on our own terms…there does come a point where you go right it has to come to and end."
The Sun exclusively revealed in November last year that The Grand Tour was going to film its final episodes with the trio, broadcasting later this autumn.
Andy continued: "So we are getting to the point now where enough is enough and on top of that, there's the sense that we want to end things on our own terms because Jesus Christ when we started, who would have thought we'd be going for 22 years, doing this.
"I remember in the office with Top Gear us going 'we could get five series out of this' and here we are 22 years later.
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"But it does reach a point where you go, it has to come to an end and we wanted to call it.
"So we've got our last film, we shot our last in September and it's a very gentle one, actually, because It was quite a no-brainer in the office.
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"We were saying to the guys, 'it is you guys saying goodbye, that’s clearly what we do'.
"They wanted to go unplugged and a bit back to 2005 / 2006 – leave the dynamite at home. S*** old cars were always a big thing for us.
"We learnt that on Top Gear, that they give you more TV than modern new cars. They give you more stories and laughs.
"So, anybody who thinks they're gonna get Avengers Endgame is going to be disappointed because it is deliberately gentle, but their camaraderie is next level.
James May's career to date
TV presenter and journalist James May has enjoyed a long on-screen career, with a main focus on motoring. Here is a look at some of his biggest projects.
- Top Gear (1999): James was a briefly a host on the original 1977 to 2001 iteration of the popular motoring show. The likes of Angela Rippon, Andy Wilman, Noel Edmonds, Kate Humble and Jeremy Clarkson were also presenters at various points.
- Top Gear (Revived series, 2003-2015): After Jason Dawe departed following series one of the revival, James boarded the revived Top Gear in 2003. He starred alongside Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and The Stig until 2015, when the main trio left the programme.
- Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure (2006-2007): This show featured wine expert Oz Clarke attempting to educate James about wine while undertaking a road trip. The programme lasted two series. A sequel titled Oz and James Drink to Britain aired in 2009.
- James May's Toy Stories (2009 to 2014): This programme featured well-known toys from the past being brought into the modern era through a complex, large-scale project involving the nature of the toy. James created, co-wrote, presented and narrated the show.
- The Grand Tour (2016 to 2024): Conceived following James and his co-stars leaving Top Gear, The Grand Tour launched on Amazon Prime Video in 2016. The trio were joined by producer Andy Wilman, who also made the move.
- James May: Our Man in... (2020-present): A travel documentary series for Amazon Prime Video, which has seen James visit Japan, Italy and India so far.
- James May: Oh Cook! (2020 - present): As the title suggests, this is a cooking programme hosted by James and it is released via Amazon Prime Video. The programme features the presenter trying to cook a variety of different dishes, with each episode focusing on a cuisine.
"You can see that they know that this is the last time."
Prime Video previously said there were moves to continue the show with different presenters, though they have yet to be announced.
The Grand Tour, which launched on Prime Video in 2016, quickly became one of the streamer’s biggest hits but Jeremy, 63, James, 60, and Richard, 52, felt it was time they hit the road.
They created The Grand Tour after previously presenting Top Gear as a trio up to 2015 when they left the BBC after a bust up with producers.
They transformed the programme from a niche motoring show into one of the Beeb’s most popular exports, with 350m viewers in 212 territories around the globe.
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At its peak the show had three million YouTube subscribers, a magazine with 1.7 million readers, and in 2012 it entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2012 as the world’s most watched factual TV show.
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The Grand Tour is available on Prime Video now. The final episodes release date will be revealed in due course.
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