grand tour 4chan

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Climate 100
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Wine Offers
• Betting Sites

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

The Grand Tour: One for the Road review – Can the show go out with a bang?

After 22 years of driving around the globe together, jeremy clarkson, james may and richard hammond go for one last blokey adventure in zimbabwe, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails.

To those with only a basic understanding of the United Kingdom – a land of pageantry, ancient history, and afternoon tea – the idea that a motoring show, hosted by three unglamorous middle-aged blokes, would be one of our most vital cultural exports might seem strange. But – first with  Top Gear  and now with  The Grand Tour  – the gouty trio of Jeremy Clarkson , James May and Richard Hammond have become global attachés for a form of shambling masculinity. As their Amazon motoring travel show comes to an end , can they send the format – which they invented – out with a bang?

The premise of One for the Road is simple: to drive the breadth of Zimbabwe in cars of their own choosing. Clarkson picks a Lancia Montecarlo, May a Triumph Stag, and Hammond a Ford Capri – and then they’re off. It is a journey that will take them through the bustling streets of Harare, over the crocodile-infested waters of Lake Kariba, and soon into Botswana. That is, to some extent, where the story started: the first  Top Gear  special that saw them rally across Africa. That was in 2007, and it served as a precursor to the globetrotting ambitions of  The Grand Tour . “Zimbabwe has provided the perfect backdrop for our final motoring adventure,” Clarkson puts it, simply.

As the premises of their specials go, it’s a bit of a fudge. Cars they’ve “always wanted”, luxury hotels and a slow, meandering 600-mile journey across central Africa. The lack of structural urgency allows the finale to wheel out some old classics: a pontoon crossing of the world’s largest reservoir, a Frankensteined train sequence, and about half a dozen breakdowns. After all, half the joy of  The Grand Tour  has been watching the suspension on classic cars take a battering on the potholes and dirt tracks of the world. “There is a god,” Clarkson muses, as they reach something more discernible as “road”. “And God has provided tarmac.”

The absence of too many shenanigans (though the runtime is two hours and 10 minutes, it feels more compact than recent  TGT  specials) opens up plenty of time for sentimentality. Musing on his arrival at  Top Gear  decades ago, Hammond confesses that he “never dreamed it would grow into a career and life-defining adventure”. But unlike the group’s departure from the Beeb in 2015 – where the gossip columns were filled with speculation about who might pick up their contracts after the infamous “fracas” – this feels like a genuine closing of a chapter. Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms” soundtracks the final moments, where the hosts stumble up to a baobab tree they had visited 17 years earlier. Archive footage shows them in contrast – these always prematurely middle-aged men are now well-seasoned.

What remains is the question of  The Grand Tour ’s legacy. In a sea of generic celebrity travelogue shows, it was something distinct. Cars offered an opportunity for the show to shed light on capitalism’s colonialism of the 20th and 21st centuries. The empire of globalised consumerism, lit up in the headlights of an Opel Kadett. At times,  The Grand Tour  has been a bit incurious about the places it’s visited, transporting European and American cars to Africa or Asia or South America, and then gawping at the vistas without engaging with the local motoring culture. It feels like a missed opportunity to gild the show with some genuine anthropology, some real history. Instead, viewers are offered tongue-in-cheek aphorisms (like “If you absolutely must do African exploration, you absolutely must have a Lancia”) that say more about the presenters than the setting.

But, of course, the show is really about Clarkson, May and Hammond. The beauty of the landscape – cruising down a jacaranda-lined avenue in Harare, or emerging like Lawrence of Arabia through the haze of the salt flats – is secondary to the British (and, indeed, the international) public’s relationship with three oil-soaked ambassadors for the left-hand side. One for the Road might not have high drama or daredevil action, but it has plenty of the charismatic camaraderie that has turned this unlikely trio into televisual royalty.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

Has Grand Tour ended, or will it continue on Prime Video?

"We mustn't keep going until we embarrass ourselves."

Why is The Grand Tour ending?

Will the grand tour continue.

Prime Video 's The Grand Tour is ending as we know it with a swansong feature-length special episode 'One For The Road', which takes the curmudgeonly trio across Zimbabwe.

The Grand Tour 's big-budget smattering of streaming specials were born after Jeremy Clarkson acrimoniously left the BBC's flagship motoring show Top Gear , followed by his co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May, and longtime producer Andy Wilman .

At Prime Video the trio were given a Jeff Bezos-notarised blank cheque to have as much fun romping around as their increasingly battered bodies would allow.

The team produced three full seasons of The Grand Tour , operating out of a roving studio tent, before the show pivoted to the specials Top Gear fans had always enjoyed most.

But now the bell is ringing for last orders. The trio have decided they've had enough and decided to bow out before the TV executives on high tell them to. Here's what they've said about the decision.

The trio's producer Wilman, who has been part of their core team ever since Top Gear’s 2002 reboot, has spoken about the decision to leave now.

He told Car Throttle : "We came to an agreement with Prime Video where we’d just do the specials as we knew that the big cinematic adventures were what our fans loved. We could keep some kind of quality control in place by doing fewer things.

"We’re lucky that we’ve been able to control our destiny. We are now calling it a day on our own terms, and not many shows get to do that. Most of the time, you want to carry on, and you get told, 'We don’t want you anymore'."

May added: "I’ve always said that if it ends tomorrow, which it nearly did at one point, that I should just be grateful that I had the opportunity. But it didn’t end, it kept going.

"In the end, we got to the point where we said, 'No, we must stop while we’re still vaguely ahead. We mustn't keep going until we embarrass ourselves.'"

Clarkson also hinted the team behind the Amazon show had started to run out of ideas for new high-octane challenges to take on during the specials.

"We’ve done everything you can do with a car," he said during an interview with The Times . "When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air."

However, fans of The Grand Tour might be able to breathe a sort-of sigh of relief, since Hammond has said the show will go on in some guise.

While the three are bidding adieu, new presenters will take over, Hammond said in an interview with the Metro .

"It will be carrying on," he said. " The Grand Tour continues. We're stepping away as the hosts, but Prime will be continuing it. So I can't wait to sit on my own chair and watch somebody else do it. That's amazing."

Hammond admits he doesn't know the identity of the new presenters but shared the key factor he thinks they'll need in order for the show to continue being a success.

"If you're making any show that at its heart has a subject, whether it's cooking, dancing or cars, the hosts, the primary makers of it, have to have that passion in their heart. And we always did," he said.

"You never had to be a car geek to watch our show. Plenty of people who weren't did watch it, but it was important that we were the car geeks."

The Grand Tour: One For The Road is available to stream on Prime Video.

September 2024 gift ideas and deals

Glen Powell Twisters T-shirt

Richard Osman: We Solve Murders

3 months of free Apple Music

PS5 Slim Consoles

Deadpool & Wolverine's 'best friends' necklace

Audible free trial

Apple TV+ 7-day free trial

Sign up for Disney+

Buy Alison Hammond's outfits

The Street of Lies: An Official Coronation Street Interactive Novel

Buy Cat Deeley's This Morning outfits

Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile

Deputy TV Editor

Previously a TV Reporter at The Mirror , Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape for Digital Spy , when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. 

When she's not bingeing a box set, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards  and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.

The Grand Tour

Richard Hammond announces exciting new role

Richard Hammond on The Grand Tour's new hosts

The Grand Tour's James May reveals show secret

Richard Hammond says he lost a job due to co-stars

James May calls out fan response to Flintoff crash

Clarkson's Farm's Kaleb welcomes second child

Grand Tour's James May talks cancellation rumours

Grand Tour & Clarkson's Farm reportedly cancelled

Clarkson's Farm season 2 confirmed

Clarkson's Farm's Kaleb expecting second baby

Grand Tour boss reveals show is loosely scripted

The Grand Tour star backs showing James May crash

The Grand Tour: One For The Road gets first look video

Prime Video has released a first look trailer for the final episode of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May’s The Grand Tour.

Filmed in Zimbabwe, The Grand Tour: One For The Road will launch exclusively on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories on 13 September.

Their last adventure sees the trio  ignore the instructions of Mr Wilman and head to Zimbabwe in three cars they’ve always wanted to own, a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri 3-litre, and a Triumph Stag, for a stunning road trip through beautiful and sometimes challenging landscapes leading to an emotional ending on a strangely familiar island. 

When the series launched in November 2016 it was one of Prime Video’s first UK original commissions and web on to become a major audience winner for the streaming service.

After three seasons of a studio-based format, it was announced the show would return for an irregular run of road trip films of which One For The Road will be the eighth and final instalment. 

Sign up to Prime Video at Amazon.co.uk * *Affiliate Link. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying

The Grand Tour: One for the Road release date and trailer for final episode

It's the end of the line for Clarkson, May and Hammond's motoring misadventures.

• Sophie Cockerham
• Share on facebook
• Share on twitter
• Share on pinterest
• Share on reddit
• Email to a friend

The Grand Tour is coming to an end after an action-packed run, with the final special One for the Road taking Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond to Zimbabwe.

The trio have picked out cars that they've always dreamed of owning – those being a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri 3-litre, and a Triumph Stag – to traverse the terrain, which takes them to a "strangely familiar" island.

Indeed, viewers who have been following the motoring enthusiasts since their Top Gear days may also recognise their final destination, which puts a fitting bow on more than two decades of outrageous adventures.

Clarkson said that "the whole trip" was poignant for the presenting team, including hours of "reminiscing" – much of which had to be cut for time – although the broadcaster wasn't overly misty-eyed by the end of the shoot.

"I was surprisingly unemotional in a weird way because I can see James and Hammond any time I want to, they’re only a phone call away, and I’m sure we will," he told press.

More like this

He also acknowledged that his other Prime Video hit, Clarkson's Farm , helped soften the blow of ending The Grand Tour as the two productions share a number of the same crew members.

If you're excited for the final Grand Tour episode, read on for all the details you need on One for the Road.

The Grand Tour: One for the Road release date

The Grand Tour: One for the Road is now streaming on Prime Video, having screeched onto the streaming service on Friday 13th September 2024 .

The series brings an emotional end to more than two decades of collaboration between Clarkson, May and Hammond. Filming for the episode took place in September 2023, meaning its spent a long time in post-production.

Don’t miss anything special. Get newsletters direct to your inbox.

Sign up to receive the latest and greatest from the world of entertainment

By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy . You can unsubscribe at any time.

The Grand Tour locations

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

The newest instalment will see the trio head back to Africa. February saw them visit Mauritania, country in the Northwest of the continent, and the final episode will take them to Zimbabwe .

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."

Is there a trailer for The Grand Tour: One for the Road?

Yes! The trailer was unveiled ahead of the series release, and features footage from the special as it marks the end for the trio on screen after 22 years.

At the end of the teaser, Clarkson says: "So, for the last time - here we go."

You can watch the clip below.

The Grand Tour: One for the Road will launch globally on Friday 13th September on Prime Video. 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. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast .

Subscribe to Radio Times

Try 10 issues for just £10!

Curam home care services

Now you can speak to a Care Professional within one hour. You can hire a Care Professional, immediately. Curam operates across the UK.

The truth about equity release

More and more homeowners are drawing cash from their property – Melanie Wright has the facts.

The best TV and entertainment news in your inbox

Sign up to receive our newsletter!

End of an era: Top Gear trio bids farewell with final tour

T he iconic trio known from "Top Gear" and "The Grand Tour" is officially ending. However, each of the presenters plans to continue their projects.

Rumors about the end of "The Grand Tour" have been circulating for many months, and May, Hammond, and Clarkson did not shy away from the gossip, implying that the great trio's time has passed. The official farewell will be the last episode of "The Grand Tour," filmed in Zimbabwe.

The British daily "The Daily Mail" writes about the matter, mentioning the official end of over 21 years of collaboration and the dissolution of the W. Chump and Sons media company , which brought together the presenters.

Each of them, however, intends to continue their television careers by pursuing individual projects. Clarkson with "Clarkson's Farm," May with culinary-travel shows, and Hammond in the series "The Great Escapists" co-created with Tory Belleci from "MythBusters."

Does the farewell to the incredible trio mean the end of "The Grand Tour"? Not necessarily. There is no shortage of rumors in the British media about the continuation of the show , albeit with different presenters.

"The Grand Tour" to return for farewell episode in 2024

Jeremy Clarkson calls it quits on 'The Grand Tour', cites age and lack of Ideas

Ellen DeGeneres quits showbiz: Final tour and Netflix special

Top Gear/The Grand Tour Specials

1. Top Gear

Winter olympics.

2. Top Gear

U. s. special.

3. Top Gear

Polar special.

4. Top Gear

Botswana special.

5. Top Gear

Vietnam special.

6. Top Gear

Bolivia special.

7. Top Gear

Middle east special.

8. Top Gear

India special.

9. Top Gear

Africa special, part 1.

10. Top Gear

Africa special, part 2.

11. Top Gear

Burma special: part 1.

12. Top Gear

Burma special: part 2.

13. Top Gear

Patagonia special: part 1.

14. Top Gear

Patagonia special: part 2.

15. The Grand Tour

The beach (buggy) boys - part 1.

16. The Grand Tour

The beach (buggy) boys - part 2.

17. The Grand Tour

Feed the world.

18. The Grand Tour

The colombia special part 1.

19. The Grand Tour

The colombia special part 2.

20. The Grand Tour

The mongolia special-survival of the fattest.

21. The Grand Tour

The grand tour presents: seamen.

22. The Grand Tour

The grand tour presents: a massive hunt.

23. The Grand Tour

The grand tour presents: lochdown.

24. The Grand Tour

The grand tour presents: carnage a trois, more to explore, recently viewed.