the grand tour zimbabwe

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May film final Grand Tour

Published 29 November 2023

Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May previously hosted Top Gear on BBC One

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond have filmed their last episode of motoring show The Grand Tour, after seven years on Amazon Prime.

Clarkson, 63, May, 60, and Hammond, 52, have returned from filming in Zimbabwe, with the special set to be shown next year.

The BBC understands options are being explored for a new incarnation of the show.

Amazon Prime and the three presenters have been approached for comment.

The Grand Tour has enjoyed five series, and has been hosted by the trio since their departure from the BBC's Top Gear show in 2015.

The news comes days after it was announced that Top Gear will not return "for the foreseeable future" after presenter Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff was hurt in a crash while filming last year .

In a statement, the BBC said it had "decided to rest the UK show".

Speaking last week, May told the Today Podcast : "My honest view is - I can say this now - it does need a bit of a rethink.

"It's time for a new format and a new approach to the subject because the subject has not been this interesting, I suspect, since the car has been invented."

Two decades of the show from Jeremy Clarkson to Freddie Flintoff
Watch: Top Gear's key moments over the years

Clarkson, Hammond and May began presenting Top Gear together in 2003, and the show became a huge success for the BBC.

Despite the show's format being exported around the world, the trio became embroiled in a string of controversies.

Clarkson left the show and the BBC in 2015, after punching a producer over a row about the availability of hot food during filming. He later apologised .

Hammond and May left with him and the trio were immediately snapped up by Amazon for their streaming service Amazon Prime.

Viewing figures reported by Reuters in 2018 showed the first season was one of the best performing Amazon Original series.

The hosts also have other shows running on Amazon, including Clarkson's Farm, which is set to return for a third series, and May's Our Man In... series.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May’s Grand Tour Tenure Is Coming to an End

The Grand Tour’s end comes just weeks after the BBC indefinitely shut down Top Gear.

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The old Top Gear trio of Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and James May will be hitting your screen as the hosts of The Grand Tour for the final time in 2024. The two final episodes have now been filmed, taking place in Mauritania and Zimbabwe, where the trio we've grown to love will close a chapter that's been three decades in the making.

“We’re done. I have reviewed cars on TV since 1989. That’s 34 years. And after next year, I won’t be doing that any more," Clarkson told The Times .

Since The Grand Tour launched in 2016, after Clarkson was fired from Top Gear for punching a producer, it's gone through several changes. First, it was essentially a Top Gear recreation, with celebrity interviews and an in-studio live show. Then they tightened it up by ditching the celebrity stuff. Eventually, they ditched the live show altogether and just made feature-length specials. And while none of The Grand Tour's iterations managed to capture the magic of Top Gear at its best , it was still one of the most watched shows on Amazon Prime . Millions of people tuned in to watch the automotive equivalent of the Three Stooges (and I mean that as a grand compliment).

All three hosts have their own projects to pursue outside of The Grand Tour anyway. Clarkson has his farm show and May has a travel show, both of which are also on Amazon Prime , while Hammond still does a lot of work for DriveTribe , while also presenting other TV programs. So they'll still be around, even though The Grand Tour won't be.

This news also comes just a couple of weeks after the BBC decided to indefinitely shut down Top Gear . After host Freddie Flintoff's accident during filming and the subsequent settlement, the BBC decided against renewing the show. Clarkson doesn't blame the most recent trio of Top Gear hosts for not wanting to return, either, specifically Flintoff.

"Richard Hammond was always keen to get back to work [following a crash], whereas Freddie isn’t," Clarkson told The Sun . "I don’t blame him. I know what happened on that awful day and it was horrific."

Clarkson even said that anyone who wants to take over in Flintoff's spot would come across as "heartless."

In a matter of weeks, the world learned that the two most entertaining car shows on TV are shutting down. We all knew this day was coming soon, as the original Top Gear gang are all either in their sixties or getting quite close, but it's still a little sad to see them go. Sure, their most recent work pales in comparison to the shows from their prime but, like most millennial car nerds, Clarkson, Hammond, and May made an indelible impression on me and the way I look at cars, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that one. Thanks for the memories, chaps.

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