The Grand Tour: Jeremy Clarkson's first show since Top Gear praised

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The first episode of The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson's first TV series since exiting Top Gear, has been given rave reviews by critics.

The show launched on the Amazon Prime streaming service on Thursday evening.

It is the first programme to be fronted by Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May since they parted company with the BBC and Top Gear last year.

Writing in The Evening Standard, Ben Travis described it as a "stunningly beautiful show".

"If The Grand Tour is basically Top Gear with a nitrous boost of Amazon finances, the difference is immediately apparent," he said.

"Those who have never counted themselves as Jeremy Clarkson fans aren't exactly going to be won over here - but episode one is a confident opener that leaves the BBC's attempted Top Gear revival in the dust."

The Grand Tour seems to be very similar to Top Gear except, in each episode, the lads are based in a foreign country and going on a foreign, vehicle-based adventure, unlike in Top Gear which is based at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey - which has been converted into a studio - where the main filming takes place but with the odd bit of filming elsewhere in the country and the odd foreign adventure.

The Grand Tour: Jeremy Clarkson's first show since Top Gear praised

BBC News
18 November 2016


James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond exited the BBC last March

The first episode of The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson's first TV series since exiting Top Gear, has been given rave reviews by critics.

The show launched on the Amazon Prime streaming service on Thursday evening.

It is the first programme to be fronted by Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May since they parted company with the BBC and Top Gear last year.

Writing in The Evening Standard, Ben Travis described it as a "stunningly beautiful show".

"If The Grand Tour is basically Top Gear with a nitrous boost of Amazon finances, the difference is immediately apparent," he said.

"Those who have never counted themselves as Jeremy Clarkson fans aren't exactly going to be won over here - but episode one is a confident opener that leaves the BBC's attempted Top Gear revival in the dust."

Writing in The Guardian, Sam Wollaston said: "More than format, more even than the amount of money you throw at something, what really gives a television show its personality is the personnel.

"You can pour something into a different container, but it still tastes the same. And, like it or not, this tastes of Clarkson, Hammond and May."

He added: "Fans of old Top Gear are going to be happy."

The first episode of the series saw the trio take their travelling studio tent to Dry Rabbit Lake in the Mojave Desert in California.


The first episode was filmed in Dry Rabbit Lake in California's Mojave Desert

Vehicles featured in the episode included hybrid hyper-cars such as the McLaren P1, the Porsche 918 Spyder and the Ferrari LaFerrari.

The Telegraph's Ed Power said: "The Grand Tour isn't a shameless Top Gear rip-off. But under the hood the rival franchises have a great deal in common."

He added: "The new series will certainly go some way towards obliterating memories of Top Gear's terrible Chris Evans-fronted relaunch. Petrolheads can rejoice.

"The BBC may wonder how Matt LeBlanc and whoever joins him next year can possibly compete."

Dan Wootton gave The Grand Tour five stars in his review for The Sun.

"Being sacked from the BBC was the greatest thing that ever happened to Clarkson and co - and the world of cars on TV," he wrote.

"This has guns, explosions, super yachts, madcap stunts, the British Institute of Car Chases, dramatic crashes, a sinking ship and Hammond being dangled from a chopper."

"But the one thing that really matters is Clarkson being reunited with his two mates on screen."


The Grand Tour went live on Amazon Prime just before midnight on Thursday evening

Digital Spy's Tom Eames said: "Clarkson, Hammond and May's reunion ​is silly but worth the wait (and money)."

"It's precisely all the things we loved about their old show, but bigger, brighter and more blow-upier.

"And they've sort of somehow come up with the world's first scripted comedy factual show, and it works perfectly."

Some viewers stayed up late to watch the programme when it went live just before midnight on Thursday evening, and many tweeted their thoughts.












The first series of The Grand Tour will consist of 12 hour-long episodes - with one being made available each week.

A total of 36 episodes across three years have been commissioned by Amazon.

Currently, only fans in the UK, America, Germany and Japan are able to watch the first episode, but the company has announced it will be launching the show globally in December.


Jeremy Clarkson presented Top Gear from 2002 until last year

The new series does not include features such as "star in a reasonably-priced car" or The Stig - as those belong to the BBC's Top Gear format.

Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans took over presenting duties on Top Gear after Clarkson, Hammond and May's departure, although Evans left the show after one series.

Clarkson has previously said of the new show: "I think programme one will be all right. I'd be extremely surprised if that was poorly reviewed."


Analysis by Will Gompertz, BBC arts editor



Filmic is the word that sprang to my mind when watching The Grand Tour.

The scale of the production, the quality of the cameras, the epic sweeping shots and the pastiches of old movies - it seemed the show was aimed at the big screen, not the telly. Or a mobile phone, which is how I imagine a lot of people will view it.

It opens with a scene so over-the-top and opulent you'd think that the Prince Regent was behind the camera. Think Mad Max meets Easy Rider as we see the three presenters drive across the Californian desert, making their way through a sea of cars all barrelling along to a massive stage that has risen from the sand like a pyramid.

Maybe the small screen is too small for Clarkson, Hammond and May, and their next step should be away from the internet and into the cinema.


Read the full article
 
Blackleaf

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Mad, bad... and totally brilliant: Clarkson's new show makes the BBC's Top Gear look like a burnt-out old banger, says SARAH VINE

By Sarah Vine for the Daily Mail
19 November 2016

The Grand Tour (Amazon Prime)
Rating:




Shhh. Listen carefully. Can you hear it? That strange, grating sound like nails on a blackboard. I wonder: what could it possibly be?

I’ll tell you. It’s the collective gnashing of teeth. The furious grinding of executive enamel as the powers that be at the BBC realise what a monumental mistake they made when they ‘lost’ Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear.

Now, after months of waiting, he has his revenge. The Grand Tour, Clarkson’s new Amazon Prime show, launched on Thursday night at 11.30pm. And, like its controversial presenter, it pulled no punches.


The Grand Tour, Clarkson’s new Amazon Prime show, launched on Thursday night at 11.30pm. And, like its controversial presenter, it pulled no punches


The powers that be at the BBC surely realise what a monumental mistake they made when they ‘lost’ the team from Top Gear


This is rock’n’roll TV at its very best. Electrifying, life-affirming, liberating. And above all, bold

It began with Clarkson stepping out of New Broadcasting House for the last time, like a naughty schoolboy whose antics had finally got him expelled. Under a cold, grey sky, he glances upwards at the clouds bucketing down a dismal future on his head. Resigned to his fate, he hands back his BBC pass to the doorman, then opens his umbrella against the downpour.

But what’s this? Instead of heading home to a spiral of drink and depression, we follow our man to the airport, where he boards a flight to . . . Los Angeles, city of dreams. And what a dream it is. Out of the terminal, into the bright Californian sunshine and straight to an underground garage to collect the hire car.

Only in place of the usual lump of anonymous grey metal . . . a shiny blue, massively powerful Mustang.

The pathos builds as, to the opening strains of Johnny Nash’s 1972 hit, I Can See Clearly Now The Rain Has Gone, he steers towards the open road. Subtle it ain’t, but then when did Clarkson ever do subtle?

On the freeway, he glances into his mirror and a smile lights up his crabby old face: behind him, in red and white Mustangs, are James May and Richard Hammond, his beaming co-conspirators.

They exchange a few knowing glances — and they’re off, speeding towards the desert in convoy like a motorised Union Jack.

As they head into the shimmering heat they are joined by a fleet of Mad Max style vehicles, from vintage Fords to futuristic fantasies, from truckers to bikers, engines revving, plumes of dust rising up behind them.

Like some Messiah of the internal combustion engine, Clarkson leads them to the assembled faithful, a crowd of revellers at the Burning Man Festival. A fly-past of jets roars overhead. And as the music fades he and his compadres take to the stage, turning to face the delighted audience.


Clarkson glances into his mirror and a smile lights up his crabby old face: behind him, in red and white Mustangs, are James May and Richard Hammond, his beaming co-conspirators


For years Clarkson has been vilified by the politically correct thought police, tolerated at the BBC only by dint of his popularity


I dread to think what the insurance premiums must be with explosions like this a fairly regular occurence

Talk about making an entrance. This is rock’n’roll TV at its very best. Electrifying, life-affirming, liberating. And above all, bold.

Because even though they’re being paid a fortune, even though Amazon is a global corporation that avoids tax like the rest of them, it feels like, amid the smoke and gasoline, they’re putting two fingers up to the Establishment.

For years Clarkson has been vilified by the politically correct thought police, tolerated at the BBC only by dint of his popularity — baffling to the metropolitan management — and his ability to pull in the ratings. When he left, it was seen as a long time coming.

No doubt those who rejoiced at his departure will see his return as a toxic throwback.

In fact it’s much worse than that — from their point of view, at least. Because The Grand Tour is mad, bad . . . and totally brilliant. It makes Top Gear — whether with Chris Evans or Matt LeBlanc — look like a burnt-out old banger.

Think the old Clarkson Top Gear, only with no brakes at all. And a much, much bigger budget. And helicopters. And tyre-screeching, rubber-burning, spark-flying explosions. I dread to think what the insurance premiums must be.

As to the banter, it’s naughtier, ruder and funnier than before.

‘The good thing is it’s very unlikely I’m going to be fired by anyone now because we’re on the internet,’ says Clarkson. ‘Which means I could pleasure a horse.’

MOTORMOUTHS... IN THEIR OWN WORDS

‘He’s basically a shaved ape in a shirt. And he — technically — is the only one of us never to be fired by anyone.’ - Hammond on Clarkson

‘James May, the world’s slowest human being, has been caught speeding. Richard and I were astonished.' - Clarkson, before revealing May was caught driving at 37 mph on a 30 mph road

‘This was boring me to death. It was like being stuck in a Victorian women’s novel. This is a missionary position car.’ - Clarkson on driving Hammond’s Porsche

‘This week you are all Americans. This is a bit of a problem, you see, because we only speak English.' - Clarkson to his U.S. audience

‘Grown adults have taken to riding around the city on children’s toys. I think they’re called “bicycles” — is that the right word?’ - Clarkson’s opinion of cyclists

‘Where I come from, this isn’t a car. It’s a cry for help.’- The Grand Tour’s new American NASCAR racing driver, Mike Skinner


  • Amazon paid nearly £4.5 million per show, ten times the cost of a Top Gear episode.
  • Clarkson’s reported annual salary is £10 million, making him the UK’s highest-paid TV star.
  • The cost of destroying 20 G-Wiz electric cars in a game of Battleships was £200,000. They were used as missiles.



‘The good thing is it’s very unlikely I’m going to be fired by anyone now because we’re on the internet,’ says Clarkson


It feels like, amid the smoke and gasoline, they’re putting two fingers up to the Establishment


One always sensed that the BBC was rather embarrassed about the huge popularity of Top Gear (350 million global viewers at its peak, making it the most-watched factual TV show on Earth)

This petrol-guzzling, guns-blazing Grand Tour is taken round the world — next stop Johannesburg — and the studio in the first episode looks like a circus tent.

‘We’re going to be like gypsies . . . only insured,’ quips Clarkson. May and Hammond, too, are on top form, and seem to have discovered a new assertiveness, albeit within the context of the trio’s well-worn dynamics.

More importantly, there is a true feeling of joyful escapism here, a sense of liberation. In fact, this is what they should have called it instead of the rather vanilla Grand Tour: Clarkson Unchained. Because that’s what it is.

And there is a confidence the original Top Gear never quite managed, even at its best. One always sensed that the BBC was rather embarrassed about the huge popularity of Top Gear (350 million global viewers at its peak, making it the most-watched factual TV show on Earth).

Perhaps that was because a show about cars is so fundamentally at odds with the Left-leaning ethos of the Corporation. Especially the kind of super-fast, super-expensive monsters favoured by this lot.

The Grand Tour is car porn in a way that the BBC could never have countenanced.

In this opening show alone we have a McLaren, a Porsche and a Ferrari ‘hypercar’ — and green, eco ones at that — pitted against each other on the track, and also driven by not one but two experts, the Belgian Formula 1 driver Jerome D’Ambrosio and a down-and-dirty American called Mike Skinner.

The latter is brilliant, a star in the making, the Stig if he were on steroids and hailed from Texas.

‘This thing wouldn’t pull a greasy string out of a dog’s a*s,’ he growls as he puts millions of pounds worth of supercar through its paces.

It is thrilling, funny, deliciously badly behaved and properly exhilarating. And it’s something else: it’s bang on the zeitgeist.


There is a confidence the original Top Gear never quite managed, even at its best


It is thrilling, funny, deliciously badly behaved and properly exhilarating. And it’s something else: it’s bang on the zeitgeist

If the political events of 2016 have taught us anything, it’s that ordinary people have had enough.

Enough of being lectured to by a rarified elite, enough of being vilified and ridiculed because the things they think and say and do are not the things the Establishment wants them to think and say and do.

Through the EU referendum and the U.S. Presidential election, these people, the ‘deplorables’ as Hillary Clinton likes to call them, have found their voice.

And it is, in many ways, the voice of Jeremy Clarkson. The voice of someone who is not a paragon of virtue — but neither is he a villain.

He is just an ordinary bloke who makes mistakes and gets things wrong, who loses his temper if he doesn’t get a hot dinner and sometimes (well, all right, rather a lot) says the wrong thing.

His fans, are I suspect, the same people who confounded the pollsters here in the UK and across America. In some ways, Clarkson is the Donald Trump of the television world: an outspoken maverick that no one really took too seriously — and who finds himself holding the reins of power.

And, like Trump, the more the Establishment — in Clarkson’s case the BBC — disapproves of him, the more the people love him. Looks like leaving the Beeb was the best thing that ever happened to him.
 
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