Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond will travel through America’s “Trumpsville” in home-made motorhomes and visit China for a less than successful business venture when The Grand Tour returns later this year.
Andy Wilman, the show’s executive producer, revealed what’s in store while appearing at Amazon’s Prime Video showcase on Tuesday.
The trio, who are currently filming in Azerbaijan, will soon record the studio links for the latest run.
When planning a series, Wilman said he and the presenters look at which cars are coming out and then consider which countries offer a good place to showcase them.
“There are three big GT luxury cars [this year], they require a massive road trip. We can’t just go around Wales…we require big, beautiful scenery.”
Discussing the set-up for the China trip, Wilman explained that local business people buy “very expensive cars but they cost three or four times what they would in Europe.”
So the trio “brought shitty, £8k, twenty year old Mercedes that are on their last legs and are trying to convince the Chinese business community that this the way forward.”
But, unsurprisingly, it “all goes really wrong.”
This year’s “two big locations” are Columbia, “where we do one of our specials where they’re trying to be wildlife photographers,” and Mongolia.
Wilman also said that he loved working on the show because “it’s ours,” going on to say “it was never a strong format” unlike The Apprentice of The X-Factor which he described as “quite rigid.”
Instead, he said that for “the eighteen years we’ve been together,” they have always said “what do we feel like doing this year.”
“And, as they age you see it. It’s like their life played out on screen via cars and car adventures. Each series is like recording an album, you’ve got some hits, some fillers and some experimental tracks that don’t work and then you get some goodies.”
Wilman finished by saying he was “quietly confident” fans will love what they see this year.
