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‘Welcome to our first Grand Tour!’ Francis Bourgeois says, his squeaky voice breaking with excitement.
The new Grand Tour is already a far cry from the old iteration, which was hosted by a trio of presenters who’ve appeared on screen together for more than 20 years.
Top Gear and its successor never really appealed to me. I’m not a big petrolhead (as much as I love my basic Fiat 500), and given my age and interest in other genres, I didn’t feel as though I was the demographic that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were targeting.
But seconds into the trailer for the new Amazon Prime reboot, I was already charmed. The chemistry between the three new hosts feels awkwardly endearing, a sharp contrast to the boisterous banter between the original presenters that – when I watched the odd episode – just didn’t feel accessible to me personally.
There’s a reason that Jeremy, Richard and James are hailed as TV legends. They took Top Gear and The Grand Tour to stratospheric heights, with the former recognised by the Guinness World Records as the most widely viewed factual TV programme in the world.
Following their exit from the BBC, The Grand Tour launched on Amazon Prime, with the show’s debut in November 2016 breaking streaming records on the platform. The stats speak for themselves – it just wasn’t my cup of tea… until now?
Earlier this month, the first teaser was released for the revival, which is being hosted by viral train obsessive Francis, and YouTubers James Engelsman and Thomas Holland. Now, a full trailer has been revealed, providing a greater insight into the upcoming new episodes – and so far, they’re going down a treat with impressed fans.
We see the new trio screaming with excitement while behind the wheel, Francis bashing into an automatic barrier while Thomas sprints away, James laying pelvis-first in a tiny boat on the ocean, and the presenters completely losing their cool meeting Jenson Button.
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And no, Thomas doesn’t recover his cool when he goes in for a handshake – no, a fistbump – no, whatever he ends up doing with his hands while greeting the Formula One legend.
At one point in the trailer, the hosts begin a dramatic countdown, yelling out ‘three, two, one’, before Francis attempts to pull the tarp off of a car – failing drastically when it gets caught.
If you thought that you’d seen Francis at his most excited when trainspotting (with his videos going viral in 2021), then prepare to see his enthusiasm go absolutely through the roof when he floors it going god knows how fast, shouting: ‘Absolute hellfire!’
In another dramatic moment, Thomas is behind the wheel with a helmet on, when he asks: ‘Where’s the jet?’