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The new hosts of The Grand Tour have admitted that it’s ‘a famously difficult show’ to inherit after curt advice from Jeremy Clarkson.
Francis Bourgeois, James Engelsman and Thomas Holland are taking over the reins of the motoring adventure show, which has released six new episodes on Amazon Prime Video today.
Despite receiving the blessing of the original show’s presenters, Jeremy, Richard Hammond and James May, the new trio are under no illusion about the size of the task ahead.
‘It’s a famously difficult show to take over. That’s probably the most diplomatic way to say it,’ James tells Metro during an exclusive interview.
‘I think our version probably represents the best chance. It’s certainly the first one that has the blessing of the old guard on camera.
‘The responsibility is huge. It’s like, “This is ours to mess up,” and hopefully we’ve done right by them.’
Francis – who boasts nearly six million followers across his social media accounts where he shares his love of trains – says: ‘Obviously, there’s a massive sense of responsibility, but we want to honour the DNA of the show. I think we’ve given it our stamp and our own identities.’
Towards the beginning of the new series, Jeremy offers the three presenters some rather blunt advice – not to ‘f*** it up’ – before handing over the torch.
So what words of wisdom have the fresh-faced presenters taken away from former hosts? ‘Be yourselves, I think, is probably the most important one,’ Thomas shares.
Read Milo Pope’s review here: https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/04/high-hopes-amazons-grand-tour-reboot-running-empty-29519391/
They also took advice from Richard Porter, the show’s former script editor, who told them to ‘stay away from contrivance’.
‘I think that’s a scary, easy trap to fall into,’ James explains.
Instead, Francis says: ‘We just let our car enthusiasm sing. We’ve likely been selected because we are die-hard petrolheads and car enthusiasts, so we’ve just let that unfold. And I think, hopefully, it shows.’
The new series of The Grand Tour sees Thomas, James and Francis traverse through America, Malaysia and Angola in a series of increasingly dangerous missions.
