'I'm a Grand Tour superfan - Amazon made a huge mistake in One for the Road'

When I was a boy, some of my friends idolised singers and others superheroes. I, on the other hand, got a lot of inspiration from three blokes who drove cars for a living.

Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond are undoubtedly the UK's most famous trio of television presenters. With a bit of help from used car dealer Jason Dawe, they took BBC2's diminishing motoring consumer programme and made it such a hit that it has been shown in more than 200 different countries.

Such was their success that, when Jeremy assulted a producer and had his contract ended, one of the world's biggest media companies took them on and into the streaming age with The Grand Tour. In the space of 22 years, 350 million people have watched Clarkson, Hammond, and May driving just about everything on wheels in more countries than most people get to visit in their whole lives.

With that in mind, it is only natural that, at some stage, The Grand Tour had to end at some stage. The three hosts that brought youth and excitement to Top Gear now have a combined age of 179. But is the last episode of this collosal series a swan song that celebrates their impact on the world or a bit of an old banger?

I am by no means a television critic - the Daily Express already has a great team - but as a lifelong fan of the show, I thought I would share my thoughts on this final outing for the trio.

The Grand Tour: One for the Road is a bit like the last day of term at primary school. Rather than solve any special problem or see if a particular task was possible, the trio simply took three models that they loved for a jaunt across Zimbabwe and into Botswana.

The premise is very similar to a special that they filmed for Top Gear some 17 years ago in 2007, but potentially features some of the most varied driving conditions ever seen on one of these trips.

Across the two-hour spectacular, they travelled across asphalt roads that seemed smoother than our own, rally trial-like dirt tracks, as well as deserts, and through all kinds of spectacular scenery, helped no end by Amazon's excellent camera work.

The cars themselves, all 1970s sports cars, were also very well chosen. I will try not to bore you with how James' Triumph Stag is the same 'bruised thumb' purple as a Spitfire he nearly bought in a prior Top Gear special, but I did draw a few connections to old episodes.

Jeremy's Lancia Monte Carlo, for example, was undeniably similar to the Beta Coupe that he used in the Botswana Special. This culminates in the trio 'discovering' the very same car shortly after crossing the border, along with a Mercedes 230E used by James.

In a way, all of the cars chosen by the presenters suited them beautifully. Jeremy's Lancia had plenty of flair and power but was fairly useless when not being thrashed, Hammond's Ford Capri had strong American-style ambitions, and James' Triumph was surprisingly rugged but hardly exciting - and I mean that all in the greatest possible way.

Of course, not everything about the show was perfect, and there were times when I felt like this was a good opportunity to go out on a high.

After 22 years and dozens of different specials, the formula has remained roughly the same. We know that there will be three cars that get slowly destroyed, we know that one presenter will break down only for the others to drive off without them, we know that there will be a comedy backup car that nobody ends up using, we know that one of the trio will get the other two lost.

But, for this last episode, none of that really matters. In fact, towards the end of the show, they play up to it by creating some shot-for-shot scenes. It's in these moments that you realise how, whilst the cars and age of the presenters may have changed, very little else needed to.

One thing that I really did like about The Grand Tour's finale was just how open all three presenters were about the show coming to a close, particularly when compared to how abruptly their run on the BBC series ended.

While a running gag unique to this episode was how Richard will soon be appearing in pantomimes as Buttons, everyone felt very sincere. Even though all three have their respective TV shows that will continue, it was clear they were very sad to see their defining programme (or the succession of it) come to a close.

Like many viewers, I too was sad when the screen faded to black for the final time and various soundbites from the trio over the years could be heard echoing over the credits. But as endings go, it could not have been better.