The Grand Tour boss lifts lid on braving final filming location where even BBC is ‘banned'
The final ever instalment of The Grand Tour is coming to Amazon Prime - and the trio's last ride features a location which has completely banned the BBC.
The Grand Tour: One For The Road - Official trailer
The Grand Tour gang are headed on their last-ever adventure, where they explore new locations they previously feared would be impossible to film in. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are set to reunite one last time for their Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour: One for the Road.
The show’s epic finale will see the friends travel through Zimbabwe in three cards they’ve always wanted to own: a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri 3-litre, and a Triumph Stag. Explaining their decision to travel to Zimbabwe, Executive Producer Andy Wilman recalled asking the trio what they wanted to do for their final goodbye.
He said: “Their favourite place in all the eighteen years that we've been doing the specials was always Kubu Island, so we knew the last minutes of the film needed to be there. We just had to work out how to get there… It had to be the most evocative country, which is Zimbabwe.
“We could never get into Zimbabwe with the BBC because they banned the BBC, but on this, we had some great people who lived there and helped us get in. Jeremy then decided to take on the researcher role and went to have a look at Zimbabwe and came back with a load of ideas and a route.
“Obviously, I then did a lot of work because we don’t trust him!” he added cheekily. “But actually, everything he talked about and everything he’d seen was right.
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“So, it was quite easy it was just: get to the border with Botswana in the most entertaining way.”
Jeremy also spoke about the previous challenges of entering certain countries under the BBC banner.
He remembered: “For years the BBC weren’t allowed into Iran or Zimbabwe, but Amazon is allowed, so the light bulb just suddenly clicked on. I've always wanted to go to Zimbabwe.”
Reflecting on their other locations, he added: “The three of us have always agreed that Botswana was our favourite special, probably because it was our first, and so there is nostalgia to that.
“Kubu Island is only 120 miles from the border, so we knew where we were anchored and
where we were ending, and the rest was easy.”
Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour, which first aired in 2016, comprises five series with a total of 43 episodes between them.
Before that, Jeremy, Richard and James all worked together for many years on the BBC car programme Top Gear, which they departed in 2015.
The Grand Tour: One for the Road launches globally on 13 September only on Prime Video.
