Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Grand Tour

James, Ally and I decided to watch Jeremy Clarkson's new car programme on Amazon Prime this evening. The boys always enjoyed Top Gear, from which Clarkson departed rather hastily after he punched one of the show's producers for not arranging a hot meal for him after a day of filming. His loyal henchmen, Richard Hammond and James May followed him in resigning from the BBC. Top Gear resumed with new presenters, led by Chris Evans, and got roundly criticised for not managing to capture the atmosphere of the old show. 

So we were quite interested to see how Jeremy Clarkson and his chums would fare on their new show.

It got off to a very good start; Clarkson was filmed leaving the BBC sadly in the rain, handing in his security pass on the way out. He then boarded a plane to sunny California where he drove through the desert while the song "I can see clearly now the rain has gone" was played. He was joined by Hammond and May and the show continued at a lively pace with lots of cars, lots of jokes - quite good jokes e.g. Clarkson supposedly tampering with the subtitles so that a French-speaking driver would appear to agree with his views, and a mock fight with his America audience. It was all quite amusing.

Was it better than Chris Evans' version of Top Gear? I'm afraid so. I'm not a great fan of Jeremy Clarkson's rather brash personality, but I have to admit that he knows how to present a car show. 

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