All six episodes of season 1 of The Grand Tour’s new series are available to watch now on Prime Video.
At the peak of its power, The Grand Tour became Prime Video’s most-watched unscripted UK original series globally, but the show’s been up on the hoist since September 2024, when original hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May took their final bow in the episode “One for the Road.” It marked the last trip for the trio after 22 years of working together on The Grand Tour and the BBC’s Top Gear. 2026’s new vision of The Grand Tour – hosted by Thomas Holland, James Engelsman, and Francis Bourgeois – is an ambitious attempt to prove that the format can soldier on without the much-loved line up that previously helmed it. Perhaps against all odds, it has mostly succeeded.
The new series’ opening moments see an awestruck new trio share a moment with Jeremy Clarkson on his Diddly Squat Farm, which is a brief sketch setting Clarkson up as something closer to a head of state than an elder peer. It’s a cute if slightly clunky bit, but it’s a smart springboard for the new series; they may be restarting from “Season 1” as far as their presence on Prime Video is concerned, but the new Grand Tour is not ignoring the series’ history. In this way, it becomes less of a reboot and more of a relay; they’re just picking up the baton and carrying on. “Seriously, have fun with this,” says Clarkson as they depart, in probably the one part of the encounter that genuinely feels off the cuff. “I mean it, and good luck. And don’t f–k it up.”
The basic formula of the show remains intact – a mix of bespoke themed segments and long-form road trips (in this instance, across parts of the US, Malaysia, and Angola). If there’s been a noteworthy reduction in budget since the departure of the original hosting trio, it’s certainly not visible on screen. The vehicle footage remains sumptuously shot, and there’s no skimping on the execution of expensive ideas, whether that’s using a giant airbag to fling an unwanted Tesla through the air and destroy it, or a hypercar race involving three jets and a £2.1 million, 2,031 brake horsepower Hennessey Venom F5 Revolution Evolution.
What’s perhaps most pleasing is the immediate rapport between all three hosts. Admittedly, Holland and Engelsman arrive from well-established YouTube motoring channel Throttle House, where their chemistry has already been developed through years of video content. It means that they’re not only comfortable in front of a camera discussing cars, they’re also comfortable disagreeing with each other, and their unplanned exchanges typically seem like credible banter between mates. Bourgeois is particularly surprising; as the one member of the new trio who doesn’t come from a motoring journalism background, his inclusion was hard to figure out in the lead-up to his debut. I’m unfamiliar with his social media schtick because I’ve never used TikTok, but his enthusiasm for his new role is utterly infectious and he seems extremely knowledgeable. The show certainly leans into his established social media fascination with trains, but he knows cars too. He’s a truly interesting fellow who communicates with the quietly spoken authority of someone twice his age, but he can flip a switch and become a buzzing teenager behind the wheel… and he’s highly watchable as both.
If you want a quick taste of Bourgeois’ presenting style, you can dip in to the opening segment of Episode 4, where he and Holland pit two hideously expensive restomods against one another: a Totem GT Super (reimagining the classic Alfa Romeo GTA) and the Prodrive P25 (a half-a-million pound remake of the absolutely legendary Subaru Impreza 22B). As an absolute sucker for ’90s rally cars, I couldn’t help but share Bourgeois’ deep admiration for the P25, and the fact that it was introduced with one of the strongest needle drops I’ve heard in the show’s history didn’t hurt. One of the best rock bangers of the ’90s to celebrate one of the baddest four-bangers ever unleashed on gravel? Yes, please! It’s actually a segment they could’ve done a bit more with, considering how much the concept of restomods mirrors what’s happening with this new season. Taking a recognizable classic and updating it with new, modern internals? The script would’ve almost written itself.
Prior to the debut of the new series, Thomas Holland admitted that after hearing The Grand Tour was being rebooted without Clarkson, Hammond, or May, he quipped: “Only a moron would take that job.” The sentiment has clear precedent. For many years, the BBC’s Top Gear tried to establish a line-up of replacement hosts for the programme after Clarkson was axed and Hammond, May, and producer and co-creator Andy Wilman subsequently followed him out the door. Top Gear then saw eight different hosts from 2016 up until the show was put on ice in 2023. It became fascinated by filling the roster with sitcom stars, cricket players, and F1 team founders, and it never rediscovered the proper formula. It’s early days, but I think The Grand Tour has.
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