IT is the most illegally downloaded show since Game of Thrones and now, The Grand Tour — which reunites former Top Gear hosts James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond — has launched on Amazon Prime Video in Australia.
May spoke exclusively to News Corp Australia about what to expect, how the show is different from Top Gear and how Clarkson has changed — or not — since his infamous run-in with one of the show’s producers, which saw Clarkson sacked and May and Hammond follow him out the door.
Amazon Prime Video has committed to three series of The Grand Tour, the first five episodes of which are now available to Australian audiences.
May said he believed Australians would embrace the show, “even though it is being presented by three British blokes.”
“I suppose bits that will seem appropriate to Australian audiences are those bits where we are driving in the desert and the dust which will seem familiar, even though it isn’t in Australia,” he said. “There is a bit of DIY and those things that we associate with the pioneering Australian spirit of motoring. Plus all the stuff that everyone likes anyway — new cars, super cars, the odd hot lap, some falling over, some things exploding and breaking down, all the things that make us a sitcom rather than a car program.”
He rejected suggestions made by some critics that there may be intellectual property concerns because The Grand Tour is too similar to Top Gear.
“To be honest, the really significant bits we didn’t bring with us and we didn’t want to,” he said. “We don’t have a Stig ... we don’t have our own racetrack in the studio like we did before. Being a car show isn’t a matter of intellectual property. There are elements of a format that are but we aren’t treading on those. This was an opportunity for us to have a bit of a refresh, which we needed to be honest.”
“Plus the people at Amazon aren’t stupid. They wouldn’t let us do anything that they thought even for a moment would embroil them in a court battle so it is just not going to happen,” he said.
May puts the success of the old Top Gear and The Grand Tour to the chemistry he has with Clarkson and Hammond.
He also defended the co-hosts who replaced the trio, Friends star Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans, who were criticised for lacking the same chemistry enjoyed by Clarkson, Hammond and May
“That assessment is quite harsh. It took us quite a long time to develop this thing that we call ‘the chemistry’, which is obviously our mutual loathing of each other which is very good at driving a TV show forwards,” he said. “If you went back to when we all started working together it would seem a bit wooden and overly polite. Given the chance they will all learn to hate each other, it is inevitable on TV.”
Asked whether Clarkson had changed since the incident where he punched producer Oisin Tymon, giving him a split lip, May replied, “I can’t tell the difference. He is a little fatter.”
May said the program would love to shoot some episodes in Australia if possible.
“Australia is on our big office whiteboard of places we could go to,” he said. “We have done stuff in Australia before. In the old days we did the Clarkson, Hammond and May live show, and before that we did Top Gear Live, we also made a movie in Australia ... so we very much like the idea of coming to Australia but the problem is that it is so bloody far away.”
The Grand Tour, which cost upwards of $200 million to make, is available on Amazon Prime Video for $2.99 a month.
May said The Grand Tour episodes will be released each week, instead of dropping all episodes at once.
“I suppose our hardcore fans want to see it as soon as it is ready so in that sense it is like old school television in that way,” he said. “But you can save them up and watch them in a tinnie and BBQ-fuelled orgy if you like.”
May apologised to Australians for having to wait so long to view the new show.
“Sorry you didn’t get it immediately and sorry we didn’t tell you it was coming but we weren’t allowed to,” he said. “We are quite pleased with it but no doubt the Aussies will let us know what they think on Twitter.”
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