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After months of waiting, The Grand Tour is finally back for its latest special Eurocrash, as Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May embark on a high-octane road trip across Eastern Europe.
As per usual, there are daring stunts (this time there’s one that features a car being driven onto a moving plane), childish pranks and an exploration of different cultures, as well as an extortionate, drunken purchase of a miniscule vintage car on James’ part.
The 60-year-old recently spoke to Metro.co.uk about the trio’s new adventure, in addition to addressing how inappropriately he feels that some social media users responded to Top Gear star Freddie Flintoff’s crash, having made headlines with his own less serious incident in a tunnel shortly beforehand.
In December last year, the former professional cricketer was said to have been airlifted to hospital after being involved in a collision at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome, with the BBC saying in a statement at the time: ‘Crew medics attended the scene immediately. He has been taken to hospital for further treatment and we will confirm more details in due course.’
It was claimed months later that the 45-year-old had to wait for nearly an hour with agonising facial injuries, while the BBC and the government’s Health and Safety Executive launched probes into the incident, with the broadcaster insisting that ‘all health and safety procedures were followed’.
James, 60, had his own knock a few months prior, after crashing into a wall at 75mph while filming The Grand Tour. He later acknowledged that it wasn’t too serious, saying: ‘It was just a bit of a bang.’
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During his conversation with Metro.co.uk, James criticised trolls on social media who ‘rejoiced’ over Freddie’s accident and suggested that he, Jeremy and Richard should take over Top Gear again, after they previously hosted it as a trio up until 2015.
Addressing the incident that occurred during the filming of the BBC programme, he said: ‘Dunsfold is a remarkably safe place to drive around, there isn’t really anything to hit and they do take all the safety and stuff very seriously. They even have fire engines on standby and ambulances at Dunsfold. So it’s all a bit of a tragedy, and it’s obviously much worse than we first thought.
‘But one thing I would say, I’ve noticed this on Twitter, it’s died down a bit now, but for a while there were people saying, “Top Gear’s ended because Freddie Flintoff bashed himself up and why don’t you three go back and rescue and save it.” I wanted to say to people, “Look, the bloke’s hurt himself.”
‘It’s not an opportunity for you to gloat or say “Oh, I prefer the other team.” You could possibly just say, “Get well Freddie,” or something nice like that, rather than rejoicing in it. It’s a while since it happened and he’s obviously still not completely better. So it’s not like my tunnel crash, a couple of weeks later, I was okay, no lasting damage. That’s obviously something a lot more serious. So good luck to him.’
When asked whether his own accident has had an impact on him when he now goes behind the wheel, the TV personality answered: ‘No, I forgot about it pretty quickly, to be honest. And I don’t normally drive down tunnels, either.
‘Driving on the road, I don’t keep thinking about, “I’d better remember that I crashed that car in that tunnel,” because that’s not a normal driving scenario, it’s just stupid really. It’s a silly prank.’
The latest Grand Tour special, Eurocrash, involves some pretty bold stunts, one of which involves the presenters driving their vehicles while being shot at by horse-riding archers. As you do.
‘That was quite terrifying in a way because I went first as usual,’ James recollected.
‘I usually go first with those sorts of things. And I thought, well, they must have worked this out, the arrows. They’re not like pointy arrows, but obviously anything travelling as fast as an arrow goes through stuff. Bullets aren’t really very pointy, but they go through things. And some of them did punch to the bodywork.
‘I thought, well, what if somebody has not worked this out correctly? And one of those arrows comes through the window? That’s not something I’m particularly keen to repeat.’
Apparently – and unsurprisingly – the sound of the arrows piercing the body work of his small car made ‘a very, very alarming noise’.
‘The noise is like somebody shooting bullets at you. It makes a very bullet-y noise as it hits the bodywork,’ he admitted.
As for what fans of the Prime Video show can expect from the new release, which takes the presenters on a tour of Eastern Europe, it’s ‘like a boys road trip from the olden days’, James teased.
‘It’s a road trip that nobody ever does, in cars that no one would ever take, and for pretty good reason when you see them,’ he shared.
The Grand Tour: Eurocrash is streaming on Prime Video.
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