Great Tew, Oxfordshire - Almost as if in riposte to the BBC’s teaser for Season 25 of Top Gear, Amazon Prime has released this trailer for the fourth episode of The Grand Tour’s second season.
It features Clarkson, Hammond and May in Croatia, driving an Audi TT RS, an Ariel Nomad and a Lada fire engine respectively, then Hammond testing the McLaren 720S, followed by the ‘new Stig’, glamorous racing driver Abbie Eaton, setting a hot lap, presumably in the same car.
The Celebrity Face Off segment features classical singers Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, indulging in some distinctly less than classical repartee in the Big Tent.
And that’s what this episode is all about; there’s been a lot of criticism over the years that Top Gear and now The Grand Tour were too scripted - down to the smallest detail - and not spontaneous enough.
Well, Amazon would now have us believe that this episode, entitled simply “Unscripted”, was filmed entirely off the cuff, that the presenters were given the idea for each segment and allowed simply to run with it.
How much of Episode Four is actually unscripted is anybody’s guess, but it should make for interesting, if occasionally cringeworthy, viewing.