The Grand Tour: Richard Hammond Believes Show Is “Force For Good For The First Time Ever”
Richard Hammond has revealed that he wants his Amazon Prime Video show, The Grand Tour, to be a “diplomatic force for good” as it travels to and explores different countries across the globe.
The latest episode of the car show, Carnage A Trois, followed Hammond alongside presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May across Great Britain. They were forced to stay on the island due to COVID lockdown rules, but despite this created an episode that focussed on the French way of motoring.
The episode was “kind” to France according to Hammond, but didn’t realise it was released just as the French threated to blockade British goods entering the Calais port.
“It turned out to be quite timely but it wasn’t in any way planned,” said the presenter.
“We start planning these things a long way in advance.
“We wanted to ask the simple, quite cheeky question, ‘What is it about the French in the context of cars?
“And we thought it would be just an aircraft carrier for jokes about French cars.
“But actually it very quickly became clear and becomes clearer in the film, you see the point in which we start to think, ‘Maybe they were onto something, maybe they’re right?’”
He continued:
“So it turns into quite an affectionate look at French cars, French car history, and French attitudes to cars.”
He added that the episode could show a level of diplomacy as England’s toil over Brexit continued:
“It’s quite interesting that we didn’t know that we would be arguing with the French at the time this show landed.
“And now as it lands, we are having a bit of a squabble.
“But because this is actually quite turned out to be quite an affectionate and warm and friendly look at the French and the French cars, maybe it will be diplomatically a force for good for the first time ever.”
The latest episode of The Grand Tour heads to Norway as it’s rumoured the episode will focus on the motorsport of rallying. You can read everything we know about the episode here. It’s also been confirmed that the trio will soon be filming another episode.
“We’ve already filmed one – we’re not long back from that,” Hammond told fans referencing the Norway Special.
“We’re ready to go off and do another, and they are huge missions to go and do.”
