The Grand Tour is back with its first post-lockdown special, which sees Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond head to Scandinavia.
Fans should expect plenty of the team’s trademark thrills and spills, as well as plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in the first high-octane instalment of the Prime Video show’s fifth season.
The A Scandi Flick special, which is set to drop on the streaming giant later this month, sees Jeremy, Richard and James head for the icy wastes of the Scandinavian Arctic Circle at the wheel of their three favourite rally cars.
The veteran TV presenters embark on a catastrophe-filled adventure that takes in Cold War submarine bases, frozen lake racetracks, ski resort chaos and an almighty crash on the part of May.
Although long-time fans of both The Grand Tour and Top Gear have occasionally accused the show of being staged or scripted for certain scenes, producer Andy Wilman insists their planning is “very loose”.
He explained: “We know where we're headed. There's a mix of finding a big size thing, dealing with it.”
At one point in the upcoming special, the three presenters race one another on an ice track, with each car towing professional skiers, which Wilman explained they had to plan ahead.
He said: “We don't find those by accident. That sort of thing you set up in advance but you don't know what the outcome will be.”
It was a similar story when Jeremy, Richard and James built huts to be towed along by the cars from the coast of Norway to the Russian Border.
Wilman added: “So you work that in and you go, we will build some sheds but what will happen to them or how will it play out? We don't know.
“We usually go with a sheet of A4 with bullet points, which for a 90 minute film I think is still good.
“I can still hand on heart say we're still making this s*** up – overarchingly.”
The trio’s longtime producer also spoke about Clarkson, May and Hammond’s secret sauce dynamic that makes for winning TV, saying it’s more like managing a band than a show.
He explained: “You could change Bake Off and get a new team in and because it's Bake Off you're watching, as long as that team is good enough, you're fine.
“Our show is always about those three, which means that they're central to it. Their relationship is intense, and it is more like a band.
“They do bicker, they do get opinions differing, because they're so much part of it. They have fallouts and then they come back together.”
Wilman said he can even imagine the trio as pensioners in a retirement home and “gets signs of it”, saying: “They're just bickering or concentrating on small things, but their relationship is fully there.
“They're still happy in each other's company. I think they see less of each other. They're not as together as much so it's still strong and still good.”
The Grand Tour presents: A Scandi Flick launches on Prime Video on September 16.
