Andy Wilman Talks The Grand Tour Heading To France For Next Episode: “Couldn’t Give A S**t”
With the next episode of The Grand Tour only around the corner, producer Andy Wilman has talked with BT about the upcoming trip that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May take to Madagascar in three highly modified cars. But before they step foot on the worst roads in the world, they first appear on the small island of Reunion.
This is a French island, and it’s here that they decide to travel to Madagascar to hunt for hidden pirate treasure. Before they do this though, they explain why they’ve chosen their cars. Of course, this is long before they ever even expect to be going to Madagascar, so here they can safely perform small reviews behind the wheels of the machines: a Ford Focus RS, Bentley GT Continental, and a Caterham.
Here on Reunion, they perform a drag race on the most expensive road in the world. Andy Wilman explains how after the first episode that was released to mixed review, this had to be very car focussed, so this was a priority. He also comments on just how incredible Madagascar is as a country, describing the journey as “mind-blowing”.
“We’d make a schedule in the morning and you’d go to the tent guys, we reckon we’ll do 20 miles today – see you up there. But we’d never get anywhere near,” Wilman said..
“But I was pleased that the problems were mechanical. After the Mekong, we wanted a car-based film with car problems.”
He turns to Reunion.
“I thought it would be tricky getting permission to race on that road in Reunion, but the French couldn’t give a s**t and they were very happy with that,” he said.
“The Madagascans were brilliant. They got the panto of what we were doing. They were very charming and bright. You sometimes think when you rock up with a big film crew and three silly cars people will just think. ‘what a bunch of morons’. But everyone around us got the panto and that was really helpful.”
The Grand Tour Presents: A Massive Hunt comes to Amazon Prime on December 18th 2020.
