Grand Tour Production Team Divulges Complications Behind Filming In Norway While Singing Presenter’s Praises
Since The Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick was released to Prime Video, we reached out to Morten Hansen, someone on the team behind the scenes of the show. Hansen, who lives in Norway himself, took care of the presenters, their cars, and the cars of the production company. He himself owns a number of trucks capable of traversing the Norwegian landscape, so had the tools to kit the team out with everything they needed.
A Toyota Landcruiser and Hilux, both modified by Arctic Trucks, were both used by Hansen and his team to accompany the filming. These cars have plenty of potential, and similar cars by the same company were in fact used by Top Gear in 2007 during the Polar Special when Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May raced to find true North.
“I was contacted in autumn 2021 by the production,” Hansen told Grand Tour Nation. “Before they arrived we fixed hotels, garages and special rental cars.”
He continued, explaining how they had to battle bad weather as filming began, plus some poor tyre choices of the production team:
“We were on several transport missions, preparing the football field in Henninsvær. It went from very nice winter weather to extreme rain the same weekend that the whole team came to Lofoten, so there were closed roads, floods, etc.
“We received stars’ cars for preparation and some repairs. New tires and batteries. Otherwise, we replaced many sets of tires on the production cars that had driven from England, which came here with all-terrain tires. They don’t work on ice.
“Was on standby while production was in Lofoten. It was very nice to work with the gang in the production team: Dave, Chris, Emma, Paul…”
Hansen also sang the praises of the presenters, as well as the skiers who featured in the final race of the episode as they were dragged by the three hero cars.
“After James May’s crash in Tromsø, they called me for transport help to Abisko, Sweeden, so then we went up and got to be with the production for a whole day on the ice rink.
“There we met Hammond, May, and Clarkson, they were very nice. Also met the ski stunt boys with whom we developed a very good relationship.”
Thank you to Morten Hansen for talking with us, and we’ll bring more from him when we can over the coming days.
