The Grand Tour: James May Explains Worrying Moment During Madagascar Special
The next episode of The Grand Tour is just around the corner with a release date of December 18, and while presenter Jeremy Clarkson described it as the toughest road trip yet, James May has recently divulged on the most horrifying moment of filming.
The new episode, titled A Massive Hunt, follows Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May as they go in search for hidden treasure buried by legendary pirate Olivier Levasseur, otherwise known as La Buse. By deciphering a note left by La Buse all those years ago, they head to Madagascar in three highly modified cars to find the £100 million worth of treasure.
During a talk with the media, including Grand Tour Nation, May told us what disturbed him during the shooting of the special episode:
“I didn’t learn anything shocking about Madagascar.
“Apart from the woman in the stocks, we still don’t quite know what that was about. That was disturbing.”
While the three drove their vehicles through a small village in the developing country, Clarkson spots a woman with her hands in stocks. It’s likely that she was being punished with a form of public humiliation, possibly for stealing.
May continued to discuss the strange use of the stocks:
“Nobody we were with could explain to us what that was.”
“It didn’t seem to be a stunt or a carnival ritual or any of those sorts of things, it did actually genuinely seem to be a woman in some sort of stocks.”
Thinking back, James questions England’s history of doing such a thing:
“I think we got it over in England, and we can be a bit backward, but I don’t know the last time we put someone in the stocks.
“Except maybe in some southern corners of Wiltshire, maybe we do still put people in stocks, I don’t know.”
In this love letter to Madagascar, the boys not only explore the dangerous roads that James promises earlier in the eipsode, but they also explore the culture of the country as they go in search of the loot.
You can watch it for yourself on Friday, 18 December.
