The Grand Tour Continues a Grand Tradition of Christmas Specials with Namibia
One of the biggest questions coming into season one of The Grand Tour was whether or not the boys would continue the tradition of trekking off to exotic lands for their annual Christmas special. It could be argued that these episodes are the foundational pillars of what made Top Gear the world’s most popular show with 350 million people watching worldwide, so everyone is curious to see what the Grand Tour version will be like.
Well, with a simple tweet, the boys have decided to have the Christmas special with their first adventure finding them in Namibia.
Festive news: #TheGrandTour will have a Christmas episode on 23rd December, followed by a 2-part Namibian adventure on the 30/31st December. pic.twitter.com/C90GlFAHch
— The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) December 19, 2016
What everyone is going to look forward to now is where this special is going to fit in the best specials of all time. If you have a hard time remembering, we put together a list for you to start watching now.
Season 7 Episode 7 – Winter Olympics Special
The first “big” budget special that really didn’t travel anywhere, but instead was located in Norway before the 2006 Winter Olympics. The boys did some incredible stuff and have even more incredible laughs.
Season 9 Episode 3 – U.S. Special
For Americans, this could easily be one of the most embarrassing specials made. The boys traveled down south to Alabama and instigated some horrible actions from the under-educated locals.
Season 9/10 – Polar Special
In probably one of my personal favorites, the special shows the boys in the harshest of elements have truly genuine moments of despair, struggle and success. This special was especially controversial as Jeremy Clarkson and James May had a cup of gin while they drove while the global warming groups used the opportunity to criticize the use of 4x4s in the part of the world that doesn’t need it the most.
Season 10 Episode 4 – Botswana Special
The special that introduced the world to Oliver and one of the first episodes where there was real struggle and a possibility that the boys wouldn’t be able to get the job done.
Season 12 Episode 8 – Vietnam Special
If it’s not the North Pole special, then the Vietnam Special would rank as the best special ever created by Clarkson, Hammond and May. The fact that they didn’t use cars was the moment people realized that this car show really isn’t about cars, it’s about these three middle-aged men on a grand adventure.
Season 14 Episode 6 – Bolivia Special
“We must be very close to equator!” “Maybe we’re there?” “No, we’d see a big dotted line!” – That is all you need to know about this episode.
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I simply love the Bolivia special every time I watch it makes me smile and I have watched it too many to count
I agree, I love how it took them 12 hours to figure out how to get the cars off the barge.
I was in the crowd for the lapland Xmas episode as i won tickets with Amazon. 50 pairs of UK people won out of 240k people applying! Its a funny episode. The first film is ok, with a great joke about top gear in it! And the 2nd film was really good by May. I loved it, the wife not so much. The Xmas stuff is very slap stick! but funny!
I actually liked the India special a lot… when I watched it as a naive fan I loved it because I didn’t realise how scripted it was. Now that I realise it, I still watch it with the same love!