The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour: Lochdown Is Like Top Gear From Ten Years Ago: “Something Magical Happened” Says Producer Andy Wilman [EXCLUSIVE]

The Grand Tour: Lochdown is due to be released tomorrow, but to add to the excitement, Grand Tour Nation interviewed Andy Wilman, executive producer of The Grand Tour on the upcoming where he revealed that because of the pandemic’s limitations, the episode feels very similar to the Top Gear of ten years ago.

Clarkson’s Farm: Jeremy Clarkson And Kaleb Cooper Return To Farming For Season 2 

According to Andy, due to Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, and the team having to extract as much entertainment from a relatively small production, they tried harder to produce something equally as entertaining as their larger-scale episodes. 

I asked Andy whether he was worried about filming in a pandemic, which he replied with the following:

“We were chomping at the bit. And something played out that I hoped was going to happen, which is: when you go to do Madagascars and Mekongs and Namibias and all that, you can let the magnificence of the surroundings, you can start to lean on it a bit for story. 

“And sometimes that works brilliantly, Mongolia no problem, the Mekong we got very exciting with the South China Seas and all that.”

Obviously picking up on some fans’ mixed reactions to their latest episode, The Grand Tour: A Massive Hunt, he commented on where they may have gone wrong in the production of that episode. 

“Sometimes, you lean on it too much and I think we did that in Madagascar. And Madagascar we didn’t quite do enough because we thought that road, which did give us an amazing amount to show on TV, kind of… didn’t give us the whole show.

“Whereas this one, we went right, we know we’re in Scotland, we know it’s beautiful, but we know effectively we’re doing a smaller, less ambitious show, and then you just hope, because you know then you’re going to lean into that fact, you’re going to try harder, you’re gonna think about what you’re going to do harder, you’re going to compensate.

“So we did that, which is why [Lochdown’s] packed full of stuff.” 

Richard Hammond Grand Tour Hill Climb Crash: The Real Reason Behind The Accident Revealed

Andy admitted that when the trio was forced to work with what they had and rely on themselves rather than incredible scenery or vehicles, and because of this it started to feel much more like the previous show all four of them worked on, Top Gear. 

“And then something magical happened. Because it was all smaller scale like the show we’ve done ten years ago, the mood got like it did ten years ago, the banter got like it did ten years ago, the mischief got like it did ten years ago.

“The chat in the car… I’ve got reams of transcripts that nobody ever sees, but I could have put so more on TV, conversations they had which were just so funny that because they were on form, it’s like the clock had gone back ten years.

“We’re driving across the UK, it’s raining, we’re in for a natter.”

Watch the full interview on YouTube now:

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

Related Articles

Back to top button