After months of anticipation, The Grand Tour returns for its newest special Eurocrash, with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May embarking on a high-octane road adventure through Eastern Europe.
As usual, there are daring antics (this time a car is pushed onto a moving jet), immature pranks, and an investigation of foreign cultures, as well as James’ exorbitant, inebriated purchase of a little antique automobile.
The 60-year-old recently spoke to Metro.co.uk about the trio’s new adventure, as well as how he feels some social media users responded inappropriately to Top Gear star Freddie Flintoff’s crash, having made headlines with his own less serious incident in a tunnel shortly before.
The former professional cricketer was alleged to have been evacuated to hospital in December last year after being involved in an accident at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome, with the BBC noting at the time: ‘Crew medics rushed the site promptly. He has been transferred to the hospital for additional care, and we will provide more information as soon as possible.’
Months later, it was reported that the 45-year-old had to wait for over an hour with severe face injuries, while the BBC and the government’s Health and Safety Executive initiated investigations into the event, with the broadcaster asserting that “all health and safety standards were followed.”
James, 60, had his own hit a few months ago when he crashed into a wall at 75mph while filming The Grand Tour. Later, he admitted that it wasn’t that serious, stating, ‘It was just a bit of a boom.’
During his talk, James chastised social media trolls who’rejoiced’ over Freddie’s accident and proposed that he, Jeremy, and Richard take over Top Gear again, having previously hosting it as a trio until 2015.
Addressing the incident that occurred during the filming of the BBC programme, he said: ‘Dunsfold is a remarkably safe place to drive around, there isn’t really anything to hit and they do take all the safety and stuff very seriously. They even have fire engines on standby and ambulances at Dunsfold. So it’s all a bit of a tragedy, and it’s obviously much worse than we first thought.
‘But one thing I would say, I’ve noticed this on Twitter, it’s died down a bit now, but for a while there were people saying, “Top Gear’s ended because Freddie Flintoff bashed himself up and why don’t you three go back and rescue and save it.” I wanted to say to people, “Look, the bloke’s hurt himself.”
‘It’s not an opportunity for you to gloat or say “Oh, I prefer the other team.” You could possibly just say, “Get well Freddie,” or something nice like that, rather than rejoicing in it. It’s a while since it happened and he’s obviously still not completely better. So it’s not like my tunnel crash, a couple of weeks later, I was okay, no lasting damage. That’s obviously something a lot more serious. So good luck to him.’
When asked whether his own accident has had an impact on him when he now goes behind the wheel, the TV personality answered: ‘No, I forgot about it pretty quickly, to be honest. And I don’t normally drive down tunnels, either.
‘Driving on the road, I don’t keep thinking about, “I’d better remember that I crashed that car in that tunnel,” because that’s not a normal driving scenario, it’s just stupid really. It’s a silly prank.’
Eurocrash, the newest Grand Tour special, has some daring stunts, like the presenters driving their automobiles while being fired at by horse-riding archers. Just like you.
‘That was quite terrifying in a way because I went first as usual,’ James recollected.
‘I usually go first with those sorts of things. And I thought, well, they must have worked this out, the arrows. They’re not like pointy arrows, but obviously anything travelling as fast as an arrow goes through stuff. Bullets aren’t really very pointy, but they go through things. And some of them did punch to the bodywork.
‘I thought, well, what if somebody has not worked this out correctly? And one of those arrows comes through the window? That’s not something I’m particularly keen to repeat.’
The sound of the arrows entering the body work of his little automobile apparently caused a “very, very scary noise.”
‘The noise is like somebody shooting bullets at you. It makes a very bullet-y noise as it hits the bodywork,’ he admitted.
Fans of the Prime Video programme can expect “like a lads road trip from the bygone days” from the latest release, which takes the presenters on a tour of Eastern Europe.
‘It’s a road trip that nobody ever does, in cars that no one would ever take, and for pretty good reason when you see them,’ he shared.
The Grand Tour: Eurocrash is streaming on Prime Video.
