Ex-Top Gear and Grand Tour producer reveals trickiest episode that 'lacked quality control' and nearly killed the show

There was apparently one episode of The Grand Tour that made it difficult for the production team and Jeremy Clarkson to carry on with the show.

You wouldn’t be able to tell by simply reading the reviews, because the episode in question doesn’t stand out as being particularly bad.

But ex-Top Gear and The Grand Tour producer Andy Wilman said this episode put the production team behind one of the world’s most successful car shows in a very tricky position.

And it all had to do with a decision taken with – and by – Amazon.

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Why this episode was tricky to film

Andy Wilman has been talking to a lot of podcasters in the last few weeks as part of the promotional tour for his new book, Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure: Top Gear, Grand Tour and Twenty Years of Magic and Mayhem.

So, as part of that tour, he’s revealed some juicy details about the show.

He’s spoken about the tent that the trio used as a base for the show – which cost a lot more than people thought – and also about the iconic opening scene from the very first episode of the very first season of The Grand Tour.

And he’s also talked about an episode that was a bit tricky for the production team to manage.

Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Wilman admitted that the episode A Massive Hunt (Season 4, Episode 2) was a bit rushed during production, and it ‘lacked quality control’.

The film saw the trio travel to Réunion, a French department in the Indian Ocean, with three cars that were later modified to take on the rough roads of Madagascar.

Wilman said the whole episode got a bit boring midway, chiefly because of the pirate treasure plot point that ‘didn’t land’.

This was a by-product of Amazon’s and Jeremy Clarkson’s joint decision to move away from the ‘tent’ format to focus on big adventure films.

According to Wilman, the first big adventure film – the journey across Cambodia in Vietnam starring boats instead of cars – did pretty well.

And while the Madagascar episode put them in a spot, they managed to pick up the pace with the ones that followed.

Especially the episode A Scandi Flick – this is one Wilman mentioned in the podcast – from Season 5.

This eventually became the reason the Grand Tour ended

This ‘issue’ indirectly became one of the main reasons the Grand Tour ended.

Having done just about anything and everything you can possibly do with a car, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May had simply run out of steam and ideas.

At that point, they made a conscious decision to end their run on their own terms rather than dragging the show beyond its natural expiration date.

Interestingly, Amazon decided to carry on with the show, even without the trio.

We don’t know much about it yet, but we do know that Amazon followed Jeremy Clarkson’s advice.

After leaving The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson indirectly told Amazon to pick three presenters who were genuinely into cars, and not just three random celebrities.

Well, that’s exactly what Amazon did.

All the cars featured on Grand Tour Specials and road trips

Here’s a complete list of all the second-hand vehicles that the trio bought specifically for The Grand Tour set of adventures and specials: