When it comes to the cars, “The Grand Tour” delivers gearhead porn in spades, fondling steering wheels and gearshifts with expert grace.

Hammond introduces Clarkson with, “He’s basically a shaved ape in a shirt.” Clarkson picks it up with his first line to the camera in the whole show: “It’s very unlikely I’m going to be fired now, because we’re on the Internet.

If it started as a dark night of the soul, it ends a victory lap. The music turns from somber to upbeat, a cover of “I Can See Clearly Now,” as the three cars meet up and pass with a whole convoy of bizarre and fascinating vehicles, arrayed in a formation not unlike the war party in “Mad Max: Fury Road.” They come to the stage where the band is playing, labeled with a big “BURNING VAN” banner a formation of fighter jets sweeps overhead in the endlessly blue sky. He flies to LAX, where he picks up a blue Mustang Rocket in the airport’s parking lot, and as he starts driving east, he’s joined by Hammond and May, in red and white Rockets of their own. Clarkson first appears in the pilot leaving London surrounded by controversy, demonstrated through snippets of news reports and interviews played in the background as he solemnly steps into a black cab. (The giant traveling tent, as they call it, will be touring the world with the hosts - Johannesburg, Scotland, Dubai.) And the cinematography is remarkable “The Grand Tour” is filmed in 4K, or Ultra HD, making for wide shots of shiny cars drifting effortlessly over terrain or tarmac that are positively bursting with color and movement.īut at least at first, much of “The Grand Tour” is devoted to reveling in the fruits of bad behavior. Air Force, leading to a staged but funny bit where the trio has to hide behind their table as the audience chants “U! S! A!”) Their desert studio is extravagant and beautiful, furnished like a conqueror’s bivouac with leather camp chairs, vintage luggage, and Oriental rugs.

(To their credit, the audience has absolutely no patience for Clarkson’s declaration that the Royal Air Force is a finer institution than the U.S.

The first episode places them in America, which gives Clarkson and his perpetual costars Richard Hammond and James May plenty of opportunities to quarrel good-naturedly about the relative merits of the U.K.

The grand tour jeremy clarkson