When The Grand Tour ended in 2024 with the departure of its grizzled titans Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, it felt safe to assume that that was the end of that, and The Grand Tour was no more. This was, after all, a show that revolved far more around the chemistry between its presenters than it did the cars they drove with wild, and sometimes careless, abandon.
But now The Grand Tour is back, returning to Prime Video with three new presenters: James Engelsman, Thomas Holland and Francis Bourgeois. What great fortune for each to find themselves helming such a behemoth, but is there a more poisoned chalice in television right now? No matter how good they prove to be, they’ll be compared – unfavourably – with their forefathers.
“People are totally justified in their fears,” says Holland, a Canadian who looks uncannily like singer Rufus Wainwright (also Canadian). “So we get it, we do. This is a difficult gig. But we’re fans of it too, and that informs everything we are trying to do here.”
It’s early September, and the three heirs apparent are nestled within an upmarket London hotel for an extended meet-the-press charm offensive. They sit upon chairs close enough together to put one in mind of a school assembly, knees neatly aligned. Bourgeois – a TikToker best known for his love of trains – is the palpable rabbit in the headlights, while Engelsman and Holland have form, having presented their own driving show, Full Throttle, on YouTube for several years.
