After eight years, forty six episodes, and over forty countries, the Amazon show The Grand Tour has bid adieu for the final time. But do we not feel like we’ve been here before? With the end of Top Gear and the Grand Tour’s live studio shows, does this final special really hit fans as hard as it could have done? I had my trepidations for this final, as an avid watcher of everything the three blithering idiots produce together. Yet I believe it exceeded expectations.
At just over two hours in length, the finale proved to be a homage to not only everything the trio had accomplished during The Grand Tour, but also their time on Top Gear– proving that we were not just saying goodbye to a car show, but that we were watching a homage to the trio’s legacy. With callbacks to previous episode gimmicks, by putting luxury cars in unusual places, like on boats, on unruly dirt-tracks, and onto railway lines, this finale managed to perfectly embrace the solemnity of the end, whilst maintaining their simplistic, comedic genius. As May and Hammond recounted, it was twenty two years of their lives and a life-defining (and occasionally, nearly life-ending) adventure and so it is impossible to overestimate the significance of this finale to them and viewers alike.
But why should I, a nineteen year old girl, who, frankly, probably was not their target demographic, especially as car fanatics would scoff at my own beat-up 2008 Hyundai Getz, have any reason to be despondent at their departures? Is this not just some boyish car show, full of old men and their dry humour and really, who cares that it’s the end? There are two simple reasons to disagree. Firstly, I truly think that they are one of the funniest trios to come out of British television. This statement is supported by the dwindling views for new Top Gear, proving that it was truly the hosts who held something special. But additionally, growing up, I would tune in every week to watch Top Gear with my Dad and for that one hour on the BBC, the little girl and middle-aged man had something in common, had something to laugh at together. An unlikely pair, who sat down to watch every new special as soon as they landed, even as the years went on. So maybe that is why I am so upset about the end of The Grand Tour: does the finale, released on the same day I moved back to university, symbolise some grandiose message about the transience of childhood and how this really is the end? Okay, perhaps not. But I do know that it means that my Dad and I will now need to find something new to watch throughout this next chapter of our lives.
The last thirty minutes were filled with touching tributes to the hosts and their past cars, as they stumbled upon a car graveyard, filled with May’s and Clarkson’s car(wrecks) from the first special. And as “Brothers in Arms” by the Dire Straits started to play, the three battered classics glided across the African plain, makgadikgadi style. The full circle came complete as the final scenes commenced at the same location as the opening scenes of their first Botswana special. I am sure this will not be the last we see of them, as all three have shows lined up to come out imminently, however, I think for now, we can say farewell to The Grand Tour and the Grand Trio.
“Makgadikgadi Pan” by Obliot is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.