Last week's episode of The Grand Tour was the most experimental yet in the current season. In response to fans constantly complaining that the show is heavily scripted, the trio tried to a make the show's first ever unscripted film. Consequently, the resulting film was deliberately disjointed as each presenter showed up in completely unrelated cars. Clarkson drove the new Audi TT RS, and Hammond drove an Ariel Nomad. Meanwhile, May did his own thing and converted a Lada into a fire truck.
It was obviously designed to show why it's necessary for the show to follow a script so that it flows, but the irony was that it was clearly still scripted. You could tell the presenters were pretending to fluff their lines and fain surprise at each other's cars. We can't help but miss some of the spontaneity seen in classic Top Gear episodes.
Previewed in a new trailer, episode five of The Grand Tour season two mixes things up again and won't feature a main film with all three presenters working together. Jeremy Clarkson creates his own unique take on Ken Block's Gymkhana series in what he calls 'Farmkhana' using an old Subaru and "the suitable backdrop of English farmland." This clearly isn't going to go well. James May tests the new tiny Volkswagen Up! GTi around the Eboladrome test track, but if you're expecting an entirely sensible review from Captain Slow you're probably going to be disappointed since he compares it to an explosion-filled '80s action movie.
Richard Hammond has the most fun however, rampaging through a Dubai shopping mall and climbing desert dunes in a high-speed tracked vehicle called the Ripsaw. As for Celebrity Face Off, comedian Bill Bailey competes against actor Dominic Cooper to try and find the "world's fastest person with a failed early career in a band." Commenting on his lap, Cooper said "I don't know if I've won… I didn't see Bill's lap, I just saw him go out onto the track .. and it started to drizzle so, hopefully, he was put off by that! The experience of that drive was most exciting for me, but I must say, in the back of my mind I had many thoughts of friends who had been up on the track and what times they have got. So, hopefully I have beaten Bill."
Bailey added: "I'm very competitive, and when I'm on tour I like to go out and have track days.So, wherever I am in the world, I will go out there and take a big ridiculous car out and hammer it around the track. So, I love doing it and I really want to win obviously! I think I put on a good time…I'm looking forward to hearing about it!" Judging from the action-packed trailer, this should be a fun and entertaining episode to watch.
